“But you’re scared,” he guessed. At her nod he added, “Can’t say that I blame you. I spent a lot of years hiding from the responsibilities of a relationship. Once you make a commitment, there’s a lot riding on getting it right. I never did much like the idea of failing.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Anything, you know that.”

“What makes you so certain we can get it right now?”

He grinned at the question. “You know any two more stubborn people on the face of the earth?”

Her lips twitched at that. “No, can’t say that I do.”

“I pretty much figure if we finally make that commitment, neither one of us will bail out without giving it everything we’ve got.” He slanted a look over at her that sent heat curling through her body. “Nobody can do more than that, sweet pea. Nobody.”

He stood, then bent down to kiss her gently. “Think about it, darlin’.”

“You’re leaving?” she asked, unable to stop the disappointment that flooded through her.

“If I stay here another minute with you looking at me like that, I’m going to resort to seducing you into giving me the answer I want. I think it’ll be better if I take my chances on letting you work this one out in your head.”

He was striding off to his pickup before she could mount an argument. She actually stood to go after him, but a wave of dizziness washed over her that had her clutching at a post to keep from falling.

What on earth? she wondered as she steadied herself. Suddenly she recalled the occasional bouts of nausea she’d been feeling that she’d chalked off to waiting too long to grab breakfast in the mornings. She thought about the bone-deep weariness that had had her half-asleep in that rocker only a short time before. And now, dizziness.

Oh, dear heaven, she thought, sinking back into the rocker before she fainted. Unless she was very much mistaken, every one of those signs added up to being pregnant—again.

How could this have happened to them a second time? Melissa wondered as she left the doctor’s office in a daze the following morning. How could she be pregnant from that one time they’d made love at Cody’s? They’d been so darned careful not to repeat the same mistake. She’d held him at arm’s length, refusing to make love again for that very reason, because neither one of them used a lick of common sense once they hopped into bed together. It was better not to let their hormones get out of hand in the first place.

She had no idea what was going to happen next, but she did know that this time she would tell Cody right away. There would be no more secrets to blow up in her face later.