Cody was at his wit’s end. He’d decided, though, that it was tonight or never. He was going to make one last, impressive, irresistible attempt to convince Melissa to be his wife. If it failed, he would just have to resign himself to this shadow role in the life of his children. Up until now he’d turned his back on his pride, but it was kicking up a storm for him to stop behaving like a besotted fool and give up.

He took hat quite literally in hand and went to visit Velma. He needed her help if his plan was to work. Responding to his knock on her door in midafternoon, she regarded him with her usual suspicion.

“What do you want?” she inquired ungraciously.

Cody lost patience. “I am not the bad guy here,” he informed her as he stalked past her and stood in the middle of the foyer.

He could hear Sharon Lynn chattering away in the guest room. It sounded as if she were having a tea party. He longed to go down that corridor and spend some time with her. She was changing in one way or another every day and he hated to miss a single one. Today, though, he was on a mission here and he couldn’t afford to be distracted.

“I came by to see if you could keep Sharon Lynn here tonight,” he said.

“Why?” Velma asked bluntly.

“So that Melissa and I can have an evening together alone.”

“Seems to me you two have found enough time to be alone without my help in the past. She’s about to have a baby again, isn’t she? She didn’t get that way in public, I suspect.”

Her sarcasm grated. Cody held back the sharp retort that came to mind. If this was going to work out, it was way past time he made peace with Melissa’s mother. “Exactly what has she told you about our relationship?”

Velma didn’t give an inch. “She doesn’t have to say a word. I can see plenty for myself.”

“What do you think you see, then?”

“That you think your money and your power give you the right to be irresponsible. You’ve used my daughter, left her, then come back here and used her again without ever giving a thought to the consequences.”

“Are you aware that I have been trying to persuade your mule-headed daughter to marry me since the very first instant I got back into town?”

Velma blinked, but she didn’t back down. Talk about stubborn pride. Velma had it in spades, which probably explained Melissa’s streak of it.

“Too little, too late, if you ask me,” she retorted.