The “I do’s” were punctuated by moans and a couple of screams. And not five minutes later, Harlan Patrick Adams came into the world with an impeccable sense of timing, just as the minister pronounced his mama and daddy man and wife. Melissa was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to be able to hold her own baby. Between Cody and his father, she’d barely gotten a look at him. Cody had finally disappeared a half hour before, but Harlan was still holding the baby with a look of such pride and sadness in his eyes.

“I wish Mary could have seen him,” he said softly as a tear spilled down his cheek.

“Wherever she is, I think she knows,” Melissa told him. “And I’ll bet Erik is right beside her, watching out for all of us.”

Her father-in-law gave her a watery smile. “I can’t tell you how proud it makes me to have you in this family finally.”

“I’m glad to be a part of it finally,” she told him. “Though given the way my brand new husband scooted out of here after the ceremony, I’m not so sure I made the right decision. Any idea where he went?”

There was no mistaking the spark of pure mischief in Harlan’s eyes. “Can’t say that I know for sure,” he said.

Melissa didn’t believe him for a second. The old scoundrel and Cody were clearly up to their ornery chins in some scheme or another. Before she could try to pry their secret out of him, the door to the room slid open a crack.

“Everyone awake?” Cody inquired lightly.

“Come on in, son,” Harlan enthused. “We were just wondering where you’d gone off to.”

Cody stepped into the room and winked at her. “Should I take that to mean that you suspected I’d run off on you already?”

“It did cross my mind,” she admitted. “You turned awful pale there in the delivery room. I figured you might be having second thoughts about marriage and fatherhood.”

“Not me,” Cody retorted indignantly. “I just figured the occasion deserved a celebration. You know how this family likes to party. You up for it?”

She stared at him as he watched her uneasily. “What if I say no?”

“Then that’s it. I send everyone away.”

“Everyone? Who is out there?”

“Sharon Lynn, first of all. She wants to meet her new baby brother.”

Melissa grinned. “Bring her in. Of course I want her to see the baby.”

Cody opened the door and Sharon Lynn barreled in and ran toward the bed. Over the past few months she’d grown increasingly steady on her feet. In the final weeks of her pregnancy Melissa had had a heck of a time waddling after her.

“Mama! Mama!” Sharon Lynn shouted.