Her mother glanced pointedly at Sharon Lynn and the new baby. “Looks to me like you’ve got quite a head start on it.”

Cody brushed a kiss across her cheek. “Indeed, we do.”

Everyone began leaving after that. Finally Melissa was alone with her husband. “I love you,” she told him.

“I love you,” he echoed. His expression turned serious. “Do you really think Daddy’s going to start courting?”

“Sounded to me as if he meant what he said. How would you feel about that?”

Cody hesitated for a minute, then grinned. “Seems like a damned fine opportunity to get even with him, if you ask me.”

“That’s what I love about you Adams men,” Melissa taunted. “You are so supportive of each other.”

“You don’t think he deserves to be taken on a merry chase?”

“By some woman,” she admonished. “Not by you, Luke and Jordan.”

He sighed and folded his arms around her middle from behind. His breath fanned across her cheek. “I suppose standing on the sidelines and watching him fall will have its moments,” he agreed. “He sure seemed to get a kick out of watching that happen to the rest of us.”

“Then I suggest you prepare yourself for the ride,” she told him. “Knowing Harlan, it’s going to be a bumpy one.”

“As for you and me,” Cody proclaimed, “from here on out it’s going to be smooth sailing.”

1

Harlan Adams walked out of Rosa’s Mexican Café after eating his fill of her spicy brand of Tex-Mex food just in time to see his pickup barrel down the center of Main Street at fifty miles an hour. In the sleepy Texas town of Los Piños, both the theft and the speed were uncommon occurrences.

“Ain’t that your truck?” Mule Masters asked, staring after the vehicle that was zigzagging all over the road, endangering parked cars and pedestrians alike.

“Sure as hell is,” Harlan said, indignation making his insides churn worse than Rosa’s hot sauce.

“That’s what you get for leaving your keys in plain sight. I’ve been telling you for months now that times have changed. The world’s full of thieves and murderers,” Mule said ominously. “They were bound to get to Los Piños sooner or later.”

Given the time it was wasting, Harlan found the familiar lecture extremely irritating. “Where’s your car?” he snapped.

Mule blinked at the sharp tone. “Across the street, right where it always is.”

Harlan was already striding across the two-lane road before the words were completely out of his friend’s mouth. “Come on, old man.”

Mule appeared vaguely startled by the command. “Come on where?”

“To catch the damned thing, that’s where,” he replied with a certain amount of eagerness. The thought of a good ruckus held an amazing appeal.

“Sheriff’s close by,” Mule objected without picking up speed.