The youngster, who looked all of fourteen, clearly wasn’t convinced. Just as clearly, he had a big-time crush on Melissa. “Is he a problem?” he inquired, nodding toward Cody.

Apparently the boy’s itch to slay dragons for her got her attention as nothing else had. She jerked her gaze away from Cody and smiled at the teenager.

“It’s okay, David. Cody and I have known each other a long time.” She patted his shoulder. “Thanks for cleaning up the glass, you guys. Your sodas are on me.”

“Nah, you don’t have to do that,” David said, pulling money out of his pocket and leaving it on the counter. “Right, guys?”

The other boys dutifully nodded and pulled out their own cash. Unless costs at Dolan’s had risen dramatically, they were very generous tippers, Cody noted as all of the teens departed.

“See you tomorrow,” David called back from the doorway. He lingered uncertainly for another minute, as if he couldn’t make up his mind whether Cody was to be trusted. When Melissa shot him another reassuring smile, he finally took off to catch up with his friends.

“Quite an admirer,” Cody said. “I think he was ready to mop up the floor with me.”

“David is just testing his flirting skills. I’m safer than those girls in his own class. He knows I won’t laugh at him.”

“Maybe you should. Better to hurt him now than later,” he said with unmistakable bitterness.

Melissa looked as if he’d struck her. “I’m not going to hurt him at all. He’s just a boy, Cody.” She straightened her spine and glowered at him. “Look, if you came in here just to hassle me, you can turn right around and go back wherever you came from. I don’t need the aggravation.”

Cody grinned at the bright patches of color in her cheeks. Melissa had always had a quick temper. He suddenly realized he’d missed sparring with her almost as much as he’d missing making love with her.

“Actually, I came in for a milk shake,” he said, coming to a sudden decision to play this scene all the way through. He propped his elbows on the counter. He waited until he’d caught her gaze, then lowered his voice to a seductive whisper. “A chocolate shake so thick, I’ll barely be able to suck it very, very slowly through the straw.”

The patches of color in Melissa’s cheeks deepened. She twirled around so fast it was a wonder she didn’t knock a few more pieces of glassware onto the floor with the breeze she stirred.