It wasn’t until he was back at White Pines, riding hell-bent for leather across the open land trying to work off his anger and his pain that he stopped to wonder why Jordan and Luke would have set him up for such a terrible sucker punch. Couldn’t they just have told him and saved him the anguish of making a fool of himself over Melissa all over again?

Instead they had taunted him into going into Dolan’s. They had poked and prodded at all of his old feelings for Melissa until he could no longer ignore them. Would they have done that if they’d known about Brian? If they’d known about the baby? Harlan had done his share of nudging, too. He’d been the first to plant the seed about finding Melissa at Dolan’s.

It didn’t make a lick of sense. How could they not have known? It was a small town. Harlan sure as hell knew everything that went on. And yet they had sent him like a lamb to slaughter, straight back to Melissa.

He reined in his horse and sat for a long time contemplating the possibilities. For once in his life he was oblivious to the raw beauty of the land surrounding him. Since he knew damned well his brothers weren’t cruel, their actions had to mean something. At the very least, he’d bet that Melissa and Brian weren’t married, after all. At the most...

He thought of that cute little girl who’d practically begged him to pick her up.

He didn’t even want to consider the astonishing, incredible idea that had just popped into his head. What if she was his? What if he was actually a father?

He tried the idea on for size and realized that a silly grin had spread across his face. A father? Yes, indeed, the possibility fit as well as those tight little jeans had caressed Melissa’s fanny.

Then his grin faded as he considered all the time he’d lost if it were true. If that little girl was his, he resolved there was going to be hell to pay.

4

Melissa stood over Sharon Lynn’s crib and stared down at her sleeping child. The baby’s cheeks were flushed, her dark blond hair curling damply against her chubby neck. Her blue nightshirt was sprinkled with tiny yellow ducks. A larger, stuffed duck was cuddled next to her. It had been her favorite toy ever since she’d been to a duck pond a few months before. She refused to go to bed without it.