She rubbed her knuckles against Sharon Lynn’s soft skin and sighed again. There was so much of Cody in her daughter. She had the same stubborn tilt to her chin, the same dark blond hair that streaked with gold in the summer sun. And, for the most part, she had the same sunny disposition and laughing eyes Cody had had before he thought Melissa had betrayed him.

It had hurt today to glimpse the old teasing Cody, only to see him vanish in the space of a heartbeat at the first mention of the past. When he’d walked out of Dolan’s, her heart had been heavy with the burden of guilt and fear.

“I have to be the one to tell him,” she whispered finally, her fingers caressing that precious cheek. “I have to tell your daddy all about you.”

Maybe by revealing the truth herself, before he learned it from someone else, she would have some small chance of earning his forgiveness. They could work out a solution together.

Tomorrow, she vowed. First thing tomorrow afternoon when she got off work, she would drive out to White Pines and tell Cody everything. And then she would pray that it didn’t cost her the only person on earth she held dear.

Too restless to stay in one place for long as he contemplated how to go about discovering whether Melissa’s baby was his, Cody drove over to visit Jordan and Kelly. Six-year-old Dani was always a distraction and he just might get a chance to hold that nephew of his. He had a hunch it would be a bittersweet sensation given what he suspected about Melissa’s child being his own.

“Uncle Cody!” Dani screamed when she caught sight of him. She ran and leapt into his arms, planting kisses all over his face. “I really, really missed you.”

The weight of her in his arms, the peppermint-sticky kisses, filled him with nostalgia and accomplished exactly what he’d hoped for. “I really missed you, too, pumpkin. I’m sorry I didn’t get to take those kittens you had for me awhile back.”

She patted his cheek consolingly. “That’s okay. Francie had more. Want to see? One is all black with a white nose. I think you’ll really, really like him.”

He grinned. “I bet I will,” he agreed. “We’ll go see him later.”

“We’d better go now,” Dani protested. “Later it will be my bedtime.”

“Give me a few minutes inside to say hello to your mom,” he negotiated. “I’m sure it won’t be your bedtime then.”

Dani braced her hands against his chest, leaned back in his arms and studied him intently. “You promise you won’t leave without going to see the kittens?”

“I promise,” he said, solemnly crossing his heart as he put her down.