He closed his eyes against the tide of longing that rolled over him. He was missing so damned much, he thought, once again cursing Melissa for the betrayal that had made staying in Texas where he belonged impossible.

He was missing seeing his other brother Luke and his wife Jessie’s little girl grow. Angela had turned two back in December. Kelly had sent a picture of her with her face streaked with icing and her fist in the middle of the chocolate birthday cake with its two, fat pink candles. He’d tucked it in his wallet, along with the snapshot of Kelly’s daughter from her first marriage, Dani, a little con-artist-in-training who could persuade penguins to buy ice, if she was of a mind to. Now he opened his wallet and inserted the tiny picture of this latest addition to the family.

He stared at the brand new baby one last time and wondered if he’d ever see him. He’d been named Justin James, according to the information on the birth announcement.

“We’re going to call him J.J.,” Kelly wrote in the note accompanying the card. “We can’t wait for you to see him. Jordan swears he hasn’t slept a wink in the past week. I don’t know how that can be, since I’m the one up every time the little monster screams in the middle of the night. I haven’t noticed Jordan pacing the floor alongside me. I think he’s been sleeping with a pillow over his head deliberately, so he can claim he never hears J.J. crying. He swears he only wakes up after I’ve already left the bed. The silver-tongued devil says it’s missing me that wakes him. He thinks a line like that will make me more sympathetic to him. Fat chance.

“No, seriously,” he read on, “your big brother has been a huge help. I think he’s a little awed by fatherhood...or maybe it’s just that mountain of diapers he’s expected to wash every night.”

Cody chuckled at the image of his button-down brother, the big-time oil company executive, changing diapers and warming bottles. Maybe he was taking to it better than any of them had anticipated, including Jordan himself.

“We’re scheduling the baptism for the end of the month and we expect you to be here,” the letter continued. “No excuses, Cody. It’s time to come home.”