“What if he does decide to take her?”

“He won’t,” Melissa repeated, not sure how she knew with such conviction that Cody wouldn’t do something so outrageous. “Stop worrying. I can handle Cody.”

“You couldn’t handle him two years ago,” her mother commented. “What makes you think things are so different now?”

Melissa thought carefully about that before she answered. She used the struggle to get Sharon Lynn into her red corduroy pants and a cute little flowered shirt to buy some time.

“I’m stronger than I was then,” she said eventually. “I’ve had almost two years to see that I don’t need Cody Adams in order to survive. Sharon Lynn and I are doing just fine on our own.”

Her mother regarded her skeptically. “Are you saying you’re immune to him now?”

The kiss they’d shared on the front walk burned its way into her awareness. “No,” she admitted. “I can’t say that.”

Velma groaned. “I knew it. I knew it the minute I saw the two of you playing kissy-face on the front walk.”

“We were not playing kissy-face,” Melissa retorted, blushing just the same. “Maybe you and Mabel have the same vocabulary after all.”

“Mabel saw you kissing, too?”

“No, she just accused me of making goo-goo eyes at him way back in junior high.”

“If only you’d limited yourself to that,” Velma said dryly.

Melissa frowned. “If I had, we wouldn’t have Sharon Lynn,” she reminded her mother quietly.

Velma retreated into silence after that. She was still looking anxious when Cody arrived to pick them up. Melissa had a feeling she had her father to thank for keeping her mother from racing down the driveway after them. He appeared to have a tight grip on her elbow and a glint of determination in his eyes as he waved them off.

The ride to DiPasquali’s took only minutes. It was a wonder they didn’t crash into a tree, though. Cody couldn’t seem to take his eyes off his daughter. Sharon Lynn returned his overt inspection with shy, little peek-a-boo smiles. Apparently she’d inherited her father’s flirtatious nature, too, Melissa thought with some amusement. Cody was clearly captivated. She should have been pleased, but the doubts her mother had planted kept her from fully relaxing and enjoying the way father and daughter were bonding.

At the small Italian restaurant where both she and Cody were well known, they were ushered to a back booth amid exclamations over Sharon Lynn’s outfit and Cody’s return. Melissa didn’t miss the speculative looks sent their way by customers who knew their history only too well.