Cody stared at Melissa helplessly as Sharon Lynn batted his hands away. “What did I do?”

“You didn’t do anything. She’s tired.”

“Are you sure? Maybe she’s hurt. Maybe there was a piece of glass and she cut herself.” He unfolded her tightly clenched fingers and examined each one.

“Any sign of blood?” Melissa inquired, barely hiding her amusement.

He scowled at her. “How can you be so calm?”

“Because this is a nightly ritual.”

He blanched. “Nightly?”

She nodded. “Just about. She gets so tired she can hardly keep her eyes open, but she doesn’t want to miss anything, so she fights going to sleep.”

Cody was regarding the sobbing child as if she were an alien creature. “Want me to take her?” she offered.

“No,” he said insistently. “I have to learn how to deal with this.”

He lifted Sharon Lynn up and sat her on the edge of the table facing him. Huge tears rolled down her blotchy cheeks. “Okay, kiddo, let’s try to figure out a solution for this little problem you have with bedtime.”

“Cody?”

He glanced up at her. “Hmm?”

“I don’t think reason and logic are going to work.”

“Sure they will,” he argued. “Just watch.”

He began talking in a low, soothing tone, explaining very patiently that sleep was very important. He added a lot of nonsense about fairy princesses and treasures that didn’t come from any storybook Melissa had ever read.

Whether it was his tone or the actual words, Sharon Lynn’s eyelids began to droop. The next thing Melissa knew, she was cradled in Cody’s arms, sound asleep.

“Amazing,” she admitted. “I should hire you to do that.”

“No need to hire me,” he said, his gaze suddenly fixed on her in a way that had her pulse scrambling. “I intend to be available for bedtime duty every night from now on.”

Melissa swallowed hard against the tide of panic that swept through her. Surely she hadn’t heard him right. “Excuse me?” she whispered.

“Once we’re married, I’ll get her to bed,” he said, making his intentions perfectly clear.

“Married?” she repeated as if it were an unfamiliar concept.

“Well, of course,” he said. “What did you think was going to happen?” He reached into his pocket, scooped something out and set it on the table between them.

Melissa stared at the small velvet box incredulously. She looked from it to Cody’s face and back again.

“Go ahead,” he encouraged. “Open it. If you’d rather have something else, we can go together tomorrow.”