He didn’t look at her. “I’ll call tomorrow and we’ll work out a schedule for me to spend time with my daughter.”

The chill in his voice cut straight through her. For the first time she wondered if she had made a terrible mistake in alienating him. Even though she knew in her heart that her decision was the right one, the only one to be made under the circumstances, perhaps she should have found a way to be more diplomatic about rejecting him.

“Fine,” she said. “Whatever works for you will be okay.”

She closed the door and started up the walk. An instant later she heard the engine shut off, then the slam of the driver’s door behind Cody. He caught up with her before she could even make it to the front stoop.

Before she realized what he intended, he hauled her into his arms and kissed her so hard and so thoroughly that her head spun. Then, as if he suddenly became aware of the child she was holding or possibly because he figured he’d made his point, he released her.

“Give her to me,” he said. “I’ll carry her inside.”

“Cody, she’s fine,” Melissa protested. She didn’t want him inside, not when her knees were shaking and her pulse was racing.

“I said I’d carry her,” he repeated, plucking her neatly out of Melissa’s arms. “Open the door.”

Following her directions, he made his way to the baby’s small room. Angrily shrugging aside Melissa’s offer of assistance, he fumbled with his daughter’s clothes. He scanned the room, picked out a nightshirt from a small dresser, changed her, then laid her down gently.

Only then did a sigh shudder through him. His hand rested for a moment on the baby’s backside.

“Good night, sweet pea,” he murmured, his gaze riveted to his sleeping daughter as he backed toward the door.

The sight of Cody with their child, feeling his pain and his longing as he’d tucked her in for the night, had shaken Melissa. She was leaning against the wall outside the room, trying to gather her composure, when he finally emerged.

His gaze caught hers, burning into her. “It’s not over,” he said quietly. “Not by a long shot.”

Trembling, Melissa stood rooted to the spot, staring after him long after she’d heard the truck’s engine start, long after Cody had driven away.

Cody was right. It wasn’t over. More than anything, she feared the struggle between them for their daughter was just beginning.

7

Cody didn’t get a wink of sleep the entire night. When he wasn’t overwhelmed by the amazing experience of holding his daughter, he was thinking about Melissa’s astonishing transformation.