Cody stared at him, his blood suddenly pumping furiously. “You knew, too? Dammit, Daddy, you’re every bit as bad as Jordan,” he accused. “You kept it from me, just like he did. What is wrong with everyone in this family? I thought we were supposed to stick together.” He was just warming up to a really good tirade when his father cut in.

“Settle down, son. Nobody told me, if that’s what you’re thinking. Didn’t take much to add up two and two, once I’d seen that child. She’s the spitting image of you at that age. I’ve got a picture of you boys on my desk that would have reminded me, if I hadn’t seen it for myself.” He shrugged. “Besides, Melissa never had eyes for anyone but you.”

Cody couldn’t think of a thing to say. Apparently his father had been willing to stand on the sidelines and wait for Cody to show up and discover he had a daughter. It didn’t fit with his usual manipulative style. Either his father was mellowing or he had some other kind of devious scheme up his sleeve.

Harlan speared a chunk of cantaloupe, eyed it disparagingly, then ate it. “So,” he began, his tone one of such studied indifference that Cody immediately went on alert. “Is that why you took off? Did Melissa tell you she was pregnant?”

Cody was horrified his father could think so little of him. Was that it? Had Harlan thought he’d already made his decision about marrying Melissa and being a father to his child?

“No, absolutely not,” he declared indignantly. “Do you honestly think I have so little backbone that I’d run from a responsibility like that?”

His father shot a bland look in his direction. “I wouldn’t like to think it, but the evidence was staring me in the face.”

“What evidence?”

“You were gone. Your girl was pregnant. She quit college. She had to take that piddly job at Dolan’s to make ends meet, which suggested that no one was paying a dime to support her or the baby. Didn’t take a genius to add it all together and figure out that one.”

“Well, your calculator malfunctioned this time,” Cody snapped. “She never said a word, never even tried to track me down. The first I knew about that baby was when Velma Horton brought her into Dolan’s when I was there the other day. Even then, I thought someone else had to be the father. It never crossed my mind that Melissa would hide something that important from me.”

“I see.” Harlan scooped up a strawberry, eyed it with disgust, then put it back. “Now that you know, what do you intend to do about it?”

“I proposed to her last night.”