He spoke in a smug, lazy drawl that sent heat scampering down her spine. She scowled at him. “What on earth do I have to be nervous about? You’re the one who doesn’t belong here. You’re the one making a pest of himself.”

Sparks flared in his dark eyes. “Want me to ask Eli how he feels about you making a paying customer feel unwelcome?”

He didn’t have to. She already knew that Eli would have heart failure if he heard her trying to run Cody off with her rudeness. He’d already taken Cody’s side once today by slinking off to hide out in the storeroom to give them time alone. She’d never before noticed that Eli held Cody in particularly high esteem. His behavior must be part of some instinctive male support system that kicked in whenever one of them sensed that a woman might be getting the upper hand.

She turned her back on Cody, finished fixing his food, then set it down on the counter with a jarring thud.

He grinned at her. “Service with a smile,” he commented. “I love it. You earn a lot of tips this way?”

Melissa closed her eyes and prayed for patience. When she opened them again, Cody hadn’t vanished as she’d hoped. “Why are you in here?” she inquired testily. “Shouldn’t you be out roping cattle or something?”

“We have plans to make, remember?”

“I told you just to tell me when you wanted to see Sharon Lynn. I’ll make the arrangements so you can pick her up at my parents’ anytime.”

“Not those plans,” he said complacently, picking a pickle off of his hamburger and tsk-tsking her, apparently for not remembering that he hated pickles.

“Sorry,” she said without much sincerity. She should have dumped in the whole damned jar. “You could have eaten at Rosa’s.”

“I prefer the spice here,” he retorted. “Now let’s get back to those plans. I was thinking that a week from Saturday would be good.”

Melissa was surprised he wanted to wait that long before seeing his daughter again. Maybe his fascination was already waning. At this rate he’d be moving back to Wyoming in a month. Surely she could wait him out that long. She’d probably be a tangled heap of frustrated hormones, but presumably her sanity would still be intact.

“Sure, if that’s what you want,” she said more agreeably now that she knew he was likely to be out of her hair in no time. “I’m off on Saturday, so you can pick Sharon Lynn up at my place.”

“Not just Sharon Lynn,” he corrected. “Can’t have a wedding without the bride.”

Melissa dropped the glass she’d been rinsing out. It shattered at her feet. Eli poked his head out of the storeroom, saw the glass and shook his head.