She’d been right. He was going to take over and she had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that there would be very little she could do about it.

Cody realized he had almost lost it there for a minute at the supermarket. He’d wanted to sweep entire shelves of baby food into the shopping cart.

As it was, in addition to the ice cream, they had left the store with five, giant economy-size packages of disposable diapers, a new toy duck for Sharon Lynn’s bath, five storybooks he could read to her at bedtime and an astonishing selection of her favorite juices. Melissa had just rolled her eyes at the startled checkout clerk.

“New father?” the girl had guessed.

“New enough,” Melissa had replied.

Let them make fun, Cody thought. He didn’t care. This was the first step in his campaign to make himself indispensable to Melissa and his daughter.

“Where to now?” he asked when they’d piled all those diapers and the rest of the shopping bags into the back of his pickup.

“I’m going home to iron,” Melissa said, sticking to that absurd story she’d told him earlier in a blatant attempt to get rid of him. “Unless, of course, you’d like to do it for me?”

He frowned at her. “What about Sharon Lynn?”

“She’s with Mother.”

“I’ll drop you off and go get her,” he suggested eagerly.

“She’s probably still taking her nap,” Melissa said.

She said it in such a rush he had the feeling she thought he intended to kidnap the baby and take off with her. As much as he resented the implication, he kept his tone perfectly even. “She won’t sleep forever,” he countered reasonably. “I’ll bring her straight home. I promise.”

“You don’t have a car seat,” she noted pointedly.

Damn, but there was a lot to remember. “We’ll stop now and get one.”

“All of that ice cream will melt.”

He frowned at the obstacles she kept throwing in his path. “Not in this weather. It’s freezing out. And if it does, I’ll buy more.”

“Couldn’t you just drop me off at home?”

“No, you need to come with me. You can show me the best kind of car seat.”

Melissa sighed heavily. “Cody, what’s the point? They’re expensive and you probably won’t...”

He guessed where she was going. “Won’t what? Won’t be here long enough to use it? You can get that idea right out of your head.”

He tucked a finger under her chin and forced her to face him. “I’ve quit my job in Wyoming. I am home to stay, Melissa. Get used to it.”

She held up her hands. “Sorry. I didn’t mean anything. I was just trying to keep you from wasting money.”