He lifted his eyebrows. “Is this another chunk of that learning curve you’re trying to help me skip?” he taunted.

To his amusement, she blushed furiously. “Stop teasing. I only took her in twice,” she admitted defensively.

“Oh? When?”

“The first time I thought she’d swallowed the toy from a box of cereal.”

Cody shuddered. He would have had her in for X-rays himself. “Had she?”

“No, I found it later in the crack between the refrigerator and the sink. I suppose she threw it across the room.”

“And the other time?”

“She fell and bumped her head,” Melissa said, shivering visibly at the recollection. “It terrified me. I’d never seen so much blood in my entire life. I was sure she was going to bleed to death before I got her to the hospital.”

Cody’s heart skidded to a halt. He anxiously studied Sharon Lynn’s face for some sign of such a traumatic injury. He smoothed back her hair to get a better look at her forehead.

“No stitches?” he asked when he could find no evidence of them.

Melissa shrugged. “Not a one,” she confessed. “They put a butterfly bandage on it and sent us home. Apparently head injuries just bleed profusely. There was no permanent damage done.”

Cody met her gaze and caught the faint signs of chagrin and laughter in her eyes. He also thought he detected something else, perhaps a hint of resentment that she’d been left to cope with such things on her own. Guilt sliced through him, even though part of the blame for his absence could be laid squarely at Melissa’s feet.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you,” he said, and meant it. He regretted every lost opportunity to share in the experiences—good or bad—of his daughter’s first year.

The laughter in Melissa’s eyes died at once. That hint of resentment burned brighter. “I handled it,” she said abruptly, and turned away.

He watched as she walked over and knelt down by their daughter, listening intently to Sharon Lynn’s nonsensical jabbering. The hard expression on her face when she’d turned away from him softened perceptibly. A smile tugged at her lips as she cupped her hand possessively behind her daughter’s head, caressing the soft curls. Sharon Lynn looked up at her, an expression of adoration on her face.

In that instant Cody saw what it meant to be a family...and he wasn’t a part of it. Melissa couldn’t have shut him out any more effectively, any more deliberately, if she’d tried.

He stood there, so close and yet very much apart from them. Longing welled up inside him, longing to know all of these little details of Sharon Lynn’s first months that Melissa shared so grudgingly.