“You okay?” Harlan asked, coming out of the house and studying her worriedly.

“Fine,” she said, fighting not to take her annoyance at Cody out on his father.

Harlan was innocent in all of this. She had seen for herself the toll his wife’s death had taken on him and she was glad that bringing Sharon Lynn here had given him some pleasure. She was sorry that she had so stubbornly resisted the temptation to announce to all the world long ago that her child was Cody’s, just so that Harlan and Mary might have had the chance to know their grandchild from day one. The irony, of course, was that everyone in town had known it anyway.

“If you’re so fine, how come you’re sitting out here in the cold all by yourself, looking as if you just lost your last friend in the world?” Harlan asked.

“I didn’t lose him,” she said dryly. “I’m thinking of killing him.”

Harlan’s blue eyes twinkled at her feisty tone. “Ah, I see. Cody can be a bit infuriating, I suppose.”

“There’s no supposing about it. He is the most exasperating, egotistical...”

“Talking about me?” the man in question inquired.

He spoke in a lazy drawl that sent goose bumps dancing down Melissa’s spine despite her resolution to become totally immune to him. Obviously she still needed to work harder on her wayward hormones.

“Which part clued you in?” she inquired. “Exasperating or egotistical?”

Harlan chuckled at the exchange, then promptly clamped his mouth shut in response to a dire scowl from his son. “Sorry,” he said insincerely. “You two want to be left alone, or should I stick around to referee?”

“Stay,” Melissa encouraged just as Cody said, “Go.”

“Thank you, Melissa,” Harlan said, winking at her. “I think I’ll stay. The show promises to be downright fascinating. This time of day, good entertainment’s hard to come by. Nothing but cartoons on TV.”

“Daddy!” Cody warned.

“Yes, son?”

“We don’t need you here,” Cody insisted rudely.

“Speak for yourself,” Melissa shot back.

Cody strolled closer until he was standing practically knee-to-knee with her. He bent down, placed his hands on the arms of the chair and said very, very quietly, “Do you really want him to hear our private, personal, intimate conversation?”

The gleam in his eyes was pure dare. Melissa swallowed hard. Surely Cody was just taunting her. She couldn’t imagine him saying anything to her that Harlan shouldn’t hear. And the truth of it was, she wanted Harlan here as a buffer just to make sure that the conversation stayed on a relatively impersonal track. She didn’t trust those slippery hormones of hers. They were liable to kick in when she least expected it.

She shot a defiant look at the man who was scant inches from her face. “Yes,” she said emphatically.