Desperado: Deep in the Heart, Book 2 (30 page)

“We always were,” Sun admonished her lightly. “You had the most normal childhood of any kid in any family we ever traveled with.”

“I’m sorry.” Stormy stepped forward so that she was speaking directly to Cody. “They’ve been breathing too much fresh California mountain air. Never did we have a normal lifestyle in any definition ‘normal’ can be stretched to include.”

“Maybe it wasn’t your average suburban home,” Moon agreed, “but we stayed married. It’s better for children to have a home where the parents live together.”

“Even when they’re sleeping with other people?” Stormy nearly shouted. “Have you two gone off your health-store medication? Don’t even try to pretend that you were apple pie parents!”

“We weren’t.” Sun shook her head, smiling at Cody. “Stormy was never an apple pie child, either.”

“I believe you,” he said sincerely. His gaze flashed to Stormy, for one moment lighting on her ankle bracelet, or maybe the tiny tattoo she had on her bare ankle, she wasn’t sure which. No doubt he’d rather have a woman who wore boots all the time, she thought sourly. Then she thought about Annie, who’d treated her like part of the family. Annie had boots on every time she’d seen her. She shouldn’t have let such a bitter, narrow-minded thought get in her head. Stormy took a deep breath, putting a hand on her stomach to soothe herself and any turmoil she might be causing the baby.

“I wasn’t an apple pie kid myself,” Cody said conversationally. Suddenly, he had everyone’s attention riveted on him, waiting for him to elaborate. He swallowed hard, feeling stupid, the kind of rattled stupid he’d felt when a bull gave him a good thump into a barn wall. His brain whirled with everything he’d heard in the last forty minutes. Stormy’s parents stared at him as if he were some unique animal in a zoo. He held his hat in his hand, pressing the edges of it between his fingers for something to do, then realized what he was doing and stuck it under his chair. “I was never as good at school…as my brother was,” he said softly. “I…” He broke off, thinking about Carlos and how he’d died, and suddenly, Cody knew he’d spent all his life in a shell. A secure, somewhat narrow-minded shell of things familiar and not intimidating. He’d never been on the hot seat with anybody’s parents before. Any home he’d been in to see a girl, the family had known him for ages, and his parents, too. This was different. He didn’t know the Nixon way of life, but they didn’t know the Aguillar way of life either. And it was kind of hard to explain to a woman with orange hair and a man who looked like a cave dweller that his intentions toward their daughter were honorable, in some ways.

He owed them that respect. This woman with her searching gray-purple eyes like Stormy’s, and this man with a worn road for a face and eyes that looked permanently strobe-lit, were Stormy’s parents. He had gotten their daughter pregnant. No matter how disgusted he might be with Stormy right now, he was going to sit here and let her parents examine him until they’d gotten it out of their systems. “I was the wild child, the spoiled younger brother.”

“His nickname in Desperado is Crazy Cody,” Stormy supplied helpfully.

He gave her a pointed stare-down for her help.

“Crazy Cody?” Sun repeated, looking like she might break into tears any second.

“Ah…yeah.” Cody scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. “I don’t know how I got that handle.”

“He lies. He revels in the respect being crazy gets him.” Stormy brought out a tray. “Here’s some spring water, Cody. Try it. It tastes a lot better than that murky stuff Desperado calls water. They pull it out of a lake and it always tastes like dirt,” she informed her parents.

“It does not!” Cody sat straight. He’d been drinking that water all his life and it was just fine.

“Oh, it does.” Stormy shook her head as she squeezed some lemon into a glass. “You don’t notice it, but I called the water company, just to inquire. I thought maybe the lake had gone dry, and the city didn’t realize they were pumping up the last little drops of their supply. Well, the water man said they were having a hot summer and the lake was warm but they’d pour more chemicals into it. Chemicals!” She shook her head at her parents.

Startled, they stared at Cody for confirmation. “You better drink all the spring water you can while you’re here,” Moon told him. “This is as fresh and pure as it gets.”

Cody took a tentative drink. “Tastes like water,” he pronounced.

“That’s right!” Stormy looked so proud. “Water, not dirt! You see? You can tell the difference.”

He couldn’t, but the Nixons all seemed so pleased with their spring water he wasn’t about to bust their collective bubble.

“We should take Cody out to dinner, Moon.” Sun turned to look at her husband, peace signs all asway. “Don’t you think so?”

Cody realized he was being treated as a son-in-law prospect. That really wasn’t a good idea. He and Stormy hadn’t even had a chance to air anything out between them. An evening spent with her parents probably didn’t bode well for his bachelorhood. Heck, their daughter was carrying his child. No doubt they expected his ring on her finger before the night was over. He swallowed, feeling distinctly cornered. “That’s all right. You don’t have to do that, but I sure do appreciate it.”

Moon snapped his fingers, catching Cody’s attention in a sudden way. The man had long fingernails. Obviously, he had never done much riding or roping.

“Sushi. We should take Cody to a sushi bar!” Moon suggested.

“What a wonderful idea!” Sun beamed at Cody. “Have you ever had sushi?”

Stormy waited for his reply with a sarcastic smile, knowing full well he was a meat and potatoes man.

“Is sushi that raw fish stuff?”

“Oh, yes, quite delicious,” Sun told him.

He could maybe eat some fish. “Will they cook it for me?”

“I…don’t think so.” Sun looked at her husband, obviously perplexed as to why anybody would want their dinner cooked.

“Well, maybe they’ve got a steak or something.” Cody had pretty well resigned himself to this adventure with the Nixon crew from outer—
No, they aren’t weird. Just a
…
little out of the ordinary. Like Stormy.
His gaze caressed her belly. She might be out of the ordinary, but she looked fabulously sexy in spite of it.

“Steak?” Sun repeated. “Stormy’s a vegetarian.” She sent her daughter a questioning look that said,
What were you doing in bed with a man who eats red meat?
“In fact, Moon and I never touch red meat. Or any meat except fish. The muscle meats aren’t healthy for you,” she said, obviously trying, by the smile on her face, to be informative and helpful.

“Cody raises cattle for a living,” Stormy murmured.

The awkward silence in the room burned Cody’s ears.

“Oh,” Sun said awkwardly. “You
raise
cattle.”

Those disgusting muscled creatures,
she might as well have said. “And eat them, too,” he said smoothly, because they were all feeling so awkward he felt like an absurd remark would take the tension to extratight. “Truth is, I don’t waste my time listening to rock ’n’ roll music. It’s the equivalent of jelly for your brain. Much healthier to stick to classical music, or country and western.”

Of course he knew that Stormy’s parents were rock ’n’ roll junkies. He crossed his arms over his chest, seeing clearly the startled, wondering glance Sun sent her only child. The deck was cut, the cards reshuffled. Teams were chosen. In his mind, they were on one side, and he was the unpicked player. Odd man out. The different, undesirable one.

“Take me to a restaurant where they cook the food and I’ll buy your dinner,” he said to restart the game.

“Cool,” Moon said, jumping to his worn-sandaled feet. “We’ll take you up on that.”

“Good.” Cody put on his black hat with the tooth in the leather hatband and held the door open for Stormy and her diminutive, eccentric parents. As she passed by him, his eyes promised that, after this interesting side trip, the two of them were going to hash out their differences and come to a compromise.

“Nice going, Cowboy,” she murmured. “You’ve obviously met a lot of girls’ parents.”

“I have yours eating out of my hand.” He gave her a slight whack on the behind, making her jump and shoot him a warning glare. “I didn’t come out here to eat raw fish and drink untreated water, Trouble.”

“Take a walk on the wild side, Cody,” she said, raising her brows at him as he slipped his arm through hers, escort style.

“Obviously I did more than walk on the wild side when I met you. Lucky for you I’m so damn easy to get along with. And your parents are wondering how a flake like their daughter managed to meet such a great guy.”

“Cody, they’re tripping harder right now than they ever did on any plant form they smoked.” She patted his arm as it lay linked through hers. “I think it’ll be good for you to have such a positive experience in California. You might decide traveling is a lot of fun.”

“I don’t think you’re going to make a convert out of me,” he whispered in her ear as the sushi restaurant loomed in sight. “Eating uncooked food can give you salmonella, which you traveled to Shiloh to discover for yourself.”

“I’m not trying to make a convert out of you.” She poked him when he opened the door for her parents. “None of us is going to change our ways.”

“A thick, juicy steak would be very healthy for my baby,” he said hopefully. “Protein for his brain development.”

Stormy laughed out loud. “Peanut butter will do the same thing. Come on, Cowboy. The fish is fresh from the ocean.”

She was wearing another man’s ring, a real rock, Cody noted sharply as he followed her to a table. He might not be able to stomach raw fish, but he’d damn sure do that before he’d allow his child to be raised by another man. If he and Stormy didn’t agree on another thing tonight, they were going to meet at the pass on that.

“I’ll have your biggest, rawest fish,” he told the waitress. “And some untreated water.” He gave Stormy a sporting smile.

“It’s not going to work,” Stormy warned him. “I’m not fooled a bit.”

“I’m not trying to fool you. But if I can try a little of your way, you ought to be willing to try a little bit of my way.”

“Such as?” she asked brightly, her parents and the waiter eagerly listening.

“You order a steak. I’m not leaving my baby’s intellectual and physical development up to peanut butter with a fairy on the label.”

“Do I look unhealthy to you?” she demanded.

“No, you look fine. It’s my child whose nutrition shouldn’t suffer.”

She blew out a breath and ran her fingers through her short hair as she thought through his request.

“If I can compromise, you can, too.”

“Fine!” She glowered at him. “I’ll have the biggest, bloodiest slab of dead cow you’ve got.”

“A small one will do. See how agreeable I am?” Cody smiled at her and patted her on the back.

“You’re deliberately trying to make me ill!” Stormy snapped.

“I could say the same,” he reminded her.

She didn’t reply.

“See how easy this is?” Sun asked happily from the opposite side of the table. “Peace is easy to achieve when one allows it to come into one’s life.”

Cody stared at Stormy. Her chin pointed at him belligerently. He’d allowed her into his life. Peace had definitely not come with Stormy.

Stormy stared at Cody. He’d battled her since the day he’d first closed the door on her proposition for setting the movie on his land. Ornery, overly stubborn male with more testosterone than was healthy for any of his species. Peace wasn’t something she’d experienced from meeting him, Crazy Cody.

And now he was fixated on the baby she carried. Stormy drew a deep, unsettled breath. There wasn’t likely to be peace at all between them anytime soon—especially after she told him that she intended to file for full custody of their child.

Chapter Twenty

“That was interesting.”

Cody closed the door behind them as they walked into Stormy’s apartment. Sun and Moon had left for parts unknown right after dinner, which had actually turned out to be somewhat interesting. Stormy thought that her parents were fascinated by the big man, and he by them.

It had been kind of fun to watch them, three characters in a script trying to learn their parts.

“I’ve got an early call in the morning.” Stormy turned to face Cody. “As much as I know you want to talk, I can’t miss work. So, can we be fast?”

“Not really.” He gave her a thorough staring. “We have a lot of things to hammer out.”

“How long are you staying?” Stormy sank into a chair, trying to maintain a stern façade, and not sure how long she was going to be able to keep herself from succumbing to the temptation of Cody in her apartment. “I imagine you’re flying back out tomorrow?” she asked hopefully.

He shook his head at her as if she were a naughty child. “Bought a one-way ticket. Since you can be hard to work sometimes, I figured I’d probably save money if I didn’t have to change reservations a hundred times.”

“Very funny.” Stormy brushed her hair back and considered him. “Pick the topic, then, as long as you’re out by ten. My alarm clock is set for four o’clock.”

“Okay.” He drew his middle finger down the bridge of his nose, deep in thought. “I don’t like living so far apart. It’s going to be hard for the child.”