She sat speechless for the space of two breaths. “You can’t be serious.”

“I am. I’m in a better place now. I think we should—”

She cut him off with a wave of her hand. “Stop . . . just stop. That ship sailed a long time ago, Nathan.”

That tick kept twitching now, faster with every word. “Hope deserves a father.”

“Hope? You want to tell me what my daughter needs?”

“Our daughter,” he corrected.

She placed her hand on the table to avoid balling it into a fist. “You were the sperm donor, Nathan. You didn’t want to be a father.”

His eyes skirted over to the counter. “Melanie, keep your voice down.”

“Don’t tell me to keep my voice down. You have no right.”

“Melanie!”

“Don’t Melanie me.” God, how she hated that when they were together.

Nathan took a deep breath and turned his back to the others in the restaurant and lowered his voice.

“I didn’t come here to fight,” he told her.

“Did you think you could come here and we not fight?”

“I want to work things out.”

Her eyes caught Zoe’s before moving back to his. “And I want you to leave.”

“Hope deserves a father.” His words caught in her chest.

“She deserves someone who isn’t going to leave the second things get hard.”

He nodded and his face softened. If it wasn’t for his telling tick, she might believe he was actually listening to her. “I’m an attorney now, Melanie. In a much better place . . .”

Of course he was. He didn’t have a child or a family to worry over while he finished his education. She would love to be happy for him, but all she could feel was envy. He’d fulfilled his dreams while she was eating noodle soup and driving around in crappy cars. Or better yet, bumming a ride from her friends in their cars.

She shook the negative thoughts from her head and thought of Hope.

She had Hope, and she wouldn’t trade that for an education or a title.

“It’s great that you continued with your life, Nathan.”

He grinned as if she’d given him a gift.

“But I don’t need you.”

That grin fell.

“I want to be a part of Hope’s life.”

“That’s going to be a little hard to do, living in California.”

“When you come back—”

“We’re not coming back,” she cut him off.

He glanced around the diner and scowled. “What do you mean?”

“Hope and I are staying here. I’ve already enrolled her in school for the fall.”

“My God, Melanie. You’re better than this place.”

She laughed. “But not better than Bakersfield?”

Nathan flicked a crumb left by another patron off the table as if it were an ant.

“You ran away to Bakersfield. If I had known you were there, I would have . . .” his words trailed off.

“Would have what, Nathan? Come galloping in on your trusty steed and rescued us from my crumbling apartment and shitty school?”

“Yes. All that.”

He kept glancing at their audience, who were doing a great job of keeping their backs to them while remaining silent enough to hear most of the conversation.

“Well you’re too late. And unless you plan on sticking around, there is no reason for you to see Hope and mess her up. She doesn’t need you. We don’t need you.”

The bell over the door rang again.

Wyatt’s frame filled the door.

His smile filled her heart.

Wyatt offered a single nod and moved toward the growing crowd. When Melanie turned her attention back to Nathan, that tick was going full steam.

“He’s not her father.”

Was that jealousy? “No, and unlike you, he’s not pretending to be either.”

“I don’t have to pretend.”

She tried to put an end to this once and for all. “Go home, Nathan. I’m giving you a free pass. Go live your life and leave us to live ours.”

His snarky smile started to replace his tick, and that had Melanie’s heart beating too fast in her chest.

“That’s not how this is going to play out, Melanie.”

She didn’t care for the conviction in his tone. “And how is this going to play out?”

His silence unnerved her this time.

Jo stepped up to the table, the sound of the belt holding all her cop toys clapping along the way. “You’re okay here, Mel?”

“She’s just fine,” Nathan said.

“Mel?”

The fact that Nathan didn’t bother looking at Jo gave a twist to her stomach. He was up to something . . . had need of something. He just wasn’t giving her any clue as to what.

“I’m going home to clear my calendar for a while, then I’ll be back.”

Melanie swallowed hard. “You don’t have to—”

“I’m not leaving my wife and child here forever.”

Again with the wife thing. “I’m not your—”

Nathan reached over to pat her hand.

Melanie pulled back as if stung.

Jo placed her hand on the table and leaned in front of them. “I think you should leave.”

It was then Nathan looked up to see every set of eyes in the diner on him.

He lifted both hands in the air before scooting out of the booth.

Once on his feet, he looked down at Jo and smirked.

His parting words were directed at Melanie. “I’ll be back.”

Then he was gone.