Destined To Be A Dad (Welcome To Destiny Book 9) (5 page)

She turned to him. “I can see that. I wasn’t expecting—”

“Isn’t it neat? You should see it in the daytime.” Casey spun around, coming dangerously close to the edge of an oversize in-ground pool. “They’ve got their own neighborhood back here!”

Yes, Missy could see that. The transformation of the yard was stunning.

“You might remember all we used to have was a simple wooden deck, but my folks wanted a complete outdoor entertainment space. Over the years they added the stone patio, fire pit, pool and the connecting pathways,” he said as he led the way. “We boys built the gazebo back there to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary a few years ago. Mom said it was the perfect final touch.”

Missy tried to take it all in. The care and thought that had gone into renovating the acreage was evident. Outdoor lights offered a soft glow, making it easy to see everything from the landscaping to the entertainment areas. Lighted pathways veered off in different directions through clusters of trees that gave each of the log homes a sense of privacy despite their relative closeness to each other.

“And the log homes,” she said. “I’m guessing from what your mother said, you and your brothers all still live here.”

“Not all of us. Adam has his own ranch down the road and Ric is currently stationed overseas, but yeah—” Liam grinned, and then shrugged. “I guess the rest of us figured the Murphy ranch was as good a place to settle down as anywhere else in town. At least we’re not all still in the main house.”

“Well, it’s certainly big enough for everyone,” she said, eyeing the house more closely.

Missy listened to him describe who lived where as they passed his brothers’ homes, Casey a few steps ahead of them. The path sloped downward and led to the lake, and the trees got closer together. When the boathouse with its familiar wooden dock came into view, her stomach clenched.

“So that must leave this one as yours, right?”

Casey’s question pulled Missy’s gaze from the boathouse to a two-story log home that sat a bit farther back into the trees.

“Yes, that’s my place,” Liam said.

“Wow, it’s big for one person. Since no one’s mentioned it, I’m guessing you’re not married.”

“Casey!”

“It’s okay.” His gaze lingered on Missy for a moment before he looked at their daughter. “And you guessed correctly, I’m not. I was—twice, actually—but neither one stuck.”

Twice? He’d married again? Not an unusual occurrence, but the news still surprised her.

“So do I have any younger half siblings running around?”

“Nope, just a handful of cousins, I’m afraid.”

“Bugger, I always wanted a little sister.” Casey shrugged and headed for the boathouse. “Used to bother my mum for years over that. Of course there was little chance of it happening. She rarely, if ever, dated after my father died.”

Missy gasped and pressed a hand to her forehead, embarrassed at her daughter’s directness but also to block out Liam’s dark gaze as he turned to look at her. “Cassalyn Elizabeth—”

“Oh, it’s never a good thing when she brings out the full name.” Reaching the end of the boathouse, Casey jerked her thumb around the corner. “Your mum said stairs would lead up to the flat. Is this them?”

“Yes, a light should come on when you get to the top...” His voice trailed off as Casey disappeared, her footsteps echoing up the stairwell. “Is she avoiding me all of a sudden?”

“No, it’s me she’s trying to get away from.” Missy couldn’t stop from stealing glances at the beautiful front porch on Liam’s home, so close now that it seemed to tower over them as they walked along the back side of the boathouse. “I apologize for her rudeness.”

“Like I said, it’s okay. I have a feeling she’s going to have quite a few questions for us in the coming days.”

“You’re probably right.” She followed him around the corner of the building, surprised when she saw a second-level porch had been added to the front of the boathouse that faced the water, creating a covered area over the three boat slips she remembered. “My, more changes.”

“I told you.”

“Yes, you did. Well, I should—” She stopped when the glow from the outdoor lighting suddenly disappeared, leaving them in darkness except for the light coming from the upper landing. “What—what just happened?”

“It must be ten o’clock. The lights are on a timed system with the majority of the accent features going off for the night. Don’t worry—the outside lights on everyone’s homes, as well as the pathways, are motion activated, in case you need anyone for...well, anything.”

Meaning she was to go to him? The queen would give up the throne first. “Well, as I was saying, I should get upstairs and answer some of those questions.”

Liam studied her in silence. Was he going to insist on being part of this discussion? Missy honestly didn’t think she had the strength to include him, as terrible as that sounded.

Not after everything that had happened today.

Being back in Destiny, staying in the boathouse, standing so close to him she could reach out and touch—

“Yes, I guess you should,” he finally said. “Let me take the bags up for you.”

“I’ll take them.” Casey reappeared, clomping down the stairs. “Sorry for popping off like that. I think the time difference has me a bit knackered.”

“If memory serves, that means tired, right?” Liam asked with a grin, handing over the luggage. “And apology accepted.”

Casey smiled, and then turned to head back upstairs. “You coming, Mum? Wait until you see the loo! There’s a giant claw-footed tub that sits in front of a huge glass window looking right out over the water.”

Missy faltered, grabbing at the handrail as she started to follow. She swung her gaze back to Liam, even as she called after her daughter’s departing figure. “There—there is?”

Liam retreated, the shadows not completely hiding the way his mouth lifted at one corner. “When I said it didn’t look the same, I wasn’t talking about the
entire
space. Some things are exactly how they used to be.”

* * *

It was after midnight and she should be lost in dreamland, but Missy couldn’t slow her mind enough to allow sleep to come.

Her talk with Casey had gone surprisingly well, her daughter handling the story of what happened all those years ago between Missy and Liam with ease. Of course, her anger with her grandparents was palpable, mixed with even more tears over her grandfather’s recent death, leaving the poor girl confused about what she should be feeling.

Still, she seemed more interested in what had happened sixteen years ago here in Destiny. Missy shared some of what her time here had been like. But after one too many yawns from Casey, Missy had pleaded exhaustion herself and shooed her daughter off to the smaller of the apartment’s two bedrooms.

After checking and finding her daughter sound asleep, Missy then took that bubble bath she’d been longing for, memories be damned. So what if the tub stood in the exact same spot it had sixteen years ago?

The antique hadn’t been in working order back then. Not that they had let that stop them on a stormy afternoon, lining the tub with old quilts and sharing a picnic there, the roomy fixture big enough to fit both of them comfortably. So comfortably that they’d—

Okay, so the bubbles did little to relax her. Nor did the cup of Earl Grey tea she’d made after finding a selection of loose teas and a darling little pot in the cozy kitchen.

Setting the empty cup in the sink, Missy crossed the parlor, drawn to the French doors that led to the covered porch. She hoped a few moments in the fresh air would clear away her whirlwind thoughts as she slipped outside, closing the door behind her.

She tightened the sash on her dressing gown. The air was cool as she walked to the porch railing, drawn by the full moon lighting up the night sky and dancing over the gentle current of the river-fed lake.

Leaning forward, she gazed up at the stars shining overhead, so clear and bright. Not a sight she saw often from her London neighborhood. Years ago, her first glimpse at a Wyoming sky at night had made her feel much as she felt right now.

Lost and alone. Small. Insignificant. The same emotions that had swamped her the day she’d discovered she was pregnant and had no idea who the baby’s father was.

She’d prayed it was Liam. Hoped and prayed for weeks, even after her parents and Stanford had learned about the pregnancy. She’d debated constantly over getting in touch with Liam while having no idea how to explain the crazy situation.

Then she’d found out he’d married someone else. Trying not to allow her heart to be filled with pain and sorrow over the news had been hard. She hadn’t wanted her baby to be stuck inside a body racked with such intense emotions for the remaining months of her pregnancy.

And she’d stopped hoping.

Now, fifteen years later, those long-ago prayers had been answered and their lives—hers, Casey’s and Liam’s—would never be the same.

Would it be fair to separate Casey and Liam so soon? Her daughter had pleaded to stay in Destiny, easily brushing aside the temptation of a month on a tropical beach in order to get to know the man who was her father. Her real father.

Casey and Stanford had never bonded, mostly because of his business schedule and a quiet disdain over Missy’s refusal to hire a nanny. He had never gotten over the fact she had wanted to be the one to raise their child, even if it meant putting off her own schooling until Casey was older. Putting him and his career ambitions off, too, at times when it came to fancy parties or corporate travel. She had been a mother first, a wife second. Was it any wonder their marriage foundered after such a short time?

Casey had never seemed to miss having a father after Stanford’s death, mainly because Missy’s father had been such a doting presence in her life, especially when Missy and Casey had moved back home. To learn he’d played with their lives all those years ago damaged the memories both of them had of the man.

Missy sighed. Could she do it? Could she stay here at Liam’s home, where she’d be surrounded by the memories from a lifetime ago?

During her first visit to Destiny, she’d stayed with a family in town. The McIntyres had been nice people, even if their daughter had soon come to regret having to share her room. Not that it had mattered, because from the moment Missy and Liam had become a couple, her life had revolved around him, his family and the Murphy family home.

She’d traveled with the Murphys on weekends to the rodeos Liam and his brothers had competed in, marveling at his strength and commitment to the sport. A rising star on the rodeo circuit, Liam had been popular with everyone he came in contact with but still down-to-earth. So easy to talk to, to be with.

And she’d loved him. Loved all of them.

So much so that she’d turned her entire world upside down, provoking the wrath of her parents with her plan to go to college in America. It had taken time, but she’d managed to get everything in place so that she could surprise him—

“You bloody well surprised him, all right. Then he shocked you.” Her whispered words filled the air, her fingers clutching the railing, nails biting into the wood as she rocked back and forth. “And nothing was the same after that.”

A chill raced through her, whether from the night air or the fact that she was even more unsettled now than before she came out here, she didn’t know. But it was time to head back inside.

When she turned around, a man leaning against a nearby post, barely visible in the dark, caught her eye. Missy gasped and stumbled backward, but then Liam was there, pulling her into his arms, steadying her.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “I didn’t mean...”

His voice faded as she clutched at his wrinkled, unbuttoned dress shirt, the bare skin beneath hot to the touch. That same heat flowed through the silk of her gown from where his hands held her, igniting a burst of need deep inside her.

A swift intake of much needed air brought a clean, sharp, yet woodsy scent to her nose. A scent so familiar her stomach tightened at the memory.

“Missy?”

His features were still obscured by the shadows, but she could see a lock of dark hair falling forward as he stared down at her. It was as if the last sixteen years faded away and all she saw—felt—breathed—in front of her was the boy she’d once loved more than life itself.

A foolish love, childish infatuation, a crush.

A mistake.

That’s what she’d been told after it ended, by her girlfriends, her parents. Labels she’d repeated often, come to believe, clung to, as the months and years passed. But while they’d been together...

Loving him, being loved by him, had been magical.

He pulled her closer, dipping his head. She responded by pressing up on her toes, her curves aligning to the solid wall of his chest, bringing her face even closer to his.

“Liam.”

His name rushed past her lips in a hushed whisper. A low groan escaped from his seconds before his mouth landed on hers.

It was like coming home.

Chapter Four

T
his was not why he’d come here. He should have made his presence known when he’d first arrived. Surprised when the outside light hadn’t come on, he’d paused, ready to call out to her, but had found himself leaning against the post at the top of the stairs as a way to get the crazy beating of his heart under control.

And yeah, so he could look at her, standing there, bathed in the moonlight, dressed in a silky bathrobe.

Then she’d spotted him.

Now, she was in his arms, rising to meet his mouth. She smelled the same, felt the same, and finally holding her caused that familiar electric charge to return, the same one that sang in his veins the moment she’d stepped from the car earlier tonight.

How was that possible after all this time? Why had he wanted her just like this, just this close, from the moment he’d seen her again? A woman who’d kept his daughter from him?

Not her fault. None of it.

Hard as it was to understand why parents would do that to their own child, he believed her story. And yet, she’d kept the possibility she might be carrying
his
child from him.

Shouldn’t he be upset with her for that? Never mind that she planned to take Casey away again in just a few days.

None of that mattered at the moment, not when her lips trembled beneath his as he reacquainted himself with the taste of the first girl he’d ever loved.

Her fingers fisted in his shirt as she rose even higher to meet him, but it wasn’t enough. He wanted more. Angling his head, he released her shoulders only so he could cup the softness of her cheeks with his palms.

He delved his fingers deep into her hair, itching to loosen the golden strands and see them tumble free. He traced the upper edge of her lips with his tongue, the fullness and shape of her mouth so familiar it was as if he’d just kissed her yesterday.

She gasped at his boldness, but before he could use that to his advantage, she wrenched from his embrace, shuffling backward, putting distance between them.

“What—what are you doing?” She lightly tapped her mouth. “Why did you do that?”

“I’m—” Liam paused, not having a ready answer to a valid question. “I wanted to keep you from falling.”

“By kissing me?”

“That wasn’t something I planned on happening.” He started toward her, but stopped when she retreated again. “Why did you kiss me back?”

Her fingers paused against her lips, and then she dropped her hand. “It’s late. Why are you here?”

Okay, no more talk about kissing. That was probably for the best. “I saw you step outside. I wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

“You saw me?”

He debated if he should keep what he’d discovered to himself, but honesty won out. “I never realized until tonight the view from my master bedroom allows me to look down and see much of the apartment.”

Her eyes narrowed. “How much?”

“The main room, the kitchen and the porch.”

“Did you see Casey and I—did you watch us when we were talking?”

He nodded again, deciding at that moment there’d already been enough deceit between them to last a lifetime. “How is she? She seemed a bit upset at times.”

“She was, as I expected she would be, but in the end... I’d say she’s handling all of it amazingly well.” Missy’s shoulders rose in a delicate shrug. “Then again, Casey has always been so easygoing about most things. I see now she must get that from—”

She bit hard on her bottom lip, cutting off her words.

“From me.” Liam knew exactly what she’d been about to say. The comparison made his heart pound. “You were going to say she gets that from me.”

“Well, she certainly doesn’t get it from my side of the family.” Missy walked toward the porch railing again, still keeping space between them, her gaze out on the water. “We Ellingtons are as uptight as you Yanks make all British people out to be.”

He smiled, glad that she didn’t seem to be in any hurry to go back inside. Mimicking her pose, he turned to look out over the lake, too, resting his forearms on the railing. “Oh, I don’t know. I seem to remember you loosening up. Eventually.”

“Eventually.” She brushed back the hair the breeze swept across off her face. “Being in Destiny was vastly different from what my life was like in London. It took me a long time to feel...comfortable.”

“But not comfortable enough to stay.” The moment the words popped out of his mouth, he wished he could take them back. The last thing he wanted tonight was to argue about the past. “Missy, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Well, an apology. How nice. Does that make up for the one I never got sixteen years ago?”

He looked at her, confused. “What?”

“Please don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.” She faced him. “About the plans I made? To go to college in Wyoming, jumping through hoops to make that happen. Giving up my placement in university back home, applying for a student visa, dipping into my trust fund to pay for it all. Not that any of that seemed to matter to you.”

“It mattered. Of course, it mattered.” He straightened and faced her. “And no, I never forgot. I also didn’t have any idea what you were planning back then.”

“I wanted to surprise you with the news that we would be able to be together. Instead, you surprised me—not to mention your entire family—when you announced you weren’t going to college after all, but planned to be the next John Wayne.”

“John Wayne never rodeoed, except in a movie or two, I think.”

Missy rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“Yes, okay, you surprised me that day, but in a good way.” The memories of a hot July afternoon, not long after he’d taken the professional rodeo circuit by storm with an unexpected first-place showing at the Cody Stampede, came rushing back. “I wanted you to stay, was happy you were staying. I remember asking you to go on the road with me after I decided to rodeo full-time.”

“As what?” Her voice rose, but then she glanced at the glass doors that led to the apartment and inched closer to him. “Your buckle bunny? Isn’t that the quaint American saying? Not bloody likely.”

Liam copied her low tone, even though he doubted Casey could hear them, as the bedrooms were on the other side of the apartment. “A fact you made very clear that day as you walked out.”

“If memory serves, you made it clear you wouldn’t miss me if I went back home.”

“We were fighting. Hell, we were teenagers. Teenagers say stupid things.”

“Yes, like you didn’t care about me anymore. You were glad we were through.”

“I lied,” he shot back.

Taking a step forward, he remembered what she’d said earlier on the porch that triggered a forgotten memory. “Something I made clear in my letters to you.”

Silence stretched between them as they stood there, almost as close as they’d been when he’d held her in his arms. Missy was breathing hard, her breasts rising and falling against the edges of her bathrobe.

Liam tried not to stare, but she was beautiful, as beautiful as ever, and a part of him liked that even after all this time, she was still so emotional about their relationship.

“Letters?” she finally asked. “What are you talking about?”

“I wrote to you, after you left.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, causing his shirt to open even farther, but he had to do something to keep from reaching for her again. “Steve McIntyre, Suzanne’s brother, got me your address from their folks.”

Missy started to say something, but then pressed her lips together and remained silent.

“Hell, we were still in the dial-up stage of the internet back then and you didn’t even have an email address. So I wrote to you, three times in fact, between July and October, after you left,” he continued, remembering how he’d poured out his heart and soul in the same messy handwriting he still used today. “I never heard back from you.”

“I never...” She averted her eyes, her gaze landing on his chest for a moment before she turned away. “I never got them. Any of them.”

Of course she hadn’t. A vile bitterness rose in his throat. He had to swallow it back before he spoke. “Your parents made sure of that.”

She nodded, still not looking at him. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

More silence.

Liam dropped his head and closed his eyes. He hadn’t planned on any of this—the kiss, talking about the past—when he’d headed over here. He’d been worried about Casey, about Missy, about how their talk had gone. He’d wanted to make sure she was okay, but he should have figured that the way things had ended between them all those years ago would come out sooner or later.

But with such feeling?

Her crack about his apology surprised him. Despite the years that had passed, everything that had happened the day they fought—everything between them during that year—still felt so real. To both of them, it seemed.

“I would’ve told you.” Missy’s fingers were cool where she touched his wrist, drawing his attention back to her. “If the test results—if the results I was shown had been different, had been the truth, I would have made sure you knew about your daughter. No matter what my parents might have wanted at the time.”

He nodded, reading the truth in her eyes, but believing her butted up against the fact that she’d never had the chance. He’d never had the chance. “I would’ve done right by you, by Casey. As old-fashioned as that sounds.”

“We were both teenagers and living half a world apart. I’m not sure how...what the right answer would have been for us back then.” She sighed and dropped her hand. “Perhaps that was the logic behind my father’s deceit.”

She had a point, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t deserved to know the truth. “You two could have come back to Destiny.”

“And what then? I would have followed you from rodeo to rodeo with a baby in my arms?”

“I wasn’t only a cowboy back then. I earned my electrician’s license after you left and worked for my father around my training and the rodeo competitions.” Her attitude bugged him, even though they were talking about a past they couldn’t change. “But your parents thought Stanford Dobbs was a better catch.”

“I suppose they did.” Missy took a step back, again folding her arms. “His family was in the same social circles as mine. He’d graduated from Oxford that same spring as Casey was born and was working at his father’s investment firm by the time we married.”

“A proper match for a proper English girl.” A thought came to Liam. “Did he know the truth? Did your father ever tell your husband that Casey wasn’t his daughter?”

“No.” Her response was quick and firm, but then she caught her bottom lip with her teeth for a moment. “I don’t think so...my goodness, it never occurred me to ask my mother that.”

“Was he good to Casey?”
Good to you?
Liam wanted to say that second part, but he managed to hold back the words.

“He was, even though he wasn’t very involved with her daily care. Stanford worked long hours to provide for us. As he moved up in the company the busier he became and the more he traveled.”

“So you were a full-time mother?”

She nodded. “Until Casey started school, which happened to be right about the time of Stanford’s death. Casey and I moved back in with my parents and I was able to earn my degree in three years.”

Liam added the years in his head. “I was getting my master’s degree at the same time.”

“Hmm, yes, I know. Casey showed me the write-up in the rodeo program about you. She read to me about both your rodeo career and your time with the family business. I’ll admit I was surprised to learn you only competed professionally for three years.”

Liam reached inside his open shirt and rubbed at his left shoulder. The phantom burning sensation was in his head—he knew that—but sometimes he’d swear he could still feel the lightning-hot pain.

Even after all this time. Especially now.

“Not even. I was halfway through my third season, holding tight to the number-one ranking, when I shattered my left arm, from the shoulder down past the elbow, after getting thrown by a horse named Destiny Changer, of all things. Sure changed things for me.”

“And you never rode again?”

“Not as a saddle bronc rider.” He pushed his cotton shirt off his shoulder, baring the rigid scarring to the moonlight. To her. “Took me almost a year just to get full use of my arm again.”

A soft gasp escaped past Missy’s lips as her gaze flittered over his skin, taking in the evidence of his injury. “Oh, my. It’s...it’s not what I expected.”

“That’s one way to put it.”

“No.” Her eyes flew up to meet his. “I’m sorry, I was talking about your tattoo.”

“Oh, that.” Liam glanced down at the black silhouette design that covered most of his left pectoral—an image of a saddle bronc rider, right in the middle of the craziness during the eight seconds of a cowboy trying to stay astride the horse. He righted his shirt and closed a couple of the buttons. “Yeah, I got that a few years afterward. I was tired of seeing nothing but scars every time I looked in the mirror.”

“But the location—” She paused. “I mean, it’s right over your heart.”

“Yeah, well, being a cowboy was all I had, all I loved at the time. Even if it was lost to me forever.”

It hurt to say the words, but it had been the truth at the time.

That first year in college following his official retirement from the rodeo circuit found him more often drunk than sober, barely getting to his classes and alienating everyone from his family to old rodeo buddies who’d tried to stay in touch.

He’d been lost in a world of self-indulgent pity over the way his life had turned out at the ripe old age of twenty-one, while Missy had been busy raising their daughter as another man’s wife.

Damn, they still had so much to talk about, but it was late.

“I should head back,” he said, “and let you get some rest.”

“Yes, that would be...good. It’s been a long day.”

He read exhaustion in her eyes, in the drop of her shoulders. The need to pull her into his arms again, to comfort her this time, was so strong he took a step back.

“Well, good night then,” he said instead, heading for the stairs. Pausing at the top step, he gestured over his shoulder. “I don’t know what happened to the light out here, but I’ll check on it tomorrow.”