Destined To Be A Dad (Welcome To Destiny Book 9) (7 page)

Chapter Six

“S
he’s ignoring me.”

Liam’s quiet words pulled Missy’s attention away from the beautiful open fields and distant thickly forested foothills of the Laramie Mountains that made up his brother’s ranch.

It had been sixteen years since she’d last been on a horse, but it felt good, familiar, even, in a way that surprised her more than she expected. Maybe because the cowboy next to her had been the one who’d taught her how to ride.

Earlier today, when Liam had swung into the saddle with a grace and ease that reflected his years as a cowboy, Missy had been as awestruck as when she was a teen. A dark Stetson, similar to the one he’d always worn during competitions, shaded his face. He held the reins loosely in one hand while his powerful legs instinctively commanded the animal beneath him without his having to say a single word.

She’d stared at him like a daft cow!

Thank goodness she’d already mounted her ride. In fact, the places where he’d touched her as he helped with the stirrups still tingled. She rubbed her fingertips across the spot on her jeans-clad thigh again, pausing when Liam glanced her way.

“I don’t believe Casey is ignoring you,” Missy finally said, purposely laying her hand flat against her leg. She focused instead on her daughter, who rode ahead of them. “She’s paying attention to Adam’s instructions and trying desperately not to look like she’s hanging on for dear life.”

Liam turned away, his gaze on Casey now, an easy smile on his face. “She’s a natural. Scampered right up into the saddle before I could even help her.”

“Eager and determined to learn with a healthy dose of bravado. That’s Casey. Besides, you were busy reintroducing me to riding on the other side of the corral while Adam was instructing her.”

“You’re a natural, too.” He looked at Missy again, his eyes warm and the smile still there, but now his lips held a hint of something...more...causing a fluttering deep inside her. “You haven’t forgotten anything I taught you all those years ago.”

“Well, you taught me a lot back then.”

Did he ever.

Being with Liam had introduced her to a whole new world of fun, freedom and the flush of a first love. She’d been surprised to find out he was as inexperienced as she, although having barely kissed a boy until she met him, she had been the real innocent. At least until he’d showed her so many wonderful things with the way he kissed her, touched her, made love to her...

Missy blinked hard, having no idea how her thoughts had gone from horseback riding to...well, to
that
. Then again, in less than forty-eight hours in the man’s company, it had only taken one moment in his arms and she’d known exactly why she was having these thoughts, these feelings—

Memories. That’s all they were. All they would be.

Giving her head a quick shake as if to empty her mind, she caught Liam’s grin, almost as if he knew what she’d been thinking.

Tugging on the brim of the straw hat she’d borrowed from Adam’s wife, who’d stayed behind with their napping baby, she planned to blame the heated blush racing across her cheeks on the afternoon sun.

“I meant you taught me a lot about riding back then, when your family still had horses at your place.”

Liam looked at her for a long moment. He then leaned forward and gently patted the neck of the beautiful buckskin quarter horse he rode. “Yes, we did have a full stable years ago. Once Adam got his place up and running, he took the few we had left to his ranch. Danny Boy being one of them.”

“It was nice of Adam and Fay to invite us for a visit. Their place is lovely.”

“Casey told Adam yesterday she wanted to learn how to ride,” Liam said, his smile gone again. “After getting Bryant to agree to take her for a spin in the helo.”

So they were back to this. Goodness, he sounded almost jealous of his brothers and how they were taking to Casey.

“And when Abby’s friends took over the pool after beating us old guys at volleyball and then stuck around for dinner afterward...”

“A teenager choosing to spend time with people her own age instead of her parents,” Missy teased when his voice faded. “Shocking.”

“Does she think of me as a parent?”

Do you think of her as a daughter?

“Wow, would you listen to me,” he said, pulling ahead and guiding his horse across a section of a slow-moving creek with hers splashing right behind. Adam and Casey far ahead now, barely visible in the cottonwood trees that dotted the landscape. “You two have only been here a few days. She doesn’t even know me as a person, much less anything more.”

She could see Liam’s concern was genuine, and it touched her heart. More than it probably should. Then again, everything about Liam affected her more than it should.

Missy thought back to yesterday afternoon, when everyone had gathered at the pool. To how she’d been gobsmacked the moment Liam had returned to the backyard wearing the same polo shirt as earlier but sporting a pair of dark swim trunks that hung low on his hips.

He’d spotted her gawking, of course.

With a grin, he’d walked over to her and they’d talked for a few minutes—about what, she had no idea, as her brain had emptied the moment he stood up, pulled off his shirt and dropped it to the cushion next to her.

A calculated move on his part, she was sure, just as the stop at the eatery they’d frequented as teens had been, but still, she’d been unable to look away as he dived into the pool, disappearing beneath the water before rising again like a Greek god, muscles glistening in the sun, his tattoo standing out in stark relief against his tanned skin—

“Missy?”

She looked up and found Liam pointing at her and then at her ride. “Sorry, woolgathering. Did you say something?”

“You might want to ease up on the bit unless you want her to stop altogether. You’re clutching those reins as if your life depends on it.”

Blimey, girl, get a hold of yourself!

Embarrassed at her inability to keep her thoughts centered on their conversation about their daughter, she cursed her fair English skin for the second time today as heat flooded her cheeks.

Easing her grip, Missy dipped her head and offered her riding companion a quick neck rub as an apology. “Sorry about that, girl. I am a wee bit out of practice, and that creek was deeper than I expected.”

“You okay now?”

“Right as rain.” She took a moment, keeping her attention on the horse as she pulled in a steadying breath before looking up again. “I was thinking about yesterday and wondering if Casey said or did something that makes you certain she’s shutting you out.”

“I don’t know.” Liam shrugged, their horses now side-by-side again. “The cheek swab...went okay? You were there. Did she seem bothered by it?”

Missy shook her head.

“And she talked while we drove around afterward, asking us a lot of questions. But once Abby and her friends joined us in the pool, she seemed to shut me out,” he continued. “Ah, hell. Maybe that’s typical teenage stuff—being embarrassed by the adults—and I’m being stupid.”

“No, you’re not.”

From the moment Missy had found out about the doctored DNA test, a part of her had been worried that Liam might reject Casey, want nothing to do with her. To hear that after such a short time he was worried about her rejecting him, she found herself wanting desperately to make him feel better.

“I know we haven’t shared much about our lives in London, but back home, her world is much more...contained. She has just a few close girlfriends, suffered through her first broken heart over a boy last year and other than my parents, I’m her only family. Now, with my father’s death and what we’ve learned since then...it’s been a great deal for her to take in. She just needs time to adjust.”

“Yeah, I can understand that.”

“And like most teenagers, she can go from being cheeky to tears and back again in a matter of minutes. I think she’s excited to be here, to meet you and your family, but then maybe she remembers the reason why...”

Missy let her voice trail off when she realized she was talking about herself as well.

“We’re going to be around for the next month or so. Give her some time,” she continued, her tone gentle. “As I said, being in America, in Destiny, with you...is all new to her. There is so much to see and do and take in. It must be overwhelming. Much like when I took her to Disneyland Paris for the first time, I suspect.”

“So I’m being compared to an amusement park?” Liam laughed. “What’s that make me? The Dumbo ride?”

Missy was glad to see his smile return. She pretended to ponder his question for a moment, and then grinned back. “I would say you’re more like Space Mountain.”

“Yeah? Why’s that?”

“One part imposing, one part scary and one part thrilling. But in the end I’m sure she’ll come to believe the ride was worth it.”

Liam reached out and caught Missy’s horse’s reins in his hand, pulling them to a stop in the dense shade of a grove of trees. “Do I scare you?”

Yes.

She curbed the impulse to go with that answer and instead replaced it with another. “No, not anymore. Perhaps you did at one time, but that—”

“Was a long time ago.”

Liam finished her sentence with her, their words tangling together.

Seconds later, he’d maneuvered his horse closer until his leg brushed against hers. “Well, lady, you scare the hell out of me.”

She pretended not to notice how her body tingled with awareness at his nearness, how the clean male scent of him invaded her head or how he spoke in the present tense. “Way back when?”

Pushing up the front brim of his Stetson with a finger, he leaned in close and slowly shook his head. “Nope, right now. Right here.”

* * *

“You know, for a guy who just found out he’s a dad, you’re handling all of this very well.”

Liam looked up from the piles of paperwork littering his desk and found Nolan lounging comfortably on the leather sofa on the other side of his office. A spot where Liam often woke up when his days ended long past sunset and he was too tired to walk back to his place.

Speaking of time...

He glanced at his watch. It was after five o’clock already. End of the workday for most, but not him. He’d planned to go find Casey and her mother at lunchtime today, but then he’d been reminded about the rodeo committee follow-up meeting in town and that had kept him out of the office for the rest of the afternoon.

Now he was playing catch-up by multitasking—sitting in on a conference call, checking email and printing job proposals—while wondering what Missy and Casey had done to occupy themselves on this gray and gloomy afternoon.

He hadn’t been able to get them out of his head all day.

“Yeah, how do you manage—”

This time it was Bryant who spoke, breaking into his thoughts, but Liam cut him off with a swift karate chop in the air. When he got a raised eyebrow in return, he tapped the earpiece he wore, signaling he was still on the phone.

Bryant, who had walked in not long after Nolan and now sat with a glass of whiskey in his hand, only shrugged, but Nolan straightened, dropping his feet to the floor.

“That conference call with the Becketts is still going on?” he asked. “What’s it about?”

Thankful for the mute button, Liam shrugged and turned to the large monitor on the right side of his desk. “I honestly couldn’t tell you. I zoned out after the missus started in on the wall color of bathroom number five.”

“Then why are you—”

“Because her husband is a major player in Silicon Valley and we just built them a multimillion-dollar getaway in Jackson Hole, that’s why.”

Liam put aside his thoughts of Missy and Casey for the moment so he could finish up the two emails he had open and send the latest round of contract proposals to the printer in the outer office.

It was then he realized the silence in his ear meant the tech wizard’s wife was waiting for an answer to a question he hadn’t heard.

He reached up and pressed a button. “Sorry, but I missed that last part...” Pausing, he listened this time, the question making him scrub hard at the back of his neck. “Well, perhaps you’re going about choosing the colors all wrong.”

His brothers cringed at the same moment he did. Okay, that came out wide of the mark.

“What I meant was, instead of using a piece of art or fabric as your inspiration, look for something more personal.” He then remembered what he’d overheard Missy say to his mother at brunch yesterday while talking about her work. “Start with your wardrobe. You always look fabulous, Felicia. You wear your favorite colors. Why not use the same ones in your home?”

Bryant and Nolan’s expressions went from uncomfortable to confused, but the feminine voice in his ear was happy. “I’m glad I could help,” he said. “Yes, we’d love to see the place when you and Philip have your open house. Please feel free to add us to your guest list.”

He ended the call, yanked the miniature headset from his ear and set his office line to go directly to Katie or to voice mail, knowing the major players had his cell phone number and wouldn’t hesitate to call if needed.

Leaning back into his chair, he sighed and closed his eyes.

“Start with your wardrobe?” Nolan snorted. “Where did you come up with a crazy idea like that?”

Before Liam could answer, he heard the distinct sound of high heels on hardwood. He opened his eyes, and for a moment thought it might be—

Katie walked into the office, looking as pulled together as she had at the start of the day, in a dress covered with red flowers that matched the red of her hair. She was carrying his printouts.

“Don’t listen to him, boss man,” she said. “It was a great idea.”

“How did you hear me out in the hall?” Nolan asked.

“Your voice carries. A whisperer you’re not.” She waited while Liam cleared a space by shoving aside a pile of folders.

“I know that was a last-minute call,” he said, taking the paperwork from her, “but please tell me you had time to record it or listened in to take notes.”

“I listened. The transcript is already in their online folder.”

Katie stood there, hands clasped, and Liam grinned, knowing the mess on his desk was driving their anal-retentive office manager crazy. Neat and orderly should be the woman’s middle name—she kept the inner workings of Murphy Mountain Log Homes just that.