Destined to Be a Dad

Casey was in Wyoming. She knew about Liam.

Fix this! Fix this! Fix this!

The words thundered inside Missy’s brain as she made her way to her first-class seat, trying to think of what to say—what to do—next.

Casey could wait for her at the airport. They’d get a hotel room and talk. She’d figure out a way to get in touch with Liam tomorrow.

Slightly calmer after her hastily thought up plan, Missy said, “Okay, I want you to stay at the airport. I’m on a flight—”

“Mum, I’m not in Cheyenne anymore. I’m in Destiny! And guess what?” Casey’s voice rose in excitement before it dropped to a loud whisper. “I found him.”

Destiny! Missy’s impetuous daughter had traveled from London to a small ranching community in the American West and found the man who was her true father.

Missy dropped into her seat, staring numbly at the seat in front of her.

“Mum? Are you still there? Mum?”

She needed to answer her daughter, needed to know what had happened in the last twenty-four hours. Needed to know how Liam had reacted to the bombshell her—their—daughter had dropped at his feet today. But there wasn’t time. She would have to end this call soon and Casey still didn’t know Missy was making her way to Wyoming.

Pulling in a deep breath through her nose, she released it in a soft wisp past her lips. By the third one she was able to speak. “Honey, we need to talk.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

Missy gasped. The same deep, gravelly, sexy voice she remembered from her youth filled her ear and stole her breath. A heated flush that made no sense at all started in the center of her chest and rushed to every part of her body.

How could he sound exactly the same after all this time?

“Liam.”

She heard a swift intake of breath, and then silence filled the distance—both in miles and years—that stretched between them.

Up until the last few weeks, she hadn’t spoken his name aloud in a long time. Not when she and her girlfriends would gather for drinks and a chat, not to her daughter when they talked about things like boys and dating and growing up, and never to her parents.

Sometimes it felt as if that year in her life had happened to someone else.

“Casey tells me you’ve been in Los Angeles for the last few weeks.” Liam’s voice was clipped and businesslike now. “If you let me know where you’re staying, I’ll make arrangements to get you to the airport and on a flight to Wyoming right away.”

Bristling at his authoritative tone, she said, “I’m on a flight to Cheyenne scheduled to depart in a few minutes, actually. I land at half past five, local time.”

There was more silence as he processed her news. Was he surprised she’d already been on her way? How much had her daughter told him about the night Missy—and she—had learned the truth?

“I’ll be there when your plane lands,” he finally said.

Of course he would. And since she hadn’t thought far enough ahead to figure out how she would travel to Destiny, she wouldn’t fight him. Getting to Casey was the most important thing at the moment. “May I speak to my daughter again?”

His voice dropped away, and then Casey’s voice came back on the line. “You’re flying here? Like right now?”

“Yes, sweetie, and I promise we’ll talk about everything when I see you.” Missy tried to keep her voice light. “Including you changing your transatlantic flight. Please don’t cause any trouble for...for Liam in the meanwhile.”

“You’re a tad late for that bit of advice, Mum.” Casey offered a staged sigh, an expression the teen had perfected in the last few years. “I’d say me showing up out of the blue is just the start of trouble.”

* * *

Missy popped a breath mint into her mouth and made stopping by the loo her first priority as soon as she landed in Cheyenne.

After using the facilities and washing her hands, she redid her hair, making neat the messy chignon style she favored. When she found herself leaning toward the mirror to reapply her lipstick, she froze.

Did she care what Liam Murphy thought of her after all this time?

Not wanting to answer that question, she hurried to the baggage claim area and found her case still circling the carousel. She retrieved it and then checked her phone. No calls or texts from her daughter or Liam. With a thirty-minute stopover in Denver, she’d only had time to ring her mother and have their first real conversation since Missy had left London.

Wise enough to keep her opinions of Casey’s actions to herself, her mother had insisted she had no idea what her granddaughter had been up to. But Elizabeth Ellington had been shocked to find out Missy was also on her way to Wyoming. Before she could say anything more, Missy had ended the call with a curt promise to get in touch as soon as she found a place for her and Casey to stay for the weekend.

“Ms. Dobbs?”

Missy spun around and found a gentleman dressed in a dark suit holding a placard with her name on it. She’d traveled enough over the years to recognize a car service when she saw one.

Liam wasn’t here. She should be grateful for more time before she saw him again, but it bothered her more than she cared to admit that he hadn’t kept his word. “Yes?”

“Mr. Murphy was unavoidably detained in Destiny due to business,” he said. “I’m to make sure you arrive safely. I have a car waiting outside.”

Resentment burned that not only had Liam stood her up, but he hadn’t sent Casey along to meet her either. Bollocks! What did he think she’d do? Grab her daughter and take the next flight out of here?

“Could you give me a moment, please?” she asked.

The gentleman nodded and stepped away. Missy found a quiet corner and called Casey’s mobile. It went straight to voice mail. She left a message that she’d landed and was on her way to Destiny. She then tried the number her daughter had used when she’d called earlier today, assuming it was for Liam’s cell phone, but it just rang and rang.

Seeing as she didn’t have any other choice, she followed the driver outside and moments later was seated in the back of a luxury town car. They soon were out of the city and on the motorway. Out the window the land was flat and wide and empty with a blue sky that seemed to go on forever.

So different from the hustle and bustle of London, where she’d lived all her life. She remembered feeling very lost and vulnerable when she’d first arrived in Wyoming all those years ago.

She’d almost cut her visit short after a trip home for Christmas, but had decided to return to Destiny.

Because of one boy. The one she’d been crushing on from the time she’d seen him in the school hallway the very first week.

Liam Murphy, a real cowboy who spent his weekends riding in rodeos, had finally asked her to dance during the last slow song at the winter semiformal, and she had promptly tripped over his boots—

No!

Missy gave her head a quick shake. There would be no trips down memory lane. It was bad enough she’d spent the last few weeks remembering how she and Liam had met, started dating and fallen in love.

Of course, steering clear of their shared history wasn’t going to be easy. Goodness knew what kind of questions Casey was going to have for her—for them—over the next few days.

Missy tried once more to reach her daughter, but again she got only voice mail. She grew more nervous as they arrived in Destiny, which she had to admit looked much the same as the last time she was here.

They drove down the charming main street with its many businesses, around the gazebo in the center of town, past the firehouse and the sheriff’s office and the Blue Creek Saloon, a bar and restaurant whose roots went back to the town’s founding in the late 1800s, a fact that had fascinated Missy the first time she’d been there.

When the car passed over the rushing waters of the blue creek the town landmark was named after, she realized the turnoff to Liam’s family ranch and business headquarters was just ahead.

She tensed, expecting a large crowd. Liam was one of six boys, most of whom worked for the log-home business as well, so there must be wives and other children in the family by now. Would they be here? What about his parents? Were they still alive and living here, too?

When the car bypassed the oversize parking lot and slowed to a stop in the half circle drive in front of the massive two-story log home, only one figure waited on the front porch that ran the length of the building.

Liam.

From her own memories and the candid photographs on the company’s website showing the Murphy family at work and at play, the brothers were all good-looking men with similar features, but she knew it was him.

Missy couldn’t take her eyes off the man as she exited the car and pushed her tote bag to one shoulder, her fingers clenching her phone as the memories she’d tried so hard to keep at bay washed over her.

Memories of falling in love for the first time, and all the joy and wonder that came with that experience. But then the pain—a truly aching, physical pain—when he had broken her heart.

How, after all this time, could those feelings still be powerful enough to bring a piercing sting to the back of her eyes?

Blinking hard, she wished she’d thought to grab her sunglasses from her bag. Regardless, she started forward, suddenly needing to see Casey. She made her way up the elaborate brick pathway, bordered with a colorful array of flowers that also ran along the front of the house.

“Where’s my daughter?” she asked when she reached the stairs, hating the huskiness of her voice.

Liam moved to the edge of the porch and she couldn’t help but note that the picture online must’ve been taken recently. Despite the passage of time, he did look the same, just an older version of the boy she’d known. Impossibly handsome in jeans, a long-sleeved dress shirt with the cuffs folded back to his elbows and cowboy boots.

Always cowboy boots.

His gaze lit on her, but the setting sun and deep shadows of the porch made it impossible to see his expression as he thanked the driver, who’d placed her suitcases on the porch. She tore her gaze from him and thanked the man as well when he walked past her.

When it was just the two of them again, she returned her focus to Liam, who hadn’t moved other than to cross his arms over his chest.

The defensive pose spoke volumes about his state of mind. Fine, but right now she wanted to see for herself that Casey was okay.

“I asked you—”

“Is it true?” The words were out of his mouth as she reached for the stair railing, freezing her on the first step. “Is Casey my daughter?” he demanded.

Chapter Two

Liam hadn’t meant to sound so rude. He’d figured once Missy arrived at the house they’d sit down like adults, catch up on the last sixteen years and talk about the craziness that had descended on his life today.

Craziness in the form of his supposed daughter. But first, he had to know.

“Is she mine?” he asked again, his voice softer now.

He waited for her to answer, not having felt this rush of fear, excitement and adrenaline since his bronc-riding days. No, that was a lie. The moment Casey had shocked him with her announcement, he’d felt something far beyond anything he’d ever experienced on the back of a horse.

The sensation now returned in full force. The feeling that he was about to take the ride of his life.

“Yes,” Missy finally said, “she is.”

He dropped his arms. The almost desperate need to believe her was so foreign he brushed it away. Could he accept what she was saying as the truth? He’d admit the numbers made sense and according to his mother, Casey shared the same eyes—right down to the dark blue coloring—as him, but he was having a hard time believing the girl’s rambling story.

None of this made sense. How? Why?

“I’d like to see her,” Missy continued, her lilting voice laced with a condescending tone. “Now. If that’s all right with you.”

“You can’t.”

Realizing again how bad mannered that sounded, Liam tried once more to soften his tone. “She’s at the rodeo with her gran—with my folks. My family. She had a good time today and didn’t want to miss the finals, presentations to the winners or the fireworks afterward.”

“Hmm, yes, I remember well how a rodeo works.” Missy’s smile was rueful as she continued up the steps toward him. “How can a mother compete with all that?”

She remembered because of him. Because of their time together. That thought caused a burst of heat to ignite right in the center of his chest.

“They also figured you and I would appreciate the opportunity to talk privately about...well, about everything.”

“Saying we have quite a bit to discuss seems a bit of an understatement, doesn’t it?”

Liam stepped back when she joined him on the porch but not before a summery floral scent with a hint of peach invaded his head. Damn, she still wore the same perfume. Swallowing hard against the rush of memories, he took a step back and gestured toward a seating area set up at the far end of the porch.

She moved past him, walking in that same graceful way she’d had as a teenager. Years of ballet training, she’d once told him. Her hair was the same honey-blond color, but she wore it up off her neck, a few long pieces curling around her face. He wondered if it was as long as it’d once been, halfway down her back.

As if she could read his mind, Missy paused when she reached the wicker sofa, one hand tucking back a strand of hair that had fallen free as her chin rose in an almost regal attitude before she sat.

Yeah, she still possessed that British reserve that had made it hard for her to make friends when she first came to Destiny all those years ago.

He’d noticed her the first day of his senior year in high school. Every guy had. She’d been so different from the rest of the girls in their class. Some of his friends had made fools of themselves, trying to capture her attention, but the more they tried, the more she shot them down.

As someone who never had any problem getting a pretty girl to notice him, he’d liked that about her.

After a few months of watching her, he’d been determined to melt that icy reserve—and brave enough to try thanks to a dare from his buddies at the winter semiformal.

It’d taken until the night was almost over before he asked her to dance. She’d surprised him by accepting, and like a klutz, he’d tangled his boots with her delicate shoes. She’d laughed it off, stepped into his arms and he’d been a goner.

“You’re staring at me.”

Her words—the same ones spoken by her daughter earlier today—had him shaking off the memories as he joined her, taking one of the chairs. “I’m sorry. After all these years...to see you again. I guess I’m comparing the photos Casey showed me to the real thing.”

Missy rolled her eyes. “Her and that mobile. I think she must have five hundred pictures on it.”

“Many of them are of the two of you. Some going back years.”

She nodded, a soft smile on her face, and then her gaze met his again. “You look just like your photo, too.”

It took him a moment to figure out where she might have seen a picture of him. Online. Thanks to their office manager’s insistence, the company’s site had been updated this summer with new pictures, including formal portraits of the management team.

Liam liked that she had done a Google search on him. “You visited the Murphy Mountain Log Homes website.”

“Very corporate looking.” Her gaze traveled over him. “You look good in Hugo Boss.”

“They cut a good suit.”

Silence stretched between them as they studied each other in the fading light of the sunset. Was she looking for the cowboy he’d been back then? Wild and reckless and so full of himself he couldn’t see beyond his own wants and needs? His own dreams?

She looked exactly the same. Older, yes, but still the same ethereal beauty as when he’d last seen her. It was easy to see the features she shared with her daughter.

Their daughter.

His throat suddenly dry, Liam rose and went to the antique dresser that held pitchers of tea, water, an ice bucket and glasses, all thanks to his mother. “I’m sorry, I should’ve asked. Would you like something to drink?”

Missy let loose with a delicate humph from behind him. “Do you have anything a wee bit stronger? I think you’re going to need it.”

He shot her a look over his shoulder, and then opened the door below and pulled out a bottle of wine and his drink of choice, whiskey. She gestured for the wine and he poured her a glass, then whiskey for himself.

“You know, Casey tried to explain how she’d only found out a few weeks ago about me being her...” His voice trailed off as he returned to his seat, handing Missy her wine. “The more she talked, the more upset she became. I gather from your shock at her announcing she’d traveled to Destiny and found me that you hadn’t shared this news with her yet?”

Missy placed her cell phone on the table and took the glass. “No, I didn’t have the chance before my job had me flying to Los Angeles. I’ve barely had time to absorb everything myself. After all these years...to think, it never occurred to me to question the test results—”

It was at that moment his cell phone chirped from inside his pants pocket, cutting her off. Damn, now was not the time for business. He ignored the phone and it went silent for a moment, but came back to life again right away.

“You can get that,” she said. “If you need to.”

He probably should. A typical day for him ran long past five o’clock, especially for a select few clients who had his direct line. Or was it someone from the rodeo committee looking for him, despite his hasty explanation about a business emergency?

“It might be Casey,” he said, the thought just coming to him.

Missy flipped over her phone, checking it. “I tried to ring her when I landed. All I got was voice mail.”

He pulled the now silent phone out and looked. Two missed calls, both from the same client, who wouldn’t hesitate to move on to his brother Nolan if he couldn’t reach Liam. A press of a button and the phone would stay quiet.

“It was work, but it can wait,” he said. “Now, you were saying something about test results? Casey mentioned overhearing a fight between you and her grandmother, but like I said, she was pretty distraught. I told her we’d get everything straightened out when you got here. After that, she seemed to relax and enjoy the rodeo.”

“And you introduced her to your family?” Missy sipped her wine. “Just like that?”

“I wasn’t about to leave her on her own to wander around the fairgrounds. I told them she was the daughter of an old friend from high school.” He took a swallow from his own glass, the familiar warmth sliding easily down his throat. “As soon as I said your name my folks remembered you. So did my younger brother Bryant. It was my mom who...well, who put it all together, especially when I said you were on your way to Destiny.”

“And here I am.”

“Yes, here you are.” And here he was waiting for his first love to explain how he—they—had a child he’d never known about until today. “After all this time, not hearing from you, I can honestly say I never expected something like...this.”

“I can understand. Please, let me start at the beginning. Well, the most recent beginning.” She sighed, her gaze lowered. “My father passed away suddenly from a heart attack on August first.”

“I’m sorry,” Liam said automatically, surprised at how little emotion was in her voice considering that was just three weeks ago. “Was he ill?”

“Thank you, and technically he wasn’t, but it was his third attack in the last ten years. Not completely unexpected, especially as he refused to give up his cigars and brandy.” She paused and pulled in a deep breath. “I was going through his desk after the services, clearing out paperwork and whatnot, when I came across a file that contained the DNA test we had done just after Casey was born.”

“April twelfth, a week after your birthday.”

She looked up when he said that. “Yes.”

“She told me. That was nine months after we’d last—after you returned home.”

“Yes.”

“Almost nine months to the day, if memory serves.”

“Yes.”

“Missy, why didn’t you tell me?” Tired of her one-word answers, Liam leaned forward, bracing his forearms against his knees, his fingers laced tight around the glass. “I know things ended badly, but as soon as you knew you were pregnant you should’ve gotten in touch with me.”

“I wanted to, but I didn’t... I didn’t know if I had the right to.”

“The right?” Now he was really confused. “What does that mean?”

“Oh, Liam, I was such a mess when I left Destiny all those years ago.” She set her glass on the table, stood and then walked to the porch railing, keeping her back to him. “You and I had that terrible row. All my plans and dreams were gone. I was angry and lonely and...”

“And?” He prompted when her voice faded.

Her shoulders rose and fell as she pulled in another deep breath before turning to face him, her arms tight across her middle. “And I spent the night with my old boyfriend. The lad I was seeing before I came to America. Before you.”

The fine Kentucky whiskey now burned in his gut. “Stanley.” The name popped out of his mouth before he could think to stop it.

“Stanford. His name was Stanford Dobbs.”

He vaguely remembered her telling him all those years ago about a college guy she’d been dating back in London. Hearing his full name—with the same surname as Missy and Casey—had him taking another long swallow of liquid courage. “And this happened soon after you got back that summer?”

She jerked her head in a quick nod, the affirmation tearing at his insides. How crazy was that?

“The following week,” she said softly. “It...it was only that one time. After that, I knew I had to pull myself together, get my life back on track. Get back into school. Get over you.”

To hear her speak calmly about sleeping with someone else so soon after they—after she returned, despite all the time that had passed, bugged Liam more than he wanted to admit.

Leaning back in his chair, he offered her a casual salute with his glass, his knuckles white. “Well, that was a step in the right direction.”

She bit hard at her bottom lip, and then continued. “I didn’t realize I was pregnant until almost Halloween.”

Now it all made sense. “And you didn’t know who the father was.”

“No, I didn’t.” She returned his stare, unflinching. “It took me another month to find the courage to tell Stanford...and my parents. They, of course, expected a hasty wedding, but when I told them that there was no way to be sure—”

“Boy, that must’ve made Stan a bit upset.”

Up went that delicate chin again. “Stanford still wanted to marry me. He said he didn’t care if the child was his or not.”

Okay, Liam should feel like a louse right about now, but the fire burning in his gut had now spread throughout his body. “That was big of him.”

“We had to wait until Casey was born before a DNA test could be done. Before we knew for certain who was—”

“But you knew you were pregnant the previous fall.” Liam shot to his feet. “You knew there was a chance—why didn’t you at least let me know that the baby might be mine?”

“Oh, Liam, you were on the other side of the world, living your dream. You’d made your decision to be a professional cowboy that summer, and you continued right on with your rodeo competitions after I left. By the time I knew I was pregnant, you were well on your way to earning a spot at grand finals, finishing second your first time there!”

She knew that?

She must’ve read the shock on his face. “Yes, I knew, thanks to Suzy McIntyre. The girl whose family I stayed with while I was here in Destiny? She told me all about your big achievement in a letter that arrived just after the new year.”