Destined to Be a Dad

“Are you kidding?” Abby leaned in from her perch on the stairs, flinging her long blond hair back over one shoulder. “This is getting good!”

“Nolan...”

Liam sent his brother a warning look, but the man was already corralling his kids off the steps and around the side yard. Bryant and Laurie followed his folks indoors. Then it was the three of them as Casey continued her campaign to change her mother’s mind.

It wasn’t working.

He could see it in Missy’s eyes, hear it in her voice as she laid out the travel plans she and Casey had for spending the next month in a private villa on the beach in Maui. Nice. She’d come from a world of money and power back when they’d first met all those years ago. He guessed she—or her family—was still doing okay.

Either way, she didn’t want to be in Destiny. Didn’t want to be near him. Too bad. If she thought she could waltz out of the continental US, taking his daughter with her, and expect him to be okay with that, she had another think coming.

His fingers tightened into a fist, crinkling the paperwork he still held. An idea popped into his head and tumbled out of his mouth. “Here’s another reason for you two to stick around. We need to do another DNA test.”

The two women stopped talking and turned in unison to look at him.

Missy’s light blue eyes crackled with fire, but it was the wounded look that flashed in Casey’s that got to him.

Damn, what else could he do?

He believed Missy’s story about a doctored DNA test, even if it was a bit farfetched. Who knew how long this lie would’ve gone on if not for her father suddenly dying, Casey overhearing, Liam still living in the same town where it all started...

For whatever reason, the universe had conspired to bring him and Missy back together—to bring them all together—and he wanted them to stay. More than he’d wanted anything in a long time.

“Look, this is a negative report telling us who’s not a match,” Liam said, gesturing with the paperwork. “A report we now know that has been tampered with. We should have another test done—me and Casey—just so we’re all a hundred percent sure.”

Chapter Three (#ulink_fe66c9c8-111c-547a-898d-23e541e25784)

Casey was ready to tell her real father what he could do with his suggestion about a new DNA test, and knowing her daughter’s temper, it wasn’t going to be pretty. Not that Missy blamed her. After his veiled remarks concerning her parenting skills, she was ready to tell him what he could do with his demand for another test herself.

“I think he’s right,” she said instead, before Casey could speak. She read the surprise on Liam’s face at her like-mindedness, but her focus at the moment had to be on her daughter.

Missy reached for Casey’s hand, hating that it was ice-cold. A quick squeeze got her attention. “We should have an up-to-date test done. For his sake, sweetie, and ours.”

Casey’s bravado crumbled and the fire left her eyes. “Why did Granddad do this to you? To us? To Dad?” She bit hard at her bottom lip, and her gaze swung over to Liam. “I mean...you know, my other...”

“It’s okay.” Liam’s voice was gentler now. “Things are a little mixed-up at the moment.”

To say the least. The hurt and confusion reflected on Liam’s and Casey’s faces—feelings that shone brightly in matching sets of dark blue eyes—shook Missy to her core.

Almost as much as the realization that the two of them shared the same eyes. Same shape, same color. A deep cerulean blue she’d once told Liam matched the river-fed lake back behind the Murphy family home. A color she always told Casey was her favorite.

How had she never noticed that before now?

Because you believed the lie you were told years ago. The scared girl deep inside you clung to those test results, filled with righteous indignation that this man didn’t deserve to be the father of your precious baby girl.

Missy blinked away that sudden insight, not willing or able to deal with that bitter pill of truth. Not tonight. “I think we should—”

“How did you two hook up anyway?” Casey blurted out. “It’s a long way between London and Destiny—oh, wait! I overheard Grandmum say letting you go to America was a mistake. You’d turned nineteen just before you had me...bollocks, don’t tell me I’m a souvenir from a one-off during a spring break trip.”

“No!” Liam and Missy spoke at the same time, their voices united.

“You were not the result of a one-night stand,” Missy continued, aghast that the idea had popped into her daughter’s head.

“You never told her?” he asked, taking a step closer. His broad shoulders blocked out the porch light behind him, casting his face in shadows, but the tightening of his jaw was unmistakable. “About your time in Destiny? About us?”

Missy shook her head, surprised at the nuance of hurt in his tone. No, that was impossible. The man had married someone else less than a year after she’d left sixteen years ago. A lifetime ago.

“That’s right. You said a few minutes ago you remembered his family!” Casey’s voice grew excited again. “So you two were a couple? And you lived here in Destiny, Mum? For how long?”

“A year,” Liam said.

“It was more like eleven months.” Missy spoke at the same time, overriding him. “As part of a student exchange program when I was in my sixth form. The twelfth grade in an American high school, and yes, Liam and I dated during that time.”

“I’d say you did more than date, Mum. A lot more.”

Liam let loose a snort that changed to a clearing of his throat, one hand fisted against his mouth, when Missy glared at him. Still, he remained silent, only tilting his head in her direction.

She sighed. She wanted nothing more than to sink up to her nose in bubbles and then collapse into bed, but some private time with her daughter was needed first.

“Sweetie, it’s been a long day. For all of us. Right now, I could use a hot bath and we—” she gave Casey’s hand another quick squeeze “—need to have a long talk. About everything. Including your clandestine adventure getting to America, which, despite everything, you’re not off the hook for.”

Her daughter’s gaze again flickered to Liam.

“A talk with just the two of us,” Missy added, this time looking fully at Liam, half expecting him to argue with her over this as well. “If that’s all right with you?”

He returned her stare for a long moment, and then nodded. “If you think that’s best.” He dropped his hand to his side. “For now.”

Meaning Casey and he—or more likely the three of them—would be talking about their shared past, and where they all went from here, during the next few days. At least his anger about their planned holiday seemed to have disappeared, probably because of Casey’s vocal objections to leaving Destiny.

Not that agreeing to another test meant anything had changed.

Still, things had gone better than Missy had hoped for tonight. Considering the merry-go-round of memories, emotions and questions that she’d been riding since that night in her father’s study, Missy was proud of how she’d handled things so far.

Once she and her daughter started talking? All bets were off.

Casey had never been one to back down from what she was feeling, and like most teenagers, she could get a bit cheeky when her emotions were riled, not holding back whatever she might be thinking. Missy was used to it, even if she did have to pull in Casey’s reins from time to time. The truth was she’d encouraged her daughter to always speak her mind and be honest with what she was feeling. A trait that often exasperated Casey’s grandparents, especially her grandmother.

It was time to end this evening before she went into memory overload. “Liam, if you could arrange for a car to take us to the closest hotel, perhaps that quaint bed-and-breakfast in town, we’d greatly appreciate it.”

Her heart stuttered when he gave a quick shake of his head. “No can do. The inn is full. So are the two hotels out by the highway. With the rodeo in town, there isn’t an empty room anywhere. People are staying as far away as Laramie. Even Cheyenne.”

“Well, we have to stay somewhere. I doubt we’ll be able to do anything about a test until Monday.” She released Casey and turned back for the phone she’d left on the table. “Let me do a search and see what I can find—”

“How about we stay here? Who’s living in those?”

“Cassalyn Dobbs!” Missy spun back around, surprised by the boldness of her daughter, who was pointing at the nearby log homes. “How cheeky of you.”

“She’s not being cheeky, just curious.” Liam again shook his head, this time with a slight smile on his face. “Sorry, but those are only model homes. They have electricity, as you can see, but no plumbing. Since your mother mentioned wanting a bubble bath—”