Destined to Be a Dad. Christyne Butler

resisted the urge to roll his eyes. No matter the age, the female species never stopped asking loaded questions. “Of course not. I bet you don’t weigh a hundred pounds.”

      “Forty-four kilos.”

      He did the math in his head. “Ninety-seven pounds. See? I was right.”

      “For a Yank you did that conversion pretty fast.”

      She smiled and that punch to his gut returned. “Well, I’m a pretty smart guy.”

      Ducking her head, she whispered, “I hope so.”

      Having no idea what she meant by that, Liam covered the distance to the tent in a matter of minutes and once inside, placed the girl on an empty chair. It took one of the volunteers a few moments to tend to the blisters on her feet. Liam used that time to study her again, positive now that he knew her from someplace. But where? Could she be a friend of his niece’s or a daughter of one of the guys on his construction crew? With that accent?

      “You’re staring at me.”

      Liam blinked, realizing she was right. “Ah, sorry. You know, you never did say why you were looking for me.”

      She tugged her boots back on, over a thick pair of socks this time, her gaze darting around the tent. Other than a few people at the far end, they were alone.

      “Do I look familiar to you?” she finally asked. “At all?”

      “You...” His voice trailed off. He had a feeling she wanted him to say yes. He almost did, but the truth was he had no idea who she was. “No, I’m sorry, you don’t.”

      She heaved a dramatic sigh and then rooted around inside her duffel bag, digging out a cell phone. “Bloody thing is about out of juice, but maybe...” Her fingers flew over the screen, her thumb flipping through a long string of photos before she turned the phone to him.

      “How about her?” she asked. “Does she look familiar?”

      His breath disappeared. Every muscle in his body tensed and his knees automatically locked to keep him upright.

       Stay back, stiff rein, set feet, squeeze and stay on.

      Liam had created his own personal mantra back when he was a teenager, and he silently recited those words every time he climbed on the back of a horse.

      A horse determined to buck him off and send him crashing to the dirt.

      A lot of people thought saddle bronc riding was only about trying to hang on. It wasn’t. There were specific locations a rider’s feet needed to be from the moment the chute gate opened if one expected to last the required eight seconds to garner a score.

      It was a perfectly choreographed dance of man working to remain synchronized with each twist and turn and jump the horse made. All while keeping his free hand from touching the animal or himself so he wasn’t disqualified.

      Now, that same chant raced through his head as he stared at a picture of Missy Ellington, his very own heartbreak girl.

      Missy had come over as an exchange student from London during his senior year of high school, and from the moment he’d first seen her, he’d fallen hard.

      And she’d been just as smitten with him. They’d been inseparable until things ended badly the summer after graduation. A nasty fight over each other’s plans for their shared future. Plans they had never bothered to talk about, plans that had turned out to be vastly different. He’d said some stupid things and the next thing he knew, Missy had flown home to London.

      He never saw or spoke to her again. He thought about her sometimes though. An old country song would come on the radio, or he’d catch a whiff of a peach-scented perfume or hear a woman speak in a British accent.

      And back in the spring, when Devlin had made a crack about Liam’s dismal track record at marriage and how a long-ago girlfriend had been the love of his life, Liam had quickly corrected him, stating emphatically that he had no such love.

      He’d been lying. She had been the love of his life, at least back then.

      In the photograph, Missy looked much as she had the last time he’d seen her. Long blond hair, beautiful porcelain skin. Soft blue eyes. Only instead of smiling at the camera, her eyes were focused on the infant she held in her arms.

      “That was taken fifteen years ago this past April.” The girl turned the phone back and looked at the image, that same smile—Missy’s smile—on her face. “I was only a couple of weeks old at the time.”

      Fifteen years ago.

      The months and years rushed through his head, the numbers making his brain go into a serious meltdown. The imaginary rein he’d been holding onto slipped from his grip, the wild beast beneath him disappeared and he was flying through the air.

      “Missy...” he rasped, determined to push the words past the restricted confines of his dry throat. “Missy Ellington is your mother?”

      “Abso-bloody-lutely.” The girl’s gaze was serious as she looked up at him again. “And you’re my father.”

      * * *

      Blimey, he still looked good.

      After sixteen years, Missy Dobbs had thought he would have changed, but no, Liam Murphy had only grown more handsome than the boy who’d stolen her heart all those years ago.

      She pulled in a deep breath. She had to do this. There was no gray area to fill with could she or should she when it came to this decision. The certainty of what lay ahead outweighed the fear, although not by much.

      The hustle and bustle of the busy airport gate continued on around her as she waited for a flight that would take her to the last place on earth she’d ever thought she would see again.

      Destiny, Wyoming.

      She tightened her grip on the tablet as she stared again at Liam’s picture on the website for his family’s company. She tried to reconcile the wild and crazy cowboy she’d known as a teen with the serious man looking impossibly dashing in a business suit. The dark-framed glasses he wore couldn’t hide the sparkle in his eyes and his hair was shorter now, but a wayward curl or two still threatened to spill down over his forehead.

      Her former love had done well for himself. CEO and president of his family’s business. She wasn’t surprised. Liam had been cut out for more than being a rodeo star, but at eighteen that had been his dream.

      A dream that had torn them apart.

      A dream that had sent her running home and into a fateful one-night stand with a former boyfriend. A man she’d ended up marrying because she believed—she’d been told—he was the true father of her child after finding out she was pregnant a few months later. Only now—after many years, she knew the truth.

      Liam Murphy was her daughter’s father.

      What a bloody mess!

      She hadn’t even talked to Casey about what she’d learned before heading to Los Angeles on a last-minute work assignment. No, there’d only been time for a heated argument with her mother, who’d known the truth about Casey’s paternity all along.

      That had been two weeks ago.

      Her job on the film set had finished late yesterday and Casey was set to fly in on Monday to join Missy for an extended holiday here in the States. That meant Missy had the weekend to fly to Destiny, knock on Liam’s door with the hope he remembered her and break the news to him that he’d fathered a child.

      The gentle chiming of her mobile phone came from deep within her purse. She didn’t recognize the number and offered a quick prayer that it wasn’t anything work related that would cancel her plans.

      “Hello?”

      “Mum, it’s me. Casey.”

      Missy slammed the tablet’s cover closed, almost as if