Read Destined To Be A Dad (Welcome To Destiny Book 9) for Free Online Page B

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