Operation Date With Destiny (23 page)

“
Hey. It
’
s Destiny. Yeah—I know. It
’
s been a while. Listen Doug, I need a
favor
—a big one.
”

****

The next day, after a particularly late night,
Destiny
woke up to discover Johnny had left her to sleep in. She took advantage of the time along to check on her contacts and see if they
’
d made any headway with locating Tre
’
ago
’
s attorney.
With no further progress, she hung up and went in search of a distraction.

As she w
ander
ed
down to the main house
s
he
was drawn to
the sound of laughter
and followed it to the beach to discover
a game of beach football underway. Blinking back happy tears, she couldn
’
t help the grin
that
touch her lips once she saw Jackson out in the middle of it all—roughhousing with the men—a smile on his face for the first time in far too long. He looked
just
like a carefree kid again
. T
he bruising had faded noticeably over the last few days and he seemed to have regained some of the weight he
’
d lost, making him seem somehow taller. Maybe it was because this was the first time she
’
d seen him up and moving about like old times…but somehow he just seemed a lot more grown up.

“
Hey you. Pull up a stump,
”
Summer said cheerfully as Destiny came to a stop beside the three women seated on the sand watching the game.
Summer
’
s two kids were building a sandcastle a little further away but still under the watchful eye of their mother.

“
Pull up a what?
”
She was still having trouble coming to terms with all these Australianisms…for two countries that spoke the same language it really was quite amazing how different the languages were
.

“
Take a seat,
”
she amended, nodding over at the spare chair beside her.

“
Oh. Thanks.
”
She sank down into the chair and let her gaze drift back to the men rolling around on the sand before
them
.

“
Is it normally this quiet at this time of the year for you?
”
Since she
’
d been here she hadn
’
t seen a single guest on the island. Not that she was complaining—it was nice having such a beautiful resort pretty much all to themselves, without a hoard of tourists to share the beach with.

“
We decided not to book any guests over the next few months, to give these two a break,
”
Summer smiled
at the two pregnant women beside her
.
“
We
’
ve been pretty much booked since we opened last year, so it
’
s nice to have a bit of a holiday.
”

“
I
’
m sorry, but
I
just
have to ask,
”
Willow
suddenly cut in almost as though she couldn
’
t hold herself back a second longer.

“
Willow—
”
Summer frowned across at her older sister in warning.

“
Here we go,
”
Mercy groaned and rolled her eyes.

“
Have to ask, what?
”
Destiny
wasn
’
t sure she liked the sound of this and
look
ed
across at the women, nervously.

“
I was only going to ask how she got
Tupper to agree to help her out,
”
Willow protested with an innocent look.

Summer eyed her sister suspiciously, before turning to rest her gaze on Destiny.
“
Actually
,
I
’
ve been wondering that myself. Not that he isn
’
t a good guy—deep down…but doing things out of the kindness of his heart is really not Tupper
’
s
thing.
”

“
Ahh—I can
’
t really say
,
”
Destiny said pulling an apologetic face. She was pretty sure Johnny would
not
want
that
particular tale rehashed among his friends.

“
Aww come on, we need some kind of diversion—two of us are pregnant and ready to burst—Summer
’
s running around after two kids all day and we
’
re not allowed to do anything, or go anywhere
. W
e need
some
kind of excitement.
”

“
Yeah, I can tell your lives must be simply hellish!
”
Destiny grinned, sending a pointed look around at the beach and resort behind them.

“
Well, okay—maybe Mercy was slightly exaggerating…but you have
no idea
how long we
’
ve been waiting for Tupper to come
-
a
-
gutsa once the right woman turned up. We need details,
”
Willow practically begged
.

Destiny didn
’
t even want to try and work out what
coming
-
a
-
gutsa
was—but it sounded pretty painful.
“
I roped him into it and that
’
s all I
’
m gonna
’
say.
”
She
hid a smirk at the image of Johnny tied to the bed and refused to be swayed by the
three women grumbling
,
focus
ing, instead
back on the game before them.

“
Fine. Then at least tell us he
’
s crappy in bed
,
”
Willow threw in.

“
Willow!
”
Summer and Mercy groaned.

“
Oh come on! The guy
’
s been talking himself up as the biggest stud known to woman kind for years! He had to be joking…
right?
”
Willow demanded, pinning Destiny with a pointed look.

These three women were such a strange combination of personalities and yet they were part of one big loving family and she envied them having that connection.

Destiny shook her head, a slow smile spreading across her face.
“
Sorry Willow. Just between me and you guys—he
’
s pretty much the most talent man I
’
ve ever slept with—but I
’
ll deny it if you ever tell him!
”

“
No
way!
”
Willow breathed in denial, her glance darting
across
to look
Johnny
over suspiciously.

Sensing the women
’
s attention,
he
turned his head and caught
them staring
at him in varying degrees of curiosity and
denial. He gave an
uncertain
frown and
spread his arms
wide
as if to ask them what he
’
d done
now?

Destiny let her gaze roam across his bare chest and down across his abs to where his hips tapered down into his board shorts and felt her pulse kick up a notch as she recalled exactly how up close and personal she
’
d been to that body only this morning.
As her gaze moved back up to his jaw line and face—she felt as though she
’
d just got zapped with a
taser,
finding him watching her as she
’
d just mentally undressed him in front of a crowd of his family. Instead of looking affronted though
,
as most
normal
people would have
,
a cocky grin crossed his face and he sent her a slow, all too sexy wink of appreciation making her groan softly in embarrassment
while
the girls beside her snickered.

“
He is so full of himself,
”
Willow scoffed, but beneath the insult, she heard the tinge of affection and once more a wave of regret washed over her
.
W
hat would the future hold for her and Jackson?
It was just the two of them now
. H
olidays would be spent by themselves
, she would be the only one at
his graduation…all the things her parents had looked forward to celebrating with their
children
were gone…and now all he had was
her
.

He saw Johnny call Jackson
over
and say something
to the younger boy and a
fter a minute, her brother looked over
briefly before heading towards her
.
Destiny swallowed
,
feeling ridiculously nervous. She wasn
’
t sure why—this was her little brother after all, but
they hadn
’
t really spoken at great length since that dreaded conversation. S
he wasn
’
t sure what to say to him anymore.

“
We need a wide receiver,
”
he said in a somewhat
subdued
tone, keeping his eyes on the sand at their feet.
“
You wanna
’
play?
”

So much for a
n enthusiastic
reception, she thought dryly
.
Destiny glanced over at where Johnny stood, his legs
braced
wide in the sand—arms folded across his chest, watching brother and sister slowly reconnect and her eyes burnt with the effort to hold back a sharp sting of tears. She had feelings for this man…dangerous feelings, the kind that could get your heart very, badly broken, but damned if she could do anything about it.

It was
,
what it was.

Holding
out a hand
to Jackson
,
she watched as he hesitated for a moment
before he
took her hand and pulled her from the chair.
As she got to her feet, she held on to his hand and
tugged him forward
for a brief
hug
—before giving him a quick
shove
and
racing him back to the game. As she walked past Johnny she sent him a saucy wink and smiled as his soft chuckle follow
ed
her.

“
You better watch your ass, Tupperoni—we
’
re about to kick it!
”
she called, taking up her position alongside Del and Jackson on the makeshift field of sand.

“
I don
’
t have to watch it sweetheart—you do a fine enough job of that already!
”

Tate
hooted, and it started a stream of good natured ribbing being thrown back and forth between the two sides.

Del drew his hand back and both Jackson and Destiny began running towards the opposite end of the field, waiting for him to throw the football. Destiny kept her eyes on the ball as it launched far
above
their heads
. R
unning backwards
in order to
get beneath it
,
she leapt, before falling back
;
her fall cushioned by something warm and solid beneath her.

“
I knew you were fallin
’
for me darlin
’
but I didn
’
t think it
’
d
be quite so publically,
”
he said just loud enough for the men around her to hear.