A Journey by Chance Read Online Free

knobs, leading to the pantry, back staircase, back porch, and basement. The swinging dining room door was usually propped open.
    She listened to her own voice on their home answering machine. No surprise there. “Hi, Reece. Well, we’re here, trying to keep cool. Gina’s fine. I thought the humidity might bother her hip more, but she seems to be handling it well. Tomorrow we have the two celebrations for Aunt Lottie’sbirthday, so we won’t be around the house much. Talk to you later.”
    Maggie bit her lip and hung the phone up on the wall behind her shoulder. He was traveling, of course. Somewhere. She hadn’t paid attention to his schedule. She had simply stuck his itinerary in the suitcase and left it there when she unpacked. It didn’t really matter, did it? If she wanted, she could try his cell phone. No matter where he was, the cell phone was in his pocket.
    If she wanted.
    What she wanted was to talk to John. Other women had close female friends. How was it her closest friend was a man?
    They had met at a party last September. What was the connection again? Lillian’s friend Deirdre was a friend of the Millikens who knew him. She stood across the buffet table from him, pondering an unidentifiable concoction. They laughed about it.
    â€œJohn Beaumont.” He introduced himself.
    â€œMargaret Philips.” She shook his hand.
    Chatting, they wedged themselves into the crowd, away from the table. He said he was a professor at Long Beach.
    She smiled. “English lit.”
    â€œIt’s that obvious?”
    â€œIt’s that obvious.”
    He wore a tweed jacket, gray corduroys, and oval, wirerimmed glasses. His wavy black hair was sprinkled with silver, his dark eyes intense. His movements were slow, deliberate, and yet there was a distracted air about him. His accent was East Coast.
    â€œTell me,” she teased, “there must be a pipe in your pocket?”
    He pulled it out just far enough for her to see it.
    Their talk covered current bestsellers and the Japanese display at the art museum. He wore a wedding band, butdidn’t mention his wife. She told him that her husband had bowed out of the party. Reece was with a land acquisition company. She bragged about Gina, their veterinarian daughter who talked to elephants.
    Innocuous beginning. It could have been anyone.
    Reece should have been beside her.
    Three days later Gina misjudged her elephant. Maggie waited through interminable hours, gagging on the scent of antiseptic, head pounding at the stark, fluorescent whiteness. Waited while they put her child’s body back together again.
    Reece should have been beside her then, too.

Three
    â€œLauren,” Gina eyed her cousin in the driver’s seat, “when do I get to meet Mr. Right? Or should I say Dr. Right?”
    She sighed. “God has given me such a perfect partner. Aaron is so wonderful.”
    â€œSo you’ve told me.” Gina smiled. “Once or twice.”
    Her cousin was on cloud nine, which made her whirlwind personality even flightier than usual. Lauren resembled their mothers, who were sisters, in personality as well as looks. Vivacious, petite, naturally curly, gold-blonde hair. Only the eyes were different. Gina’s cousin’s and aunt’s were a ginger brown, her mother’s emerald green.
    Except for sharing her mother’s eye color, Gina always felt the odd woman out in this group. She was taller, more solidly built with medium brown hair and a medium personality to match. Her demeanor was decidedly more calm, which was a plus for being a veterinarian.
    Although the cousins lived thousands of miles apart, their growing-up years had often intersected. Lauren visited California, sometimes for entire summers. Every spring they and their mothers met in Phoenix. Gina’s mom had an annual business meeting there, but her rooms at the resort were always large enough to accommodate the four of them. The