Destiny's Chance Read Online Free

bathroom door, curl into a ball in the corner, and hide until her life returned to normal. But she feared nothing would be normal again.
    Once her hair was fairly smooth and she’d dressed in the comfy sweats Chance had provided, she had no excuse to avoid the inevitable. She shoved her feet into flip-flops, snagged the duffel, and with a deep breath for courage, exited the bathroom.
    Chance lounged in a chair near the window.
    Her feet rooted to the green speckled linoleum, but her stomach lurched when he padded toward her and wrapped his arms around her in a loose but enveloping hug. He rested his cheek against her head. She and Chance had been friends, but until now their hugs had been quick, cursory ones.
    Destiny held herself stiff but closed her eyes and inhaled his scent. Soap, fresh laundry, and a heady male essence settled over her like a warm blanket, soothing and comforting, except for the barbs of guilt woven into the fabric. Chance might mistake her for Zoe, but she knew she wasn’t, and she had no right to steal this moment of intimacy.
    But she lacked willpower to push him away. Didn’t she deserve a moment’s solace? Her mind had tumbled all night, tossing out ramifications. She’d lost everything—her family, her friends, her business, her possessions. She didn’t even have her purse or her cell phone. Everything associated with Destiny Grable had disappeared.
    Chance pressed his lips to her head. “I knew something had happened yesterday, even before I got the call from the sheriff’s department.”
    “You did?” She spoke against his throat. His T-shirt brushed her cheek. She couldn’t help it; she rubbed her face against it and inhaled. Wrong. This was wrong.
    He nodded. “At the shop…I got a feeling of dread. Moments later I got the call. They told me you’d been in an accident. They didn’t give me any information on your condition.”
    So he’d had a flash of ESP. Everyone had them. But he would need more than a flash to believe the unbelievable. Even a true psychic would give more credence to the evidence of his or her own eyes than some vague vision. People did not switch bodies. It violated the laws of nature. Of the universe. Of everything known and theorized.
    What about reincarnation? People have claimed to have had past lives.
    Never been proven.
    Aren’t you proof?
    “I’m sorry you were worried,” she said, hearing Zoe’s husky voice come out of her mouth. She’d assumed her vocal cords had been strained by screaming, but she now understood why her parents hadn’t recognized her on the phone. And when a person had a different face and body? Would she be able to convince anyone who she was?
    He hugged her gently, mindful of her injuries. “I’m so sorry about Destiny.”
    He meant she’d lost a friend. But she had lost herself too, because her identity had been erased. Her losses added up, and her eyes watered. Then guilt stung her. What right did she have to feel sorry for herself when she was alive but her friend wasn’t?
    Chance pulled back and sought her gaze. “I didn’t mean to upset you again,” he said.
    “It’s all right. It’s going to be a difficult adjustment for a while. That’s all.”
    He released her. “Let’s get you home.”
    “Home.” She gulped. Chance’s house.
    She snagged Zoe’s purse from the closet, Chance took the duffel, and they left the hospital.
    * * * *
    Chance wended the vehicle out of the parking structure and entered the bright sunlight of spring. Cotton-ball clouds drifted across an azure sky. Street-side jacaranda trees bloomed in glorious lavender, crepe myrtle in vivid fuchsia. As if Mother Nature had bustled through and tidied up, the previous day’s rain had cleaned the streets and buildings and spritzed the air with a fresh scent. Eyes wide, Zoe pivoted her head, taking in the scenery as if she’d been plopped in the middle of a foreign landscape. She trembled, and Chance suspected she was reliving the car crash,