Destiny by chance: A Contemporary Romance Fiction Novel Read Free Page A

crinkled her brow.  “Pretty much.”
    Destiny stood and carried her bowl to the sink.  “Is he cute?”
    “Mom seems to think so.”
    “Your mom met him?”
    Lisa walked with Destiny back to the master bedroom.  “Yeah, she invited him over to lunch after church and surprisingly, he said yes.”  Then she plopped herself on the end of her friend’s king-sized bed.
    “What’s his story?” Destiny asked as she disappeared into Phillip’s closet.  As she looked around at all the reminders of her late husband, she sighed. 
    “Divorced.  Raising his six-year-old daughter on his own while his ex-wife works a hundred hours a week to further her career.”
    “Role reversal.” Destiny carried out a handful of clothes to the bed.  “The new family dynamic,” she added, placing the clothes on her bed, then turning and going back into the closet for more.
    “What’s this?” Lisa asked, curiously.
    “What does it look like?” Destiny tossed more of Phillip’s clothes onto her bed. 
    Lisa followed her into the closet, moving quickly out of the way as she grabbed more and walked past again.  “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
    Destiny stopped on the way back to her closet and stared at her friend.  “No, I’m not,” she confessed, before turning and grabbing another armful.  She stopped in front of Lisa again.  “So?  You going to help me or what?”
    Lisa sighed sadly at Destiny before she reached in and grabbed an armful of dress shirts.  Within twenty minutes every piece of clothing Phillip had owned lay on or around the bed.  Destiny wrinkled her lips and blew them out as she faced the pile before her.
    Andy walked up behind them.  “Well, that’s a mountain of clothes.” His face betrayed his confusion.  He crossed his arms.  “Was there a plan when you started this?”  Lisa met him with a shrug when he looked at her before turning to his sister.
    “No plan,” Destiny exhaled.
    “So—” Andy was mystified as he walked around the mound of clothing.  “Did it occur to you that your little brother, who I might add, is up to his eyeballs in student loans and can’t afford a seersucker suit, has just entered the job market without a dinner jacket in his wardrobe?”
    Lisa smiled.  “You wear a lab coat.”
    “Yes,” he agreed.  “I wear a lab coat.  But I anticipate that I will need to have a suit, or two, or three, at some point, in the event,” he stumbled over his words, “that I might have a business meeting.”
    “You’re a virologist,” Lisa teased
    “Or a date,” he added quickly.
    “Highly unlikely,” Lisa quipped.
    Destiny dropped to the armchair in the corner, and leaned back, staring at the clothes.  As she turned to her brother, he kneeled beside her, his hand on hers.  “You sure you’re ready for this?”
    Destiny drew in a deep breath.  “Yes,” she replied to Andy before turning to Lisa.  “I’m sure.”  Standing, she walked to their dresser and began taking out the rest of his clothes.  “I can’t look at his stuff every day.  I just can’t.”  Her eyes lowered as did her voice.  “I can’t.”
    Lisa and Andy looked at each other, drawing in deep breaths together and then turned back to Destiny. 
    “I’ll go to the store and get some boxes,” Lisa offered.
    “And I’ll pick out my new wardrobe.” Andy began lifting hangers of clothes from the pile.
    Destiny opened Phillip’s tie drawer, and it gave her pause.  As her hand lightly brushed over the silky material, she closed her eyes.  When she opened them, she picked up his favorite tie and pressed it to her chest.  A wry smile grew on her lips.  She remembered picking it out for him and giving it to him in the same way that Julia Roberts had given one to Richard Gere in Pretty Woman .  Of course, she didn’t look anything like Julia Roberts, but she always called him her Richard Gere.  Phillip had the same incredible eyes, and when he smiled, his whole