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

face smiled.  Slender and fit but prematurely gray at thirty-five.  And no matter how many times he wanted to, Destiny would never let him dye his hair.  She told him it made him look sexy.
    Destiny glanced up at her brother as he held suits and shirts in front of himself.  After selecting two ties, she held one of them up to the suit and shirt combination he was holding in his hands.  Destiny smiled.  “He usually wore this tie,” she began, having to catch herself, as she placed the tie next to the collar, “with this suit.”  Destiny looked into his eyes.  “He was proud of you, you know.”
    Andy continued to hold the tie in place as he looked down.  The emotions caught in his throat again as he nodded.  When his eyes met hers, she smiled again, brushing his cheek with the palm of her hand. 
    “And, I’m so very proud of you.” Destiny dropped her forehead to his, nodding until he was nodding with her.
    Andy stepped away and sniffed, holding the tie up against the shirt again.  “So this works, huh?”
    Destiny nodded.  “You can have anything you want.  The rest I’ll donate.”
    “Really?  Anything?”
    Destiny smiled.  “He would have wanted you to have them.”
    “Well, I’m not wearing his underwear,” he said pointedly.  “I don’t do tighty whities.”
    Destiny moved back to the dresser.  As she looked down at the ties, then back up to her reflection, the stranger in the mirror smiled back.  You’re going to be okay; it told her.  Destiny’s smile faded.  In her heart, she knew it would never be okay again.  Ever.

Chapter 3
    Day three.  Philip’s side of the closet now sat empty, as did his drawers.  And yet, he was still there.  In every corner of the house.  In every room.  In the plates, he had personally selected from Pottery Barn.  His great-grandma’s silverware.  His grandmother’s crocheted afghans draped over the back of the couch.  There wasn’t a part of the house in which she didn’t feel his presence.  Destiny walked past ‘his’ chair in the living room and each of the plants he had so lovingly tended.  In the days to come, she would personally give them all away because she didn’t do plants.  That was Phillip’s thing.  Ever since she could remember, she killed plants.  She even tried to grow aloe vera and cactus because you weren’t supposed to be able to kill them.  But they also died.
    Destiny hadn’t entered Rhett’s room since the accident, nor had anyone else.  She didn’t even open his door.  Destiny had covered all their pictures with her black dinner napkins.  Anything of Rhett’s that she found anywhere in the house she put into a box in the garage, and donated, along with Phillip’s clothing, the Monday following the funerals.  Lisa and Andy were perplexed, not to mention concerned, by her avoidance, by her calmness.  She had gone from devastated to composed in three days’ time.
    Destiny rolled over in their California king bed, sliding her hand across to the side where Phillip usually slept.  She pulled his pillow to her face and breathed in deeply before hugging it to herself.  The water was running somewhere else in the house.  Destiny expressed her wish to stay in her home, at least until she determined it was time to sell. After much discussion, she agreed, albeit reluctantly, for Andy to move into the guest room, semi-permanently, so that she wouldn’t be alone once she was back home.  Her house was closer to work than his apartment, so it was a win-win for him.  Andy moved in on the day they returned from California. 
    Destiny hugged the pillow closer to her chest and sighed.  When she opened her eyes she could see Phillip beside her; she could feel him there.  First, her fingers reached for his, gently teasing his strong, masculine hands.  Destiny smiled as her hand traced the firm, strong muscles in his arms and his chest before moving to caress the early morning stubble on his cheeks.