Free Destiny's Chance by Cara Bristol

sounded so mystical. She believed in her sister’s empathic, clairvoyant abilities but also knew that a psychic hunch was still just that—a guess inspired by an intuitive nudge. Which sometimes proved to be off base.
    “We should head back,” Destiny said. “Mom and Dad will be upset that you disappeared, and Chance will wonder what’s taking so long.”
    Laura nodded. “You’re right.” She linked her arm through Destiny’s. “So you’re with Chance now. That’s good.” She bobbed her head approvingly. “You always had a thing for him.”
    “Our being together is only temporary. We’re not meant to be.”
    “Why not?” Laura looked at her.
    “Because he and Zoe were a couple. Because she just died. Because he doesn’t love me.” That didn’t stop you from sleeping with him. Probably won’t stop you again . Her conscience and her libido had gone to war. The scene wasn’t pretty inside her head.
    “Zoe wanted you two to be together.”
    “I love the way you state preposterous conjecture as if it’s fact.”
    “It is fact. How many times did she bring you two together at some party and then disappear so you would be alone? And you said yourself it was odd how many times your paths crossed socially.”
    “Coincidence.”
    “She pushed you toward one another, hoping you and he would connect. I think Zoe believed you two were soul mates.”
    “She wasn’t pushing us together. She had things to do, and she trusted us,” Destiny insisted, feeling guilty as hell. She’d succumbed to temptation and slept with her friend’s boyfriend. Trust had been broken.
    Laura is right . The voice came through so clearly, Zoe could have been standing beside her.
    “Stop it!” Destiny said aloud and pressed her fingers to her temple.
    “You don’t need to yell,” Laura said.
    “I’m not. Not at you.”
    “Then who?” Laura looked at her.
    “Myself. I think I’m going crazy.” She looked at her sister. Dare she mention it? If anyone would understand, she would. She wet her lips. “Some…sometimes I think I hear Zoe’s voice.”
    Laura nodded as if it were perfectly reasonable. “What does she say?”
    “She tells me I should go after Chance.”
    “You see!” Laura looked smug. “I told you so.”
    “It’s far more likely I’m nuts,” Destiny said. “I think I want Zoe’s blessing, so my mind is making stuff up.”
    Believe, Destiny.
    Destiny groaned.
    “What?” Laura squinted at her.
    “Nothing,” Destiny said.

Chapter Nine
    Laura’s disappearance had not escaped her parents’ notice. They exchanged whispers and annoyed glances. However, Chance used the absence, the space, to collect his thoughts.
    An insane, impossible but insistent idea pecked at his brain.
    What if Zoe was Destiny? Or Destiny was Zoe? Whatever. What if the essence of Destiny Grable had survived the accident and existed in the body of Zoe Richards? Was that what she’d been trying to tell him when she’d raised the subject of reincarnation?
    Roman scoffed at his hunches, but Chance had sensed a difference the moment he’d entered the hospital room to visit the woman wearing the RICHARDS, ZOE wristband. Then more tangible disparities appeared: the changes in diet including the love of Mexican food, the cooking, the different way she dressed, that she didn’t seem to know her way around the condo she’d lived in for six months.
    Then the song Laura had had the flautist play. “My Heart Will Go On.” “Zoe” had whistled it in bed that one night and raised the subject of the afterlife.
    But mostly it was Destiny’s sister’s behavior that gave credence to what had only been a wild and crazy imagining. She had barreled down the aisle, her relief and joy palpable at seeing Zoe. Then she’d whisked her away. Laura, who he’d heard had serious psychic powers, believed Zoe was Destiny. That he was sure of.
    He spotted the girls in the distance. Hands on his knees, he drummed a rhythm. To speak up or not to