Free Destiny's Chance by Cara Bristol Page B

them inclined to talk. Zoe, the chopstick master, had eschewed them in favor of a fork.
    “Penny for your thoughts,” she said.
    Not yet ready to reveal his suspicions, he dodged. “I was thinking about Laura.”
    “Laura?” A slight crease appeared between her eyebrows. “What about her?”
    He said the first thing that popped into his head. “Isn’t she supposed to have ESP or something?”
    She pursed her lips. “She doesn’t like to be called psychic, but that’s pretty much what she is.”
    “So she what? Sees into the future?”
    Destiny smiled. “Precognition?” She shook her head. “That’s what a lot of people assume psychic ability is, but that’s not Laura’s gift. She’s a clairvoyant and an empath. She gets visions, not that predict the future but that show her the way things are. And then she’s adept at picking up emotions, even those people hide or aren’t aware of themselves. Like if a person acts angry, Laura feels the fear beneath the anger.”
    He chose his next words carefully. “I wonder if Destiny had similar ability.”
    She shook her head vigorously. “None. She’d have done better to ask the Magic Eight Ball.”
    “But they were sisters.”
    “Not by blood. Their parents adopted Laura after Destiny’s mother discovered she couldn’t have any more children.” Grimness darkened her face. “Parents shouldn’t have favorites, but they do. Laura wasn’t it. Nor did her parents understand her extrasensory abilities. And Laura was too young to comprehend the seriousness.” She bent her head and poked her fork in her rice. “They sent her to an institution for a while because they thought she was crazy or possessed.”
    “You seem to know a lot about her family.” He studied her face, watched for a reaction.
    She stiffened. “Destiny and I used to talk.”
    “It would be impossible to be anything but honest around Laura, I would imagine. She’d pick up on every nuance.”
    She nodded. “I don’t understand how it works, but there’s a lot of chaff intermingled with her perceptions that clouds the picture or interferes with interpretation of the meaning. But Laura reads people very well.”
    He almost wished he had Laura’s ability so he could discern who sat across the table from him and her true motivation. If it was Destiny, when would she tell him the truth? What if she never did?
    WHY WAS HE so interested in Laura all of a sudden? Destiny bit into an egg roll. But better that than he focus on her. She could provide no answers to any questions he might ask.
    Laura may have been convinced that Chance had liked her and that Zoe had encouraged it, but her sister erred. Coincidence. That was all it was.
    She wished she could be honest with Chance, but people did not switch bodies. Laura recognized her only because of her special abilities. He would think she was crazy.
    Trust Chance , said the voice.
    And there was that—she’d started hearing a voice. Not loud, not often, but definitely there. She tried to dismiss it as her own imagining, but it was too distinct, too separate, too contrary. Too disturbing. The voice sounded exactly like Zoe.
    She shivered. Laura had lost a year of her childhood in psychiatric lockup. She’d been too naïve, too innocent to understand the stakes. Only after Destiny had been permitted to visit and had advised her to tell the doctors what they expected to hear had the wheels been set in motion for her release. Lying had freed her sister. Honesty wasn’t always the best policy.
    So what was she going to do? Take her secret to her deathbed? Give up any potential for happiness with Chance out of loyalty to a dead woman? The thought of that saddened her. But he’d obviously had feelings for Zoe, or they wouldn’t still be together. He’d had sex with her the other night or thought he had.
    Tell Chance who you are.
    “Stop!”
    “I beg your pardon?” Chance raised his eyebrows.
    Destiny thumped the side of her head with her palm.