My Destiny (3 page)

Chapter 4

V
iolet Stafford couldn’t wait to introduce her new friend, Adele Brockman, as her new bridge partner to the rest of the girls. She was sure they’d love the intriguing widow as much as she.

Violet had met Adele last month at a charity auction and they’d immediately hit it off. After comparing stories, they’d discovered they knew some of the same people and had at one time or another traveled in the same circles. It was a wonder they hadn’t met until now.

What fascinated Violet were Adele’s stories about her daughter. She sounded positively delightful; smart, pretty and, most of all,
single.
If only Violet could somehow manage to get Miles’s mind off family curses and whatnot, and concentrate on settling down and giving Violet what she longed for—grandchildren.

The doorbell rang and jarred Violet out of her thoughts. She set down the glass pitcher of iced tea and rushed to answer the door.

“Adele,” Violet exclaimed with outstretched arms and a heartfelt smile. “I’m so glad you were able to make it.”

Adele entered the house and accepted Violet’s embrace. “Your directions were great. I had no trouble finding the place.” She pulled out of her friend’s arms and took in her surroundings while Violet closed the door. “What a lovely home you have.”

“Why, thank you. This place was a labor of love for me and my husband—along with our son, of course.” Violet’s smile faltered when she witnessed a strange shadow cast over her friend’s eyes. “What is it? Did I say something wrong?”

Adele waved her off. “Oh, no. Don’t be silly. Are the other girls here yet?”

“No. You’re the first to arrive. May I take your jacket?”

“Sure.” Adele slid out of the tailor-made jacket and handed it over. “Now I want you to be patient with me. I haven’t played bridge in quite some time now. So I’m warning you, I may be a little rusty.”

“No problem. I’ll make sure I tell the girls to take it easy on us.”

They laughed.

“Come on, I’ll give you the grand tour,” Violet said.

“Lead the way.”

The tour of the house only took a few minutes and Adele adored everything she saw. She even said she and Violet shared the same taste when it came to decorating.

“So, did you finally mention to your daughter the trip we talked about?” Violet asked when they returned to the living room.

“Yes. In fact, I saw her this morning. I even tried to get her to travel with me.”

“She didn’t want to go?” Violet asked, amazed.

“It’s not so much that she doesn’t want to go, but that she can’t right now.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I thought it was a great chance for you to get away.”

“I didn’t say
I
wasn’t going.”

Violet brightened. “Well, that’s great news.”

“I want you to come with me,” Adele announced with an uplifted chin.

“What?”

“Why not? You told me your son was busy with his career, and that you had a lot of time on your hands. So why can’t we both go off to Belize?”

Violet blinked, and then thought about it. There really wasn’t a reason why she couldn’t go. In fact, when was the last time she went on a vacation? “You know, you just might be on to something.” She glanced at her watch and wondered what was keeping Miles. She wanted to introduce him to Adele. If she liked him, which Violet held no doubts that she would, then Violet would suggest, quite innocently, of course, that their children meet.

Violet hid a slight smile. It really was a good plan now that she thought about it. She glanced at her watch again. Now, if she could just get her slothful son to show up.

* * *

After a morning of dealing with his ex-flame’s shenanigans, Miles was finally free to check out the leak at his mother’s
house. The life of a player wasn’t as easy as some rap stars made it out to be—but it was damn close.

He stepped outside of his condo and heard the door from across the hall open. He turned in its direction with a ready smile and wasn’t the least bit discouraged when he was met with a stern look of disapproval from his new neighbor, Destiny.

“Good afternoon,” he greeted.

Destiny sighed, and then belatedly returned his greeting with a great show of disinterest.

Miles resisted the urge to laugh, to do so would probably further irritate the woman. His gaze swept over her attire, a simple white blouse and black slacks. His brows furrowed in curiosity. She’d brushed what he knew to be her long mane into a straight, tight bun that sat neatly pinned at the nape of her neck.

There was something about the way she carried herself that said “hands off” to the casual observer. It was that same quality that intrigued him.

“I want to apologize for what happened this morning,” he said. “Gina told me she got our condo’s mixed up.”

Destiny finished locking her door and turned with a tight smile. “Perhaps I should post a sign on my door directing your harem to the right address.”

This time Miles did laugh. “A harem? Hardly.”

Destiny shrugged and strode past him in the direction of the elevator bay.

Miles caught a whiff of Channel No. 5 as she passed.
A classic.
He smiled as he followed her. “You know. I’m starting to think we got off on the wrong foot,” he suggested as she continued to walk away.

She pushed the down button for the elevator. “Oh, I don’t know. I suppose our meeting was pleasant enough,” she replied without making eye contact.

“Then how come I get the distinct impression you don’t like me?”

His direct question threw her, but she smiled in kind, and then treaded lightly. “I never said that I didn’t like you.”

“So you
do
like me?” He moved closer and she stepped back.

“I didn’t say that, either,” she answered, cautiously.

“Then what
are
you saying?” He made sure he kept his gaze leveled and his expression serious.

The elevator arrived and she looked relieved at the sound of the bell. However, the emotion faded when he stepped into the elevator behind her.

“Mr. Stafford,” she said in an impressive, diplomatic voice. “I don’t know you, so I’m hardly in any position to tell whether I like you.”

He laughed. “That’s B.S. and you know it.” He punched a button on the panel and the elevator jerked to a stop.

“Excuse me?” Her eyes widened in alarm.

He held up his hands. “I don’t think either of us should get off this elevator until we settle this matter.” He smiled seductively at her. He was at the top of his game and felt he’d win an invitation to her apartment for a cozy dinner and perhaps more by the time they reached the lobby.

“Have you lost your mind?” She turned to the panel on her side of the elevator and pushed for the lobby. The elevator descended again.

Miles pushed another button and once again they stopped. He smiled at her spark of irritation. She was quite beautiful when she was angry. Fleetingly, he wondered if she was a hellcat between the sheets. “So, were you and your girlfriend pulling my leg yesterday or are you two really an item?”

“My relationship with Lu Jin is none of your business,” she snapped.

He moved toward her. “I think you two were pulling my leg.”

“So what if we were?”

“I knew it.” He inched closer.

Her gaze narrowed as her hands went to her purse.

He faltered. “Now wait a minute.” He held up his hands again, suddenly sorry for what seemed moments ago a humorous game.

A small canister slid into the palm of her hand. Relieved it wasn’t a gun, Miles stepped toward her, seeking a different avenue to placate her when her arm extended toward him and, before he could say anything else, she sprayed.

Pain, unlike anything he’d ever felt before, ripped through his head. He fell to the floor with a cry of alarm that turned into a wail. His eyes were on fire. Had she blinded him for life? He rubbed fiercely at his eyes, but the more he rubbed the worse it got.

The elevator descended while he writhed on the floor. He wanted to yell at her—worse, he wanted to wring her neck; but all he could manage to do was wail endlessly.

A bell rang and the elevator doors slid open.

“Have a nice day, Mr. Stafford,” Destiny said above his cries and stepped out of the elevator.

* * *

“Heavens. I just don’t know what’s keeping that son of mine,” Violet said abruptly, interrupting the idle chatter among her bridge group.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were expecting Miles today,” Leona, Violet’s oldest friend, said. “I know it’s been a while since I’ve seen him. How is he liking everything at Mortensen and Foster?”

“Fine, fine. He claims they’re keeping him busy.” Violet smiled despite her growing frustration.

“Mortensen and Foster?” Adele asked. “Is your son a lawyer?”

Violet perked up. She may have to sell Adele on Miles without her having the opportunity to introduce him to her. “Oh, yes. He’s a brilliant attorney. I’m quite proud of him.”

Another shadow fell over Adele’s features, but vanished just as fast.

“It’s amazing how much we have in common,” was her reply, but there was something that wasn’t being said. Violet was sure of it.

“Didn’t you say your daughter was a lawyer?” Kathleen, another old friend of Violet’s, asked Adele, joining in on the conversation.

Adele perked up. “Yes, I did. Actually, she’s starting a new job with Phillips, Anderson and Brown on Monday.”

The small group of women exchanged impressed looks.

“Is she married?” Leona asked.

Violet shifted. Leona’s affluent son had just filed for his fourth divorce and Violet could already see the wheels churning in her friend’s head.

“No.” Adele’s smile hinted at something. “Not yet anyway.”

Violet’s spirits plummeted. “What do you mean?”

“Well, an old friend of mine has a son, Jefferson Altman, who has expressed interest in meeting Destiny. So we’ve arranged a way for the two to meet tomorrow.”

“Oh?” Violet gave her a half smile, but felt like kicking herself. Someone had already beaten her to the punch.

“I think it’s quite exciting. I never played Cupid before. I just hope they like each other.” Adele laughed. “Of course I also hope Destiny is compliant. She can be a bit stubborn when she wants. She inherited that trait from her father.”

The girls laughed, everyone except for Violet. The small voice in her head told her that she may be down, but she was definitely not out. All she needed to do was pray that this Jefferson Altman and Destiny wouldn’t hit it off.
Be patient, Violet—just be patient.

Chapter 5

I
t should be against the law to subject people to visits to the emergency room, Miles thought bitterly. In less than two minutes, the staff deemed his case a nonemergency, so he and Wes waited—and waited—for a doctor.

“Cheer up.” Wes chuckled and slapped Miles hard across the back. “At least we know now you’re not going to be blind for life.”

Miles’s jaw clenched. Three hours ago he’d been convinced otherwise. He had no real memory of how Wes was called to his aid, but at the time, he’d been grateful.

“So when are you going to fess up and tell me what happened between you and your next-door neighbor?”

“I would think that was obvious.”

“How about the events leading up to her whipping your butt?”

“Yeah, right,” Miles snapped.

Wes swiveled in his chair and faced Miles. “Any time a woman leaves a man withering on the floor and crying for his momma—he got his ass kicked.” Wes laughed. “I swear I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen you with my own eyes. I can’t wait to meet this chick.”

“Go to hell, Wes.”

Wes snapped his fingers. “I bet she’s the butch in the relationship.”

“What?” Miles shook his head at the direction the conversation had turned.

“A butch,” Wes said again. “You never heard of that term?”

“Enlighten me,” Miles said, wanting to hear what Wes would say.

“Well, don’t quote me on this, but I heard in lesbian relationships there’s always a masculine and feminine partner. The masculine is referred to as the butch.”

“Where do you get this stuff?”

“Hey.” Wes shrugged. “I hear things.”

Miles rolled his eyes. “What’s so bad is that you repeat them.”

“Whatever. I wasn’t the one who just got beaten down by a woman. Do you know what a thing like this could do to a man’s reputation?”

Miles turned toward him. “You know there is one good thing about being at the hospital.”

“What’s that?”

“When I beat the hell out of you, you won’t have far to go for medical care.”

Wes held his hands up in surrender. “Point taken.”

* * *

Two hours later, with nothing more than a bruised ego, Miles and Wes returned to their high-rise building. When the elevator’s door slid open on the fourteenth floor, Miles immediately noticed the tall, slender beauty knocking on Ms. Brockman’s door.

Lu Jin turned in his direction.

Wes tilted his shades down. “Have mercy, have mercy,” he mumbled under his breath.

They stepped out of the elevator and Lu Jin moved toward them. “My goodness, what happened to you? You look like you’ve been run over by a Mack truck.”

Miles approached his apartment door. “You mean your little girlfriend didn’t tell you what happened?”

Wes cleared his throat.

Miles glanced over his shoulder and picked up on the hint. “Wes, Lu Jin. Lu Jin, Wes.”

Wes turned with a ready smile. “How do you do?”

Lu Jin smiled, but continued with her interrogation. “Are you saying that Destiny had something to do with this?”

“She attacked him with a can of pepper spray,” Wes explained for his pal.

Miles glared at him.

“What?” Wes asked stupefied. “She’s going to find out sooner or later.”

Miles pushed open his door and entered.

Wes looked to Lu Jin. “I think your girlfriend bruised his ego.”

Ignoring Wes, Lu Jin followed Miles to the threshold of his apartment. “So what did you do to her?”

“Me?” Miles thundered, incredulous. “I didn’t do anything. The girl has a screw loose or something.”

“Come on. I’ve been best friends with Destiny since college and she doesn’t go around spraying innocent people with pepper spray without a damn good reason.”

“You mean your girlfriend, right?” Wes continued to weave his way into the conversation.

Annoyed, Lu Jin exhaled. Slowly, she turned toward Wes, with her hands cradling her hips. “I mean just what I said, Wes.”

Miles suspected that Lu Jin wanted to call Wes something other than his Christian name.

Wes didn’t seem to notice her agitation as he looked back over at Miles. “Clears things up for me. What about you?”

“Crystal. Now if you two don’t mind. I would like to get some rest.”

“You’re not going to tell me what you did to Destiny?”

Miles reined in his temper. “I didn’t do anything to your friend. She survived our little meeting unscathed.”

“Then why isn’t she home?”

It was getting harder for Miles to hide his irritation. “Do I look like her babysitter?”

Lu Jin stepped back as he approached her.

“But when you do see your best friend again, tell her she’s lucky I don’t drag her skinny butt into court for that stunt she pulled today.”

Lu Jin backed silently out into the hallway.

Miles didn’t like the uncertainty he read in her eyes. It was the second time today a woman had looked at him with a spark of fear and it unnerved him. At the same time, he didn’t have a firm grasp on his anger so he abandoned any hoped to placate her.

“Goodbye,” he said, and then closed the door.

“Well, I guess you just told her,” Wes said, coming out of Miles’s kitchen toting a beer.

“You can leave, too,” Miles informed him. It wasn’t necessary to sugarcoat anything with Wes. They’d been friends too long for that.

“So this is how you treat a brother who came to your rescue?” Wes smiled, but walked toward the door. “A man should never burn his bridges.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”

“All right. I’ll holler at ya later.” Wes opened the door.

“Later,” Miles said, and headed back to the bathroom, where he made a cool compress, and then fell against his bed with the towel draped over his eyes. It had been quite embarrassing to have Wes rush him to the emergency room and have his eyes washed out with saline water.

Destiny’s image resurfaced and Miles groaned with disgust. “That woman has to be the devil incarnate,” he mumbled.

The phone rang and he considered not answering, but he had a good idea who was calling him. He picked up the receiver. “Hello, Momma.”

“What on earth are you still doing home?’ she demanded.

“Because some crazy woman emptied a can of pepper spray into my eyes.”

“What?”

At least Miles had won a note of sympathy from her.

“What did you do to the poor woman?”

“Me? Why do you suspect that I was the one at fault?”

“Because I know you better than anyone.”

“And as my mother you believe that I would do something to a woman that justifies being accosted with a can of pepper spray?”

“Miles, stop being dramatic and tell me what happened.”

“I’ll tell you what happened. For the first time in my life I met a woman that I absolutely can’t stand and wish to hell that I never have to see again.”