Destiny's Wish by Marissa Dobson Page A

about Liz. It’s about you. Damn it, Brian I want you to be happy.” Jason scooted his chair back away from the desk.
    “Then why can’t you be happy for me?” Brian wanted to turn on his heels and go anywhere but here. They’d always been close, but this distance between them over Nora was driving him crazy.
    “Is this what you really want? Wouldn’t you be happy with a nice nurse, or one of Liz’s friends? She could set you up again—”
    Brian leaned forward, placing his hands on the desk. “No. I’m tired of the matchmaking sister-in-law. Nora is who I want, we make each other happy. Come for dinner and see us together.”
    “Liz said if you’re happy then I should be happy for you, but I can’t help but think you’re getting in over your head. You already take work home with you, and you don’t know how to distance yourself from the hospital. You let your patients get under your skin while you try to cure everyone.”
    “That makes me a good doctor,” Brian reasoned.
    “True, but it also stresses you out. It’s not the same with me, I fix them in the operating room, and the rest of you have to deal with their daily needs.” Jason shook his head. “What I’m trying to say is that taking problems home with you is one thing, but taking on a woman and her sick child is another.”
    “Do you even realize how heartless that sounds?” Brian straightened his back, shocked that his brother would say such a thing.
    “Heartless, maybe…but I’m trying to look out for you.”
    “Then do us both a favor and don’t . I love Nora and…” All of a sudden, he realized what he’d just said.
    Jason leaned back in his chair and smirked. “That’s what I wanted to hear you say.”
    “What?”
    “Nora has enough going on in her life. If you aren’t serious about her and Destiny, you don’t deserve to be there. She doesn’t need more stress, and that little girl doesn’t need to be devastated in the middle of the biggest fight of her life. I fought you on this because I wanted to find out how serious you were. If you were going to leave them at the first sign of trouble, then it needed to be now.”
    “You did this to see if I was serious about them? Who put you in charge?” Brian couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Shouldn’t Jason have already known Brian better than to think he’d just disappear on Nora and Destiny?
    “Liz was pissed when she found out, but Nora was the most important thing. I also wanted to remind you that no matter how hard you try, Jim will always be there. He might be dead, but he’ll be a ghost in her past and there will be times she’ll think about him. Are you ready for that?”
    “How could she not?” Brian stepped back and lowered himself onto one of the chairs. “Jim will always be there for both of us, but I’m okay with that because I love her, and I think he would be happy about it, too. Every time I look at Destiny I can see Jim in her. She has his fighting spirit within her, and that’s why I know she’s going to make it through these treatments.”
    “What makes you think he’d approve?” Jason raised an eyebrow at him.
    “He’d want Nora happy, to know that she and Destiny are taken care of. There’s no reason she shouldn’t love again, or that Destiny shouldn’t have a father figure.”
    “She might not have met Jim, but she knows the man in the picture by her bedside is her father. How are you going to handle it when she asks about him? And before you ask, I peeked in on her and Nora when I first found out who she was and I saw the picture of Jim by the bed.”
    “I’m going to be up front. There’s no reason she shouldn’t know what a good man her father was, that he died to keep her safe. I won’t try to be her only father, but I’ll try to be there for her.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “If it ever gets to the point that Nora and I have children of our own, there will be no differences in how they’re treated. Even if