Obsession (Southern Comfort) by Lisa Clark O'Neill Read Free Book Online Page B

for the first time
    Good grief.
    Never at a loss for words, Kathleen pushed aside the ridiculous and unexpected thickness of her tongue and smiled in greeting.
    “Hey yourself. Sorry about that. I thought you were…” Anthony. Though saying his name threatened to twist her tongue into another awkward knot, so Kathleen shifted topics. “What are you doing here?”  She took in the ice blue tie, the dark suit just visible in the V of his coat.  She nodded at his fancy duds.  “I didn’t realize the theater had a dress code.”
    He stared at her for a few beats, his eyes searching her face, and Kathleen felt her pulse begin to drum a faster beat, the rapid thump, thump, thump echoing in her ears.
    She hadn’t seen him in the two weeks since the Christmas party.  Hadn’t heard from him either.  Not even a quick text wishing her a happy new year . Of course, she hadn’t exactly been rushing to contact him.
    Kathleen figured he was probably regretting that awkward kiss.  Well, not that the kiss had been awkward.  It hadn’t been.  At all.  But it had introduced a previously unknown… element to their friendship that, despite Sadie’s protestations to the contrary, he obviously hadn’t wanted to explore any further.  At least not immediately.  Or maybe never.
    Which was fine with her.  Really.  They had a good thing going, so he was wise not to want to mess it up.  And besides, she was already involved with someone.  Sort of.
    “Business dinner,” he said, dragging her attention back to the topic at hand. “One of the hospital board members invited some of us to the Oyster House to discuss… well, hospital business.” 
    “Ah ,” Kathleen responded, then caught Justin frowning at her sling-free arm.
    “All better. See?” She lifted her arm out to her side.  In reality it still ached from time to time, especially in this cold, but she wasn’t about to tell him that.  “The orthopedist cleared me yesterday.”
    Justin’s lips – don’t think about his lips – pressed into a suspicious line, but he didn’t grab her arm to have a look for himself.  Which was fine.  Not like he could tell much through her bulky coat anyway.
    “Just… take it easy for a while yet, okay?”
    “You bet.”
    T his was the most stilted and uncomfortable conversation they’d ever had. And because this was Justin , for God’s sake, Kathleen decided to grab the bull by the proverbial horns.
    “Look, Justin.  About the… Christmas party –”
    “Hey, hey, sorry I’m late.”
    Kathleen froze at the sound of Anthony’s familiar, albeit winded, voice.  She turned to see him trotting up, his dark complexioned face ruddy above the bright blue slash of his scarf.  He’d obviously been running against the bite of the wind. He grinned, charming and rueful, dropping a careless kiss on her cheek before turning a broad smile on Justin.  “Wellington.”  He pumped Justin’s hand.  “This is unexpected.  And you’ll notice that I managed to resist the opportunity to say what’s up, Doc.”
    “Corelli,” Justin returned the greeting after a brief glance at Kathleen.  From the stiff set of his shoulders as he conversed with her gregarious date, she guessed he was feeling as awkward as she.  Or hell, maybe he was just cold.  He’d always gotten along with Anthony. There was absolutely no reason for that to have changed.
    And i t was stupid to feel awkward.  Or guilty. She’d been friends with Justin for almost three years, and they’d shared a brief, public kiss beneath the mistletoe.  No harm done. And it wasn’t like she and Anthony were engaged or cohabitating or even considering either of those things.
    Anyway.  Time to stop acting like some kind of junior high drama queen who’d been caught with the wrong boy behind the bleachers.
    “So,” she said brightly to Anthony.  “We should probably…” She tilted her head toward the theater.   And then, just to prove that things were as