Obsession (Southern Comfort) Read Online Free PDF Page B

would be pretty damn boring without a little of both.”
    Because it was true, and because he was her friend, and because her elbow did hurt, damn it, Kathleen sent a playful punch into his stomach.  With the hand not immobilized by the stupid sling.  “I guess this means you’re going to have to spread ‘em, after all.”
    “What?”
    “Excuse me,” Sadie said as she choked on her cider.  “Wrong pipe.  Uh, I think I’ll just…” she gestured vaguely toward the back of the pub.  “Pregnant woman.  Bladder.”
    Kathleen watched her hustle away, then turned back to Justin with amusement.  “I guess Sadie got the wrong idea.”
    “Right . ”  Justin blinked at her, before taking a healthy slug of his drink.  “Wrong idea.”     
     
    “SECOND best-looking guy in the room, and he’s standing all alone.”
    Justin turned from where he’d been studying some homemade ornaments – the Murphy siblings’ grade school handiwork – and lit up like the tree behind him.  “That’s because I was waiting for the best-looking girl to come see me.  Hello, Molly.”  He tugged the happily kicking foot of the rosy-cheeked baby.  “And her mother, too.” He dropped a kiss onto the cheek of Samantha Harding, one of his favorite people in the world.  “I know it’s been too long since I’ve seen you, because Molly is huge.”
    Pride bloomed, taking Sam’s face from sweetly attractive to a thing of Madonna-like beauty.  “Isn’t she just?  And she’s happy tonight, which is a bonus.  Yesterday was her four-month checkup, so we were both feeling a little suspicious of medical professionals.  Good thing you’re not wearing scrubs, or she might have beaned you with her rattle.”
    “Wouldn’t be the first time a woman has resorted to violence where I’m concerned.”
    “Oh, I don’t know.” Her hazel eyes danced like sugarplums.  “From what I hear at the center, you’ve got quite the fan club at a certain local restaurant.”
    “What?”  Sam was a social worker, and currently split her time between the delightful Molly and the outpatient substance abuse program where she worked a couple days a week.  He had no idea why his name should have come up.  “What restaurant?”
    “You really don’t have a clue, do you?”  She shook her head, a laugh bubbling out as Molly made a grab for Sam’s swinging brown hair. “I could torment you and claim client confidentiality,” she untangled her hair, kissed her daughter’s fist.  “But when this particular young woman heard that I not only knew you but was seeing you tonight, she insisted I say hello from her.  Well actually,” she amended with a little smirk “she called you that yummy doctor with the amazing hands , and suggested I plant one on you, but I’m fairly certain Josh might have something to say about that.”
    “What might I have something to say about?” Samantha’s husband asked as he strolled up, clearly the best looking guy in the room. Even by Justin’s purely heterosexual standards.  “Or, about which to say… whatever.  I’ve had too much eggnog to worry about grammar.”
    “About me kissing Justin,” Sam explained, passing him the gurgling baby.
    “Oh.”  He bounced his daughter, calmly unconcerned.  “Well, you are standing under the mistletoe.”
    “I am?”  Wary now, Justin looked up.
    “They’ve got it hanging all over.  I think Mr. Murphy’s trying to make up for that low fat stuff Maureen has him drinking by adding spice in other areas.  Honey, if you see a big Irishman in a red suit coming at you, run the other way.”
    Justin nodded.  “Because Molly doesn’t need to see that.  The whole I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus thing is just creepy.”
    “Who’s kissing Santa?” Kathleen asked as she came up beside him, popping some kind of holiday Chex mix into her mouth.
    “Do you ever stop eating?” Justin wondered.
    “Sure, sometimes I sleep.  Is Dad putting the moves on