Obsession (Southern Comfort) (4 page)

Her elbow hurt.  Jingle Bells
was playing for the fiftieth time that night.  And she’d been marginalized again by her lover.  “I’m not sure he’ll be able to make it.  Something came up.”

A frown puckered Sadie’s brow.  “He missed Thanksgiving, too.”

“Well, technically, he didn’t.  He just missed ours.”  Jingle Bells switched to White Christmas and Kathleen thought,
shut up, Bing.
  “You know he has a huge family too, and he wanted me to go with him. But this was a big year for us, what with you and Maureen’s husband joining the family, and all these babies on the way. And I had deep, deep suspicions about Rogan and Kim –”

“Wasn’t that wonderful?”  Sadie sighed to herself, in raptures over the way Kathleen’s other brother had proposed to his longtime girlfriend by substituting her napkin ring with a diamond one.

“It was great.” Kathleen snagged another cheese straw.

“But I thought you were doing the whole Christmas thing at his parents’ house,” Sadie peeled her eyes away from the cheese straw to say.  “Which means this is the only chance we have to see him.  Come to think of it,” she wrinkled her nose, looking like a bemused angel.  “I don’t think I’ve set eyes on him since… oh. 
Oh. 
Halloween.  You were wearing that rod of green velvet curtains with the pattern pieces cut out. And Anthony was supposed to be Scarlett O’Hara – which was a
fantastic
idea, by the way – complete with green velvet dress.  But Anthony was late. And when he finally showed up, he wasn’t in costume.”

The cheese straw turned to dust in her mouth.  Kathleen had spent that whole night as a bad joke without a punch line.

“He got caught up doing surveillance.  No big deal.”

“Well, that’s charitable of you.”

“Anthony’s a good guy, Sadie.”

“
Anthony’s a
great
guy.”  Sadie leaned forward, just a little.  “So why are you so unhappy?”

“Who said I’m unhappy?”

“Kathleen –”  

“Here.”  Kathleen was spared from having to hear the rest of what she already suspected was true when her brother Declan came up to the bar, carelessly efficient and cantankerous as ever, to plunk a glass down in front of her.  “Real eggnog, not that crap Maureen is passing out. Don’t say I never gave you anything.  Hot cider for you,” he said as he slid a mug in front of his wife.  “No alcohol for the little guy until he can hold a beer by himself.”

“He?”  Kathleen arched a brow at her brother, who dipped his goateed chin in a nod before grabbing a couple cheese straws.

“It’s a boy,” he said as he munched. “Declan, the next generation.”

“We don’t know that,” Sadie said reassuringly when she saw Kathleen’s look of horror.

“Hell we don’t.”  He came around the end of the bar to wrap his arms around Sadie, one hand straying down to pat her
still flat belly. “Maureen and Tate are having girls, so God sent me to provide reinforcements.”    

Kathleen turned her disgust on his wife.  “How do you not smother him in his sleep?”

“Well, I would.”  Sadie snuggled back against him, and Kathleen felt a pang of jealousy, immediately followed by guilt.  “But the Smithsonian pays so well when they borrow him for their caveman exhibit.”

Unfazed, Declan angled his dark head toward the door.  “Doctor Hopeless is here.”

Still coming back from that pang – she was
happy
for the two of them, damn it – Kathleen wasn’t sure she’d heard him right.  “Doctor Hopeless?”

“I think he means Justin,” Sadie expla
ined and Declan muttered “Some detective you are.”

“What was that all about?” she said to Sadie after Dec dropped a kiss on her blonde head and sauntered away, more holiday snark to dispense.

Sadie just looked at her over the rim of her mug.   “You know how it pains me to agree with your brother, but for a clever woman, you can sure be dumb.  Hello, Justin.”

Confused, Kathleen turned to see the man himself, tall and broad-shouldered in his white cable knit sweater, lean cheeks ruddy from the chilly air, holding onto a brightly wrapped package.

“Sadie.  You’re looking well.”  He planted a smacking kiss on her cheek. “How are you feeling?”

“Never better.”

“I guess you’re one of those lucky women with whom pregnancy agrees.  Kathleen.”  He extended the package.  “For you.”

“What?” She dropped a cheese straw back onto the platter.  “We weren’t supposed to get each other anything.  Were we?”  She did a mental checklist and shook her head.  She never suggested exchanging gifts when she didn’t absolutely have to, because shopping for them made her break out in a rash.  “No, I’m absolutely sure we weren’t. You really shouldn’t have, Justin.”

“Oh, hush.  Just open it,” Sadie said, and then to Justin “Would you like a drink?”

“Um, is that eggnog?”

Kathleen tuned them out while she slid her fingers under the shiny green foil, its dozens of tiny reindeer prancing across fluffy piles of glittering snow, mocking the fact that she’d been channeling the Grinch, and tried to figure out how she felt about the unexpected present.  She and Justin had been friends for – well, several years now, wasn’t it? – and they’d never moved beyond buying each other a round or two on their respective birthdays.  He’d tried to pick up the tab the first time they’d eaten out, but she’d squelched that and ever since then they’d gone dutch.  Maybe he felt bad about her elbow.  Which was just stupid, because he’d been yanking her out of the path of stray bullets and flying glass. 
Which,
if she really considered it – something she’d been trying to avoid – had chipped her ego along with her elbow.  She was the cop, damn it.  Childish as hell, but there it was.  It wasn’t like –

“You rat,” she said as she lifted the lid.  A sling sneered back at her.  “What, they were all out of fruitcake?” 

Glancing up, she met steady gray eyes over sparkly tissue.  “Merry Christmas.”

“Justin –”

“You wear it like this.”  Sitting his newly acquired eggnog aside, Justin leaned over her to fit the sling around her arm.  He smelled clean, freshly showered, and reeked of satisfaction.

“You think you’re clever, don’t you?” she said as he gently manipulated her arm.

“Well, a man has to be, to outwit you.  There.”  He stepped back, surveyed his work.  “Keep it on as much as possible for the next few days.  It should help counteract the swelling.  You’ve been applying an ice pack?”

“Every four hours.”  Her tone was falsely sweet.

“That coupled with the anti-inflammatory should take care of it.  Luckily the fragment was small.”

“Justin
–
”

His affable tone took on just a thin edge of irritation, but he pitched his voice low.  “If you don’t keep it immobilized until the swelling goes down, you’ll exacerbate it to the point that surgery is the only option.  Then you’ll be on desk duty for a month.  I know you don’t want that.”

He was right, and it pissed her off.

“Besides,” he added
at normal volume.  “I feel badly enough about this as it is.  Just wear it for a few days.  For me.  Because otherwise I’ll feel like an ass every time I see you grimace.”

“Oh, you’re good.”  She shook her head as irritation gave way to resignation.  He’d made it seem like she would be doing him a favor, salvaging her pride and getting his way in one simple turn of phrase.   And she’d look both petty and stupid if she told him exactly what he could do with his little sling.  “Or possibly evil.”

“Life 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 somebody?  I can go distract him with a hamburger.”

“We were just discussing the abundance of mistletoe in here…oops,” Sam said as Molly turned fussy and started chewing her fist.  “Sounds like somebody else is hungry.  I better go feed her before things get ugly.”

After Sam took the baby and wandered off, Justin realized she hadn’t finished explaining what she’d meant.  Not that it was what he’d actually call important.  Amazing hands?  Hell, what surgeon didn’t? 
And if they didn’t, they were in the wrong profession.

Putting that out of his mind, he turned to catch Josh saying “…sling. Boy that brings back some bad memories.”

Kathleen arched a brow at Justin.  “See? You guilting me into this thing is going to traumatize my co-worker.  He’ll have bullet-riddled flashbacks to the day he was shot, wake up screaming in the night, lose sleep, perform poorly –”

“Hey, my performance is
excellent.”

“ – on the
job. 
Really, for Josh’s sake, I think I should avoid wearing the sling during working hours.”

When Justin just stared at her she said “Fine. 
Fine
.  But his impending mental breakdown is all on you, buddy.”

Buddy.  Justin really hated that word.

“Maybe if you push her down again,” Josh said around a mouthful of Chex mix he’d snagged from Kathleen’s cup “you could incapacitate something more useful, like her mouth.”

“Harding!”
someone called from across the room, and Josh lifted his hand in acknowledgement.  “Cripes, I think there was a bum over on East Bay your family forgot to invite, Kathleen, but otherwise the whole city is here.  I’ll catch you guys later.”