Page 94 of Obsession

Good or bad, I just wasn’t sure I could handle it tonight.

I finally escaped to the small break room and collapsed into a chair. I’d been talking for three hours straight, and the herd didn’t seem to be thinning. It was Black Friday so there were a lot more families in town than normal. Marblehead was mostly a seasonal place when it came to tourists.

I hauled myself up to go to the fridge for a bottle of water. Inside was a white bag. I frowned and peeked inside.

“I think that’s yours.”

I spun around. “What?”

Linda nodded toward the fridge. “If you’re looking at the white bag. That tall, really good-looking man in the dark suit brought it in for you.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what to think about that. I vaguely remembered him holding a bag when I’d seen him earlier. But then we’d…well, we’d been too worried about getting naked to talk about how and why he’d been there. He’d actually brought me food—thinking it was my house he was going to.

The butterflies were finally silenced, but now my chest felt tight. I brought the bag to the table. I pulled out two tins with white tops.

Linda sat down across from me. “What’d you get? Chinese?”

I tucked a fingernail under the pinched tin sides and peeled back the white top. My stomach roared at the scent of dressing and turkey. I opened the other tin, and it was full of cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and a large container of gravy.

Thanksgiving dinner.

“I couldn’t even look at turkey.” Linda sat back and sipped her water. “I swear, I ate my weight in it yesterday.”

I plucked out a piece of breast meat and nibbled. My mouth watered so much that I crossed the room for our stash of plates and cutlery. Five minutes later, I’d warmed the turkey in the microwave, and I was plowing my way through it.

He’d brought me Thanksgiving dinner.

I wasn’t quite sure what to think about that. In fact, confusion was tipping the scales in all ways tonight.

Linda stood with a sigh. “I wish a guy brought me dinner.”

“No luck with Jax?”

She snorted. “Yeah, that man is for a lost weekend, not bagged lunch. Though your guy brought ultra fancy bagged lunch.”

I poked at the stuffing, my initial hunger receding finally. “Yeah.”

Wait, he wasnotmy guy.

I looked up, but Linda was already heading out with a wave. I hurried to do the same. I went to scrape the rest in the garbage but at the last second, I changed my mind.

I couldn’t really waste food right now. And this was more than enough for an entire second meal. I tucked everything back into the tins, and then I stashed them in the fridge. I cleaned up in the little bathroom and popped a breath mint from the roll I kept in my pocket.

I took a deep breath before jumping back into the fray. I recognized two of the gossipier blue bloods from the bay.

Abort.Go around.

All of the bells and whistles were sounding off, but it was too late when Catherine Bishop smiled at me.

“Grace, dear.”

“Hi, Mrs. Bishop.”

“It’s so nice to see you in the gallery again. We all miss Annabelle so much.”

I forced a smile. “Yes, we do.”

“I just wanted to congratulate you on the sale of your angel. I was bidding on it before I even knew it was yours.”

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