Page 96 of Silent Threat
Annie sagged against the back of the couch. “I don’t know. We only had an intro session. But I’m at Hope Hill as a therapist, and he was there as a patient. I crossed the line already. It’s a huge breach of ethics.”
She wanted to turn back time. “I should have stopped him right when he first kissed me.”
“Exactly.” Kelly jumped to her defense. “It’s all his fault. He started it. Want me to make a house collapse on top of him?”
“I can’t believe you’re talking to me about collapsing houses.”
“Too soon?”
Annie groaned.
Kelly finished her soup and put the empty bowl on the side table. “If you want to hate him, then I’ll hate him too. Want to talk trash about him? Who needs giant muscles anyway, right? Or a chest that wide. You’d probably spend the rest of your life trying to find him shirts that fit. Nobody needs that kind of grief.”
She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, her face tilted toward Annie. “And, seriously, if histhingis as big as the rest of him ... wouldn’t that hurt? Would you really want to limp around day after day?”
Annie squeezed her eyes shut, but she couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up in her throat. “Stop. Too much. Could we please not talk about his penis?”
“Have you seen it?”
“Kelly!”
“What? I’ve been divorced for ten months. Ten. Months. Throw the poor divorced woman a bone. Pun intended.”
Annie had to set her soup down so she wouldn’t spill it as her body shook. “Get your own boyfriend.”
“It could happen.” Kelly’s tone turned sly.
“Who?”
“David Durenne. The producer from the TV station. I think he likes me.”
Annie snorted. “You think? He carried you out of my collapsing house in his arms.”
“I thought we weren’t talking about collapsing houses.”
“My bad. What’s happening with David?”
“He keeps sending me clients.”
Annie said, “He came over to the house to help a couple of times afterthe incident that shall not be named.”
“Maybe he thinks of us as charity cases? Helpless spinsters?”
“Or maybe he’s a nice guy. The whole time he was at my place, he kept asking about you.”
Kelly’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
“He has a son. Tyler.”
“I know. He told me over lunch the other day.”
“You had a date?”
“Ran into him at the diner. He came over and asked if I minded if he sat with me.”
“He’s not a doctor or a lawyer.”
Kelly let her head drop to her knees. “When I said that, did it sound as incredibly shallow as I think I did?”
