Kindred Spirits Read Online Free Page B

martinis, famous for their healing and protective properties. Warmed by the vodka and ginger brandy, protected by friendship, Carol lowered her defenses and spilled about Jeff, about Michelle, about everything.
    Beth, a librarian, dismissed Michelle as a troublemaker who’d tried to get Philip Pullman’s books banned from her library because they sent a dangerous message to impressionable young readers. Lynne, then in her final remission, quietly pointed out life was too short to fight with your husband about idiots while Mary Kay came right out and laid her cards on the table: Michelle Richardson was a control freak with an overblown sense of entitlement.
    “Well, she isn’t all bad,” Mary Kay declared, her black curls bobbing in fury, her gray eyes flashing as she waved her martini glass like a queen’s scepter. “If it weren’t for her and her tedious PTA meetings, we may never have formed our little martini society.”
    Carol had forgotten that. It made her feel somewhat better.
    But putting Michelle in her place couldn’t change the underlying problems with her marriage and when Carol confided that she and Jeff hadn’t been sleeping together for months, the women wisely kept their counsel. Carol said the issue was her career. Jeff resented the disruption of their family life caused by her commute and overtime. He hated that she sometimes came in on the last train or spent the night in New York when she was in the thick of a case. It was hard on the kids, hard on him, he claimed. What was the point of having a wife if she cared more about her clients than her husband?
    To their credit, Mary Kay, Beth, and Lynne never once slammed him or even went so far as to suggest Jeff was out of line. They simply listened and refilled her glass, assuring her that Jeff didn’t mean what he said about finding her impossible to love. Of course he still loved her. She’d just misinterpreted because she was upset and tired.
    They stood by her like always, unquestioning and forever loyal. Not her husband— them.
    And that was when Carol decided her marriage was over.
    “I’m on your side.” Scott was leaning against her desk, arms crossed. His smile, turned up at one corner. He felt protective of her, though he was well aware Carol Goodworthy needed no man to fight her battles. Which only made him love her more.
    “I know you’re on my side.” She didn’t even have to think about it. From their very first interview when she was just fresh out of law school, Scott had been her advocate, her biggest cheerleader. “There was never any doubt.”
    “Tell you what.” He pushed the martini glass aside. “To make the trip home easier, why don’t you take the firm’s town car back to Connecticut.”
    She started to protest, but he put a finger to her lips.
    “Then, after you’re done cleaning out Lynne’s closet, I’ll have the car drop you off at my place where I’ll have dinner waiting, along with an ice-cold martini and a hot bubble bath. You can pour out your grief in my antique claw-footed tub while I whip up my famous veal chops. How does that sound?”
    The image of herself naked in Scott’s tub caught her slightly off guard, though why it should was surprising. They both knew they were heading in this direction. They’d been mentor and pupil, then colleagues and close friends. Recently they’d begun to share long discussions after hours in his office that led to drinks at the corner café followed by casual dinners and slow strolls back to the firm. He’d held her hands and brushed his lips softly against her cheek as they hugged good-bye. He’d have gone further if he wasn’t sensitive to the fact that she was still reeling from her shattered marriage. It seemed only natural that sex would be the next step. Scott Deloutte was not one to fritter away his precious spare time on platonic relationships with women, and Carol, as of the end of this month, would be officially divorced for one whole year.
    It