Read Lady Be Bad for Free Online

course."
    "Think so?"
    "I know so."
    Closing her eyes, her chin resting on the
back of the bronze statue that was balanced on her knee, Marlayna
easily drifted back in time, back to the last day she had seen her
husband
    "For heaven's sake, Noah, stop shouting!
It's only the sports page!"
    "You could have waited to cut out that
coupon, Mimi. Is it too much to ask to read the baseball
scores?"
    She grabbed the newspaper from the
stranglehold his hand had on it. "I'll tape the damn thing back
together."
    "Don't bother, I'll read it at work."
    "Then why all the fuss?"
    Noah had muttered something profane, counted
aloud to ten and then picked up his orange hardhat from the dining
room table. "Come on, walk me to the door, and kiss me
good-bye."
    "No."
    "What do you mean, no? You know I can't work
unless I get a kiss from you."
    "Tough."
    "Getting a kiss from you lately has been
tough."
    "What do you mean by that crack?"
    "Oh, hell, Mimi. We can talk about this
tonight. "I'm going to be late and you already are."
    Marlayna jumped when her mind vividly
replayed the slam of the front door six years ago. Six years almost
to the day. August thirteenth. A day that, at least to her, would
live in infamy. A day on which all dreams and hopes were
shattered.
    It was four thirty-five on Friday, one half
hour to quitting time, and the emergency room at Grady Memorial
that had been oddly quiet all day suddenly exploded into activity.
Eight ambulances, sirens wailing, screamed into the receiving
doors, carrying construction workers who had been caught when a
brick wall had collapsed. Three of the men were red blankets — dead
on arrival; five others were in serious condition. One of the five
was her husband.
    Squeezing her eyes tighter, Marlayna was
able to see two Noah Drakes. The first was the half-angry,
half-teasing man who had tried and failed to get a good-bye kiss.
Six feet of broad-shouldered, tempered muscular strength that had
made love to her the first time with such tender care and concern.
He had a wonderful smile that reached his brown eyes and a deep
cleft in his square chin.
    That was the picture of Noah she treasured,
the one that remained so disturbingly real that the man actually
seemed to have shadowed her all these years. An image so unlike the
other one — the one of her husband lying on an ambulance gurney,
his body impaled with tubes and wires, his face bruised and
bleeding, features distorted by dust and dirt.
    She had learned the facts of the accident in
the Atlanta Evening Journal. Preliminary findings indicated
no criminal negligence; the brick wall was reported toppled by a
sudden gust of wind. A breeze that instantly extinguished three
lives and sent five men to intensive care. Marlayna had ceased
being a hospital employee and joined the other wives to wait for
word on their husbands.
    All received reports but her. None of the
nurses or doctors would answer any of her questions; none would
even look her in the eye. Finally, after over a dozen hours, one
doctor did come out and speak.
    "Mrs. Drake."
    "How is he? How's my husband?"
    "As well as can be expected," was the
doctor's vague response. "I think you should go home."
    "Home? But I want to see Noah."
    "He doesn't want to see you." The
physician's hand had squeezed her shoulder. "I'm afraid patient
information is not extended to couples who are separated."
    "Separated? I...what...I don't
understand."
    "Please, Marlayna, just go home. You won't
be allowed any special privileges."
    A heavy sigh shook her body. "I never wanted
anything special. Oh, maybe just to give Noah that good-bye kiss he
so dearly wanted."
    Just a kiss. A simple puckering of two lips
pressed against two others. She had longed for that kiss every
morning and every night for six years. Longed for the kiss. Longed
for the love. Longed for the man.
    Marlayna's fingers flowed along the sculpted
beauty that was the metal unicorn. Unicorn—a mythical beast. Had
their happiness been mythical, too?