Long Time Coming Read Free Page A

client to date down the hallway toward the studio.
    By the time they reached it, Law was lounging against the edge of her desk, looking as innocent as a choirboy. She was standing in the middle of the room, feeling as adrift as if she were in the middle of the Pacific without a life raft.
    "Mr. Howard," she said breathlessly her fingertips on her throbbing lips, "please forgive my appearance. I was working in the yard when…" She gestured toward Law. "When Colonel Kincaid surprised us by stopping by."
    She needn't have worried about him being put off by her disheveled appearance. He didn't even notice her. "Well, this is certainly an unexpected pleasure," he said expansively. The advertising agency executive stepped forward to shake the astronaut's hand. "It's an honor, sir."
    "Thank you."
    Only then did he acknowledge Marnie. "Ms. Hibbs, you didn't tell me you knew our latest national hero." Law's brows drew together into a frown. Clearing his throat uncomfortably the man added, "No reason you should, of course."
    "Colonel Kincaid's the model for her sketch for the phone book."
    "If I get the job, David," she said, self-consciously wetting her lips. She tasted Law's kiss on them and experienced the outlandish but not unfounded fear that it might be visible.
    "Would you like to see the drawings I've made so far, Mr. Howard?"
    "While you're doing that," Law said, "I'm going to take David for a drive."
    "You mean in the Porsche?" the boy asked ecstatically. He let out an Indian war cry leapt in the air, slapped the ceiling, and then raced from the room. "I've got my learner's permit, you know," he called back. "I'll get my license in just a few more weeks."
    "David, don't you dare touch Colonel Kincaid's car," Marnie cried in alarm.
    "He'll be all right."
    "But where are you going?"
    "Around the block," he said, giving a casual shrug with one shoulder. "No place special."
    "How long will you be gone?"
    "Awhile."
    She wanted to scream at him for giving her vague answers. She wanted to put her foot down and say no, definitely not, David wasn't going anywhere with him. She wanted to run after David and grab hold tightly.
    But with Mr. Howard standing there, she had no alternative but to be gracious. Knowing that Law took full advantage of the situation. She watched him swagger down the hallway and out the front door to meet David, who was already sitting in the passenger seat of the car.
    "Have you, uh, known Colonel Kincaid long? Mr. Howard asked tentatively.
    Marnie turned and saw the man was dying of curiosity. He didn't have the nerve to come right out and ask about the relationship between the astronaut and the teenager who called her mom. Coolly she replied, "I've known him awhile."
    Mr. Howard left twenty minutes later. She felt confident that he liked her preliminary sketches. He warned her, however, as he was zipping them into a large portfolio, that there were two other artists being considered and that the final decision would be left up to a committee of agency and telephone company executives.
    "Your work is more avantgarde than the other two."
    "Is that bad?"
    "No," he replied with a smile. "Maybe it's time we broke with the traditional." Beyond that all he would say was "You'll be hearing from us one way or the other in a week or so."
    She walked him to the front door. Through the screen she watched him leave, at the same time scanning the street for a sign of the Porsche. It was nowhere in sight.
    Worriedly she wrung her hands. Where had they gone? What were they talking about?
    Was Law barraging David with questions he wouldn't know the answers to?
    Before she worked herself into a tizzy she decided to take a long overdue shower.
    Shortly she emerged from her second story bedroom dressed, wearing makeup, and feeling more self-assured than she had in cutoffs and T-shirt.
    She was relieved to hear voices coming from David's bedroom. Stepping through the open doorway, she saw him listening, enthralled to Law's