Read Online Amanda's Blue Marine by Doreen Owens Malek - Free Book Online Page B

seen her as she took her seat next to Tom and sat through the standard chicken dinner and the speeches. She waved to her mother and pushed the food around on her plate as the voices of the speakers merged and finally the clapping stopped. The pledges were made and the band in the adjoining room began to play. Tom pulled out Mandy’s chair and she got up, fleeing to the ladies’ lounge as he resumed his gladhanding. The flight proved to be a mistake, however, as Janet Grady was inside, applying scarlet lipstick to her gorgeous mouth. She looked at Mandy as if she remembered her from Pirro’s, but said nothing. Mandy waited until Janet had left and then sat down on one of the lounge’s loveseats, repinning her collapsing hair as a pretext for buying some time away from the reception room.
    Seeing Kelly on Tom’s home turf had unnerved her, as if they each had to stay in their own playpens and not mix their toys, one of which was her. But she couldn’t hide in the bathroom all night, so she straightened her belt and powdered her nose, then went back into the fray. Both Tom and Kelly seemed to have disappeared, which relieved her anxiety briefly, and she walked out near the Oriental screens which bordered the dance floor, separating it from the diners. She saw her mother heading in her direction and dodged behind one of the dividers. The band launched into a medley of forties tunes and Mandy listened to several of them, watching the dance floor fill as the slow numbers started, including her favorite, “I’ll be Seeing You.”
    “Dance?” Kelly’s voice said behind her.
    Mandy whirled to face him, looking up into his smiling blue eyes.
    “Wh …what?” she said, displaying the aplomb for which she was world famous.
    “Would you like to dance?” Kelly asked.
    “What are you doing here?” Mandy demanded rudely, then bit her lip, wishing she could disappear.
    He didn’t seem to mind her question, answering, “Commissioner Foster has a grandson with MD. Every year somebody from the detective division comes to this event to represent the force. This year it’s me.”
    And Janet Grady, Mandy thought.
    “I almost didn’t see you back here,” Kelly said.
    “I was hiding from my mother,” Mandy replied, then cringed inwardly. Why was she behaving like such a moron? His unexpected presence at this event had destroyed her composure completely.
    Kelly was laughing. “We should find a spot for her on the detective squad,” he told Mandy in an amused tone.
    The band wrapped “I’ll be Seeing You” and started another medley.
    “I love that song they just finished,” Mandy said softly.
    “I’ll get it back for you,” Kelly said.
    Before she could stop him he walked to the front of the room and had a short conference with the MC. He hadn’t yet returned when the MC announced, “A repeat request from the detective division of the Metro police force. ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ ONE MORE TIME.”
    Mandy watched as Kelly stopped in front of her and held out his arms.
    “Would you like to dance?” he said again, quietly.
    Mandy wanted nothing more at that moment than to accept his invitation. She didn’t even look around to see who was watching as she stepped forward and took his extended hand.
    Kelly wasn’t a polished dancer, but he was a natural athlete and that made him graceful. Mandy closed her eyes as he steered her around the floor to the strains of the forties’ tune which expressed the loneliness of many servicemen during solitary nights abroad. The room seemed to fade as Kelly’s grip tightened and she let her head fall to his shoulder. Her nose was buried in his dinner jacket. She closed her eyes and breathed in his musky scent, a combination of soap, shaving lotion, tobacco, and his warm skin. She could feel his muscles tense and relax as they moved, and she gripped the inward curve of his waist as he turned her firmly to the music. Her free hand rested on his collar and the soft strands of his