Rohn Federbush - Sally Bianco 03 - The Recorder's Way Read Online Free PDF Page A

feel humbled. He knew he would be willing to spend his whole life with her, but he couldn’t touch her hand. He first ran across her at the City Club while he was chasing down another older woman in an investigation.
    O ne cold Friday night when he refused to take comfort in wine or easily accessible women, Max decided to make his intentions known to Maybell. The pursuit of happiness was his due. After all, he put up with the indignities of the armed services to afford life and liberty. He needed a wife to crown his success at the detective agency. Everything else had been too easy. He relished the challenge of courting her, on her terms. He felt akin to mountain climbers making resolutions about the peaks they would reach. His highest aspiration was to show Maybell how much love he could bestow.
    The watercolor classes Maybell attended every Thursday morning at the City Club had allowed Max easy access. He’d opened the door for her one morning and carried her things from the car the next week. He admired the leaning lighthouse picture she shared with him. He praised her astounding freedom of colors, the yellow skies, the pink lakes. After one class, Max asked her to go to lunch.
    Maybell’s table manners put him to shame. He endeavored to keep his feet under his side of the table, but the temptation to touch or bump her leg caused his feet to creep. Her perfume diverted his best intentions. His witticisms failed to elicit more than brief smiles. After he escaped the Club, he felt ridiculous. He pounded the steering wheel, trying to stop an insane urge to open his mouth and pant. He wanted Maybell’s lingering scent to reach his innermost recesses.
    The next week, Max asked Maybell why she didn’t wear rings. The remark came out without forethought. The sight of her ringless hands made him deliriously happy. He doubted if he could have stopped the question from blurting out.
    Maybell examined her manicured nails. “My hands swell in the night, and in the morning I can’t remove my rings.”
    Her hands were a s perfect as a model’s, as far as Max was concerned. He wondered if the painting caused them to swell from overwork.
    She lifted the heavy lids of her magnificent eyes. “I wear bracelets instead.”
    Max planned to immediately purchase her every available round piece of jewelry in the world. “Is one of those made of ivory?”
    Maybell blushed. “I know ivory is illegal, but I think this is an antique.”
    Max wanted to stop her embarrassment. Who was he to cause her any discomfort? In the next breath, it was out. “Will you marry me?”
    She laughed, heartily. Tears came to her eyes. She used her napkin to hush her hysterics, but she never stopped looking into his eyes.
    As Max watched the mirthful tears roll down Maybell’s cheeks, he thought all was lost.
    She patted his hand. “Would you like any of my watercolors?”
    “Could I have all of them?”
    In the parking lot, to say good-bye, Maybell stretched up on the toes of her classy shoes to plant a warm kiss on his hot lips. She pulled the back of his hair, and Max lost all semblance of order. He engulfed her slenderness against him, kissed her with his mouth shut. He held her beautiful face in his hands until she opened her eyes. “When will you marry me?”
    “Some day,” she said without the laughter, but with the tears. “Some day, soon.”
    Max was so besotted with Maybell he thought he could, even now, smell her essence in the reception area of The Firm. “Helen?” he yelled.
    The clock behind him chimed one o’clock.
    Helen emerged from the computer room. “Dad wants us to visit Mother. Big case in the works. Twenty thousand to find out the background of a young man, who just happens to want to marry into the rich Clapton family.”
    Andrew followed Helen into the reception area. “Your mother knows Mrs. Clapton.” Max didn’t enjoy Andrew’s lurid wink. “So did I, before I met my wife, Julia.”
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    In the