Shades of Shame (Semper Fi) Read Online Free PDF Page B

sending instant curiosity into her veins.  She quickly straightened her hair and placed the washcloth on the counter top before opening the door.  As she walked down the hall, she saw him.  Whoa , she thought.  This couldn’t be Logan?
    “Stand up straight!” Gracie said as she straightened his collar as though he were an errant child.  “And you apologize to your mother and her guests about being late, ya’ dern fool.”
    “Yes ma’am,” the giant said with a laugh.
    “Now get in there…” she started to say when she noticed Leila entering the kitchen.  “Wait a minute.”  She turned him around to face Leila.  “This is Miss Johnson.  Miss Leila Johnson.  Logan, say hello.”
    With a sheepish grin that could only be matched by his father, he smiled and said, “Hello Leila.  I’m Logan.  Remember me?”  He turned his head and leaned towards her.
    “Of course I do!” Leila remarked.  “How could I forget?”
    Leila wouldn’t have recognized him in a million years if she’d seen him on the street yesterday.  But now in the presence of the McNarry’s he was instantly recognizable.  He had his mother’s mastery of his surroundings as well as her eyes and his father’s disturbing sexuality.  His demeanor rattled Leila to her very core.  She took a moment to remind herself that in the grand scheme of things Logan McNarry was inconsequential.  Time with him could accomplish nothing.  It might be fun though…
    “You two go on in and join the others for dessert, now!” Gracie said, pushing them both towards the door.
     

The Company You Keep
    “Leila dear, you don’t mind keeping Logan company while he eats, do you?” Elise McNarry smiled innocently.
    Leila stared across the elaborate dinner table at Logan.  She was still nearly speechless that this was the spoiled little boy she’d loved to torture as a child.  “Oh course not, Mrs. McNarry.  I’d love to,” she grinned sheepishly up at her hostess.
    Elise turned on Logan, “For the record, young man, I am not at all fond of your tardiness.  I told you we were having company at seven.  Would you kindly tell me where you could’ve possibly been that you felt was more important?”  Elise glared at her son.  It was obvious that the polished woman was angry, but both Leila and Logan knew that she was incapable of staying that way.  Logan knew it because his mother thought he made the sun rise each morning.  At least that’s the way she made him feel.  It showed in Logan’s ‘mama’s boy’ attitude.  Leila knew it because she was privy to the one secret that Elise and her own mother shared.  She knew that Elise McNarry had a lover, maybe even more than one.  A lover that kept her so satisfied and fulfilled that anger was a misplaced emotion within her happy world.  She simply couldn’t hold on to it.  Leila smiled up at the gorgeous woman whose happiness was always infectious.
    Logan shoveled another mouthful of steak into his mouth and chewed, “Oh c’mon, Mom!”  He stood up from the table, wiping his lips on the napkin from his lap, “I love you so much.  You know I wouldn’t be late for one of your dinner parties without good reason.”  He kissed her cheek but held his hands in front of him in oath, “That car that Dad just had fixed, lost its brakes down at the Marina!  My luck is that my boat was already hooked to the back of it!”
    Elise’s face clouded, “You mean to tell me that you were stuck at the Marina this entire time?”
    Logan kissed his mother on the cheek again and sat back down at the table, “Yes ma’am.  I had my phone with me though.  It just took a while to get a tow,” he nodded as he filled his mouth with baked potato.
    “Why were you driving an office vehicle anyway?” Elise questioned with sternness.
    Logan’s eyebrows rose with seriousness, “you don’t expect me to tow a boat with my car do you?”
    “I wish you’d called me!” Elise said with a