Mad Enough to Marry - By Christie Ridgway Page 0,11

at her over the top of the newspaper.

She sighed. "They did another round of earthquake inspections in my area and guess what? They found serious damage to our foundation. Gabby and I have to be out while it's being repaired."

"No earthquake insurance?"

Her blue eyes tried to wither him. "I don't own any diamond mines either," she said, then swung her legs over the bed to sit up.

She had to flatten her free hand to the mattress to steady herself and her face seemed to go paler.

That sign of vulnerability made him feel a httle sick. "Are you having any luck finding someplace to five?"

She took a fortifying breath. "On my budget? Not yet. But I have a few other places to check out today."

''Today? Hell, Elena, you don't even have the strength to stand up."

She didn't protest, but she didn't agree either. Instead, she mutely held out the wad of cash.

He hesitated, mulling something over in his mind. If he made the offer, certainly she'd refuse. But hey.

that was smart, he thought, because just the offer alone would earn him Good Guy points. In the game of Elena vs. Logan, nobody knew better than he that he needed all he could get.

She flopped the cash at him, both the bills and the gesture tired-looking. That did it. Witnessing yet another crack in that tough shell of hers made his stomach roll over and his last shred of self-preservation play dead.

'Til give you the painting back on one condition,'* he said. '*That you and Gabby move in here with me.

Her eyes widened. Oh yeah, Logan thought with great relief, she was gonna say no. And he was gonna get to keep Elena in Bed where she belonged.

Chapter Three

1 really had no choice. Gabby," Elena said a week later, avoiding her sister's eyes as she shoved another duffel bag into the already stuffed trunk of her car.

*1 didn't say anything," Gabby answered, her voice threaded with a hint of laughter.

**No, but I can hear what you're thinking," Elena replied grumpily, then slammed the hd of the trunk with more ferocity than necessary. **BeUeve me, if there was another option we wouldn't be moving in with Logan."

Gabby didn't answer. Elena turned to watch her sister shde more boxes into the back seat of their old four-door sedan. Her graceful movements and the sweet expression on Gabby's face distracted Elena from her bad mood.

Her younger sister was precious to her, she thought in a sudden rush. Gabby summed up all the best qualities of the women in their family. She was beautiful, like their mother, but also full of Nana's good sense. And, like Elena, she didn't shrink from hard work.

Her sister had managed to avoid their flaws though, thank God. Their mother, Luisa, had carried an air of resigned sadness from the moment her husb^id had left her until the day she died. Nana hadn't wanted much from life, but that meant she expected too little too—^both for herself and the two granddaughters she'd taken into her home after their mother's death. Marriage, babies, a man to provide, that was what their grandmother had told them to want, over and over again. She'd never considered that her granddaughters might desire something different for themselves.

She'd never considered that Elena had learned, in a few painful lessons, that it was foolish to depend on a man for anything.

As Gabby turned to take another box from her boyfriend Tyler, the sweet smile she gave him made clear she was much more trusting than Elena. It was one of two of Gabby's traits that made Elena uneasy.

'*You're sure my art supplies are in your car?" Gabby asked Tyler.

That was the other.

Elena worried that her sister's preoccupation with her hobby of sketching and painting might affect their long-term goal—Gabby's medical degree. "You don't need to worry about your college information

CHRISTIE RIDGWAY Al

either," she told Gabby. 'It's in the bright-blue accordion file, right there between the front seats. We won't lose sight of that."

**No," her sister replied, sending Tyler a pained look.

A look Elena decided to ignore. **I guess that's all we can fit for our first trip. When we come back we'll figure out some way to strap the futons and the table on the roof." Making a mental note to find some rope, she circled the car and pulled open the driver's side door.

'TU ride with Tyler," Gabby said.

Elena frowned, worry niggling at her again. It wasn't that she begrudged her sister time wifii her bo3^end, but