Mad Enough to Marry - By Christie Ridgway Page 0,21

should stay home and wait, but I couldn't believe you would have stood me up. So our neighbor drove me to school and I waited outside the dance for you. I realized right away that people were whispering about me, but I pretended not to hear."

**You know that I eventually made it to your grandmother's."

**You know that I eventually made it back there myself."

**But we missed each other again when I went to school looking for you." Logan studied the way his hand covered hers and smiled a little. **Do you think if we'd had cell phones then that today the prom would just be a hazy, happy memory?"

He looked up and met her eyes. He even laughed. '*You're right.'* No matter what, he would have remembered each moment with her in vivid detail.

**But we went over all this that night, when we finally managed to be in the same place at the same time," Elena pointed out. "It was about 10:15 I believe. You gave me that wrist corsage and it was perfect."

**You didn't give me the boutonniere. You crushed it in your hand—pricking yourself with the pin as I remember—^then threw it and the corsage to the ground. You looked pretty perfect in that dress and those new shoes, by the way, even when you were using them to grind the flowers into the sidewalk." He had to grin, because he suddenly remembered how flummoxed he'd been, watching her stomp about, yelling at him in Spanish. He'd had no experience with someone so fiery and who so easily flung her emotions about.

He still didn't. **I never explained exactly what made me so late, though."

*'The battle between your second thoughts and your good manners, I imagine."

'That's not true, Elena. At least not in the way you mean."

'*Right."

**Fine. I'll admit I had second thoughts. I barely knew you, and it had been so...intense the night we met."

"We're not talking about the night we met," she said, sounding as if her teeth were clenched.

*'Okay, okay." He curled his fingers around hers and wasn't surprised when her hand remained stiff in his grasp. *'I was just about to leave to pick you up when my father called me into his study. An old friend had dropped by who he thought I should meet."

**You couldn't make your excuses?"

"You'd have to know my father—"

*'I do know your father." Elena sighed. "Okay, I can see him corralling you, even on the night of your prom."

"His friend was just like him. The minutes ticked on and on and they kept asking me questions, bombarding me with advice. Still, I might have left if my father's friend wasn't the president of Whitford College."

Elena stilled. "Where you were going to attend the upcoming fall?"

Logan nodded. "And I was in a big battle with my father over my major at the time. He wanted Economics or Electrical Engineering and I wanted Industrial Arts. That night, my father's friend listened to me and helped me convince my father that my choice was a good one."

And then he'd run out of the house and broken several speed limits to get to Elena's, afraid even to risk an explanation over the phone. Hell only turned hotter as he missed her at the house, then at the high

school. Finally, he'd sat outside her house until she'd arrived home. She'd been so angry that he'd not known what to say to her or even how to begin to make it up to her.

And she'd been so beautiful he'd found it difficult to find his tongue.

But then he'd discovered she was sixteen. Just turned sixteen! Her grandmother had called her inside, explaining to him in halting English that sophomores in high school had early curfews. '*You should have told me your age. I was stunned."

She shrugged. "What did my age matter? You didn't think I was good enough for you."

Logan shook his head. "I swear to you, that wasn't ever in my mind. And I wish I could take back how standing you up led you to that conclusion. If I could have prevented that, I would have. But there was another obstacle between us, Elena. Much more basic than what side of town we lived on or how late I was that night."

Her eyebrows rose. "What do you mean?"

"I think we might have made it past that mess— been laughing about it now—^if I'd called you again. If we'd made a date for the next night or the next week. Do you agree?"

She slid