Mad Enough to Marry - By Christie Ridgway Page 0,35

the instant she walked inside.

If only she wasn't such a lousy judge of men! Following the disaster with Logan, she'd steered clear of boys until her senior year in high school. Then she'd spent a few months dating one of those bad-boy types—^no coincidence that he was the exact opposite of Logan—^but he'd abruptly stopped calling when

her grandmother had died and she'd taken on the responsibility of her sister.

Four years later, a burgeoning relationship had fallen to ruins when the man realized Elena didn't have time to play corporate girlfriend, let alone corporate wife.

After that, men hadn't seemed worth the trouble. She'd been a busy woman with a little sister to raise. The men she met never paid any attention to Gabby and they'd hardly seemed interested in Elena herself. They'd only seemed focused on the way she looked.

But Logan...Logan seduced her with his canng.

It frightened her, because his support and strength sounded so appealing. What if she came to depend upon it and then he left her?

And leaving her was exactly what was going to happen. He'd suggested they get close so that they QO\M finish things between them, after all.

Would that really work? Could she spend time with him as a way to achieve a clean ending? It sounded risky, but there was the fact that Elena's best friend was married to his brother. If she and Logan didn't do something about the ever-present tension between them, there would be stressful social situations for years to come.

A warm breeze blew across her face. It smelled like gardenias and it instantly brought to mind Annie's wedding. They'd both carried bouquets of the fragrant, creamy-white flowers, and, as maid of honor, Elena had paraded toward the altar, feeling almost bride-like herself in a long satin dress. She'd dared to

peek at Logan, standing as best man beside his brother, and for a second or two she'd let herself imagine it was her own wedding and she was walking forward to join her life to his.

Oh, that was such a dangerous sort of imagining! And she had to admit she didn't think these fantasies would go away unless she took drastic measures.

Suddenly resolute, Elena placed her foot on the bottom step. Okay. She'd tell him yes. She'd go along with this crazy plan because it sounded marginally better than going crazy wondering what could have been night after night.

His plan seemed the only way she could regain control of her life.

Still, her heart jumped with each step she ascended. The front door was ajar and she pushed it open, suddenly eager to see—

Logan. Logan's arms wrapped around another woman.

She froze, trying to absorb the scene in front of her. It was Cynthia Halstead, Logan's long-time girlfriend. Supposedly they'd been broken up for months, but right now Cynthia appeared to be smiling and weeping at the same time.

A happy woman.

Logan looked up, spotted Elena.

A dead man.

He murmured something to Cynthia, then dropped his arms. **You're back," he said.

Elena lifted her eyebrow. Slowly. It was really, really important to play this well, she told herself, even

though this was the same rat who supposedly wanted her to fall into his arms. **Is that a problem?"

His eyes narrowed. '*No. No problem at all. Cynthia and I were just saying goodbye."

Elena shifted her gaze to the other woman and smiled at her. A genuine, pleased-to-see-you smile.

She hoped.

**Hi, Cynthia. You're not leaving on my account, I hope."

There were still happy tearstains on the blonde's cheeks. She glanced at Logan, back to Elena. '*Oh, no. I've got to get home. Immediately."

Short of video footage showing people fleeing from tornadoes, Elena had never seen anyone move so fast. One moment Cynthia was there, the next she was just a memory of unfairly long legs and Shalimar perfume.

Wearing a bemused expression, Logan looked off in the direction she'd taken. *'Cynthia was never one for confrontation," he murmured. *'We have that in common."

Elena thought of glaciers. The frozen tip of Mount Everest. An ice pick through Logan's heart. Oops. She shouldn't care that much about him, right?

'^Confrontation?" she scoffed. **What on earth are you talking about?"

*'Confronting you. You're angry."

"Not at you." At herself. For being so stupid, so stupid, to think for one second that her luck with men, with Logan would change.

Logan cleared his throat. "Cynthia came over to tell me she's engaged to Nicky LeGrand."

"Uh-huh." The day that former debutante Cynthia Halstead married Nicky "Let Me Care for Your Lawns" LeGrand was the day that Elena married... married... Now was