Mad Enough to Marry - By Christie Ridgway Page 0,63

to their apartment slammed behind her sister.

Her gaze cut toward Logan. "Thanks a lot."

"You're welcome."

She made a face at him. "I have an auditorium that may never look like Paradise, a headache the size of the Pacific, and a Uttle sister who would like my head on a platter. This is not the time for fiinny."

He put his hands on her shoulders and massaged the muscles there. "Give me the chance to make you feel better then."

Elena frowned, thinking again of his insistence on attending the prom with her. Her misgivings weren't easy to verbalize, but they were just added weight to her shoulders. "You should make me feel better," she grumbled.

His hands still working their magic, he directed her

into the small parlw. Tlie shabby recliners and the big-screen TV remained the only furnishings, but he'd removed all the old wallpaper and stripped the paint off the wainscoting and window trim to reveal intricate woodwork that gleamed in the soft glow of a small lamp. *'It's beautiful, Logan," she said, awed by the change. "I can't believe how much work you've accomplished."

He took her purse and her tote bag from her and set them beside one of the recliners. Then he dropped into the big chair and drew her down on his lap so he could remm to kneading her tight muscles. '*When it's something you enjoy doing, it doesn't seem like work. On the other hand, I used to dread mornings because mornings meant going to Chase Electron-ics.

She adjusted her position, sitting across his lap so she could look at him. ''Really? You actually dreaded it?"

He nodded. "Yeah. What's worse, my father and Griffin love the business so much that it only added to my misery. I felt guilty for how much I hated it."

Elena frowned, then leaned forward to lightly kiss his mouth. 'Then I'm even more glad for you that you're now doing what you want."

His gaze didn't leave hers. "Are you, Elena? Are you really glad?"

She nodded. "Of course."

"Then maybe you should think about being glad for Gabby too."

Elena's spine stiffened. "I thought you were going

to make me feel better. Talking about Gabby right now isn't going to do that.*'

'I'll talk about me, then."

Elena squirmed. *'Come on—"

'*I was miserable for more years than I care to count because I went along with what my family expected of me. Not just in the business, but in the women I dated. Danm it, Elena, don't do that to Gabby. Don't design her life for her and expect her to follow it to the letter."

She jumped to her feet. 'I'm not designing her life. Fm helping to direct her talents." Hearing herself, she shook her head. "No, no, that sounds as if she doesn't know her own mind."

Logan's eyebrows lifted. "So you concede that she has her own mind? That she knows exactly what she wants?"

"Of course she does!" Elena hissed at him. "She's got the brains and the tenacity to be a doctor."

"But does she have the will?"

"She has the will to be anything," Elena shot at him. "Anything."

"Maybe her will—and more importantly her heart—^tells her she should be an artist."

Elena found herself restless and edgy, so she started pacing the small room, as if she could walk off the feelings. "She wants to be an artist because she's infatuated with Tyler and he wants to be an artist. As soon as her interest in him dies, so will her interest in attending Acton."

"What if her interest in Tyler doesn't die?"

'*Then his will in her," Elena replied. Her jaw hurt from the way she was clenching it to control her voice from rising. *'The truth is, when Gabby's heart is broken she'll finally grow up and figure out what's important."

*'Ah, now we're getting to it. The Gospel According to Elena."

Oh, his voice was so deceptively, so sarcastically mild. She clenched her fists. *'Go ahead and scoff."

"I'm not scoffing. I want to know what's *impor-tant' to Elena O'Brien. What did growing up teach you?"

That was easy. '*To count on no one but myself. To trust no one and nothing other than my own strength and my own sweat."

Though he was silent, the atmosphere seemed to grow heavy, charged with a tension that was almost electric. **Don't you really mean men?" he said. **That a woman shouldn't count on, trust a man?"

Elena tried to ignore the stormy feel that continued to gather in the small room. **That too," she muttered.

He popped out of the chair with such force that it