Mad Enough to Marry - By Christie Ridgway Page 0,66

hurry up and finish dressing. Tyler will be here soon."

*'Elena —"

*'I think this is where that 'respecting each other's decisions' comes in," she said dryly. **Drop it for now. Gabby, okay? Let's go take those curlers out."

After one last shake of her head, her sister didn't bring Logan up again. Elena helped Gabby into her dress and with her makeup and hair, and the forty-five minutes it took were the happiest the two of them had spent together in weeks. When Tyler knocked on the door, the look on his face when he saw Gabby sent Elena's heart to her throat.

Gabby appeared equally enchanted with Tyler. Elena could feel the giddiness of young love fizzing around them like bubbles in a glass of ginger ale. Her camera was waiting on the kitchen counter and the first time she looked through her viewfinder at the couple, the image sucked her breath away.

Through the objective eye of the lens, Elena clearly saw that Gabby was a woman. A woman who didn't

need to be coddled as Elena had coddled Fred and Wilma. Gabby no longer depended on Elena for everything. She was ready to make her own choices, and two of them could very well be the Acton School and Tyler.

BHnking against the sting in her eyes, her finger clicked the shutter and then she called to the couple to make another pose. A knock sounded at the door and Tyler opened it to admit Laura Chase, Lx)gan's mother.

Grinning at all of them, she held up her own camera. **As a mother only of sons, I never sent a daughter to the prom. May I?"

So Elena had a cUcking companion, and better yet, someone to stand with her as Tyler and Gabby left the apartment behind. Mrs. Chase audibly sniffed.

*They grow up so fast, don't they?" she said.

Elena half-smiled, thinking that Logan's mother had only known Gabby for a few short weeks. Then she nodded. **But they do grow up."

She accepted that now.

Chapter Fourteen

1 he moment his mother bustled next door with her camera, Logan grabbed a beer and collapsed onto his couch. He'd worked with a crowbar all day—^the rotting back wall of the shed behind the house would never be the same, not to mention the muscles in his shoulders—and it had worn him out.

Probably Ungering after-effects of that damn virus. It had hit him hard two nights ago, right as he and Elena had called it quits. When she'd said she could never trust a man, that she would never love one, he'd suddenly felt feverish—^hot and almost out of his head.

After a night without sleep he'd decided he was all better, though. Certainly he didn't care if she wanted to be single and celibate the rest of her hfe because—

God, no—^he wasn't in love with her. That had been the virus talking and now he*d made a nearly complete recovery.

As she'd said, his attraction to her had been about proximity and that damn past of theirs. Questions about it had lingered in his mind for years and seeing her again had brought them to the forefront.

It was natural that he'd been compelled to uncover the truth. And yeah, her kisses were as brain-twisting as he'd remembered. Elena in bed was as extraordinary as he'd always fantasized.

But she was trouble, with a capital *T," and that was not for a man who, after years of entanglement had broken free to seek a simple—^with a small **s"— Ufe. Elena made him crazy, and he savored sanity, thank you very much.

A pounding on his door roused him from his thoughts and his seat. He opened the door to find his father on the other side. Only for an instant. In the next breath, Jonathon Chase pushed his way into the apartment.

**Laura," he called out. *'rve had enough. It's time for you to stop this nonsense and come home."

Logan's eyebrows lifted. **She's uh, not here, Dad."

Jonathon sputtered a moment, then blinked. **Well, where is she?"

Ruining Gabby and Tyler's pre-prom moments wasn't something Logan would allow. **She'll be back soon." Then he held up his beer. **Would you like one?"

His father grunted and waved a dismissive hand, then dropped to Logan's couch. He was nattily dressed in his usual Saturday golf attire.

Logan sighed and sat on the other end of the couch. *'How was your golf game today. Dad?"

'*Don'task."

"Ah, well." Logan tried to dredge up some sympathy, though the only thing he thought golf was good for were those low-voiced TV commentators. They'd lulled