Drake Sisters 04 - Dangerous Tides

consider that a woman of your intellect would even get on the thing."

    Libby turned her head to stare out the window with a small secret smile on her face. Libby the bad girl.
    Her first lecture from big sister. She was grown and a doctor, but it felt like an earth-shattering achievement. Danger and making love and riding on a motorcycle. She wouldn't take back a single second of her night with Tyson Derrick.

    "Just in case you'd like to know, Lib," Elle said, studying her fingernails, "Sarah not only has been on a motorcycle, she owns one and drives it."

    "For work! For work, you wench," Sarah emphasized. "I'm in security and I do all sorts of things for the job. Libby's a doctor and much more—fragile."

    Libby whipped her head around. "I’m so not fragile. I'm a doctor . I don't hang out in a high-rise either, Sarah, I fly to Third World countries where people don't have medicine and their world is filled with power hungry murderers. I am not a pansy."

    Sarah held up one hand in surrender as she maneuvered through a switchback. "I didn't mean to offend you, Libby. I was being protective."

    "Well, don't. Why is it everyone thinks I need protection? Hannah and Joley both need more protection than I do. You do, too, Sarah. I don't do anything that warrants protection."

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    Sarah flashed a small grin. "You go out with Tyson Derrick."

    Libby huffed out a breath and tried not to smile. She did more than go out with him. She hugged the knowledge to herself. "I do, don't I?"

    Elle shook her head in disgust and settled back in her seat with a slight frown. "Another one bites the dust. Just so you know, Hannah isn't going to be happy with you. You were her last line of defense."

    Libby bit her lip. "I know she won't be happy. I think deep down she knows she should be with Jonas, but she can't accept him. He's too dominating. She's afraid she can't stand up to him and eventually he'll realize she isn't the strong woman he wants, but someone weak."

    "Hannah isn't weak," Sarah denied, shock in her voice.

    "Of course she isn't," Libby said. "Hannah thinks she is and that's all that matters. She isn't like the rest of us and she knows it. She never has been."

    "She believes we'll all have families and she'll be alone in our house," Elle added. "She laughs about it, saying she'll be the strange old lady with cats, but she isn't laughing on the inside."

    "And she isn't eating either," Libby said. "We have to find a way to help her."

    "Joley's been trying to get her to eat a little," Sarah confided.

    "Joley?" Libby was amazed, but then, on second thought, realized it was like Joley. She talked a good game, and played the part of the musician for the crowd and her adoring fans, but she loved her sisters just as fiercely as they loved her. And Hannah was different. She was the fragile one, even though she would deny it with her last breath. "Of course Joley would notice and try to do something about it. How many accidents have there been in the kitchen?"

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    All three girls laughed and it helped to dispel the terrible tension. Libby let her breath out slowly as the house came into view. The lights were blazing in welcome, the heavy gates wide open. Hannah and Joley waited on the wide verandah with anxious expressions and even Sarah's guard dogs ran in circles barking a welcome. The moment Libby was out of the car, Hannah and Joley nearly knocked her flat as they dragged her into their arms.

    "I was so afraid," Hannah said, somewhere between laughter and tears. "Don't you ever scare us like that again."

    "You aren't hurt, are you?" Joley stared at her leg and took her hand, turning it over to wince at the gravel embedded there.

    "It's painful, but I heal fast."

    Hannah stepped back to stare at her. "Libby, you have been with that man. I thought he had broken ribs. I was sure you were safe."

    Joley nudged her taller sister. "You mean you thought you were safe. Libby is a fallen woman."

    Libby carefully folded Tyson's jacket and set it on a chair with a loving caress her sisters couldn't miss. "I made certain I didn't expend a lot of energy, but I sped up his healing every time I saw him. Just a little touch here and there." She gave them a dreamy smile.

    "Stop mooning, you goose, and let's get you cleaned up." Hannah put a hand on Libby's back, felt her wince