Free LOVING ELLIE by Lindsey Brookes

round his patrol car.
    “It was good seeing you again, Lucas,” Blaine called back before sliding behind the wheel and starting the engine.  “Ellie,” he added with a tip of his hat before driving off through the glistening snow.
    “Well,” she said, “that was awkward.”  She turned to Lucas.  “Care to tell me what that was all about?”
    Lucas sighed as he watched Blaine drive away.  “I should have known better.”  Just as it had with the sheriff, a frown had replaced his playful smile.  “Let’s just say some old memories should never be stirred up.”
    She knew that all too well.  But what did cows on a road have to do with Blaine’s sudden drastic mood change?  Deciding she wouldn’t be getting any real answers from Lucas she started back to the house.
    “Where you going?” he called out.
    “To get dressed for work,” she called back over her shoulder.
    He went into a jog to catch up to her, his boots crunching in the snow as he moved.  “Ellie...”
    She stopped just outside the front door, her back to him. 
    “I meant what I said before.  I don’t want you to leave on account of me.  There’s room enough for the both of us here at the ranch, but I’ll get a room somewhere else if it will make you more comfortable.”
    His leaving Eagle Ridge long before the birth of her son would accomplish that.  She felt torn.  She felt panicked.  She felt guilt.
    “Try to understand I need to be here for the birth of my nephew.  Need to get to know the woman my brother loved.  The woman who will raise his child with love and tenderness.  One who will teach her son about the man who should have been there to help raise him.”
    “Will you stop!” she cried out.  “I’m not that woman.”  Tears rolled down her cheeks.  “Will never be that woman.”
    A gentle hand settled over her shoulder.  “Ah, Ellie, I know you’re scared.  But there’s not one doubt in my mind of the kind of mother you’re going to be.”
    She spun around, his image nothing more than a blur through her tear-filled eyes as she looked up at him.  “So do I.  That’s why I’m giving my baby up for adoption.”

 
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Blaine’s heart thudded against his chest as he neared the road block of straying cattle.  A woman, her back to him, shoved at one of the cows, trying to coax it back into the pasture. 
    He blinked hard, certain his mind was playing tricks on him.  But she was still there.  A living, breathing ghost from his past.  His heart skittered wildly.
    Victoria.
    Long legs encased in denim disappeared beneath a light blue ski jacket that was belted at the waist.  Auburn curls danced around in the wind, glowing like strands of burnished copper under the morning light. 
    She was even more beautiful than he remembered if that were even possible.  Ten years should have taken away her shine.  Made her less desirable.  Eased the hurt.  But it hadn’t.
    Anger swept in to replace the shock of seeing her again.  Why was she there?  And why did she have to look so darn good?  He wanted to turn his patrol car around and drive off.  To distance himself from the only female to ever latch onto his heart.  The same one who played him for a fool and left his heart capable of nothing more than beating.
    But he’d taken an oath as sheriff and he was there on a call.  Time to pull up his boot straps and do his job.  He cut the engine and stepped out of the patrol car.
    “So this is what they mean by history repeating itself,” he said, trying hard to sound unaffected by her presence.
    She whipped around, a slender hand going up to push the blowing hair from her face.  A soft gasp followed.  “Blaine?”
    “You remember my name,” he said as he moved towards her.  “I’m impressed.”
    All color drained from her face.  She grabbed at a nearby cow to steady herself.  “You...you’re still around.”
    She was perceptive if anything.  “Been here since