Free LOVING ELLIE by Lindsey Brookes Page A

the last time I saw you,” he said without any hint of emotion in his voice.  “How long ago was that, Victoria?  Ten years?”
    “Yes.”  Moisture filled her green eyes.
    Guilt?  Regret?  Hardly.  He of all people knew what a good actress she could be and he wasn’t getting sucked into her lies ever again.
    He stepped past her.  “I see you’ve changed your tactic.”  Kneeling, he lifted one of the cut wires in his gloved hand to study it.  “No more leaving gates open for you.  You’ve advanced to wire-cutting.”
    “I didn’t...”  The protest died in her throat as he stood and turned to face her.
    “Your aunt and uncle have enough on their plate without your coming back and adding to their troubles,” he said with a reproachful scowl.
    “I know they do,” she replied, unable to meet his gaze.
    Something stung the back of his neck.  He slapped at the throbbing spot with a muttered curse. 
    “Stop that,” Victoria demanded.
    Releasing the cut wire, Blaine stood.  He was about to question her reaction when something struck the back of his hat.  He stood, pivoting in the snow.  “What the...?” 
    Giggles erupted a short distance away.
    “Blaine!” Victoria exclaimed.
    “What?” he demanded, his attention forced back to where she stood, wide-eyed.
    “Not you,” she said in frustration.  She pointed past him to the tiny figure racing off through the woods, slingshot dangling from his hand.  “My son.”
    His head snapped around.  “Your what?”
    “My son.”
    “Blaine?”
     
    Victoria bit into her bottom lip, nodding her reply as she looked up into the eyes of the man she’d never forgotten.  Never stopped loving.
    Ten years older, Blaine Cooke had indeed become a man.  Her fingers curled at her sides to keep from reaching out to him.  For him.  To the memories of that summer.  His hair was shorter now, most of it hidden beneath his hat.  Even without seeing it, she knew those light brown strands still held streaks of gold. 
    He shifted uneasily, drawing her gaze to the scowl that cut into his handsome face.  A face that until that day, that very moment, had been locked away in her memories and dreams.  She didn’t blame him for hating her.  She’d gone back to college at the end of that summer she’d spent at her aunt and uncle’s filled with hope.  She and Blaine had parted with whispers of love and promises of a future together. Then her entire life turned upside down.  Her dream of being with Blaine shattered with two little words ‘You’re pregnant’.    
    “You and I both know there’s no way that boy is mine,” he said, his words a near growl.  “And if you think for one minute”
    “I’ve never tried to claim he was yours.  I would never do that to you.”
    He snorted.  “Yet you come back here with a son named after me.”
    “Blaine is his middle name.”
    “And his first?  After his real father?”
    “No,” she said, looking down at the ground.  What she didn’t say was that her son’s father didn’t deserve for his child to carry on his name.  “He’s name after my father, Jacob.”
    “But you call him Blaine?”
    “Sometimes,” she admitted.  He had no idea how much she wished her son was his.  “He goes by J.B.” 
    “And when folks around here learn his full name, what do you think they’re gonna believe?”
    That I loved you.
    “Don’t play games with me, Victoria.  I’m not some love-sick college kid anymore.”  He turned away, skillfully edging a cow back into the pasture it had escaped from.
    “I’m not playing games.”
    He glanced back over his shoulder.  “Then why are you here?  Why now?”
    Her gaze drifted back to the snow-laden branches her son had disappeared through.  “For my son.”
    “Sheriff Cooke,” her elderly aunt called out from the porch. 
    He gave a stiff wave.  “Myra.”
    “Thank goodness you came,” her great-aunt said as she tread carefully down the freshly