LOVING ELLIE

by Brookes, Lindsey

  I’m not.

  “I need to have a word with your son before I leave.”

  “Blaine, please. Just let it go.”

  “I can’t do that, Victoria,” he replied with a frown. “Now either I have a word with him here, or I take him into town to my office.”

  “You wouldn’t,” she gasped.

  To prevent the boy’s anger from causing her or the Winters harm, he certainly would.

  “Let him talk to the boy,” her aunt said as she came down the stairs to join them. “Maybe he can talk some sense into J.B.”

  Victoria looked ready to cry again as she nodded her consent.

  Myra led him upstairs to the room Victoria’s son was staying in. The boy was seated at the edge of the bed, his back to the door. His arms were crossed, his posture rigid.

  “J.B.,” Myra called out, “Sheriff Cooke here wants to have a few words with you.”

  “Go away!”

  “I wish I could,” Blaine said. “But that little stunt you pulled on your mom out in the barn this morning needs to be addressed.”

  Myra cast a worried glance across the room before taking her leave and closing the door behind her.

  “Your mother could have broken her neck climbing up that ladder this morning,” Blaine said as he moved toward the bed. “Was that your intention?”

  “I didn’t knock it down until she was off it,” the boy said in his own defense, much to Blaine’s relief. At least, he hadn’t been trying to cause Victoria harm.

  “So why’d you do it?”

  J.B.’s booted feet scuffed at the bed rail. “Because I wanted her to know what it feels like to be invisible, like I’ve always been to my dad.”

  What kind of life had Victoria and her son led before coming to Eagle Ridge? Despite the boy’s unacceptable actions towards his mother, his heart went out to both of them.

  Blaine stood there for a long moment, trying to determine the best way to handle the situation. He didn’t have any experience dealing with kids. Didn’t know anything about them other than he’d once been one.

  Removing his hat, he rounded the bed and settled onto the mattress next to Victoria’s son. “I’m sorry your dad makes you feel that way. You deserve so much better. But I’m telling you right now you can’t keep taking your anger out on your mom. She’s a good woman who loves you very much.”

  J.B. looked up and opened his mouth to reply, but only a small gasp came out. His green eyes widened. “You’re the man in the picture!”

  “The man in the picture?”

  “The one my mom keeps in her wallet.”

  Victoria kept his picture in her wallet? After all these years?

  “It makes her cry.”

  This was not headed in the direction he’d hoped for. Victoria cried over him? Blaine shook his head, trying to stay focused on the problem at hand – J.B.’s behavior.

  “Your mom and I are…old friends and sometimes old friends miss each other,” he said, trying not to go into his and Victoria’s relationship any more than he had to. “Now getting back to your behavior today-”

  “She never cried for my dad. Even when he shoved her.”

  Anger wedged thick in Blaine’s throat. No wonder J.B. was acting out the way he was. What else had the boy seen? He’d never met the man Victoria had married, but if the man was anywhere within his reach at that moment he would kick his worthless hide into the next county.

  “First of all,” Blaine said, “a man should never lay a hand on a woman in anger – ever.” He fought to keep his emotions in check. “Secondly, not all men know how to love and it sounds like your dad is one of them. Your mom did the right thing in leaving him and it’s time you stop punishing her for it. You’re the man of the house now. You need to start acting like it.”

  His eyes widened as Blaine’s words settled in. “I’m the man of the house?”

  Blaine nodded. “Time to own up to it.”

  J.B. looked up at him through eyes identical to his mother’s. “Sheriff…”

  “Yeah?”

  “Sorry I shot you with my slingshot.”

  “I’ll let it slide by this time,” Blaine said, a slow grin replacing the tight frown. “But no more human targets or I’ll have to confiscate your weapon and lock it up.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Maybe one of these days I’ll take you out to practice on actual targets.”

  J.B.’s face lit up. “You mean it!”

  “Sure. It just so happens I still have my slingshot from when I was a kid. But right now there’s something more important you need to do.”

  “Tell my mom I’m sorry.”

  He reached out to ruffle the boy’s hair. “You’re a fast learner.”

  If only he could say the same about himself. For a man determined to avoid the woman who had shredded his heart, what had he been thinking making that offer to her son? But he’d hold true to his word. Even if it meant tangling his life up with Victoria’s once again.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The screen door creaked open slowly behind her, making Ellie tense.

  “Ellie…”

  She prepared herself for another argument and then turned to find Lucas standing in the doorway, two steaming mugs in his hands. They had been avoiding each other for days, ever since their ‘talk’ where she’d flown out of the house in tears like a coward. And to think she had criticized him for running away when things got tough.

  He joined her out on the snow-dusted porch. “Thought you might be getting cold,” he said, holding a mug out to her.

  She eyed the drink in surprise even as the spiraling steam carried the scent of chocolate to her nose. “Hot chocolate?”

  “Decaf hot chocolate,” he corrected with a grin. “Something I never knew existed until I went in search of it at the grocery store today.”

  She took the mug he was handing her. “Thank you.” Then she turned her attention back to the yard just off the porch where moonlight had the snow glistening like a bed of crushed glass.

  “About the other morning…”

  “Not tonight,” she pleaded. “I don’t have the strength to go there again.”

  He moved to stand beside her at the railing. “All I wanted to say was that I’m sorry our conversation stirred up such bad memories for you. And you were right about your son deserving two parents who love him.”

  Finally. He understood and had accepted her choice. Relief swept through her, knowing she would have at least one person on her side.

  “That’s why I think we should get married.”

  She nearly choked on the drink of hot chocolate she’d just taken. “Wh…what?”

  “It makes sense,” he said, setting his mug atop the railing before turning to face her. “We both love that child growing inside of you. Together we could give him a complete family. And just so you know, money wouldn’t be an issue. I’ve done well for myself in Brazil. I work because I want to, not because I have to.”

  She’d been proposed to twice in her life. First by Jarrett after he’d learned she was pregnant with his baby. And now by Lucas. Neither had been the head-over-heels in love with each other kind of proposal she had on rare occasions fantasized about. Both had been forced by circumstance and were the most practical solution for the situation at the time.

  She looked up at him, shocked by his unexpected proposal. Any woman would be thrilled to have a man like Lucas Tanner propose to them. He was thoughtful when he set his mind to it, caring, and ruggedly handsome. A quality she’d been trying very hard to ignore.

  “Not just a complete family, Lucas. A happy, loving family.”

  “We’d be happy.”

  She shook her head in refusal. “It wouldn’t work. I don’t want my son growing up inside a marriage where…well, where there’s no real connection between his parents.”

  He took her cup from her hand and set it on the railing next to his. Then he reached out to clasp her shoulders. “Tell me this isn’t real.” />
  “Lucas? Wha-” before she could get the words out, his mouth moved over hers in a sweet, tender kiss.

  It felt so right. So… Ellie pulled away with a gasp, her heart racing.

  Lucas looked every bit as shocked as she felt as he stood looking down at her, eyes wide.

  What were they thinking? He was Jarrett’s brother. Her son’s uncle. The last man on earth she should be kissing. But she had.

  “I…I can’t do this,” she said, leaving him standing there as she hurried into the house – away from the temptation.

  *

  Try as she might, Ellie couldn’t concentrate on work. All she could think about was the tender kiss she’d shared with Lucas on the porch days before. Not on her upcoming appointment with the adoption attorney. Or about her finances which remained a concern with all her OB-GYN bills coming in. But about that unexpected kiss. It had to be the pregnancy. Her hormones were all off-kilter, keeping her from thinking straight.

  Her gaze drifted across the coffee shop to where Lucas sat reading the morning paper. He was sprawled across one of the padded booths that lined the front wall, looking right at home.

  With the recent snowstorms, he’d been driving her to work and picking her up afterwards every day that week. Normally, he would just drop her off and then go back to the ranch, but that morning he’d chosen to stick around for a cup of coffee.

  As if sensing her watching him, he lowered the paper and flashed a wide grin that set her pulse to racing just as it had with his kiss. She spun away, her cheeks warming at the memory, and busied herself with wiping up the already clean counter.

  “Rub any harder, honey, and you’re gonna wear a hole clean through that Formica.”

  Ellie jumped, startled by a familiar voice. She looked up, greeting her favorite customer with a welcoming smile. “Millie.”

  Millie Pearson ran a small bed and breakfast on the outskirts of town and had a reputation for cooking up some of the best food around for her guests. That is, before old age and the onset of severe rheumatoid arthritis had her ordering a great deal of her menu items from Ellie. All of which she gave to the elderly woman at a special discount.

  Millie was the first person in Eagle Ridge to welcome her there. She introduced her to people and made her feel like she belonged. Since then Millie had become like the grandmother Ellie had never really had.

  “Good morning, dear. Is my order ready?”

  “Your croissants are warming in the oven. Let me go grab them.”

  “Seems to me the croissants aren’t the only thing that’s warming in here,” Millie muttered with a glance over her shoulder.

  “What?” Ellie followed her gaze to Lucas. Then let out an uneasy laugh. “Oh, no…he’s just…that’s…”

  “Lucas Tanner,” she finished for Ellie in a whisper as if his identity needed to be protected. “I know. I’d heard he was back in town. Still a fine looker, that boy,” she said with a wave Lucas’s direction.

  He waved back with a warm smile and then went back to reading the paper.

  Boy? Ellie was tempted to argue that Lucas wasn’t a boy. Not even close. Not when he stood well over six feet tall and had a lean, hard build that would turn any woman’s head.

  “Always used to have the girls swooning over him in high school and then after,” the older woman rambled on. “I have to admit I was tempted to flutter my lashes at him a time or two myself.”

  Ellie was shocked. The woman had to be pushing seventy. Things like that were not supposed to come out of her mouth. Even if it were true.

  “That was before he fell in love with Anna,” Mrs. Pearson added in a whisper. “Pretty little thing, that girl.”

  “Why don’t I go get those croissants?” Ellie blurted out. “Be right back.”

  She hurried into the kitchen, making her escape. She didn’t want to hear about Lucas’s past love interests. Besides, there was a strict no gossip policy at her coffee shop. She’d even posted it on the front door for her customers to see when they came in.

  With the life she’d led growing up, she’d dealt with more than her share of gossip, most of it from classmates who exchanged hurtful whispers about ‘poor little Ellie’ who no one wanted. Then there was the spattering of whispers that circulated in Eagle Ridge after word of her pregnancy got out. After all, she was fairly new to the town and pregnant out of wedlock to one of their own. But those had ceased fairly quickly, no doubt Jarrett having had something to do with it.

  Would those whispers return once word got out of her decision to give her baby up for adoption? Would everyone turn on her as they had on Lucas all those years ago? Because what she was preparing to do had to be far worse in their opinion than anything Lucas might have done.

  Ellie closed her eyes, trying to push away the fear of being rejected again as she had done so many times in her past. But once in a while that fear came over her in an uncontrollable rush as it was now.

  “Should I call the fire department?” a husky voice asked from the doorway.

  Her eyes flew open. “Lucas,” she gasped. “What are you doing in the kitchen?”

  “Apparently saving Mrs. Pearson’s croissants.”

  “What?” No sooner had the question left her mouth then she smelled the burning bread. “Oh, no!” She ran over, grabbed an oven mitt and yanked the oversized cookie sheet out of the commercial oven.

  “How bad?”

  “Bad,” she answered with a groan as she placed the tray on the work counter. “They’re all burnt.”

  He walked over to stand beside her, looking down at the tray. “They’re not that burnt.”

  She lifted one, showing him its darkened bottom. “No?”

  “It’s nothing that can’t be fixed,” he replied as he stepped over to the sink and set to washing his hands. Then, grabbing a paper towel from the roll, he quickly dried them. Taking a knife from the cutlery block on the counter, he reached for a croissant and went to work.

  “What are you doing?”

  He looked up at her, a grin tugging at one side of his mouth. “Unburning these.”

  “Un-what?” She watched as he scraped the baked bread in gentle strokes, something she’d never have imagined from such large, work-roughened hands. The darkened bottom quickly changed to a more golden brown.

  “You might wanna help, considering there’s at least a dozen of these croissants that need tended to.”

  Once again, Lucas Tanner had come to her rescue. Despite her having turned down his offer of marriage, he was still there for her.

  Nodding, she reached for a knife and followed his lead, ‘unburning’ the croissants. It was the silliest thing she had ever heard of, but Mrs. Pearson needed them and there wasn’t time to bake more.

  “Why are you doing this?” she asked, focusing on the task at hand.

  “What?”

  “Why are you always trying to help me?”

  His blue eyes shifted to her face. “You mean there has to be a reason?”

  “There usually is.”

  He frowned. “I hope you didn’t learn that from my brother.”

  “No. Your brother was nothing but good to me.”

  “Then what is it that’s made you so skeptical of people’s motives?”

  Did he really have to ask? “In my experience, that’s the way life is.”

  “And you’ve lived such a long life,” he said with a hint of that same cocky cowboy sarcasm she’d seen when they first met. “How old are you, Ellie? Twenty-three? Twenty-four?”

  “It just so happens that I’m twen…Ow!” She grabbed at her stomach.

  Lucas dropped the knife onto the counter and was around the service island in a flash, reaching for her. “What’s wrong? Is it the baby?”

  “Yes,” she replied with a nod. “He kicked me. And if he keeps it up I’m going to name him Mule when he’s born.”

  Silence.

  She looked up, noting that his tanned face had paled several shades. “Lucas? Are you oka
y?”

  He shook his head, but the beads of sweat gathering at his brow said otherwise. He released her and stepped back, running a hand back through his hair. “I’ll let Mrs. Pearson know her order is almost ready on my way out. I’ll be back to pick you up at five.”

  “Six.”

  “Five, Ellie. I want to get you home and off those roads before dark.”

  “Fine.”

  He walked out muttering something about stubborn women and mules that had her smiling.

  Lucas gave Mrs. Pearson the message as promised, grabbed his hat from the table and then walked out, the bell over the door jingling after him.

  He slid in behind the wheel of his Jeep and dragged the back of his sleeve across his sweat-dampened brow. When Ellie had cried out, he’d nearly lost it. A lot of good his being there was going to do her if there was a crisis with the baby. Not when he reacted like that.

  He started the engine, cursing the slight tremor in his hand as he turned the key. Hanging his head, Lucas closed his eyes with a heavy sigh. He had to stop thinking about Ellie day in and day out. He’d wronged his brother by kissing her, the woman his brother had loved. He had to make sure it never happened again. His focus needed to be on the baby. That meant not allowing himself to go into a panic every time Ellie so much as winced.

  A pounding on the driver’s side window had his head snapping up. Dusty Andrews’ scowling face glared at him from the other side of the frosted glass.

  Lucas groaned. He’d known he’d have to face the man again sooner or later, and it appeared it was about to be sooner. He pressed the window button and lowered it, fully prepared to be confronted by his past.

  “How long you gonna keep avoiding me?” the older man demanded, his graying brows creased into a tight ‘v’. The smell of whiskey laced his words and slurred his speech.

  “I thought it would be better that way,” Lucas answered with a frown. Anna’s father was drunk? The man had barely touched the stuff when Lucas and his daughter were together. Was this what Anna’s death had driven him to?

  People had begun to gather on the sidewalk, no doubt expecting the inevitable - Dusty Andrews giving his, what they believed to be disowned, son-in-law his comeuppance. But it had been Lucas’s choice to walk away. He couldn’t bear the pain and loss he saw every time he looked into Dusty’s eyes. His own was hard enough to bear. Staying in Eagle Ridge after Anna’s death would have broken him completely.