04

Elizabeth steadily put one foot in front of the other as she hastily fled the lobby. The small room suddenly felt even smaller with the likes of Zeb Crooker sharing the confining space with her. He had called out to her, demanding to know what was wrong but she ignored him and kept walking. She needed to get away from him and she had to do it now !

Shoving the door out of her way, Elizabeth continued to flee outside. The smoldering Georgia heat smacked her in the face but she didn’t stop there. She continued to wind her way around to the back of the building thinking that the more space she could put between herself and Zeb, the better.

Once she made it around to the back of the building, Elizabeth finally let herself collapse in a crumpled heap to the ground. For a long minute all she could do was sit there on a patch of dead grass with her head held in her hands. Memories of their bodies moving together, him whispering sweet words of affection began to assault her. Memories that she had suppressed for so long were now playing like a bad movie over and over and over in her mind.

Tears that she valiantly held back now slipped slowly down her cheeks. Why ? Why did Zeb Crooker have to come back now ? For once in her life Elizabeth felt that she had finally put herself back together and for the first time in a really long time, she felt like she just might have a future to look forward to.

Frustrated over her brief moment of weakness, Elizabeth angrily wiped her cheeks with the back of her hands. Long ago she had promised herself that she would shed no more tears for that lecherous man.

Because of that one night, Elizabeth had lost so many things in such a short period of time. She not only lost her innocence but she lost her pride, her reputation, her trust in all men and perhaps most importantly- she ended up losing a son.

No matter how many times she told herself that giving up her baby had been for the best, it still hurt like hell. But what’s done is done and there is nothing that she can do about it now. The life he has now is better than she could have ever given him. She had to believe that.

Sniffling and wiping at her face again, Elizabeth pushed herself up to a standing position. Zeb was her past and that’s where she planned to firmly keep him. With renewed determination she refused to let the mighty Zeb Crooker weave his little web of seduction around her again.

Over the years she had learned a lot about not only herself, but people and relationships in general. Relationships are only good for what you can gain from them. Elizabeth didn’t gain anything from her short relationship with Zeb. After being forced to turn over her son to strangers Elizabeth decided that she’d never let herself get that close to another person again. The price was far too great and one that she wasn’t willing to pay for a second time around.

These days, only one thing mattered to Elizabeth and that was herself. She looked out for number one. Everything else was secondary.

“Lizzie ?”

Elizabeth snapped her head up when Bobby approached her from around the corner of the building. “Your car is ready. I know you were in a hurry so you could get home and take that shower you were talking about a few minutes ago so I thought I’d come let you know.”

She let out a tired sigh. Bobby didn’t deserve her animosity. He was one of the few people left in this town that never passed judgment on her because of her one mistake she made all those years ago. He had his faults but he cared. She could see it in the expression on his face right now as he stared back at her.

“Thanks for telling me.” She waved her hand in front of her. “Come on, I’ll pay you so you can get back to doing whatever it was that you were doing.”

Elizabeth started to walk by Bobby and he stopped her by placing his hand on her shoulder. She glanced back at him. “Are you going to be okay ? Is there something going on between you and Zeb that I need to know about ?”

She was comforted by the protective tone in his voice. She knew that Bobby wouldn’t judge her if she told him the truth about what had happened. Hell, he would probably even take her side because of Zeb’s playboy past. On the other hand, was it really worth it to bring up the past six years later ?