Summer Fling Read Online Free Page B

run
away.”
    He laughed as he turned away.
    He returned a few moments later, a
worried expression masking his handsome face.
    “Feel like taking a ride?” he asked, his
jacket slung lazily over one shoulder.
    “Sure.” Lorraine knew, given the
expression on his face, that it was best not to ask any questions.
She just knew she wanted to be with him.
    Lorraine followed Scott around the side
of the house to the car.
    He drove swiftly without speaking a
word, for nearly ten minutes, until he pulled into a small
driveway, outside a yellow brick house.
    He jumped out of the car and came around
to open the door for her before she had a chance to do so herself.
She followed him obediently.
    He pulled a small key out of his jacket
pocket and let himself into the house. “It’s only me, Tracey,” he
yelled down the hallway.
    “I’m in the kitchen,” a sweet voice
called.
    Lorraine could hear a baby crying from
one of the rooms, and a dog barked his discontent from the back
yard.
    Scott took her hand firmly in his and
walked down the hall to the kitchen.
    Tracey? Lorraine was confused.
Why would Scott take her to the house of one of his girlfriends?
Her mind told her instantly that he wouldn’t. So, had she been off
the mark about who Tracey was?
    The young woman sitting at the table
looked dreadful. She would have been pretty if not for the welted
cut across one cheek and a large purple bruise which had forced one
eye half closed. Her long ash-blonde hair fell about her face and
into a tangle on her shoulders, and she looked at Scott with the
same brown eyes now inspecting her damaged face.
    Tracey was his sister. There was no
mistaking it.
    Tracey smiled at Scott, even as she held
a cold, wet flannel up to her face.
    “It was the worst it’s ever been,” she
said. “He got really violent and threatened to hit Toby if I
wouldn’t make him shut up. Then I went to get the baby and he just
lashed out at me.”
    “Why did he go?” Scott asked, his
forehead furrowed in obvious anger. He let go of Lorraine and
walked to his sister’s side.
    “I made it to the kitchen and grabbed a
knife. That’s how I got this.” She touched the lash down the side
of her face.
    “And then he left?” Scott asked.
    Tracey nodded slowly, her gaze moving to
Lorraine where she stood by the door.
    “This is Lorraine,” Scott said. “She’s
down with Donna.”
    “Hi, Lorraine.” Tracey flashed a
smile.
    “Hi,” Lorraine said.
    The baby began to cry again down the
hall, and Tracey motioned to get up.
    “Stay there,” Scott said, laying his
hand on Tracey’s shoulder. “I’ll go.”
    “I’ll go,” Lorraine offered. Before
either of them could answer, she turned and followed the noise down
the hallway to a dark room.
    A cot stood in one corner, covered with
colourful blankets and small soft toys.
    Lorraine lifted the infant into her arms
and cradled the soft blue bundle. He had bright blue eyes and clear
pale skin. He smelt like baby shampoo and tears. Lorraine guessed
he was only about six months old. Tears stained his reddened
cheeks.
    When he stopped crying, she found a
nappy and laid him on the table, changing him quickly and dressing
him again. He gurgled at her in the semi darkness, moving his mouth
over his fingers and making sucking noises.
    “You’re beautiful, aren’t you?” she said
in her best mother tongue.
    He rewarded her with a lopsided
smile.
    She lifted him once again into her arms
and carried him back to the kitchen. He squeezed his eyes closed
under the bright light and buried his head in her shoulder.
    “I think he’s hungry,” she said to
Tracey.
    Scott moved to the microwave and pulled
out a small bottle filled with milk. As he passed it to Lorraine,
their hands met around the warm plastic and Lorraine looked up into
his soft brown eyes.
    Toby began to protest again, so Lorraine
pulled away quickly, taking a seat next to Tracey to give him his
bottle.
    She watched the baby as he drank,