“We’ll talk later,” he promised.
She kept moving forward but her head tilted up to look at him. “When?”
He looked down at her. “When you tell me you feel safe with me again.” He bent his face closer to hers and grinned before he went on, “And after things get far more complicated.”
He watched her swallow and her head jerked to look forward.
He knew she wanted to say more. He also knew she didn’t have the courage.
Taking advantage of that, he pulled her deeper into his side.
They arrived back at The Point only to learn his mother, Lila and Rachel were out somewhere together doing something they didn’t share with Elaine.
This meant that Belle, who he knew wanted to escape him but he also knew did not want to be left alone to face the possibility of whatever might befall her at the hands of Myrtle and Lewis was forced to go with him to his study.
He went to his desk to see to some work and call Olive about Belle’s new employee.
Belle sat on the couch and gazed out the window.
This was something she seemed to be able to do for hours, mutely, peacefully, as if drawing strength from the view.
This was also something he very much liked about her. It was inscrutable but tranquil and he found it unbelievably appealing.
Within a half an hour, she was curled in the corner of his couch, asleep.
Jack watched her in sleep for long moments, made a decision, left his work, got his book and went to the couch.
With gentle but determined movements should she wake and withdraw, he shifted her sleeping body so he could join her.
She did wake and her sleepy gaze drifted to his face. Her nap, however, was nowhere near complete and he knew instantly her guard was down.
He knew this because, as he tucked her into his side, she awarded him with a small, sweet smile instead of pulling away or going stiff. Without hesitation, she put her cheek to his chest, wrapped her arm around his stomach, curled into him and fell directly back to sleep.
His attention turned to his book but he couldn’t focus on it. He found he preferred staring out the window to the sea, feeling Belle’s warmth at his side, listening to her soft breathing and contemplating their day.
Therefore when he heard a knock on the door, he ignored it. He had no intention of letting anyone disturb them.
Unfortunately, it was Lila at the door and even though he did not ask her to enter, she did.
He bit back his impatience and the sharp words he would very much liked to have said. Instead, he watched her gaze at them a moment before she walked across the room, took a chair from the front of his desk and dragged it to the side of the couch.
As she settled herself in the chair, Jack spoke quietly but pointedly. “Belle’s sleeping.”
Lila’s eyes went to her granddaughter then to Jack.
“I can see that,” she replied as she leaned back in the chair as if she was going to spend the afternoon there. Then she said, “We need to talk.”
She was right, they did need to talk. He had a few things he wished to say to her, most of them having to do with how she regularly embarrassed her granddaughter but some of them having to do with how she treated Jack thus, he sensed, distressing her granddaughter.
However, they didn’t need to talk with Belle in the room, asleep or not.
“I would enjoy that, Lila, but not now,” Jack returned, his voice still low, guarded and quiet.
“Now,” she retorted, also speaking softly. “It’s clear things have changed between you two and I need some assurances.”
Jack clenched his jaw and remained silent.
Lila either ignored it or didn’t see it (likely the first) and continued, “Considering your mother’s disposition, her assertion that you are not, in fact, adopted, and your recent behaviour, I can assume that things went horribly awry the first time you were with Belle. Or, considering your behaviour when I met you and the penchant toward violence you and your brother demonstrated, I can assume that you’re setting her up to take a gigantic fall once the baby’s born. I’d like you to tell me, honestly, which one it is.”