Then he turned to the door, wondering with unamused annoyance if he needed to resort to placing a do not disturb sign on the knob.
He pulled open the door to see his mother standing outside and this surprised him.
She knew better.
“What’s –?” Jack started but Joy talked over him.
“Darling, we have a wee problem.”
“And that would be?” Jack asked impatiently as he felt Belle arrive at his side.
Jack looked down at Belle to see she’d tidied her ponytail and was wearing an enquiring expression but her mouth was swollen from his kisses and her grey eyes were soft and languid.
She looked, exactly, like she’d just had an immensely pleasurable orgasm.
Jack had seen that look before. He very much liked it and it gratified him that he’d given it to her.
However, he didn’t like sharing it.
Especially with his mother.
His mother looked at Belle then at Jack and she bit her lip before she said, “I’m sorry to interrupt.”
Jack was sorry too.
More than he could say.
However nonverbally he spoke volumes and he knew his mother read his face because she nervously kept biting her lip.
Jack slid an arm along Belle’s shoulders and pulled her close, suggesting to his mother, “All right Mum, maybe you’d care to explain why you’ve interrupted.”
“Well, see… erm…” she stammered.
“Mum,” Jack warned.
Quickly, not looking at Belle, she whispered, “Rachel’s seen Myrtle and Lewis and she’s a bit…” her eyes slid to Belle then back to Jack, “upset.”
Jack sighed and asked a question to which he already knew the answer, “You explained they don’t exist, didn’t you?”
Joy Bennett had been “seeing” Myrtle and Lewis for forty years. It was sporadic and infrequent but she claimed the first time she saw them was within days of moving to The Point after she married Jack’s father.
Therefore Jack was relatively certain, since Joy believed they existed, that she wouldn’t explain to Rachel, who was a sight more odd, loud, if not more dramatic than his mother, that she didn’t.
“Erm…” his mother mumbled, answering without actually answering and Jack clenched his teeth.
Then he looked down at Belle. “Did you tell your mother you’d seen them?”
Belle shook her head as Joy asked in a breathy voice, “You’ve seen them?”
Belle nodded at Joy. “Yesterday,” when Joy didn’t respond, Belle added, “they weirded me out.”
“Oh dear. They usually aren’t this active. Sometimes its years between times I see them and I saw them only the other day, twice. And they’re pretty choosy who they show themselves to.” Joy’s eyes moved to Jack. “What do you think this means?”
“I think it means I need to hire a counsellor to come to The Point for a group session,” Jack answered dryly.
“Jack!” both Belle and his mother cried.
“There are no such things as ghosts, Mum, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t fill Belle’s head with that rubbish,” Jack returned.