“Belle, ignore it.”
“I can’t ignore it!” she cried. “Everyone’s going to know! They’re going to know I’m pregnant. They’re going to know we’re living together. They’re going to –”
Jack cut her off, “Yes, they are, and you’ve got to learn not to care, love.”
Her eyes grew wide and she asked, “How? How do you learn not to care about that?”
“You just do,” Jack replied calmly and she made a noise that sounded like she was being strangled so he leaned toward her. “Poppet, they’re not going to stop. I hate to tell you this but they’re never going to stop. I know. They’ve been at me all my life. And you’re too damned beautiful and way too photogenic for your own good. So they won’t leave you alone either. Once we have our child, they’ll go after him too. You need to learn to ignore it and get on with your life.”
For a moment, she forgot about her new dire predicament mainly because he’d called her “too damned beautiful”.
James Bennett thought she, Belle “Meek and Mild” Abbot was “too damned beautiful”?
She couldn’t believe it.
“Belle,” he called again and she realised her eyes had glazed over so she focussed on him and once she did, he asked, “Are you going to be all right?”
She stared at him a moment and gave her body a shake before she sat back and resumed sipping her coffee.
Her eyes went to the sea and she answered on a mini-lie, “Yes. I’m not all right now but I will be.”
This was a mini-lie because she had no idea how to make herself “all right” with this latest mess. But she felt a trill race up her spine so her eyes slid to Jack to see he was smiling at her with an expression on his face that looked a whole lot like pride.
“Good,” he murmured.
A warm feeling slid into the pit of her belly and settled.
There it was. She’d found a way to make herself “all right” and it wasn’t difficult at all.
Then Jack had eaten his breakfast while Belle sipped her coffee and they did this in silence, Jack again acting as if this was the most natural thing in the world. He’d simply eaten and read through the paper while Belle sat silent and contemplative beside him.
When he was done, he took her to work again and she knew, even before Jack parked (he didn’t stop and idle on the street this time), that it was going to be a feeding frenzy.
And it was
The minute Jack stopped, the paparazzi surrounded the car.
Jack turned to Belle instantly.
She couldn’t read his eyes through the green tinted lenses of his gold-framed aviator sunglasses, but she could see his jaw was tight right before he ordered, “Do not get out of the car until I open your door.”
She nodded, slid her enormous, black framed and lensed designer sunglasses more firmly up the bridge of her nose and did what she was told.
When she cleared the door, Jack’s arm slid around her shoulders. He slammed the door, bleeped the car locked and strode forward confidently, taking her right along with him.
As they walked, she kept her head bowed and her body turned slightly into his.
Jack didn’t bow his head. He walked like normal (albeit with Belle plastered to his side). He faced forward, his strides wide as if there weren’t photographers taking pictures and reporters shouting questions.
Without her giving him directions, he guided her directly to her shop and took the keys out of her hands to let them in.
She took off her glasses and moved to the alarm panel as he closed and locked the door.
The flashes from the cameras were coming through her shop windows as she turned from the alarm and found Jack right there.
As if they weren’t the focus of a dozen prying eyes, he got close, his hands came to her jaw and tipped her face up to his.
“Explain your average day,” he demanded apropos of nothing and even though she thought this was a weird question, without hesitation she did.