When she was done, he informed her, “I want you off the shop floor. You can work in your workshop but, until this dies down, I want you off the shop floor.”
She stared at him like he’d grown three heads. “I can’t be off the shop floor. I only have Belinda helping me in the shop and she’s not even full-time.”
“Hire a new shop assistant,” he replied instantly.
“I can’t hire a new assistant. I just hired two new seamstresses. I can’t afford –”
He interrupted her by stating in a voice not to be denied, “Then I’ll hire a new assistant.”
“Jack!” she cried, shocked.
His thumb moved to stroke her cheekbone and his face got close.
“You’ve been facing this alone for a year. I’ll not have you face it alone any longer.” His voice was low and rumbly so she knew this statement meant something more to him than the something it meant to her and the something it meant to her made her heart lurch and her belly warm. He went on and his tone had gentled, “Now, poppet, hire the assistant and I’ll pay her salary. If you don’t have time, I’ll get Olive to do it.”
Even though she had no clue who Olive was, all she could do was nod.
He kissed her forehead, his hands tensed on her jaw then he left.
That night after the whole family had dinner together, Jack disappeared with the dogs, Belle and Mom watched a movie then Belle had gone to bed alone.
She woke up in the middle of the night to a dark room.
She then mentally scanned her immediate environment and she felt no warmth, no arm at her waist, no additional presence in the room and she heard no dog tags.
She should have been happy that Jack hadn’t slid into bed beside her. This was something she should not be allowing and something which she was, without a fight. Therefore this was something she didn’t understand but was also someplace she was not letting her mind go. Even with all that, she turned and checked the bed.
No Jack.
There was no relief this time, only disappointment.
She was battling with this, what it might mean, how she’d be able to carry on for the next five months with her brain so addled and slowly falling back to sleep when she heard the door open and the jangle of dog tags.
Seconds later, Jack settled behind her, drawing her body immediately into his as she heard the dogs move around and then finally find their resting places.
“Jack?” she whispered.
“Go back to sleep, love,” he whispered back.
Surprisingly, in mere minutes, she did.
He was gone when she woke.
Incidentally, they had an entire spread in the next day’s paper. This included Belle walking close to Jack’s side, his arm around her shoulders. Jack standing in her shop, his hands on her jaw tipping up her face to his as they talked. Jack kissing her forehead. And Jack coming to collect her in the evening, them walking back to his car the exact way they’d walked away from it that morning.
Not incidentally, Gram had blown her stack when she saw it.
“You must do something about this!” she demanded of Jack, waving the paper in the air when she arrived at the Saturday breakfast table where Jack and Belle had long since eaten. Rachel had just joined them and Yasmin and Joy had been with them for the last ten minutes.
“What do you propose I do, Lila?” Jack asked calmly.
“I don’t know and I don’t care. Fix it!” Gram retorted hotly.
“Gram –” Belle started.
Gram cut her off while throwing the paper down and seating herself at the table, “Bellerina, you’re pregnant. You already have enough stress and strain to deal with without this in your face every morning, noon and night.”
“I know I’m pregnant, Gram, but I’m also used to this. It’ll die down, trust me,” Belle replied.