by Tina Michele
Tara didn’t even have the chance to help Belle out of the Jeep. She was out and halfway up the steps when the soft burn of Belle’s last kiss faded away.
Chapter Seventeen
The next morning, Belle wandered over to Kyle and Andrew’s. As always, the door was unlocked in anticipation of her arrival. It was one of the first things they did as soon as they came downstairs each morning and before they started the coffee. Belle let herself in and headed back to the kitchen. Andrew stood at the stove attending to breakfast. She kissed him on the cheek.
“Good morning, sunshine! How was your da—oh Lord.” He stopped mid-sentence when he got a good look at Belle’s appearance.
Belle hadn’t even bothered to change out of her pajama pants, and her hair was in a ratted nest on the top of her head. “Hey.” She grabbed a cup and poured herself some coffee.
“Babe! Kyle? Will you come in here for a sec?” Andrew hollered out the patio door to Kyle who sat reading the paper.
Belle added too much sugar and milk to her coffee, but she needed it. When she turned around, Kyle and Andrew stood side by side and stared at her. “What?”
“Um, sweetie. Did you even attempt to wash your makeup off last night?” Kyle asked.
“Or this morning?” Andrew added.
Belle swiped under her eyes, and only when she pulled back black smudged fingers did she realize that, in fact, she hadn’t done either. “It would appear not.”
“Oh wow. Okay. Why don’t you go get one of my Olay wipes and take care of that while I put breakfast out?” Andrew said as he took her by the shoulders and pointed her toward the bathroom.
“It’s not that bad.” Belle wasn’t used to wearing makeup, or at least enough to worry about if she forgot to wash it off before bed. When she got to the bathroom, she changed her tune. “Holy crap! I’m a wreck.”
She washed and dried her face, then took her hair down and gave it a good brushing before she smoothed it back into a neat ponytail. Human again, she went back out to the kitchen. Belle grabbed her cup off the counter and went to sit at the patio table with Kyle.
“It’s alive.” Andrew kissed her on the forehead before he set her plate in front of her.
“Sorry about that. I just sorta stumbled over here as soon as I got out of bed. I didn’t even brush my teeth first.” Belle covered her mouth in disbelief.
“Well, we know you weren’t out late. So what happened?”
What happened? Nothing. That’s what happened. “Oh, you know, turns out I should’ve trusted my instinct.”
“What?” Kyle asked.
“We’re too different. She just wants a good time, no commitment. Just like I figured.”
“Okay. So what’s the problem with that?” Andrew asked.
“That’s not what I want. At all. She is the complete opposite of what I want.”
“In what way?” Kyle asked.
Belle laughed. “Every way? Let’s just say she isn’t the settling down type.”
Andrew groaned and Kyle rolled his eyes. “Seriously?”
“What? Yes, seriously! That is a problem. I don’t want someone whose one goal is to sleep with every woman in Orlando. And besides that, she has zero ambition, unless you count her endless odd jobs and dedication to avoiding commitment.”
“We all have those exact same goals at some point in our lives, although my penchant for the ladies shifted to men somewhere in the middle.” Andrew grinned and winked at Kyle.
“Right. But you weren’t against settling down. She is. I think her exact words were ‘I can’t imagine it, ever’ or something like that.”
“I wasn’t. But he was.” Andrew pointed to Kyle.
“No way!” There was no way that Kyle was anything like Tara. He was born to be married and wanted a family almost as much as Belle did.
“It’s true,” Kyle admitted. “I had no intention of being with one man for the rest of my life. The thought of it scared me to death.”
“And then you met Andrew and everything changed, right? You just knew?”
“No way. He scared me worst of all. He made me question everything I knew about myself, everything I thought I wanted, and I ran.”
“Broke my heart into a million pieces, he did.”
Belle couldn’t believe that Kyle could’ve been that person. “Why did you change your mind?”
“I don’t know. I think he drugged me.” Kyle laughed and Andrew smacked him on the arm.
“I did no such thing. Now take your vitamins, sweetheart.” Andrew gave Belle an exaggerated wink.
“Nothing is as it seems on the surface, Belle. Some things work out and some things just never do. But why not have fun with it while it does?”
“Have fun with it?”
“Yes. She is gorgeous, and you’re attracted to her. So why not enjoy it for whatever it is for however long you can? She isn’t the only one who can be a free agent.”
“I can’t do that. I already told her I just wanted to be friends.”
“Sweetie, I’ve seen the way she looks at you. I doubt she heard anything you said about just being friends.”
“I know!” Andrew said. “I have a fundraising gala performance next weekend. Invite her as your date, uh, I mean friend. We can all go together.”
Belle wasn’t sure any of that was a good idea. She tried to avoid putting herself into situations where she knew there would be no good outcome. However, she didn’t know why women like Tara were the only ones who could enjoy the benefits of noncommittal relationships. Plus, she did want to try to be friends with Tara if nothing else, and it would be a nice change to have an actual date to one of Andrew’s awkward social gatherings. “Okay, I’ll ask her.”
Both of them looked at her as if she had two heads. “You will?” Kyle asked, confused by her uncharacteristic answer.
“Sure. If it means I don’t have to go by myself again, then what would it hurt?” It was a rhetorical question, because Belle knew what.
“Well, all right then.” Kyle looked at Andrew and shrugged.
*
Tara slipped her bag under the desk and clocked into the system. As she checked the logs for the shift change, she began to grow anxious. She hadn’t seen or heard from Belle since their train wreck of a date several days earlier. Tara had thought about calling or texting her, but nothing she could’ve said would have changed that night, even if she wanted it to.
As she began her rounds, she felt someone watching her. She looked around and saw a man in a hooded sweatshirt pacing in front of Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of a Lady. He glanced around at the others in the room before he made eye contact with Tara. He pulled his hood lower over his face and crossed the room toward the other exit. Tara radioed for assistance to the European art exhibit and headed around to cut him off on the other side.
Tara’s heart pounded and her body flooded with adrenaline. As Tara rounded the corner, the man bolted toward her. She yelled for him to stop, but he didn’t even slow down. From the corner of her eye, she saw Belle pushing her cart across the hall right into the path of the man. “Belle! Stay there!” But she didn’t hear her. Tara saw the cords of her earbuds hanging down and realized why. “Shit!”
Tara ran with all her speed but was still too far away, and she could only watch helplessly as he plowed right into the cart and pushed it back into Belle. The handle of the cart slammed into her and she clutched her stomach. Without losing stride, he continued toward Tara who watched as Belle collapsed onto the marble floor in a heap. First her stomach turned, and then she became enraged. Two other guards ran after the thug as he continued toward her. She warned him once more to stop, but he didn’t. When he was within reach, Tara lunged at him. She wrapped her arm around his neck, and with all her body weight, forced him to the ground. The other guards were a second behind. The suspect struggled beneath her and begged to be let go. Tara wrestled against him until she had him restrained. She pushed back his hood as they pulled him upright. He was just a
kid, no more than fourteen.
“Let me go! I ain’t doin’ nothin’. I ain’t breaking no rules, man.”
“Then why are you running?” Tara panted.
“Cause y’all will make me go back there. I ain’t going back there.”
Tara didn’t care what he was talking about. She saw several people crowding around Belle, so as the other guards attended to the truant, she rushed over to her. “Are you okay?”
Belle gave a small nod.
Tara helped her up and sat her on a bench along the wall. Kyle, Joseph, and several other managers came running up the hallway toward them. Tara checked Belle for injuries as Kyle skidded to a stop in front of them.
“What the hell happened?”
Belle struggled to catch her breath. “I can’t breathe,” she said as she clutched at her sweater and ripped it off.
Tara saw the scrape on Belle’s elbow, but she was more concerned about her chest. She’d seen the impact it made with the cart and thought there might be broken ribs.
“It’s fine. Just need to catch my breath,” Belle said between gasps for air.
“Where does it hurt?” Tara asked as she raised Belle’s shirt to get a better look.
“Right here.” Belle pointed to the center of her abdomen and sucked her teeth.
Tara saw a clear red imprint of the cart handle across her midsection. “Ouch! That cart hit you straight on.” Tara looked around at the people standing around when she saw Kyle. “It could just be a bruise or she might have cracked a rib.”
“They called nine one one already.”
Belle looked toward the kid in the hoodie and the handful of guards and staff that surrounded him. “What the hell is it with these crazy people in hoods? Who is he? Do you think he’s one of those guys?” Belle asked breathlessly as she pressed her stomach and then grimaced.
“I don’t think so. This kid can’t be more than fourteen. Probably a runaway or truant. You shouldn’t push on it.”
“He’s just scared. That’s why he ran. What was he doing before he spooked? Oh, man, why can’t I catch my breath? It feels like someone is squeezing me around the middle.”
“Don’t worry about all that right now. Stop talking and just sit.” Tara wasn’t surprised that Belle was more concerned about the boy and his situation than about herself. The same couldn’t be said for Tara.
Kyle’s face was ashen as he sat next to Belle and grabbed her hand. She patted his with her other. “I’m fine, Kyle. Go check on that kid for me, please.”
“Okay,” he said.
Tara took another look at Belle’s chest and lowered her shirt. “Okay, sunshine. You might need a couple of x-rays.”
“It barely hurts. This hurts worse.” She held up her arm and showed Tara a large bloody scrape on her elbow. “I think my arm is on fire.”
“That’s the adrenaline. Trust me, you won’t be saying that in a few minutes.” Belle’s face turned white. “Are you okay?”
“The few minutes is up. I think I’m going to be sick.” Belle covered her mouth.
“Shit!” Tara grabbed the first thing she saw, a large trashcan, and pushed it in front of Belle just in time.
Belle sat with her head hung over the can as Tara rubbed her back. When two paramedics arrived, Tara moved away and let them assess the situation. She watched intently over them until Joseph called her name. She left Belle’s side and went to debrief her boss.
By the time she had explained to him what had occurred, the paramedics had finished. When Belle let out a shout, everyone turned toward her. Both Kyle and Tara went to her.
“What’s wrong?” Kyle asked.
“I’m not going to the freaking hospital.”
One of the technicians spoke up. “I think she just had the wind knocked out of her and has a bit of bruising. If you want, she could get her chest scanned just to be sure.”
“Does she have to go to the hospital for that?” Tara asked.
“No.”
“Okay. Then we can take her to an urgent care or whatever.”
“Do you want to do that instead? The hospital might be better though. Just in case,” Kyle suggested.
“I’m fine. If it gets worse, I’ll go to the doctor.”
“All right. But maybe you should go home for now. I’ll drive you. Come on.” Kyle helped Belle up off the bench.
Tara couldn’t help but think that she could just pick her up and carry her if she had to. Much better than Kyle could. She surprised herself with the unexpected jealously. “Should I go get your wheelchair?” Tara asked Belle.
Belle looked up at Tara and smiled. “At this rate we should put my name on it.”
“I’ll work on that.”
“What are they going to do with that boy?” Belle asked as they walked by. “If he didn’t harm anything, maybe we can just give him a warning?”
“What?” Tara couldn’t agree that what had happened to Belle was harmless.
“He was scared. I’m sure he didn’t mean it. You startled him. Please?”
The look in Belle’s eyes was sweet, concerned, and caring, and Tara fell right into them. “Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you.” Belle smiled. “Hey, I was coming to ask you something before all this, but now I can’t seem to remember what—” Belle groaned.
“Fundraiser,” Kyle whispered.
“Oh right. Saturday, Andrew is having a fundraiser thing. Would you like to come with me? Be my date, uh, or whatever?”
Tara was speechless. Did she just ask her out on a date? She leaned in close to Kyle. “I think she might have hit her head as well.”
“I’m not deaf, and I am well aware of what I am asking. It’s a simple yes or no question.” Kyle chuckled and looked away, pretending he wasn’t standing between them.
“Uh, I know. I mean after…”
“Yes or no, Tara? Preferably before I get sick again.”
This was a new side to Belle. And whether it was brought on by the trauma or something else, Tara was hooked. “Yes. Of course I will.”
Chapter Eighteen
When Tara arrived at Belle’s, she was once again floored by her beauty. Belle came down the stairs with Andrew as she waited with Kyle in the foyer. For someone who expressed such a dislike for pretentious social gatherings, Belle could have fooled even the most elitist of them all. Her everyday appearance was casual and simple. A clean and comfortable attractiveness that Tara found both refreshing and charming. However, she became another creature when night fell and she exposed something far more alluring and seductive.
“Hi,” Belle said as she slid to a stop in front of Tara.
“You look gorgeous.”
Belle blushed. “Thank you. You look amazing as well.”
Tara hadn’t thought twice about how she looked. She’d worn the same black Armani suit to every event her parents insisted that she attend. But for the first time, she was glad she was wearing it as she watched Belle’s eyes rake shamelessly over her from head to toe. “Thanks.”
“No. Thank you,” Belle said in a drawn-out manner. When Kyle chuckled, Belle corrected herself. “I meant thank you for coming.”
Kyle said, “Yeah, right,” at the same time Tara said, “I know.”
“It’s nice to not have to attend one of these things as the third wheel. These things make me crazy uncomfortable when I’m standing alone in the corner while these two schmooze with the muckety-mucks.”
“Muckety-mucks, huh?” In spite of Belle’s rumblings, Tara thought Belle would fit seamlessly into that world, or her world, as it were. “Where are we going?” Tara slipped Belle’s shawl over her bare shoulders and reveled in the scent of her sweet perfume.
The four of them headed out to the cars. They were going to follow Andrew and Kyle, as Belle always did. Tara helped her into the Jeep and closed the door.
“It’s a ballet fundraiser at some mansion in Winter Park. Like I said, muckety-mucks.”
Tara’s heart
stopped. “Winter Park?”
“Yeah. Just follow them. They know the way.”
It wasn’t the journey that had Tara’s stomach in a knot; it was the destination. She scanned her memory for any recollection of an event at her parents’ house that evening, but she came up empty. It couldn’t be at their place. “Do you know who’s hosting?”
“I don’t, no. Andrew said they are huge donors and something about designing the new performing arts center.”
Tara’s stomach leapt into her throat. It was her parents. What the hell was she going to do? It was too late to back out of the night, so she would have to tell her. But how? It wasn’t the way she had anticipated telling her, if she’d ever planned on it in the first place. Her mind spun with explanations and excuses. “Hey, umm…”
“You know, I don’t know how anyone could live like that,” Belle said as they drove along the manicured tree-lined streets and past the iron-gated driveways. “I mean, their houses are so big they never even see each other. With nannies for the kids so they don’t have to be bothered.”
“Well, I’m sure it’s not quite that bad.” Tara could tell her from experience that she’d had no nanny and her family ate dinner together every night. “I’m sure some of them would surprise you.”
“I doubt it.”
Tara was a little surprised by Belle’s biased opinion of the types of families who lived in these homes. “Well, maybe the family who lives there spends each Christmas volunteering at a children’s hospital,” Tara said as she pointed to a massive Mediterranean style villa. In fact, Tara knew for certain that was how the Manshone family of doctors spent their holiday.
“It would be nice if that were true.”
“It is,” Tara mumbled under her breath. “I bet if you gave them a chance you’d change your mind.” Tara felt the ever-increasing sense of doom close in around her. No matter how she tried, there was always something that wedged itself between the two of them. She couldn’t understand how she could continue to feel so drawn to someone so very different.