Simply Being Belle (9 page)

Belle shot Lacey a
bewildered glance that morphed into a dirty look. 
The whole evening was
about getting her out of her yard.
 
Really?
 

“We can head over
to my place,” Dare suggested.  “My yard isn’t as big as Belle’s, but I have a
nice patio out back.  I’ll gladly fire up the barbecue…”

“No, no.  Tonight
is all about rest and relaxation,” Lacey murmured.  “No one should be cooking. 
How about…?  I know!  Steven and I can pick up something through a drive-thru
and meet you there.  What sounds good?”  Lacey directed the question to Belle.

She shrugged.  “Anything.”

“Burgers, chicken,
fish…” she listed. 

She shook her head
and glanced at Dare.  “Uh … chicken,” she said with a shrug.

Lacey grabbed a
hold of Steven’s hand and hauled him off the bench.  “Come on.  It’s your fault
we don’t have a reservation…”  Her words trailed off as she hurried out of the
restaurant, with Steven at her heels.

Dare turned to
Belle and smiled.  “Ready to go?”

She nodded, and suddenly,
someone bumped against her, causing her to launch against his rock hard chest. 
Instinctively, he reached out to steady her, his warm hands bracing her arms. 
“Wow, this place is crowded,” he observed with a wince, but Belle realized he
made no move to release her.    

She nodded and
tugged away from him, turning on her heel, and making her way to the front of the
restaurant and out the door.  She stepped into the cool night air, relieved to
be out of the mingling crowds inside the over-warm restaurant.

“Follow me to my
place?” Dare said.

Ten minutes later,
Belle found herself parked in front of his cottage, only blocks from her
house.  She had no sooner parked her car when her phone rang.  It was Lacey. 
“Belle, forgive me, but Steven and I aren’t going to make it tonight.  He isn’t
feeling very well.  I think he has a fever.”

“What?  He was
just fine a few minutes ago.”

“No, he wasn’t. 
He had a headache, and I half suspect he’s coming down with something…”

“Oh, Lacey,” she
practically moaned.  “I’m at Dare’s place.  What am I supposed to do now?”

“Oh, um, have fun
I guess.  Just a minute…” She heard a garbled conversation between her two
friends, and then Lacey was back on the phone.  “I’m really sorry, Belle.  I
have to go.  Steven needs me.  He’s such a baby when he’s sick.”  And then the
phone went dead.

Belle stared at
the cell phone in her hand for several long seconds, and then climbed out of
her car.  Dare waited for her on the curb. 

“Lacey and Steven
aren’t coming,” she told him with an apologetic smile.  “I guess Steven isn’t
feeling well.”

“He seemed okay
earlier…”

She offered a
rueful smile.  “I thought so, too, but…”  She frowned and shook her head.  “I’m
thinking…  I mean, it’s entirely possible…”

“What?” he
prompted.

 “It’s possible
you and I are being set up.”

“You think?” he
said cheerfully.

“I think,” she
said wearily.  “Hey, I’ll just go home.  I’m sure you have things to do.”  She
turned to leave.

Dare gently took a
hold of her arm.  “Hey, hold up there.  I was promised dinner out and an
evening of fun with friends.”

She wasn’t sure
how to respond to that.  She hadn’t promised anything.  Lacey and Steven had
been the orchestrators of this evening, and they were conspicuously absent.

“Lock up your car,”
he said.  “I have an idea.”

She obligingly locked
the car and turned to him, simultaneously raising her wrist to check the time. 

“Hey, none of that,”
he admonished.  “This is supposed to be a night off for you.”

She pressed her
eyelids shut and counted to five before opening them.  “Really, I’ll just go. 
I … don’t need a night ‘off’.”

Dare watched her
speculatively, a ghost of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.  Belle
found herself shifting uncomfortably under his scrutiny.  “Why don’t we take a
walk downtown?” he suggested.  “We can grab a bite to eat and then stroll along
the waterfront.”           

Belle considered
the offer, and then remembered her dress and strappy sandals.  “I’ll need to
change.  These shoes aren’t conducive to walking.”

“Sure.” 

Moments later,
they arrived at her house in her car, which she pulled into her single stall
garage.  They climbed out and Dare followed her into the kitchen.  “Give me a
minute,” she said as she crossed the room.

He nodded and
dropped into a chair at the kitchen table.  Belle hurried upstairs to change,
grimacing as she surveyed her closet for something to wear.  A glance at the
nearby hamper confirmed she needed to do some laundry.  She finally settled on
walking shorts, a yellow top, and tennis shoes. 

Back downstairs,
she found Dare on the back porch, talking to the dogs.  She found herself
smiling as the dogs jostled to get closer to him, vying for his affection. 
Even the kitten scampered from Tri’s dog house and pressed against his ankles. 
  

“They really like
you,” she mused aloud, somewhat surprised her animals were so smitten with a
veritable stranger.  It had taken the dogs weeks to get accustomed to Lacey and
Steven.

“Ah, they’re good
dogs,” he praised the hyper canines.  “And clearly great judges of character,”
he added with a grin.

 After Dare and
Belle had eaten a light dinner at a small café on the waterfront, they strolled
along the path that bordered the downtown river.  They stopped to survey the
water below them.  When Belle shivered slightly, Dare draped his light jacket
over her shoulders.

“I can’t believe I
walked off without a jacket,” she said.  “Now you’ll be cold,” she added with a
wince.

“I’m fine,” he
said, smiling into her eyes.

She turned back to
study the water.  Although dusk had settled over the city center, bright lights
twinkled around them, illuminating the water below.  She pulled her eyes away
from the river and glanced around her, taking in the sights and sounds of the
bustling downtown. 

She realized she
hadn’t enjoyed an evening out with anyone for months.  Somehow, her social
calendar had taken a backseat to all things professional, and she found herself
wondering how her life had become all work and no play.  And most of all, she
wondered why it was she preferred it that way?

She frowned and
Dare studied her features, taking in the emotions criss-crossing her lovely
face. 

“It’s pretty down
here,” he commented, drawing her out of her thoughts.

She shook her head
to clear it and nodded.  “It’s been awhile since I’ve walked along the
waterfront.”  She turned in a slow circle, studying the cityscape.  “Wow, the
downtown area has really grown.  Is that a new sky scraper?” she asked,
wondering how she’d managed to miss it during her drive to and from work each
day.

“You haven’t
noticed that building before?” he asked, failing to mask his surprise.

“No,” she admitted.

“It’s the Whaley
building,” he told her.  “It’s been touted on the local news as the tallest
building downtown.  Heck, it’s the tallest building in the state—a veritable
engineering marvel.  I understand it was completed last month.”

She shrugged. 
“Guess I missed that.”

“Wow.”

“What does that
mean?” she asked, eying him intently.

“Oh, nothing,” he
said quickly, but tipped his head to the side as he studied her face.  “Belle,
is it possible Millicent is right that you work too hard?”

She furrowed her
brow and shot him a dirty look.  “No, I don’t think she’s right.”

“But Belle,” he
pointed out, “you didn’t see the skyscraper through the…”  His words trailed
and he laughed uncertainly.  “Strike that.  I meant to say, there’s a good
chance you do work too hard, and you’re not seeing it because, well, you’re not
seeing the forest through the trees.”

“You’re talking in
riddles,” she said in a frustrated tone.  “What is it I’m not seeing through
the trees?  Or skyscraper?  Or whatever?”

He simply shook
his head and watched her sadly.  “I think Millicent’s right.  You really do
need a vacation.”

“I don’t need a
vacation.”

He smiled softly,
his eyes seeming to darken.  “Maybe you need this more.”

When he leaned in
to kiss her, it was the last thing she expected.  And more surprising was her
response to it.  She found herself returning his kiss with an intensity alien
to her.  Finally, she pulled back and reached a hand to her tingling lips. 
Dare smiled like the cat that had swallowed the canary. 

“What are you
grinning about?” she asked.

“You enjoyed
that,” he said, failing to mask a hint of triumph in his voice.  “Maybe there’s
hope for you yet.”

“Well, I’m not a
robot, you know.  Much as Lacey, Steven, Millicent, and … you seem to think I
am.  Wait a minute,” she said testily, “what do you mean, ‘maybe there’s hope
for me yet?’”

“Hey, I never said
you’re a robot,” he assured her, grinning broadly.  “A workaholic maybe, but
never a robot.” 

“Go back to that ‘hope’
thing,” she insisted.  “What was it you said?  Oh, yes.  Maybe there’s hope for
me yet.  Exactly what does that mean?”

“I mean, you’re so
caught up in work, at Legal Aid, and at home, it’s good to know I can break
through the façade…”

“Façade?” 

She watched him
through narrowed eyes now, her head cocked to the side.  She straightened and her
eyes widened.  “You mean the ice princess façade!” she accused angrily, gearing
up for a verbal battle.  Men had called her that before, and it galled her
still.  She was a young woman who had worked for a prestigious law firm, and who
hadn’t succumbed to the charms of every legal eagle who came her way, but that didn’t
make her an ice princess.    

Dare gave her a
quizzical glance, and then raised a conciliatory hand.  “Hey, I
never
called you an ice princess,” he said crisply, adamantly.  “I just kissed you,
remember?  Those were definitely
not
the lips of an ice princess.”

Unsure how to
respond, she turned and began walking.  Once again she was lost to her thoughts. 
Dare walked silently beside her.  When he took her hand, her first inclination
was to pull away, but she realized she didn’t want to.  Interesting.  Her
feelings were conflicting—odd.

He finally broke
the silence.  “What changed you?”

Belle stopped
walking and pinned him with a confused gaze.  “What?”

“What changed you? 
What happened to alter your personality so dramatically from the sixteen-year-old
in that tape to the woman that stands here tonight?  Was it a gradual
transformation, or instantaneous?  It had to be something significant.”

She emitted a
haggard sigh.  This topic of conversation wasn’t any more desirable than the
previous one.  “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“Please,” he
persisted.  “I’m curious, Belle.”

She glanced around
her.  She considered bolting, but realized he had a hold of her hand. 

“Please, Belle,”
he said softly.  “I’m not judging you.  The truth is, I admire your
convictions.  Very few people would turn their backs on a life of luxury.”

“I…”  She paused,
searching for an answer to his question.  The answer wasn’t so easy to give,
since it wasn’t a particular event that had changed her, but a series of events
over the course of a year.  Finally, she spoke, “My grandfather took me on a
very long trip…”

Her words trailed
off and he nodded.  “Going abroad will definitely change a person’s
perspectives.  Where did you go?”

She paused,
shoring herself to discuss painful memories.  “My grandfather promised me a
trip to Italy for my sixteenth birthday.”  She forced a smile.  “Little did I
know, he’d made other arrangements for me.  Had I known he’d changed our plans,
of course I would have kicked and screamed all the way to Africa…”

“You traveled to Africa?”

“To several
countries in Africa, and from there, we flew to Bangladesh, India, and from
there…”  She shook her head and swallowed hard.  “It wasn’t a ‘sightseeing’
trip, in the traditional sense of the word, but I saw … a lot.” 

She paused
momentarily and smiled sadly.  “My grandfather didn’t pull any punches.  He
forced me to see things I didn’t want to look at—things that I sometimes see in
my dreams—nightmares,” she amended.  “Things I will never forget.”

Belle didn’t miss
the flash of anger in Dare’s eyes, and she could easily read his thoughts.    

“No,” she said
with certainty in her voice, “it was the best thing he could have done for the
person I was.  Had he not forced me to look—to really see—I wouldn’t have
changed.  I never would have … changed.”

Dare sighed loudly
and shook his head.  “Okay, but you were just a child, and obviously, the
things you saw not only changed you, but altered you—and I can’t help but
wonder if your grandfather went too far.”

She shook her head
vigorously.  “No.  He showed me enough—he showed me everything.  Dare, I saw little
kids…”  She shook her head, unable to continue as the tears glistened in her
eyes.

When he pulled her
into his arms, she didn’t resist his warmth, but instead surrendered to his
comfort.  She found herself crying, and realized later she had never really
allowed herself to cry over the horrors she had seen during her travels to
third world countries.  She had never admitted to herself just how painful the
memories were.

When she finally
stepped out of Dare’s arms and attempted a smile, it was tremulous at best.  “I’m
sorry,” she murmured.

“No, I’m sorry,
Belle.  I really didn’t mean to upset you.  Please forgive me.”

She continued
walking.  He fell into step beside her and reached for her hand again.  She
felt his warmth radiate through her fingers and travel up her arm.  It felt …
good, and oddly, she realized, she felt better for having spoken to him about her
trip.