This Time(31)

Ooo, she's good, Belle thought.

"We got it fixed last week, better than before."

"Who'd you get to do the work?" Mary Beth snapped her gum between her teeth, feigning wonder at Belle's good fortune. "Maybe Shane can hire him."

"Okay, Mary Beth, cut the pretense. You know Burke did the work with some of the boys from the football team. There, you happy?"

Mary Beth mixed the chemicals for Belle's highlights and started painting the short protruding strands. "Not near enough, Belle. Details friend, details."

At that moment, the crisp ring of the bells dangling by the front door sang out and Mary Beth called, "Meg, get in here and work with me. I can't get a thing out of her."

"No fair double teaming," Belle protested, as Meg plopped into the empty salon chair next to her.

She brushed a wild curl from her eye. "Okay," she said, breathless, resting her hand on her expanding middle, her china doll complexion flushed with the summer heat. "I dropped Stan and the kids at Wal-Mart, Mom at the fabric store. I have an entire half hour to myself, and I want the whole story, Belle. You've been holding out on me."

"There's nothing to tell," she insisted, glancing askance at her friend.

Mary Beth and Meg protested with one voice.

"I'm going to let your hair burn bleach blonde for not telling the truth," Mary Beth threatened, shaking the color brush at Belle.

"Gates said she and Paul ran into you two at the movies in Tulsa the other night," Meg began.

"I saw you two at Charlie's one night, eatin' burgers," Mary Beth said.

Meg added, "Spencer said he hadn't seen you or talked to you in weeks."

Belle put her hands up against the barrage. "Okay, okay. Burke and I have spent some time together, big deal."

"It is a big deal, Belle," Mary Beth countered, setting a portable dryer over her head for the color to dry. "You're gonna have to speak up now so we can hear you."

"Look," she began, speaking above the dyer's low hum, "you guys know the story, so I'm not going to rehash the past. But Burke and I are merely getting reacquainted, working through the healing process, sharing what our lives have been about in the last twelve years. It doesn't mean that we are a couple." She paused and pointed at the two women. "And I know that's what you're thinking."

"But you were the greatest couple of all time," Mary Beth lamented, fluffing her own carrot top with a pick.

"You know you still love him, Belle," Meg argued.

Belle flared, feeling defensive. "Don't put assumptions on me, Meg. Have you forgotten the beautiful Grace Peterson? As far as I know, Burke and Grace are still an item."

"Posh," Mary Beth harrumphed with a flit of her hand. "He doesn't want that skinny girl."

Belle looked up at her from under the dryer cap. "I suppose he told you that?"

"No, but if I were him, I'd pick you."

Belle laughed, appreciating her old friend's sentiments. "I'll tell him to check with you before he makes his next move."

"You do that," she said with full conviction, now idly filing her nails.

Meg interrupted the banter with a pointed question. "So, why? Why did he leave you?"

Belle shifted in her seat; the humiliation of being left at the altar still stung a bit. Yet, she understood Meg's desire to know the answer to the age-old question of why Burke deserted her on their wedding day. Meg had shared in her devastation and needed to close the door on the past as much as Belle did. Taking a deep breath, Belle said, "He got cold feet."

Meg sat back in the chair, and Mary Beth gaped at her through the mirror. "Cold feet?" she repeated.

Belle nodded her capped head. "There's a little more to it, but yeah, that's the bottom line."

"Why didn't he tell you?" Meg asked.

"Never could find the words," Belle explained.

"But to leave you at the altar?" Meg said, her tone full of questions.

Belle shared Burke's story. "He planned to go through with the wedding until he realized how unfair it was to me if he had any doubts. So, he ran."

"Hmm, hmm," Mary Beth crooned. "Why did it take twelve years for him to confess?"

"It just did, Mary Beth. Can we change the subject?"

"Paul told Stan that Burke's helping out at the ranch," Meg said.

Mary Beth pulled the dryer off of Belle's head. Her ears were hot, glowing red. "Thanks, Mary Beth. Yes, he's been covering for Daddy."

"How's that working out?"

Belle tried to hide it, but her cheeks blushed, matching her ears. Dropping her gaze, she said, "We get along great. We laugh a lot, race the horses. Jake and Cole are in heaven working with him. They love asking him about his football career and what it's like to be on a sitcom."

"You're in love," Mary Beth said, flat out, leading her to the sink to rise before pulling off the coloring cap.

"I'm not," she objected fiercely.

Meg kept the conversation on an even keel. "What's Duke think of all of this?"

"Speak up, I'm running the water," Mary Beth told her over her shoulder.