Lucky Stars (Ghosts and Reincarnation #5)(83)

“Let me tell you something, Belle Abbot. Jack Bennett doesn’t get jealous. A woman’s stupid enough to look another way, which, by the by, has never happened, as in never, he’d let her. He doesn’t have a lot of patience for idiots,” Olive informed her.

“I act like an idiot all the time,” Belle shared.

Olive’s grin turned into a smile. “Well, that may be so but you’re also darned pretty, you smell good and you have more dignity in your little finger than every woman Jack’s ever dated while I’ve been working for him all combined. So I’m guessing you get a free pass on being a pretty, dignified idiot who smells good.”

Belle stared at her, dumbstruck then asked on a whisper, “You think I have dignity?”

“I think anyone who can ignore those vultures outside for a year and who turns down offers to cash in on a tragedy has dignity. Yes. And lots of it,” Olive answered but wasn’t quite done. “You’ve got so much dignity I’m soaking some up just standing next to you.”

It was such an outrageous thing to say, Belle let out a surprised giggle.

“I’m thinking you have dignity too,” Belle told her.

“Yes, of course I do,” she replied breezily. “Though, I lose some of it when Jack calls me on a Sunday afternoon and tells me to find a shop assistant by the next day.”

Belle’s heart dropped. “I told him he should leave you alone on a Sunday.”

She leaned in conspiratorially. “My dear, what on earth would I do if Jack didn’t shake up my life every once in a while? I’d be bored silly. Anyway, as a reward, I got to sit next to Dirk in a limousine for the last five hours.” She leaned closer. “You should get a whiff. He smells good too.”

Belle couldn’t help it. She let out another giggle. This one was louder, longer and not self-conscious in the slightest.

After a few seconds, Belle realised that Olive had joined her in giggling.

* * * * *

“I like Olive,” Belle told Jack as they walked along the narrow cobbled street, Jack’s arm around Belle’s shoulders, only a few, straggling photographers keeping their distance and taking photos.

It was evening, the sun still in the sky, the heat staying on the day but a gentle breeze was blowing off the sea.

Olive had long since gone to the castle to settle in as she was staying for a few days as well as to find accommodation for Dirk as he was moving for the time being to St. Ives.

Belle had spent the afternoon attempting to stop Belinda from declaring her undying love for Dirk and explaining her minimal operation to him.

She found he knew his stuff, he had several suggestions, not just about how she ran her store but how she produced her line, all of them excellent and she’d told him to do whatever he wanted and keep the ideas coming.

Then she, Belinda, Carol and Nola spent a goodly amount of time explaining how fantastic St. Ives was, where to shop, where to eat and how to get along with the tourists.

Dirk didn’t seem at all fazed with his rapid change of scenery.

In fact Dirk was entirely laidback.

Except when an obvious journalist walked in, his beady eyes on Belle.

Dirk got in his way, looked down at him from his colossal height and demanded to know. “Are you buying something for your wife?”

With more audacity then sense, the reporter replied, “I’d like to talk to Belle a second.”

“Ms. Abbot is available only to customers,” Dirk returned.

“It’s just a few questions,” the man said.

“You’ve got two seconds to leave before you’re ejected,” Dirk retorted.

The man smiled. “You put your hands on me, I’ll –”

Then Dirk put his hands on him and deftly and efficiently ejected him from the shop.

“I’m calling the police!” the journalist shouted from the street.

“I’ll look forward to speaking with them,” Dirk replied calmly and then closed the door.

It was then Belle lost her battle to stop Belinda who, eyes on Dirk, breathed, “I think I love you.”

Dirk grinned a blinding grin. “That should make our working relationship interesting.”

Belinda fluttered her eyes and smiled.

Things returned to normal after that.

As normal as they could be with the media at the door and a movie-star gorgeous new shop assistant working with the boy-crazy one she already had.

On their walk, Jack squeezed her shoulder. “That’s good. Olive called me, she likes you too.” He paused then said, “She also told me about Dirk.”

Belle read between the lines, mainly because his voice was filled with humour, that Olive had told Jack about Belle’s reaction to Dirk.

She decided her best course was to ignore this and said, “He ejected a reporter today.”

Jack’s arm tensed spasmodically on her shoulders before he muttered, “I haven’t met him and I already like him.”

“Though, the bad news is, you’ve lost Belinda’s blind devotion. She’s now in love with Dirk.”

Jack looked down at her. “I didn’t know I had it.”

She stared up at him in astonishment.

Was he blind?

Then again, women probably fell in love with him when he walked down the street. Like at that very moment, women were probably looking out the windows of restaurants as Belle and Jack walked by, all of them falling madly in love with him.