Cliffhanger (The Belinda & Bennett Mysteries, Book One)

Chapter 9

Belinda had no idea what it meant to find all those photographs of her with Mark in Lily's dresser, and she'd forgotten she even stuffed them in her pants until they fell out when she changed after returning from the hospital. Her body creaked and groaned when she woke up that morning and she felt like she'd been run over by a truck.

Ironically, it was almost true.

Kyle stayed home that morning to make sure she was all right to be alone, but had to go into work that afternoon, putting her on lockdown for the rest of the day. He wouldn't be back for hours and Belinda wasn't sure she should tell him about the photos just yet anyway. Nor did she have the physical or emotional strength to bother.

Physically, she and Victoria came out of the ordeal in okay shape. A little concussed with some scrapes and bruises, but that was all. Emotionally, Belinda felt rocked to her core. She always imagined her life flashing before her eyes in an event like that, but she didn't even have time. It was over before she saw the need for a flashback. When it came down to it, though, she only really cared about Victoria and her baby. She wanted to rip apart the person who hit them for Victoria's sake.

After staying curled up in bed for hours to watch a stream of cooking shows and taking mental notes of recipes to search online for later, Belinda finally showered. She'd expected the "wing" they lived in to be completely barren, but her mom had left a basket in her bathroom (she and Kyle had separates, thank goodness) of toiletries and brand spanking new towels made from Egyptian cotton. Wrapped in the pink terry-cloth bathrobe also left in her wardrobe, she twisted her hair up into a messy bun just as the doorbell rang.

Belinda padded downstairs, gripping the rail. They warned her that she'd experience dizziness for a while, but Belinda still wasn't quite prepared for it. Peering into the peephole, she hoped it wasn't the detective again. She took a step back. No, it was much worse than that. How did Bennett Tate find her? Belinda opened the door a crack, quickly running through any excuses that would work to keep from having to let him inside.

She smiled broadly, involuntarily checking her hair to make sure it was still in place. Thank goodness she'd showered...now she just needed to put on clothes.

One side of Bennett's mouth curled up and his eyes scanned her, finally settling on her eyes with a look Belinda thought was approval and maybe relief. They stared at each other for a minute, and he pushed a white pastry box into her hands. "I hope you like éclairs," he said. 

Belinda nodded, all of the reasons to refuse to let him in flying from her head. After all, she didn't want to seem rude and he'd gone to the trouble to buy pastries. She wanted to fly upstairs to change, but she could only poke one step at a time and found it even difficult to pick out clothes, her mind wandering off of its task every few seconds. She finally managed to get dressed and make it safely down the stairs for the third time that day with Bennett waiting at the bottom poised to catch her if she fell.

"Are you all right?" he said, concern passing through his eyes as she recovered from her exertion.

"Oh, I'm all right." Belinda sat down on the bottom step. Just until Bennett became one whole person again instead of two or three hologram-looking beings.

He crouched down, scanning her face.

"It's just the - consequences - of the concussion. I'll be okay in a sec." Once she felt more focused, she stood slowly and Bennett trailed her to the back deck.

"How's your friend?"

"About the same as me." She involuntarily glanced at the water. "Nothing major." Belinda looked down at her hands, realizing they were starting to shake, and stuck them behind her back. "She's having a baby, you know."