“Then we just have to catch whoever it is that’s doing his dirty work.”
“No doubt that will be easier said than done,” Belle said, her voice tight.
“We’ll just have to pray that he slips up or that his hireling decides to man up and confess.”
“That would be too easy.”
“Not everything has to be hard. Sometimes God answers prayers in a way that appears easy.” Mitch hesitated. “For sure there’s no harm in praying about it.”
Belle didn’t respond to that. She just lowered her arms and headed for the door. “Thank you for showing me around again.”
Mitch jogged to catch up with her. “Hopefully next time, the painting will all be done.”
“And then we’ll see how good or bad the colors we chose look,” Belle said as she glanced over at him, a small smile tugging at her lips.
“I’m sure they’ll be fine, but if you strongly object to any of them, we can order new paint.”
“I’m sure you’ll be glad to be done with this renovation,” Belle said.
“Only because it will mean the start of something new for you and your business.” They walked down the stairs together. “I hope that just because the reno is done that you won’t want anything more to do with us.”
Belle laughed softly. “There’s still the wedding. By that point, I think Maya and Gabe will be sick of me.”
Mitch touched her on the back, guiding her around a workhorse that had been left near the entrance. “I doubt that will be the case. You’re making their lives much easier, they’ll always be grateful for your help. I know that about Maya and Gabe.”
As they stepped out of the building, Belle took the hard hat off and tucked it under her arm. “Thanks for the tour.”
“Do you have time for a quick lunch?” Mitch asked as they walked to her car.
Belle gave him a look that appeared to be genuinely regretful. “I’m afraid I don’t. I have a vendor meeting in twenty minutes, and then it’s back to the office to meet with a prospective client. Maybe another time?”
“Sure,” Mitch said, hoping it was an actual rain check.
Belle hurried to her car and gave a final wave before getting behind the wheel.
As the day passed, Belle found herself equally distracted between the issue with Andre and how she’d felt spending time with Mitch. She knew it wasn’t fair to him for her to continue coming around, talking to him, when she couldn’t—wouldn’t—give him what he wanted. But she couldn’t deny how being around him made her feel.
While she felt the need to control most the people—okay, the men—she came in contact with, it was different with Mitch. From the start, she’d found herself willing to trust him. To believe that he would do his best for her, both as a contractor and as a friend. He gave her a sense of safety and security, even in the midst of the mess with Andre.
It made her want to reconsider things with him, but there was just enough of the wounded, scared girl who’d barely managed to find the strength to escape Andre to keep her from taking that step. She knew Mitch was different. Even if she didn’t trust her own judgment, the sisters who had railed on Andre every time they spoke to her, were now Mitch’s biggest cheerleaders. It was one of the reasons Andre had found ways to limit her contact with her family.
She’d been so blind. So determined to find her own way. To be someone other than Annalisse’s daughter. Instead, she’d become Andre Moreau’s girlfriend. Something that was infinitely worse. If she’d thought she didn’t have an identity working with her mother, she’d had even less of one with Andre. It had taken her far too long to figure out he was taking credit for much of what she did for him.
Since going back to her mom and eventually taking over the business, Belle had devoted herself completely to it, and she didn’t see that changing anytime soon. That, more than anything, was why she resisted letting anything develop with Mitch. She’d lose her identity once again. And after struggling so hard to regain it, she just couldn’t accept that.
In the weeks leading up to the finishing touches being applied at the building, there was no more graffiti and, more surprisingly, no more bouquets. Well, as long as she didn’t count the ones that showed up from Mitch. She’d thought it would just be the one bouquet, but they’d continued to arrive, but not on a set day like Andre’s had. Apparently, Mitch just sent them whenever the urge struck him.
The flowers weren’t always the same, but they were always full of color and never included a single rose. She wondered if that bothered him. Roses were the flower of romance, after all. He probably hated the fact that Andre had spoiled that for her.
Belle wasn’t sure what worried her more: the lack of graffiti or the lack of flowers. She didn’t think for one minute that Andre had just thrown his hands up and said oh well. More likely, he was gearing up for something big. Not that he’d ever be tied to it. Much like the graffiti, he’d have someone else do his dirty work.
They’d updated the security at the site now that it was almost finished. They had more camera surveillance than a bank and so many exterior lights they could probably be seen from space. Maybe it had been enough to get Andre to keep his distance.
“Ready to go?” Jasmine asked as she locked the front door of the shop. “Mitch is meeting us there, right?”
“Yeah. He said he’d be there after five.”
After they had made sure the door was secure, they set the alarm and left, taking Belle’s car to the new site. A lot of the new furnishings had been delivered that day, so Jasmine was anxious to go over and start setting stuff up.
It would be the first time Belle would see the place completely ready for the furniture. Mitch had told her that the walls had all been painted and the carpet and other flooring were in place.
When they got to the building, it wasn’t just Mitch there. It looked like a few of his brothers had joined him, along with several women that she recognized from the weekend up at the cabin, including Denise.
“Hey, you two,” Mitch said, smiling as he came towards them. “I brought along a little help since I thought you might not be content to just unwrap the stuff that was delivered today.”
“Oh, you are so right,” Jasmine said, an excited look on her face.
Belle looked around, taking it all in. Even with large boxes piled everywhere, this was everything she’d dreamed of but had been afraid to hope for. She could only imagine how much better it would look when everything was in place.
People began to rip into the boxes, quickly unpacking the pieces that Jasmine had chosen for the shop. As each piece was revealed, Jasmine directed their friends where to put it. Large white couches were placed in the areas in front of the pedestals and mirrors where those who accompanied the bride on her quest for the perfect dress could sit and pass their judgment on the dresses she modeled.
Small tables with glass shelves and brass edging were placed in strategic locations along the walls and then topped with the décor that Jasmine had chosen. Other pieces of furniture were carried up to the second floor and placed in Belle’s office and the conference room. Belle and the other women followed Jasmine’s directions as they unwrapped and positioned the smaller pieces.
At some point, a couple of people made a coffee run to Tim Hortons, coming back laden down with coffee, hot chocolate, and tea, along with a large assortment of donuts and muffins. They took a quick break before diving back in to the work at hand. Where Belle had assumed it would take several days to get everything unwrapped and set up, it appeared that perhaps it would only take a couple. She knew that Jasmine would be thrilled about that.
Their grand opening was a couple of weeks away, but the more they got done ahead of time, the better. Belle still had to pack up her office, and closer to moving day, the alterations department would move all their equipment and ongoing work over to the new site. The dresses would be among the last things to be moved over.
They had planned to do that overnight when there would b
e little traffic, and parking wouldn’t be an issue while they loaded up the truck and then drove it to the new location. Moving the dresses would no doubt require a few trips, but Belle hoped that if it went as smoothly as the furniture unpacking was going, it wouldn’t take too long.
“Is everything looking like you’d hoped it would?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Belle turned to find Mitch standing beside her. “It’s perfect. Between the work you and your guys have done and Jasmine’s decorating, it’s better than I could have imagined.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“Now let’s just hope that nothing happens to it,” Belle said.
“You mean like the graffiti?” Mitch frowned. “I don’t think I showed you the security room yet, did I?”
Belle shook her head. “Was that a new addition?”
“Yep. After you agreed to the additional security measures, we managed to build an extra room on the second floor. It just meant the landing area is a bit smaller, but nothing too noticeable.” He held out his hand towards the stairs. “Let me show you.”
They walked up the stairs, standing to the side a couple of times as people carrying furniture moved past them. On the landing, Belle immediately spotted where the extra work had been done. Mitch opened the door and stepped back to allow Belle to enter the room.
“Wow. This is incredible,” Belle said, taking in the monitors, already bright with pictures. “So that’s from the cameras you installed?”
“Yes. We had a security guy come in and help us figure out the best angles and places to mount the cameras. There are none in the areas where you would be conducting business with clients, but there are a couple in the foyer. One out on the landing, and several on the outside of the building.”
Belle sat down in the chair facing the monitors on the wall above the desk and watched the people who were moving the furniture around. The pictures were clear—much clearer than she had thought they’d be. Hopefully, they were detailed enough to catch anyone who happened to try to damage the building again.
“Also, the feeds are stored on a drive here as well as a remote one, so if something happened to the building—like a fire—the feed would still be viewable.”
Belle glanced over at Mitch with a smile. “You’ve thought of everything.”
“Well, I wish we hadn’t had to go to this level for security, but who would have thought a bridal boutique would be the target of a deranged competitor?”
“The bridal business can be a cut-throat one, depending on the people involved. Bad mouthing a competitor is the best way to impact them. Every shop wants the people who have used their business to share their positive experiences because unlike other businesses, this isn’t one where you’ll have the same clients coming back over and over again.”
“I’m sure that’s true. No bride wants to be walking down the aisle thinking hey, they did such a bang-up job, I want to use them again for my next wedding.”
Belle laughed. “Exactly. What we do want is for bridal couples to have had such a great experience working with us that they share their experience with all their friends and family who are getting married. Good word of mouth is the best advertising for businesses like ours. And for us, we may not be the cheapest, but we are the best.”
“I would say you’re right.”
“You would?” Belle relaxed back in the seat, watching as Mitch leaned against the door jamb.
“I was bored one night,” he said with the shrug of one shoulder.
“And started googling bridal services?”
“Not in general. I was just kind of curious to see what people had to say about your boutique. And from what I could see on your Facebook page and other places on the web, brides have only good things to say about you, Jasmine, and the women who work for you.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t find the one horrible review from the bridezilla a few months back. She was mad when she came for her fitting and found out she wasn’t going to get to work with Jasmine.”
“Really? Why would she get that upset?”
“Well, when she’d first come to find her dress, she’d reduced Jasmine to tears.” Belle scowled at the memory. “Jazzy was getting ulcers at the thought of having to deal with her again when she came in for her fitting. When the bride realized she was going to have to deal with me instead of Jasmine, she wasn’t happy. I’m a lot harder to make cry.”
“That’s horrible. For some reason, I thought bridal stuff was all sunshine and roses.”
Belle laughed again as she shook her head. “No, you didn’t. I’m sure Maya has mentioned plenty of the stress she’s been under trying to balance pleasing her mom with what she wants for her own wedding. It’s definitely not all sunshine and roses.”
“And yet you try to make it as stress-free as possible for brides,” Mitch pointed out.
“In much the same way you do for your clients. And I should know since I’ve been one.”
Mitch stared at her for a moment before the corner of his mouth tugged upward. “Don’t tell my other clients, but you did get a bit more of my personal attention.”
Belle felt a swirl of warmth at the thought that he’d taken special measures for the renovation because of her. Would he always take care of her that way?
Even as the thought entered her head, Belle rejected it. She didn’t need anyone to take care of her. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Hadn’t she proven that over the years since she’d left Andre?
“Well, I’m very thankful for all you’ve done for us on this job,” Belle said as she got up from the chair in front of the monitors. “I’m almost in shock at how close we are to the end of this whole process, and the fact that most of my mind is still intact.”
“Yep. We’re in the home stretch now.” The way Mitch said it didn’t sound like that was a good thing.
Over the past couple of weeks, their relationship seemed to have settled again. She wasn’t sure that Mitch had completely accepted that she wasn’t interested in a relationship with him since the flowers continued to show up. There was no message with them like there had been with the first, but there was no doubt at all who they were from. Belle had no idea what that meant, but she did enjoy getting flowers that didn’t create a frisson of fear every time they arrived.
Perhaps that’s what Mitch had hoped to achieve.
Just as they reached the main floor, Belle’s phone rang. Seeing Rory’s name on the screen, she immediately answered it.
“Did you hear the news?” Rory said when Belle answered.
“About what?” Belle asked as she stepped out of the way of a chair being carried upstairs. “What’s happened?”
“My cop friend just called me a few minutes ago,” Rory said. “Apparently emergency vehicles were called to Andre’s shop.”
Belle’s head spun, and she leaned back against the wall to keep her balance. “What happened?”
“Fire. My friend said it was fully engulfed by the time the fire engines got there.”
“It’s gone?” Belle didn’t have many happy memories of her time with Andre, but that shop had been her work home for several years.
“Yep. Burned to the ground. Fortunately, the fire didn’t spread to any other buildings, and no one was injured.”
Belle struggled to wrap her mind around the idea that Andre’s shop was no more. She’d been bracing herself for what would happen next to her or her business because of him, especially considering that things had been surprisingly quiet on the Andre-front lately. Even the bouquets had stopped arriving. Belle had been waiting for the other shoe to drop.
And now it apparently had, but not at all in the way she’d imagined.
After she got off the phone with Rory, Belle relayed the information to Mitch. He looked as perplexed as she felt at this latest turn of events.
“Do you think that means things are over?” Belle asked Mitch in a low voice.
Mitch shrugged. “Remember
how you didn’t think it would be so easy for things to end?”
“Yeah, and you seemed to think it could end easily.”
Mitch scoffed. “Yep, I did, and now I think I was wrong.”
Belle crossed her arms and frowned. “You think this is too easy?”
“That, and it doesn’t make any sense. Like why, all of a sudden, does his place burn down?”
“So you don’t think it’s over?” The ache in Belle’s stomach only intensified when Mitch shook his head.
Mitch frowned and placed his hands on his hips. “I’ll be curious to see how this plays out, but I’ll be very surprised if this is the end of things.”
As it turned out, Mitch was right. Two days after the fire, Rory appeared in Belle’s office doorway, an intense look on her face.
“What’s up, Rore?” Belle asked as she rested her forearms on her desk.
“I don’t have long,” Rory said as she dropped down into the seat across the desk from Belle. “A couple of detectives are on their way over.”
“What? Why?”
“Apparently, Andre has been spouting that you had reason to hire someone to burn his place down.”
Belle stared at Rory in shock, waiting for her sister to reveal that her words were a joke. But when she didn’t, Belle had to swallow against the nausea rising in her stomach. “I don’t understand.”
“They found evidence of arson at the scene.” Rory paused. “A little too conveniently, I might add.”
“Should your friend be telling you any of this?” Belle asked, worried that her sister might get into trouble, even though she was grateful for the heads-up.
“He wouldn’t have said a word to me if he felt that Andre’s story was believable. But there must be something else going on that he’s not telling me.”
“Are you here as my lawyer?” Belle asked.
“Possibly. We’ll see what they say when they get here.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if we just cooperated?”
Rory nodded. “For sure. But I’m just going to be here in case things start heading in a direction I’m not comfortable with.”
A Touch of Romance_A Christian Romance Page 27
