Becoming Bella

by Sarah Hegger

  God, the people in this county must have been desperate to elect him. He thanked God they were, though. He liked his job, loved it. It beat the crap out of working in the city. When this gig had come up, he couldn’t get out of the Special Victims Task Force fast enough. Women and kids, the kind of breathing victims that tore your heart out and stamped on it.

  He started the cruiser and eased into the street. Light shone from the houses on either side. He caught glimpses of life inside those houses. Pat and Karen Kenny and their three kids, sitting around the dinner table. He remembered rushing Pat to the hospital in time for Karen to deliver their first.

  Old Man Sharp, nursing his one whiskey from the porch, raised his hand as Nate passed.

  Ghost Falls was special. One of a handful of disappearing towns across the country. Stuff like morals, family, and integrity still meant something here. If you fell on the sidewalk, somebody would help you up. People still had block parties and knew the names of all their neighbors. It was more than a town, it was a community, and it was his job to keep it that way.

  Two kids loitered at the stop sign between Wolverine and Elkhart. Nate rolled down his window. “Hey, Maddie, Whitney. Shouldn’t you girls be heading home?”

  “Yes, Sheriff.” Whitney gave him a killer smile that would take knees out in about fifteen years.

  Fifteen years from now, he’d be into his late forties. Jesus, what a depressing thought. Because he might be almost exactly where he was now, except older.

  Giggling and whispering to each other, the girls ran across the street.

  Life moved on all around him. Even Bella was moving on. He’d like to see that. Inside the good girl Bella had always been, he sensed a little something wild lurking. His phone ringing provided a welcome distraction. “Yup.”

  “Nate?” The voice sounded vaguely familiar and he checked caller ID. An unknown number.

  “Yup.”

  “Hey! So this is Daniel. Daniel Carver.”

  Holy shit. He pulled the cruiser over to the side before he crashed into something. “Daniel Carver? Last I heard you were doing five to ten.”

  “Yeah.” Daniel chuckled. “Well, I’ve done them and now I’m out.”

  Shit, Daniel Carver. His near miss. His wake-up call. He and Daniel had run crazy through Ghost Falls until old Sheriff Wheeler gave them both a way out. Nate took the hand offered. Daniel went his own way. A rush of old anger and teenage need to kick out at something clenched in his gut. He took a deep breath. He didn’t have to be that kid anymore, but Daniel Carver . . .

  “So, your brother gave me your number,” Daniel said.

  Had to be Matt, who never saw the bad side of anyone. “What can I do for you?”

  “First off, I’m checking in with the sheriff.” Daniel chuckled. “Sheriff ? What the hell, bud, didn’t see that one coming.”

  “People change.” The pissy in his voice made him even madder.

  “Yeah, they do.” Daniel sighed down the line. “You’ve done well, Nate. You made a smart move.”

  “Thanks.” He breathed deep. This past blast unsettled him. “So, you’re back in Ghost Falls.”

  “Yeah. My folks died while I was inside. They left me their apartment.”

  “I know. I’ve been keeping an eye on it. Not me; the department.”

  “Thanks,” Daniel said. “So, any chance we could meet up? Have a drink? A cup of coffee? I’d really like to connect with you again.”

  What the hell for? Meeting Daniel Carver was not something he wanted to do. “Why?”

  “I’m not the same man either, Nate,” he said. “I’d like the chance to prove it to you.”

  “Okay.” Who the hell was he to say no if the man was really changed and reaching out? If Sheriff Wheeler hadn’t reached out to him as a kid, he would have headed straight behind bars with Daniel. “Sure, let’s meet.”

  Chapter Five

  Bella fitted the key in the glass front door to her store and shoved it open. Stale, weekend air rushed up to greet her as she flipped on the lights.

  God! This place! This tired, old eighties throwback with its shag carpet and lipstick-pink furniture. Now, Bella liked pink as much as the next girl—more, in fact—but the store needed a serious update. Starting with the carpet, which trapped twenty years of odors in it and sent them into the air.

  If the outraged call from Nana this morning was any sort of indication, the update might have to wait. How Nana and her chronic technophobia had found the site, she still didn’t know. But found it Nana had, and made Bella forty minutes late with her lecture on change, which she followed up with a guilt whammy straight to the knees about how much Bella owed her for handing over her business to her favorite granddaughter. Her only granddaughter. Nobody said it anymore, but as the surviving twin, Bella sometimes felt like she owed it to Nana and her parents to make sure they never missed her sister. Sure, she didn’t need Dr. Childers to break that down for her, but still she played second favorite to a sister who’d died before they had reached six months.

  She put her bag in the back room, took a bracing sip of her nonfat caramel latte, and went back into the main store. The register hummed into life. It had taken three weeks of fighting Nana to get a computerized inventory system installed. Nana had liked having Bella and the books around every Sunday night for a report session. It had made Bella the world’s biggest wuss that she didn’t say no and point out that she owned the store, had bought it from Nana. The store was Nana’s life and Bella couldn’t snatch it away from her. Fortunately, the new inventory system confounded Nana, and the Sunday night interrogations had ended.

  The bell over the door tinkled and Pippa walked in, giving Bella that killer smile that made her one of America’s favorite reality-show hosts. “Hey, Tinker Bell!”

  Tall, red-haired, and stacked, along with charming and successful, a girl could grow to hate someone like Pippa. Unless Pippa was your closest friend, and then any day that brought Pippa was a good one. “Hey yourself. When did you get back?”

  “Last night.” As always, Pippa looked great. Her hectic traveling lifestyle didn’t seem to touch her; Pippa always had a sort of glow about her. It helped that she was married to the second-sexiest man in Ghost Falls, Matt Evans. Darn Evans brothers. Maybe if she’d moved away she might have gotten to the crush recovery stage a bit sooner.

  Bella returned her hug.

  “Oh dear.” Pippa leaned back. “That’s not a happy face.”

  “Nana found out about the website.” Pippa’s uncanny knack of winkling the truth out of a person made her TV show riveting to watch, but it also made it difficult for her friends to pretend everything was okay.

  “You launched it?” Pippa smiled.

  Bella let her happy grin free. She was proud of the website, and herself for doing it. “This weekend.”

  “Go you!” Pippa pumped her fist in the air. “So what did Nana have to say?”

  “What do you think?” Bella pulled a face. The forty minutes had gotten ugly. “She went nuts.”

  Pippa strolled over to the pink velour chairs in the center of the salon. Chairs so pink they made Bella’s teeth ache. “So, I guess you didn’t get a chance to talk to her about the renovation.”

  “Gosh no.” Bella got her duster out and went to work. Looking at Pippa would confirm what the other woman thought. She thought it herself often enough. Bella needed to stop being such a pushover.

  “You know, Bella, you don’t need her permission to do this, or even her approval.”

  “It’s not that easy.” Bella got behind the display of earrings with her duster. A lifetime of stand up for yourself, Bella, followed quickly by a do it because I said so, Bella didn’t give her any hints.

  “Yes, actually, it is.” Pippa stood in an elegant sweep.

  Bella dreamed of moving like that. Every motion Pippa made seemed choreographed. It helped that Pippa topped her by nearly a foot. Unfortunately, Bella’s girlish dreams of being willowy and tall had
stopped at five foot nothing.

  “This is your store. It’s your time that keeps it open; it’s your money you spend on it.” Pippa waved her hand to the snow-covered mountain outside the storefront. “Up there, those developments are getting bigger and bigger and bringing more money into this area. That’s your market, right there. And you need to position yourself to take advantage of it.” Pippa whipped the duster out of her hand. “The time for change is now, Bella.”

  Yeah, yeah, yeah; tell that to Nana. “Actually, speaking of change,” Bella switched subjects before Pippa could really get going, “I’ve been making a few.”

  Cocking her head, Pippa studied her. “To the store, or what?”

  “Nope.” Bella grabbed her duster back. She couldn’t talk if her hands weren’t busy. “To me. Changes to me.”

  Pippa reared back a bit. “There’s nothing wrong with you. If you were on my show I wouldn’t have a clue how to make you over.”

  “Not the outside.” Bella peered over the edge of a sale items rack, all horrible stuff left over from when Nana did the ordering that she could barely give away, let alone sell. “I’ve been listening to Dr. Childers’s Guide to a More Authentic You.”

  Throwing back her head, Pippa gave her husky, naughty laugh. “Dr. Rhonda Childers? The same Dr. Childers who ran out on her husband and four kids and is now living in Rio with the pool boy?”

  Well, Bella hadn’t known about that. “You’re making that up.”

  “I swear I’m not. It was all over the gossip sites. You didn’t catch it?”

  “Nope.” Bella rallied. “Still, just because she did that doesn’t mean everything she says is a lie. And you know better than anyone not to believe in what people say.”

  “Ain’t that the truth?” Pippa widened her eyes. “So, tell me what changes Runaway Rhonda has inspired in you.”

  Did Pippa have to call her that? Bella supposed she did, if the wicked grin Pippa gave her was any indication. “I’m taking charge,” Bella said. “Of my life. The store and the good-girl, people-pleasing thing. And the Nate thing.”

  “You told me you were over the Nate thing years ago.” Rolling her eyes, Pippa heaved a sigh. “Please don’t tell me you really are still hung up on Nate because he’s a manwhore.”

  “I’m not and I do know that he’s a . . . what you said.” The term manwhore sent her into a frenzied dust bunny pursuit behind a line of cardigans. Pippa would only tease her for blushing. And what did it say about her if the town manwhore hadn’t hit on her? “I know I don’t still have a thing for Nate. You know I don’t still have a thing for Nate. But the town is still locked on this idea of who I am. It’s more than Nate, though. It’s how people perceive me.”

  Pippa popped up right in front of her. “Do we need wine for this conversation?”

  “You know me and wine.” Bella had to giggle. Her last girl’s night with Pippa had ended with Pippa making her sign an agreement never to get drunk with her again. People wouldn’t keep calling her a good girl if they saw her after a few drinks. Make that two drinks.

  Pippa grinned back. “You’re probably right. Now, start again, and stop trying to fudge over the details.”

  “Okay.” Bella went after the dust that always gathered at the top of the display cabinets. “Dr. Childers has this thing about taking control of your life.”

  Up went Pippa’s sculpted eyebrow.

  “No, she’s right,” Bella said. “I do need to take control of my life. I’ve let Nana define the store, I’ve let my parents define me as the survivor child, and I’ve let this town define me as the girl pining away for the town manwhore.” It came easier the more times she said it. “But I’m not those things, and it’s time I proved it. It’s the holidays, and Nana and my parents are in Florida. It’s a great time to get started.”

  “You’ve really thought about this.” Pippa studied her.

  Bella nodded because she had thought long and hard about where her life was heading. “I found this list on the internet, and instead of spending Christmas like I usually do, I’m going to go out. Have fun. Experience new things.”

  “New men?” Pippa jammed her fists on her hips.

  “Possibly.” Definitely. “I made a new friend.”

  “Who?”

  “Liz from next door.”

  Pippa gaped at her. “You made friends with Headlights?”

  Bella expected as much; she’d certainly downloaded about Liz enough on Pippa’s shoulder. “She’s actually really nice.”

  “Even if she does call Nate every two days and answer the door in her underwear.” Pippa plopped onto the sofa.

  “But you see, that would only bug me if I was still hung up on Nate.” Bella tucked away her duster and arranged the hangers. People always put things back in the wrong place. “And I haven’t had a crush on Nate in years, so Liz and I can be friends. She even offered to come along on some of the things on my Christmas list.”

  “Huh!” Pippa folded her arms over her chest. “Well, be careful. That woman is on the hunt and she’s not too fussy about what she catches.”

  Bella moved a size two back to its place near the front of the rack. “I think she’s lonely.”

  “Or horny.”

  “That too.” Bella couldn’t stop her grin. “But maybe I am too.”

  “Bella!” Whirling around, Pippa grinned at her. “Did you just say that?”

  Heat flooded Bella’s face. “It’s part of experiencing new things. I might develop a potty mouth.”

  “I’m not sure you could.” Pippa’s smile took any sting out of the words. “But you’re making sense. Put yourself out there, see what comes back.”

  “I need to live my life on my terms.”

  Pippa nodded. “And you deserve it.”

  “Yes.” Bella let that percolate. “I do, don’t I?”

  The bell over the door tinkled and Liz strutted in. She spotted Pippa, paused, and then sashayed over to the sofa and draped herself over the farthest end away from her. “Hello.”

  “Liz.” Pippa nodded.

  “This store.” Liz waved a hand around. “Looks like the inside of a vagina.”

  Bella inhaled latte and came up coughing.

  “It kind of does.” Wide-eyed, Pippa took a long, slow look around her. “Bella, you have got to let me send Matt around.”

  Maybe one day she might be able not to blush when Liz said things like that. Perhaps even say them. “Did you need something?”

  “A dress.” Liz got to her feet. “A dress to inspire lust.” She pinned Bella with a look. “Because you and I are going out.”

  “Oh?” Dear God, Liz worked fast. Bella hadn’t even started on the charity thing. “Where?”

  “Yes, where?” Pippa stared at Liz. “And I hope it’s not next Saturday night, because Bella is mine that night.”

  “Oh?” Bella hoped it would be at Pippa’s grandmother’s house.

  “A family celebration.” Pippa gave a secretive little smirk. “I’ll text you the details. Why don’t you come along, Liz?”

  Liz blushed and ducked her head, but Bella caught the pleased gleam in her eye. “I wouldn’t want to intrude.”

  “You won’t.” Pippa waved her hand. “It’s not a formal thing.” She settled herself into the sofa. “Now, tell me about ladies’ night. When is it?”

  “Whispering Pines is having a singles’ night. Tonight.” Liz announced it as if she’d pulled a rabbit out of a hat. “And as we’re both single, we’re going to march our asses up there and check it out.”

  “Tonight?” Bella looked at Pippa for support. “I don’t know. Singles’ nights can be kind of shady. All those desperate people prowling around.”

  “That’s us.” Liz motioned to herself and Bella. “I haven’t gotten laid in months, and you . . .” She snorted. “I live right next door, and let me tell you, the lack of activity is a snoozefest.”

  “Maybe I don’t bring my men home.” Bella hated to admit Liz was right.
She was, but that wasn’t the point.

  Liz rolled her eyes. “Honey, you live like a nun.”

  “I think it’s a great idea.” Sitting up, Pippa grinned. “It might be a huge time suck, but you’ll never know until you actually go.”

  “You think I should go?” Bella could count on one hand the number of times she’d been to a bar. Going to a bar on the hunt? Never.

  “I do.” Pippa rubbed her hands together. “Ghost Falls is dead most of the time, and let’s face it, the dating pool is rather shallow.”

  “Exactly.” Getting to her feet, Liz examined the store. “Now, do you have anything in here that will do?” The doubtful look on her face was a bit insulting.

  “She sure does.” Pippa leaped to her feet. “Don’t let the vagina-pink decor fool you; Bella’s is loaded with good stuff.”

  “Let’s get to it!”

  “And luckily for you,” Pippa said, “I’ve got nothing better to do right now than make sure you both look hot.”

  Liz sneered. “I don’t want to end up looking like an old lady.”

  Pippa’s professional face slid into place. “You won’t, but you also won’t go out looking like you’re wearing your daughter’s clothing.”

  Chapter Six

  Very few things had the therapeutic value of a red dress and a great pair of heels. Bella couldn’t believe she hadn’t done this years ago. All this time wasted being too shy to go to bars. This was fun. She took another sip of her appletini. Was it her third or fourth? She couldn’t be sure and especially not with the two men vying to buy her the next one.

  Who knew Ghost Falls could round up this many singles? Most of them came from the resort, but the crowd filled the bar and warmed the air enough for her to sit there comfortably in a sleeveless dress.

  “Liz?” A short, balding man sidled up next to them.

  Liz froze, then picked up her drink and took a slow sip. She looked gorgeous tonight. Pippa had tamed her down to a tight-fitting black dress that showed off all her curves but kept her skin decently covered. “Noel.”