Heaven Painted as a Christmas Gift Read online

  Belle pulled back and looked at Nancy. “His name is Evan and he’s in love with Candice, but is waiting for her to make the move to get things back on track. He’s afraid they’ll fight if he suggests anything.”

  “Now that’s sad,” Nancy said, shaking her head.

  “It really is,” Belle said.

  Nancy smiled at her. “You want me to give it a try, see if I can help them? See if I can get Candice here moving. Jewel said we could do that sort of thing, remember?”

  Belle didn’t know what to think. She did want Nancy to try, but was afraid of what might happen if they weren’t trained.

  “You stay here and if I get into some sort of trouble, get Jewel and Tommy,” Nancy said.

  Belle nodded.

  Nancy took a deep breath and then turned and sort of vanished inside the woman.

  Watching her do that scared Belle. The idea of losing Nancy was just more than she could handle at this moment.

  After a few seconds, Nancy appeared again, smiling at Belle. “This is no problem and I think this idea might work. I’m planting suggestions about what she needs to do to her husband and how horny she is. I think there’s room for both of us in there like Jewel and Tommy did in that killer. Come on.”

  Belle moved over beside Nancy and Candice as Nancy disappeared inside Candice again.

  Belle touched Candice, but couldn’t put her hand into her skin.

  “You’re going to have to shrink up some,” Belle said to Nancy, assuming she could hear her.

  Candice nodded and Belle touched her skin again and this time her hand went in. She just moved inside of Candice and could feel Nancy there as well, as if they were both in a small car together, only Candice’s body was the car.

  “Wow,” Belle said, “this is strange. I can see the room and hear the television and everything. And I know you are here and can sense and feel you and I can read Candice’s thoughts.”

  “Neat, huh?”

  “How can I hear you in here?”

  “Darned if I know,” Nancy said, laughing. “We’ll ask Jewel and Tommy tomorrow.”

  Belle could see that what Candice’s Denver lover did that Candice enjoyed was let her take complete control in the lovemaking. But Candice was afraid to do that with her own husband. But Belle knew that Evan would love that.

  “How about we get Candice out of this robe and get her ordering her husband around a little,” Nancy said, laughing.

  “A perfect idea to me,” Belle said.

  She could feel that she was getting aroused as well as she and Nancy both kept giving Candice suggestions.

  Finally Candice closed down the laptop, slipped out of her blue robe and stood in front of the mirror looking at herself.

  “Wow, this is a good-looking woman,” Nancy said.

  “Got to agree there,” Belle said feeling even more aroused. All Belle wanted to do was see Nancy naked again. And soon.

  Very soon.

  Belle and Nancy got Candice to turn to Evan on the bed, who was staring at her naked body with wide eyes.

  “Get that television shut off,” Candice said, her tone strict.

  Evan scrambled to do that.

  “You like what you see?” Candice asked. She stood in front of Evan, her legs spread, her hands on her hips, giving him a full look of her wonderful charms.

  Just by doing that, Belle could sense how aroused Candice had become.

  “I love what I see,” Evan said.

  “He would have to be a rock to not like what he’s seeing,” Belle said and Nancy laughed.

  “Good,” Candice said. “Now get out of those shorts and lay back. I’m doing the driving.”

  Evan just nodded like a puppy and hurriedly slipped off the shorts.

  “I think we might want to get out of here and let them enjoy their evening,” Nancy said, her voice sounding like she was almost panting.

  “I agree,” Belle said, feeling more aroused than she had felt in years and years. “How about we go enjoy our private evening together?”

  “Now you are talking,” Nancy said.

  They both left Candice as Candice climbed on the bed and started to play with the already aroused Evan.

  By the time Belle and Nancy had turned and headed for the door into the hallway, Candice had straddled Evan’s crotch and let out a deep sigh as he pushed inside her.

  “Now try to buck me off,” Candice ordered her husband as Belle and Nancy went through the door.

  All the way down the hallway to their suite Belle and Nancy laughed.

  And held hands.

  When they got back inside their suite, they headed right for the large bed, both taking off clothes as fast as they could.

  And for Belle, that wasn’t fast enough.

  EIGHTEEN

  JEWEL AND TOMMY already had breakfast in the I-Hop and were sitting waiting by the time Belle and Nancy showed up, walking across the parking lot from the hotel hand-in-hand.

  Jewel and Tommy had gotten up early and had already been in the restaurant for an hour. They had been planning how to teach the two new Ghost Agents and what was the next step. Jewel was happy that they had both agreed to give Belle and Nancy time here in Boise if they wanted to take it to settle affairs, say goodbye to some people, and so on.

  Jewel knew that she and Tommy hadn’t done that, but that didn’t mean Belle and Nancy wouldn’t want to.

  Also, they had decided that for the moment, they wouldn’t talk about the crazy mission that K.J. had mentioned about Santa Claus. That just seemed to not be worth the discussion until they knew more. And Jewel had a real hard time believing it as it was.

  “Are we late?” Belle asked as she and Nancy came up to the table and sat down across from Jewel and Tommy.

  “Nope, we were just up early and figured we’d just get some breakfast,” Jewel said. “And make some plan for the next few weeks.”

  Both Belle and Nancy nodded.

  “Wow, I’m hungry,” Belle said, glancing around. “This place smells wonderful.”

  Jewel had to agree with that. From the smell of fresh coffee to cooking waffles and warm cinnamon rolls, she was almost ready for a second breakfast. And she had just finished eating fifteen minutes before.

  “How are you keeping live people from sitting at this table?” Nancy asked glancing around at the half-full restaurant.

  Jewel pointed at the hostess. “She has the table reserved for a special party, she thinks on orders from her boss.”

  “Perfect,” Nancy said, nodding.

  “I’m famished,” Belle said, standing. “I’m going in search of some food, since no ghost waiters are around at the moment.”

  Jewel and Nancy both headed off to look at a tray of food a waitress had just brought out from the kitchen.

  “They seem to be doing fine and catching on quickly,” Jewel said.

  Tommy nodded. “There is just something about being in this new ghost-place, which feels like we are actually alive. And as happened with us, they got to help someone yesterday on their first day to show the value of doing this.”

  Jewel could only nod agreement as both women brought back plates of food. Belle had an omelet and bacon and toast. Nancy had a waffle, eggs over easy, and toast.

  Both plates smelled wonderful and Jewel couldn’t believe she was getting hungry again. Food tasted so good in this ghost state, it was everything she could do to stay trim.

  Belle and Nancy dropped their plates off in front of their chairs, laughing about something, and then went back to get orange juice and water.

  After a moment they finally settled in.

  Jewel and Tommy let them eat for a minute, talking about the incredible taste of their food before asking them the first question.

  “What we do next is up to you,” Jewel said. “We don’t know if you want to stick around Boise and say goodbye to old friends and family or not.”

  “We talked about that in the shower this morning,” Belle said. “We don’t think
so, unless you both think it would be a good idea.”

  Tommy shook his head and Jewel felt relieved.

  “We didn’t,” Tommy said, “and we haven’t missed that yet.”

  “I figure there is no real need for closure,” Jewel said, “since this still feels alive and we aren’t leaving this world.”

  “We came to the same conclusion,” Belle said between bites. “We can always come back at any point, right?”

  “You can,” Jewel said. “And there is a lot of time between missions.”

  “So what do we do next?” Belle asked, “If we don’t stick around?”

  “I would say that after breakfast we get our baggage and head for the airport and jump a flight to Vegas,” Jewel said. “Get you two settled into a place and practicing some of the new skills you have.”

  “Wonderful,” Nancy said. “I love Vegas.”

  “We did a little practicing last night,” Belle said.

  “We went for a walk into other people’s rooms,” Nancy said, smiling. “We helped a couple having marriage trouble get their sex lives up and running again.”

  “Yeah, we were both inside the woman at one point, trying to get her to go seduce her husband,” Belle said. “How come we could hear each other talk while inside the same person?”

  Jewel just sat there, stunned. She honestly didn’t know what to say.

  She glanced at Tommy, who was also looking stunned. It had taken K.J. telling them they could both be inside the same person a week after they died before they figured that out. Yet Belle and Nancy had done it on their own last night.

  “Did we do something wrong?” Belle asked, suddenly looking very worried.

  “Oh, heavens, no,” Jewel said. “It just took us a lot longer to figure out we could both be inside the same person at the same time is all. And how to do it.”

  “Actually,” Tommy said, “we didn’t figure it out. K.J. told us.”

  “We watched you two do it with that killer, remember?” Belle said.

  Jewel nodded, remembering that was the case. But she was still surprised these two picked it up so quickly.

  “So it was all right to help that couple?” Nancy asked.

  “Oh, sure,” Jewel said, still surprised at how far Belle and Nancy were in accepting their new world.

  “Jewel saved a woman’s life from cancer our first days in Vegas,” Tommy said. “We got inside her and made her go to the hospital and demand to be screened.”

  “That must have felt great,” Belle said, smiling at Jewel.

  “It did, to be honest,” Jewel said, remembering just how wonderful that felt.

  “So I have one more question for the moment,” Nancy said, finishing her plate of food and pushing the empty plate to the center of the table. “What happens to the dirty ghost dishes?”

  “If we don’t touch them after six hours or so,” Tommy said, “they just vanish.”

  “So other people are going to be eating here with our dirty ghost dishes on the table?” Belle said, looking sort of disgusted.

  “That’s why we usually clean up our tables,” Jewel said, laughing. “Dumping the dirty ghost dishes in with other dirty dishes. It just feels wrong to leave them unless we have no choice.”

  Nancy laughed and touched Belle’s arm and both of them smiled.

  There was no doubt to Jewel that Belle and Nancy had become a couple and were getting closer by the minute, which was wonderful to see.

  NINETEEN

  BELLE FELT FULL, especially after going back for a cinnamon roll and splitting it with Nancy. The roll had tasted fantastic, better and more intense than any cinnamon roll Belle had eaten before, and she had eaten her share when married. Part of the thirty-five pounds she had gained while being so unhappy with the slug of a husband.

  Now, as Jewel and Tommy did, Belle planned on doing a lot of exercising because she really didn’t want to know if a ghost could gain weight or not.

  She was really starting to like Jewel and Tommy more and more and the conversation over breakfast went from different things they could do to how Jewel and Tommy had met.

  Then, just as they were about to stand and head for the hotel to get their things before going to the airport, K.J. appeared, looking fairly dapper in a blue three-piece suit, blue leather shoes and a white-gold earring in one ear.

  Beside him stood a woman who took Belle’s breath away, not because of the woman’s beauty, but because the woman just radiated power.

  She was a good ten inches taller than K.J., seeming to tower over the little man. The woman had on a stark gray business suit that fit her perfectly. She had her brown hair pulled back perfectly and no jewelry of any kind. Her face was angular, like a model’s face, and her dark eyes seemed to see everything.

  K.J., standing to one side and behind the woman, without saying anything, indicated with his hands that they should all stand up. Belle had only met K.J. a few times, but she had been around corporations enough to know when one person thought another person very powerful.

  K.J. clearly thought this woman was powerful, of that there was no doubt.

  All four of them quickly stood.

  The woman smiled and reached out her hand to Jewel first. “I’m Laverne. I just wanted to meet the four of you before we all face what’s coming up defending Nick.”

  “I’m Jewel,” Jewel said.

  The woman smiled and nodded. “I know. And you are Jewel’s partner, Tommy.”

  Tommy shook the woman’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  From what Belle could tell, neither Jewel nor Tommy knew who this woman was, but they clearly caught the same sense from K.J. that the woman was important.

  Then the woman turned to look at Belle and Nancy.

  To Belle, it was as if her entire life was suddenly known under this woman’s intense gaze.

  “I’m very sorry about the accident yesterday,” Laverne said. “But the world’s misfortune in losing both of you is our good fortune in this case. Welcome.”

  Belle shook Laverne’s firm hand and managed to say, “Thank you.”

  “Yes, thank you,” Nancy said, also shaking Laverne’s hand.

  Then Laverne turned back to K.J. “I’m hoping you can get this great team up to speed quickly. We are going to need them.”

  “Is your team on this as well?” K.J. asked.

  “Many teams are,” Laverne said, “from many different branches of the gods. It’s that important. I’m coordinating it all. And yes, Poker Boy and his team will also be trying to help out where possible.”

  “Wonderful,” K.J. said, nodding. “We’ll be ready for whatever you need us to do.”

  “Thank you,” Laverne said. Then she turned to the four of them and said, “Nice meeting you all.”

  And then she vanished.

  K.J. seemed to deflate like a kid’s balloon with a hole in it. He barely managed to sit down in Tommy’s chair at the table.

  Belle and Nancy and Jewel sat back down and Tommy pulled over another chair.

  Belle stared at the man who was supposed to be their boss. He was sweating and his hands were shaking. She couldn’t imagine him having that reaction at all. From what Jewel and Tommy had said, K.J had been killed almost a hundred years ago and had been a Ghost Agent for all that time.

  Jewel handed K.J. a glass of water and he managed with two hands to get it to his lips and not spill much on his blue suit.

  “So who was that?” Tommy asked. “Never seen you have a reaction like this.”

  “That’s the first time I have had the opportunity to meet Laverne,” K.J. said, taking another drink of water and then finally putting the glass down.

  “So Laverne’s a powerful Ghost Agent?” Nancy asked.

  K.J. shook his head. “Oh, no, she’s very much alive, and has been that way for a hundred thousand years or more.”

  Now that rocked Belle back on her chair and she glanced at Nancy who looked just as shocked.

  “Laverne is one of the
most powerful gods there is,” K.J. said. “She tends to run most everything these days and even more powerful gods often do as she asks.”

  “Gods?” Jewel asked.

  Belle flat didn’t know what to think.

  “I told you my boss was a god, remember? And that building floating over Las Vegas you saw the first time we got down there is Poker Boy’s office. He’s just a superhero working for the gods, but a powerful one.”

  Both Jewel and Tommy nodded, but Belle had no idea what he was talking about. She was totally lost.

  K.J. took another sip, then he said simply, “Laverne is Lady Luck herself.”

  “Lady Luck exists?” Nancy asked, clearly as stunned as Belle was feeling.

  “You just met her,” K.J. said, nodding. “Laverne is Lady Luck. I met her about thirty minutes before now for the first time. There are all sorts of meetings going on to try to figure out how to stop this problem with Santa Claus, or Nick as she calls him.”

  “What exactly is the problem?” Tommy asked. “Or do they not know yet.”

  “Oh, they know,” K.J. said.

  “Brigade behind this?” Jewel asked.

  Belle glanced at Nancy who only shrugged. There was no doubt the two of them had a ton to learn.

  K.J. laughed. “The Brigade could never pull this off. This is way, way bigger and more important. We don’t even need to worry about the Brigade while this problem is going on.”

  Jewel turned to Belle and Nancy. “We’ll explain the Brigade later.”

  Belle just nodded. There was a lot more than just that last few sentences to explain, starting off with meeting Lady Luck. And gods, and so much more.

  “So what do people think is going to happen?” Tommy asked, “That we need to help stop?”

  “Whoever is doing this isn’t just going after old Nick,” K.J. said. “If we or one of the other teams can’t figure out what’s happening and stop all this, Christmas, as we know it today in this country in this time period, will basically be erased from all the world’s consciousness in all of history, as if it never existed.”