Love is Blind (10 page)

His fingers trailed over my back and when he
reached the first scar, he stopped. “What is that?”

“It’s one of my scars. I have ten of them across
my back, from the glass and from the surgeries that I had to go
through.”

He ran his hand over the rest of my back, making
me shiver a little. When he’d explored my whole back, he removed
his hand and found mine again. “How did you start walking again?”
he asked.

“It took four long months. Jared refused to
let up on me the whole time. I hated him at times, but it was worth
it in the end. During that time, Tonto also went to Aberfoyle
Kennels to get some training as a service dog. It’s not what they
normally do, but my uncle has a lot of money and he made a large
donation. Liam and Jared both knew that I’d need Tonto during the
whole ordeal, and I still need his help on bad days.”

Blake frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I have good days and bad days. On really bad
days, I’m confined to a wheelchair still.”

“Jesus,” he said. “I never would have guessed
that. I mean, I knew something was wrong with your back, but I
never would have thought it was so severe.”

“Good; I don’t want anyone to know about it.
I’ve worked really hard to make it unnoticeable. I’m sure you
understand me when I say that I don’t want to be treated
differently.”

“Well, you screwed that up by becoming friends
with me,” he said dryly.

I chuckled. “Yeah well, at least I’m only
considered different because I can put up with your attitude.”

“Everything makes a bit more sense to me now. I
used to think you only wanted to be friends with me because you
felt sorry for me, but now I realize that it’s because you actually
understand me a little. You’ve been through hell and yet you
survived and are still optimistic about life.”

“I still have days when I curse everything
and everyone around me. Those days are usually when I’m confined to
my wheelchair. But I’ve found things that help me get through those
times.”

“Like what?”

“Music. I play the piano and it helps me get
through the tough times. I almost always play after I see my
brother in the hospital. Those visits are hard on me, because I
never know if I’m doing the right thing by keeping him alive.”

Blake was silent for a moment. “I play the
guitar,” he said quietly.

My head snapped up. “Really?”

“Yeah. I find it helps me when I get really
frustrated as well. It’s a good release.”

“It really is,” I replied.

We sat there in silence for a little while. But
then he asked the question that I’d been dreading. “What happened
to the driver of the other car?”

My whole body went rigid. I pulled my hand away
from him and stood up, walking a few steps away. “The driver walked
away with barely a scratch,” I said acidly.

I had my back turned to Blake, but I heard him
stand up and close the distance between us. He put a hand on my arm
and even though I tried to jerk away, he didn’t remove it. “There’s
something more to that, isn’t there?”

I took a shaky breath. “The driver and his
passenger were fine. He managed to put his car in a snow bank and
so they had no injuries,” I told him. My voice broke on the last
word and a tear fell down my cheek.

I was suddenly pulled into a hug and I was too
shocked to do anything at first. Was Blake really hugging me? When
I recovered from the surprise, I wound my arms around his waist and
clung tightly to him. I buried my face in his shoulder as I
struggled to control my emotions. When I managed to stop crying, I
didn’t move. Instead, I told Blake the rest of the story. “He was
my boyfriend,” I whispered.

I felt Blake stiffen. “What?”

“The driver of the other car. He was my
boyfriend at the time.”

“You have got to be shitting me.”

That got a tiny smile out of me. “I really wish
I was, but I’m not. And you know what else? The passenger was
another girl and she’d been… um… distracting him while he was
driving, which was part of the reason he swerved. They were coming
back from that party I told you about.”

Blake was silent for a long time as he processed
this. His whole body was so tense that I could feel his muscles
trembling slightly from the strain. But his arms remained gentle
around me and he slowly started to rub my back. “Christ Hailey, how
can you be so happy when you’ve been through so much?”

I reluctantly pulled back a little and took his
hand, leading him back to the bed. Once we were both sitting again,
I let out a big breath. “I wasn’t happy at first; remember, I was
in a state of depression for two months. But Jared and Liam helped
me through it. Having them helped me more than I can say. I guess
that’s what made me determined to befriend you. I wanted you to
have the same support that I did, even if it was two years later
than it should have been.”

Blake snaked an arm around my waist and pulled
me close to his side. He rested his cheek against the top of my
head. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

“For what?” I asked.

“For not giving up on me like everyone else
did.”

I frowned. “Sophie and your aunt didn’t give up
on you.”

“I guess not, but they don’t really know how to
act around me. They try to treat me normally, but it’s hard for
them.”

“I guess that’s why I don’t talk to anyone from
my old school anymore. I know my friends would try and be there for
me, but it would just be too hard with them. Especially because of
the whole Marcus thing.”

“Marcus was your boyfriend?”

I was surprised at the amount of venom in his
voice when he said Marcus’s name. “Yeah,” I replied.

“Have you talked to him since?”

“Not really. He came to the hospital but I
kind of went mental and started throwing things at him. He’s also
tried contacting me a few times since, but I’ve kept ignoring him.
He had to go to court because of the accident. He got away with
just community service since he was underage, barely over the legal
limit and it was technically the black ice that caused my dad to
lose control of the vehicle. The fact that his parents are very
influential in that town had a lot to do with the ruling as
well.”

“He should’ve been tried as an adult and thrown
into jail.”

“Yeah, he should have, but that’s not how the
justice system works, unfortunately.” I laid my head on his
shoulder, taking comfort in his closeness. “So now you know my
story. Is it what you were expecting?”

“Not even close. I never would have thought that
you’d been through all of this.” He fell silent for a moment. “Has
anyone told you about my accident?”

“No, I never asked anyone about it. I figured if
you wanted me to know about it, you’d tell me.”

He lifted his head, but he didn’t remove his arm
from around me. “I appreciate that.” He blew out a breath. “It was
a dirt biking accident.”

I frowned. “How did that cause you to become
blind?”

“I was stupid, that’s how. I wasn’t wearing a
helmet and I crashed. Apparently I’m lucky to even be alive. I was
in a coma for three weeks and they thought I was going to be
mentally damaged when I woke up. Imagine everyone’s surprise when I
woke up completely lucid, but blind. They did a bunch more scans
and that’s when they saw the damage to my optical nerves. I guess
the impact to my head caused the nerves to become pinched or
something. The doctors weren’t sure if they would repair themselves
over time or not, but as time went on, it was obvious that it
wasn’t going to happen.”

“And there was nothing they could do to fix
it?”

“No. Surgery wasn’t possible because of the risk
that it would cause more damage than good.”

I slid one of my arms around his waist. “Well,
we’re just a couple of messed up people, aren’t we?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes, just
enjoying each other’s company. “Can I ask you something?” I finally
asked.

“At this point, you can ask me pretty much
anything.”

“You were able to notice something was off with
me, even when everyone else couldn’t see it. How did you do
that?”

His brow furrowed. “Can you give me a specific
example?”

I thought back. “The first day we met, you asked
me if I was okay. How did you know something was wrong?”

He thought about it for a minute before
replying. “I heard you curse, but I also… heard you falter?” he
said it more like a question.

It was my turn to frown. “What does that
mean?”

He rubbed his free hand over his face. “Remember
when we talked about my hearing improving after I went blind? Well,
I decided that my hearing needed to be really good, so I started
working on listening to everything really carefully. Everyone has a
normal way of walking and moving, so I could hear when something
was off about your rhythm.”

I straightened up a little as my jaw dropped.
“Seriously? That’s kind of awesome.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

“I’ll have to remember that for the future,” I
told him. “So you could tell when I was in pain because I walked
different?”

“Basically. Now I have a question for you.”

“What?”

“I’ve known you for over a month now, and I have
no idea what you look like. I mean, Sophie has told me a little,
but it’s not the same thing.” He held his hands up in front of him.
“I can use these to ‘see’ you, if you’ll let me.”

I tilted my head to the side. “You want to know
what I look like?”

“Yeah.”

I shrugged. “Sure, go ahead.”

“Can you lie back for me? That way you’ll stay
still.”

I complied and stretched out on my back. “Ready
when you are.”

He shifted slightly so he was beside me and then
he ran his fingers lightly over my forehead. They smoothed over it
briefly before moving down. My eyes automatically shut and he
feathered his touch over my eyelids. He moved onto my nose and my
eyelids fluttered open again. I saw his brow was slightly furrowed
as he continued exploring my face with his hand, as if he was
concentrating intently. My breath caught a little when he traced a
finger over my lips and I silently cursed myself for my
reaction.

His lips turned up a little when he heard my
breathing stutter. When he had gone over my entire face twice, he
moved his hand to my hair. He ran his fingers through it, testing
the length and weight of it. When he was satisfied, he removed his
hand and smiled at me. “Thanks.”

I raised a brow. “Well, what did you think?”

“Nope, I’m not telling you.”

I narrowed my eyes. “That’s really mean.”

He laughed. “And that surprises you?”

I sighed. “No, I suppose not.” I stifled a
yawn.

“You tired?”

“Yeah. Sophie’s phone call woke me up.”

“My dad’s phone call woke me up too.” He sat up
and moved so that he was lying on the bed properly. He held open an
arm in invitation. “Come on; let’s have a nap, since we both got
woken up by the phone this morning.”

I hesitated for about one second before
accepting his invitation. I crawled up to his side and snuggled
into him. It had been a long time since any guy besides Jared or my
uncle had held me and it felt different, but nice. I laid my head
on his bare chest and he pulled the covers up over us. “This is
different,” I murmured.

“What?”

“You being nice.”

I felt his chest vibrate as he chuckled. “I
know. Maybe I’ve decided that I can be a little nicer to you.”

I smiled as my eyes closed. “Don’t be too nice
though. I like our bantering.”

“Don’t worry; I’m sure we’ll still annoy the
hell out of each other. Go to sleep, Hailey. We can talk some more
when we wake up.”

I murmured in agreement and allowed the steady
rhythm of his heartbeats lull me to sleep.

Chapter 12

A soft knocking on the door woke me up. I
muttered quietly and snuggled into my pillow more. My brows
furrowed when I realized that my pillow was harder than usual and
it was moving. I slowly peeled my eyelids open and saw Blake’s
face. His eyes were still closed, but his lips were turned up into
a smile.

When I heard the door open, I turned my
attention to it. Sophie poked her head in and her eyes widened when
she saw me curled up against Blake’s side. “Oh sorry. I didn’t mean
to wake you up.”

Blake shifted underneath me a little. “I was
already awake.”

I looked back up at him. “How long have you been
awake for?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Not long.”

I turned to Sophie again. “Is something
wrong?”

She shook her head. “No, I just wanted to see
how things were going, that’s all.”

I sat up and stretched my arms over my head,
wincing when the muscles in my back protested the movement. “Well,
I got him calmed down,” I said.

Blake sat up as well, his hand going to my back.
He started lightly massaging the sore muscles as he turned his head
in his cousin’s direction. “Thanks for calling her, Soph.”

Surprise flitted across her features. “No
problem. But I thought you’d be angry with me for doing that.”

He shrugged. “I am kind of annoyed that you went
behind my back, but in this case it worked out for the best. So
thanks.”

She smiled. “You’re welcome. Hailey, are you
staying here for the day?”

I glanced at Blake. “I don’t know.”

“I don’t have anything planned, so you can stay
if you want,” he told me as he dropped his hand back to his
side.

“I suppose that’s the closest thing to an
invitation that I’ll be getting from you,” I said jokingly.

He grinned. “You’re probably right. So, are you
going to stay?”

“Sure. But you have to take me and Sophie out
for dinner later.”

The smile left his face. “Why do I have to do
that?”