Love is Blind (14 page)

By the time we finally broke apart, we were both
breathing heavier and he rested his forehead against mine. “Whoa,”
he panted. “I haven’t done that in two years.”

I took a moment to catch my breath. “It’s been
more than eight months for me,” I replied. Then I realized what
he’d said. “Wait, you mean you haven’t been with anyone since the
accident?”

He shook his head. “No. My girlfriend at the
time left me when she realized I had gone blind. She couldn’t
handle me having a disability.”

Anger coursed through me. “What a bitch,” I
stated.

He nodded. “Yeah, she really is. After that, I
just couldn’t bring myself to be interested in anyone. I couldn’t
handle knowing that any girl I was with would pity me.”

I pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “If
anything, I think you should pity me.”

“Oh really? And why is that?”

“Because I have to put up with your cranky ass
all the time,” I replied with a smirk.

He chuckled. “You’re probably right.” He pulled
back a couple of inches and cupped my cheek with one hand. “Where
does this leave us?”

“Where do you want it to leave us?” I asked a
little nervously.

“You’re the only person I like being around,
Hailey. I care about you, more than I thought I’d ever care about
anyone again. So I want to be with you.”

I smiled and leaned my face into his hand. “Then
you’ll be with me. You’re the only one that I can talk to freely
about everything. Jared and Liam coddle me too much sometimes,
though I know they mean well.”

He gave me a light kiss. “So you’ll be my
girlfriend?”

“Yeah, I’ll be your girlfriend.”

“You’ll probably regret it at some point.”

I laughed. “You’re probably right,” I agreed
teasingly.

He leaned in to kiss me again, but a throat
clearing interrupted us. I turned my head and saw my uncle standing
in the doorway, one eyebrow raised. “Am I interrupting something?”
he asked.

“Yeah, you are actually,” I replied with a
cheeky smile.

Liam chuckled and shook his head. “And here I
was hoping I wouldn’t have to worry about you dating. Now I’m
definitely going to get gray hair because of you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Liam, you’re thirty-five.
If you get gray hair then it won’t be because of me.”

“I’ll just have to start dying it if that
happens I guess. Anyways, I came in here for a reason. It’s Grace’s
night off so we’ll be going out for dinner, since I’ll end up
burning the kitchen down if I cook. Where do you want to go?”

Blake spoke up. “Actually, I was going to see if
she wanted to go out for dinner with me.”

I looked up at him. “You were?”

“Yeah. I figure if we’re going to be together, I
should probably take you out on a date.”

I smiled. “I’d like that,” I told him.

“Well, you kids have fun then. Maybe I’ll just
order takeout or something for myself.”

I frowned at him. “Why don’t you just go with
Jared?”

Liam rolled his eyes. “He’s going out with
Laurel and I really don’t want to be a third wheel with those two,”
he said with a shudder.

I chuckled. “I can understand that. I think we
need to find you a girl, Liam.”

He gave me a flat look. “Remember the last time
you tried to set me up with someone?”

I gave him a sheepish look. “What? She didn’t
look like an ex-con…”

“You set your uncle up with an ex-con?” Blake
asked incredulously.

“I said she didn’t look like one. And it’s not
like she really did anything too bad. Just computer hacking or
something like that.”

“Yes well, we won’t be repeating that
experience,” Liam said warningly.

“Fine. But you should really find someone to go
out with. I mean, Jared has Laurel and now I kind of have
Blake…”

“What do you mean kind of?” Blake asked with a
furrowed brow.

“Sorry, it’s just that this is so new. It’ll
take a while to get used to being with someone again,” I told
him.

“Hmm, you’re right. I haven’t had a girlfriend
since the accident, so I might be a little rusty at the whole
relationship thing.”

I patted his cheek lightly. “I’m sure you’ll do
fine. I’ll let you know if you mess up.”

“I have no doubt that you will. Do you want to
get going now?”

I looked at my uncle and chewed on my lip. I
felt bad about leaving him by himself, but I really wanted to go
out with Blake on a date. Liam must have read my expression,
because he quickly spoke up. “You two go have fun. Maybe I’ll call
someone and see if they want to go out.”

I smiled. “Good. Then I’ll see you later
tonight?”

“Sure thing kiddo. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t
do,” he added with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

I rolled my eyes at him. “You do realize that
leaves me open to do pretty much anything, right?”

He froze in the act of walking out and cursed
quietly. “That’s true. In that case, just don’t do anything too
stupid.”

“No promises,” I responded with a grin. He left
the room, muttering about disrespectful kids these days. I chuckled
quietly as I pulled back from Blake and took his hand. “What do you
want to do with Abby? Do you want to leave her here? Or we can drop
her off at your place before we go if you want.”

“Actually, let’s bring her with us.”

I looked at him in shock. “Seriously? But you
don’t like bringing her in public because of all the attention it
brings you.”

He shrugged. “Well, I’ll be walking into the
restaurant with a gorgeous girl on my arm. Maybe I want all the
attention on me.”

“That was really sweet,” I informed him.

“Don’t get too used to it. I’m not really into
all that mushy crap.”

“I think I’d have a heart attack if you turned
completely sweet all of a sudden.”

“You probably would. Let’s get going; I’m
starting to get hungry.”

When we got to the restaurant, I found a parking
space quickly. Blake and I both climbed out of the car, and Abby
hopped out behind Blake. She was wearing her harness and the
blanket that said she was a service dog. Blake gripped her harness
and she stood at attention by his side.

I walked around the car and took Blake’s free
hand. “I feel like I should have brought Tonto as well, so that the
dogs could have had a date as well.”

Blake chuckled as we headed to the front door of
the restaurant. “Only you would think of setting our dogs up on a
date.”

“What? Don’t they deserve to be happy too?”

“I guess. Maybe we can arrange something once
so that they can come on a date with us.”

“Good,” I replied as I opened the door. We
walked in and stopped at the hostess’s stand. “Think they’ll try to
give us grief because of Abby?”

“They can try. But they can’t ask us to leave,
since she’s a service dog.”

“I know that. But not everyone does.”

Just then, the hostess approached us. Her eyes
widened when she saw Abby and her eyes flicked to Blake quickly. He
was wearing his sunglasses, so she quickly put two and two together
and she offered me a polite smile. “Table for two?” Her eyes
flickered to Abby again. “Or should I say, three?”

I laughed. “Two is fine. Abby here likes to lie
on the floor so she can catch any food that falls to the
ground.”

“Or to eat the veggies you sneak to her,” Blake
said dryly.

“Well, I don’t like broccoli and neither does
Tonto. Abby is the perfect solution when you’re over for
dinner.”

“Uh huh. Let’s just go sit down.”

I turned to the hostess again. “A table for two
will work, thanks.”

“Follow me then,” she said and then she headed
into the dining area.

I kept a hold of Blake’s hand as we followed
her. Abby trotted along happily, her nose twitching as she inhaled
all the new scents. Some of the other people in the restaurant did
a double take when they saw us, but to my surprise no one started
to stare.

Once we got to the table, Blake and I sat across
from each other, with Abby settling herself on the floor by Blake’s
chair. The hostess handed me a menu, and then hesitated for a
moment, obviously unsure if she should give one to Blake as well.
“Don’t worry, we can just share one menu,” I reassured her.

She blushed a little. “Sorry, I just didn’t know
if he needed one or not.”

“No problem. Blake just prefers it when I read
the menu to him. I think he just likes the sound of my voice,” I
told her with a wink.

She chuckled a little. “I’m sure he does. Your
waitress will be here shortly.” And with that, she fled.

I sat back with a smirk. “That was fun.”

“You like to screw with people, don’t you?”
Blake inquired as he removed his sunglasses.

“I admit it can be amusing sometimes.” I then
proceeded to tell him the layout of the table and he familiarized
himself with it quickly.

Our waitress appeared a moment later, and she
was beautiful. She had long blonde hair, green eyes and a figure
most girls would kill for. “Hello, I’m Melanie. I’ll be your server
tonight. Can I start you with something to drink?”

We gave her our drink order and she left to get
them. I let out a breath when she was gone. “I’m actually kind of
glad that you’re blind right now,” I told Blake.

He frowned. “Why?”

“Because our waitress is gorgeous and you’d be
ogling her all night if you weren’t,” I replied.

He let out a soft chuckle. “I doubt that,
Hailey.”

“I don’t. Hell, I’m straight and even I’m
checking her out a little.”

He laughed outright at that. “You really are
strange,” he mused.

“And proud of it,” I said with a grin.

He reached his hand across the table carefully
and found mine. “Thanks for being you.”

“Well, who else would I be?”

He shook his head with a wry smile. “No one,” he
said. “Do me a favor? Describe the setting of the restaurant and
the people in it, will you?”

“Okay,” I answered. I turned to scan the
restaurant. “Well, you said you used to come here sometimes before
the accident, so you know what the general area looks like. The
lights are a little dim, so it’s kind of romantic. Some of the
tables have groups of people, but for the most part it’s couples
like us.” I paused as the waitress came back with our drinks.
“Crap, we haven’t even looked at the menu yet. Can you come back
for our order in a few minutes?”

Melanie smiled at both of us. “Sure. I’ll be
back in a bit.”

When she left, I quickly read the menu to
Blake. After he chose what he wanted, Melanie came back. We ordered
and then I returned my attention to the room around us. “Right, I
was describing the people. Well, like I said, it’s mostly couples.
A few of them keep looking over here, likely because they see Abby.
There’s an older couple sitting two tables away, and I’d guess
they’re celebrating an anniversary or something. There are a few
people our age- Oh crap,” I muttered.

Blake straightened in his chair. “What?”

“Rachel and David just walked in. And now
they’ve spotted us. They’re coming over here.”

“Great,” he muttered.

“Hailey! What are you doing here?” Rachel asked
as she bounced up to the table, David trailing behind her.

“Um, eating dinner?” I replied.

She laughed. “Of course, silly me.” Her eyes
suddenly zeroed in on my hand, which was still in Blake’s. “Are you
two on a date?” she asked incredulously.

I was taken aback by her tone. “Um…”

“Actually, Hailey and I have been having an
affair for the past month,” Blake interrupted.

All three of our gazes snapped to his. “Blake!”
I exclaimed.

“What?” he asked innocently.

Rachel’s eyes looked they were about to pop out
of her head and I couldn’t help but laugh. “He’s kidding, Rachel.
This is our first date.”

Abby chose that moment to sit up from where
she’d been lying, and both Rachel and David jumped a little. Then
Rachel’s eyes lit up. “Puppy!”

David grabbed her arm before she could move. “No
Rachel, leave the puppy alone,” he said sternly.

Blake chuckled. “It’s okay David; she can pet
her if she wants to.”

David was obviously shocked that Blake had
addressed him, but he recovered quickly. “No, if I let her pet the
dog then she’ll never leave. And we need to get to our own table.
Thanks though.”

“No problem,” Blake replied.

Rachel turned to look at me. “We’ll see you on
Monday.”

I nodded. “Yeah, see you both then.”

“Okay. Bye guys.”

After they had left, I looked at Blake. “You
surprised David, you know.”

“What do you mean?”

“When you talked to him directly, he looked
shocked. Maybe you should give him another chance,” I said.

He frowned. “Why?”

“Because when I piss you off, you’ll need a
guy friend to whine about me to.”

His expression cleared. “You have a good point,”
he agreed.

“So will you try talking to him again?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“That’s good enough for me. Think we can get
through the rest of our date without anyone else interrupting
us?”

“Knowing us? Not likely.”

I grinned. “Ah well, at least we’ll have an
interesting relationship.”

Blake chuckled. “I have no doubts about
that.”

Chapter sixteen

The rest of the date actually went fairly
smoothly. When I drove him home, he invited me in for a bit. I
wasn’t ready for the night to end, so I was more than happy to
accept his invitation. We went into his room and he put some music
on for us to listen to.

He walked over to his bed, but instead of
sitting on it, he slid to the floor and used the bed as a backrest.
I sat down next to him and he slipped his arm around me. I laid my
head on his shoulder and smiled. “Did you have fun at dinner?” I
asked.