Love is Blind (29 page)

“I think I do know. Drive safely.”

He nodded and left the room. I heard the front
door open and close and a moment later, Blake came back into the
room with two mugs. He handed one to me and sat next to me again.
“You okay?”

“Yeah, I really am. How much of that did you
listen to?”

“All of it. I could hear you from the
kitchen.”

“Figured as much.” I took a sip of my hot
chocolate. “I really don’t blame him anymore.”

“I know.”

“Life’s not fair a lot of the time, is it?”

“No, it definitely isn’t.”

“I never asked him who the drunk girl was.”

“Does it matter?”

I shook my head. “No, I guess it doesn’t. It
wasn’t her fault that he offered her a ride home. True, she
shouldn’t have been trying to drive when she was so drunk, but at
least she realized that and let him drive her home.”

“It was just a series of unfortunate events that
led to the accident.”

“That’s just what it was. An accident. I never
would have believed that if I hadn’t let Marcus talk to me
today.”

Blake set his mug down on the coffee table and
wrapped an arm around my waist. “I know it wasn’t easy for you to
let him in like that.”

“You’re right; it wasn’t. It was one of the
hardest things I’ve ever done.” I set my own mug down and put my
head on his shoulder. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being here and then for letting me talk to
him alone. I know that you didn’t want to do that.”

He kissed the top of my head. “No, I didn’t want
to. But I knew you needed it, even if you didn’t. And it’s not like
I was far away.”

“Plus you heard everything we said.”

“That helped as well. Do you still want to go
out for dinner?”

“Definitely.” I pressed my face into the side of
his neck for a moment. “What would I do without you?”

“Wallow in self- pity?” he suggested.

I laughed and nipped lightly at his neck.
“That’s what you would do without me, but I was trying to be
serious.”

“I’m done being serious for today. I think we
owe it to ourselves to just kick back and have fun for the
remainder of the day.”

“I like that idea.” I moved my head so I could
look at him properly. I let my eyes roam his face, taking in every
detail. “You know, you’re kind of cute.”

“Guys aren’t cute, Hailey. How many times have I
told you that?”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. I’m the one looking
at you and I say you’re cute. Now let’s get the hell out of here
before Jared shows up and tries to torture me. I want a good meal
at a restaurant before that happens.”

He pulled out his phone and called Jack,
arranging for him to pick us up in fifteen minutes. When he was
done, we sat in silence for a moment, enjoying the quiet of the
house.

“I know you said you were done being serious,
but I just want to say one more thing.”

He let out an exaggerated sigh. “Fine, but
that’s it.”

“If I hadn’t met you, I don’t know what would
have happened to me. I was getting through the days and putting on
a happy face, but that’s all I was doing. I wasn’t actually living.
Marcus said he was only existing and I think that’s what was
happening with me as well. So thank you for being so rude to me on
the first day and making me see that there were other people out
there that had as many problems as I did.”

Blake pulled me tighter into his side and gave
me a long, slow kiss. “I should be thanking you, Hales. You
actually made me feel happiness again. You helped me see that I
wasn’t the only one with problems and that there are people in this
world who actually do care about others.” He kissed me again and
then put his cheek on top of my head. “I love you, and that’s
enough serious talk.”

I smiled and snuggled into him. “I love you too
and I agree. No matter what else life throws at us, we’ll get
through it because we kick ass.”

“Damn right.”

Epilogue

Blake and I sat in a small room that was
furnished with a plush couch and a large TV. Currently, the TV was
showing talk show host Eve Daniels as she interviewed one of the
hottest new actors. Blake snorted as he listened to the actor talk
about his newest movie. “He sounds like a jerk,” he muttered.

I looked at him with mild amusement. “You just
don’t like him because I said he was hot in his last movie.”

He jerked his shoulders. “No, I don’t like him
because he’s too cocky for his own good.”

I raised an eyebrow, but decided against giving
him a response. Instead, I returned my attention to the TV just as
it went to commercial. With a sigh, I stretched my arms over my
head. “I think that’s our cue.”

Blake grunted in response before pushing himself
to his feet. He came around behind my wheelchair and gripped the
handles. “I still can’t believe we’re doing this.”

I started wheeling out of the door just as
someone came to get us. “Stop complaining, I know you’re excited
about it.”

“Maybe a little,” he admitted.

I smiled at the woman who was waiting for us.
“Is it our turn?” I asked her.

She nodded. “Yeah, let’s get you two to the edge
of the set. She’ll announce you guys right after the commercial
break.”

We followed her out of the room and stopped just
out of view of the audience and the cameras. Eve waited until she
was counted back in and then smiled out at the audience. “And now
we have a real treat for you guys. Our next two guests have caused
a hugs sensation over the Internet. Let’s take a quick look at
their video.”

The screen behind her came on and the video
Sophie had taken of us almost four months earlier came on. They
only played twenty seconds of it and then it shut off again.
“Please help me in welcoming Blake Adams and Hailey Baker.”

The audience started applauding and Blake and I
made our way into view. My stomach had about a thousand butterflies
fluttering in it, but I managed to keep my nerves under control.
When we got to the spot we had rehearsed, I stopped the wheelchair
and set the brake. Blake came to the front of the chair and bent
down to wrap an arm around my waist. He straightened up slowly and
I cautiously got to my feet, my left arm hooked firmly around his
neck. Together, we slowly walked the rest of the way to the couch
that was waiting for us. Everyone in the audience cheered louder
when we made it and sat down after greeting Eve. Blake kept his arm
securely around my waist, but I removed my arm from around his neck
so that I could sit more comfortably.

Eve sat down in her chair and smiled warmly at
us. “Welcome to the show guys. I’m very happy that you’re here as
my guests. I know you mentioned that you had a lot of offers for
different interviews and declined them all.”

“We did, because this is the only one either of
us wanted to do. Blake and I watch your show all the time, although
he likes to deny it,” I said with a small laugh.

She smiled warmly. “I’m flattered. I know there
are a lot of other talk shows out there.” She leaned forward in her
chair a little. “Can you tell us a bit about your accidents?”

Blake and I took turns telling our stories. I
left out the part about the driver of the other vehicle being
Marcus; that wasn’t something everyone needed to know. Blake told
her about his dirt biking accident and how he had damaged the
optical nerves.

“It’s amazing that the two of you are so strong
after everything you’ve been through. Now, I know a lot of the
viewer’s really want to know how you two met and became a couple.
Did you connect instantly?”

I snorted derisively. “Hardly. Blake was the
rudest and crankiest person I had ever met. Our first actual
conversation pretty much consisted of us calling each other
names.”

“And you were so annoying, refusing to leave me
alone and always dragging me into conversations,” Blake put in.

“Are you complaining?”

He sighed. “No dear. I’m very glad you
stubbornly persisted in dragging me into meaningless conversations
almost every day.”

I rolled my eyes. “See what I mean about him
being rude?”

Eve grinned widely at both of us. “You guys are
pretty cute together. So what happened to change your
relationship?”

I thought about it for a moment. “I think the
first turning point was when Blake realized there was something
wrong with me. When we met, I wasn’t in a wheelchair. I was able to
get around fairly well on my own, but my dog had been sent for
service dog training to help me on days that I needed it. I brought
him to the park and Blake was there with his dog. When I gave my
dog a command, Blake recognized it as a command from a specific
kennel. I refused to tell him why I had a service trained dog and
we kind of argued. The next day he apologized and we started to
become friends.”

“And what made you become more then
friends?”

“That started after Hailey came over one day
because my cousin had called her. I was in a really bad mood and
Sophie, my cousin, figured Hailey was the only person who could
calm me down. She was right, but not for the reason she had
thought. Hailey and I argued for a minute when she first got there
and then she suddenly blurted out something about her past. It had
the effect of shutting me up and asking her to explain what had
happened to her.

“When she started telling me everything she had
been through, I was beyond shocked. The Hailey I knew was too
strong and optimistic to have gone through something like that.
When she finished telling me the story, she placed my hand on her
back and I could feel all the scars. Later that day, she made me go
out for dinner with her and Sophie. It was the first time I’d done
that since my accident. We started growing even closer and it
eventually turned into us becoming a couple.”

“It must be hard for both of you,” Eve
commented. “And I imagine the other kids at your school must treat
you differently.”

“They used to. After I fell on the ice and re-
injured my back, I was afraid to go back to school, because I knew
everyone would be staring and whispering behind my back. But then
Sophie took that video of Blake and I singing, and it seemed that
everyone had watched it. When we went back to school, the students
and staff were very supportive and friendly to us.”

“I’ve read some of the comments on the video. It
seems you’ve reached a lot of people with your story. How does that
make you feel?”

“Weird,” Blake replied. “It is definitely weird
knowing that people look up to us now. That we’ve become role
models of sorts.”

“I can only imagine how that must affect you.”
Eve became amused at that point. “I also read some comments that
said how gorgeous the both of you are. Blake, you especially seem
to have gained some admirers. Has that affected you at all?”

“It’s made him even more cocky than usual,” I
said dryly. “He’s got an amazingly large ego and all the admiration
has gone straight to his head.”

The audience laughed and Blake grinned
charmingly. “I can’t help it if the ladies love me,” he said
smugly.

“If the ‘ladies’ knew you like I did, they
wouldn’t think you were so charming,” I retorted.

Blake just continued to grin and grabbed my hand
with his free one, raising it to his lips to brush a kiss over my
knuckles. “Don’t worry Hales’ you know you’re the one I love.”

The audience went “Aww” and I struggled not to
smile. “I’d better be.”

Eve laughed and clapped her hands together once.
“Well, we need to take another commercial break, but when we come
back, Blake and Hailey will be performing a song for us.”

Once the commercials were rolling, Blake helped
me back to my wheelchair and then we went over to where the piano
was set up with his guitar resting next to it. We got ourselves
settled and as soon as the commercial break ended, we played the
song that we’d played at the talent show. And just like at the
talent show, the music flowed through me and made everything else
disappear. It was just me and Blake, and no one else existed in
those few minutes. When the song was over, everyone in the audience
gave us a standing ovation.

Blake held my hand as we both smiled at everyone
and then made our way off the set. As we walked out of the building
towards the car that was waiting for us, I couldn’t help but think
how much my life had changed in the past year. I had lost my
parents, but my brother was now on the mend. I had lost the guy I
thought I loved, and found someone who I knew I couldn’t live
without. I had friends and family to support me and I was slowly
gaining the ability to walk again for the second time.

It had definitely been an eventful year, but I
knew that everything had happened for a reason. And I knew that a
saying I had once heard was true. The reason we have hands is
because love is blind.

The End

Acknowledgements

First of all, this book wouldn’t have been
possible if it weren’t for my wonderful brother, Eric, who spent
nearly as much time editing as I did writing. He did a wonderful
job and he was one of the first people to really encourage my
writing career.

This book was originally on the website called
Wattpad and an unedited and different version of it is still
available on there for free. Just go to the website and search for
my username, which is XxBlondie99xX. It was also on this website
that I found a fan to make my cover, so thank you @MadzzX. I
recommend Wattpad to anyone who is starting out writing, because it
allows you to get feedback on your stories.

This book is the first in a series of at least
three, though the main characters in the next book aren’t Hailey
and Blake. However, they do make a few appearances. I hope you
enjoyed my book and you can connect with me through Wattpad or my
Facebook page for Wattpad.