They Say Love Is Blind (16 page)

He took her hand
in his and squeezed it gently.
“Tory
, since I’ve known you, I’ve been so very happy. I used to think that I knew what happiness was but I was completely clueless.”

Tory thought she was going to have a heart attack. How was it possible that her heart could be beating so hard in her chest?! She stared at him with a shocked
expression
on her face
;
happy that he couldn’t see it even if his family could.

“Tory, I love you. I want to live with you for the rest of my life. I want us to make a family together and have a houseful of brown and tan skinned children. I want to take care of you. And I want to marry you.”

Her palms were soaking wet and she was shaking like a leaf. She snatched one of her hands from his
to cover
her mouth, eyes stinging as she rapidly nodded her head. The cheers went up around the table, as well as around the restaurant where the guests had apparently stopped what they were doing to listen to the proposal.

She noticed that even though everyone at the table had stood, Lee was still
seated and
watching her expectantly, unable to ‘see’ her response. She dropped her hand from her mouth and felt tears splash from her eyes
, plus she
knew that her damned nose was running. What a sight she made but she managed to squeak out;
“
Yes. Yes, honey, Yes.
”

H
e visibly
relaxed and a broad smile spread across his beautiful face. How could he be so tense? Didn’t he realize how much of a catch he was?
Tory threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. The man of her dreams had just asked her to marry him. She was going to be his wife! She was going to be Victoria das Torres! She laughed against his neck, feeling his hands stroking her back, but then he pulled her back.

“I know I’m supposed to put a ring on your finger…but I wouldn’t dream of trying to pick out your engagement ring. Maybe we can do that this weekend.”

His brothers were there slapping him on his back and joking that he would have to do the entire thing all over again. Lee’s sisters were kissing her and wiping the tears from her cheeks and then someone thrust a telephone into her hands. What the-?

She heard someone speaking rapid Portuguese and she knew that she was speaking to Lee’s mother.
Anxiously s
he covered her other ear and strained to hear the woman who was speaking to her from thousands of miles away.

“Victoria?”

“Yes, ma’ame. How are you?”

There was a pleasant chuckle. “Congratulations. I am very pleased to have an addition to my family. It makes me proud and I’m so happy that Leandro has found someone
special.”

Tory blushed. “Thank you Ma’ame. Would you like to speak to Lee?”

“Yes, please. I’ll talk to you soon.” Tory put her hand on Lee’s upper arm and instinctively he seemed to know her touch and turned to her.

“Lee, your Mom is on the phone.” His face brightened and he accepted the phone from her. The family slowly returned to their seats and the
cataplana
was served while Lee spoke in rapid Portuguese to first his mother and than his father. When he finished talking he returned the phone to its rightful owner and grasped Tory’s hand, holding it on his lap. She knew she had a stupid grin plastered on her face. She even heard someone say; ‘Awww.’

And then she felt someone kneel between them. The smile froze on her lips when she saw Rosalind place a kiss on Lee’s cheek.

“Congratulations, brother,” she said quietly, a gentle smile on her lips. The conversation around the table quieted and all but stopped.

Lee patted her hand which rested on his shoulders. “Thank you, Rosalind.”

She turned to Tory next. “Please accept my congratulations.”

“Of course,
”
Tory responded, embarrassed that everyone was assessing her response for later analysis
. Rosalind nodded and then
turned to leave
.
What did it matter anymore? Lee was hers and she didn’t care about any of her prior insecurities. “Would you like to join us?”

She stopped and glanced back at the hostess station. “Uh,
I better not. I’m still working-
”

“Nonsense!” Francie said. “I brought in extra help today to cover every station. Tell Armand to take over host duties and then join us, sister!”

Rosalind glanced at Tory hesitantly. “Please do.”Tory said. She felt Lee’s grip tighten gently. He approved.

A smile spread across the other woman’s face. “Okay.”

Before long the ruckus resumed and the atmosphere once again resembled a party. They ate, they drank, they hugged and kissed and Tory had never felt more loved.

~***~

“Are you okay to drive, honey?”

“I’m okay. I stopped drinking about an hour ago.” He pulled her into his arms as they headed for the car
and they indulged in some PDA before she pulled back. “How about we finish this at the apartment?”

“Can you call in sick tomorrow?”

She felt the lower portion of her body tighten at his suggestion. But since being with him she had called in sick too many times and didn’t want to risk a reprimand. 

“Not unless I can fake up a doctor’s note.” He sighed. 

“Then let’s hurry back to your place because I want to make love to you,
querida
.”

Her limbs instantly turned to liquid and she croaked out a weak; okay. It was barely 10:00 so if h
e wanted more time to make love
that meant
he was planning another lovefest. Their lovefests have been known to last
upwards of
12 hours…

They hurried to the car and when she started the engine, he began scanning through his iPod. Instead of soothing Portuguese he played a Musiq Soul
child song that she adored. He reached for her hand as she drove and she
peeked at him
. He had a look of peace on his face.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a horn blaring loudly. Tory whipped her head around. There was a car com
ing at them fast. It wasn’t
slowing! She spun the wheel as
fast
and as
hard
as she could but not before she heard a sickening explosion
as the approaching car hit them head on.
It felt as if their car was being hit by a freight train.

In that
moment, Tory’s world slowed. She saw the two colliding cars crunch
ing
together
like they were crumpling
paper
. A
nd then the
windshield
cracked and
she
was
s
eeing
a beautiful kaleidoscope. The last thing she remembered is the airbag deploying and she suddenly couldn’t breathe
. It was
as if she had been hit in the chest with a baseball bat
. 
That’s when
Tory’s world w
ent
black and quiet.

CHAPTER 12

Something heavy was sitting on her chest.
She couldn’t breathe
,
but when she realized that she couldn’t move either the panic began to set in.
Without realizing it, Tory groaned and tossed until a soothing hand covered hers.
Instantly she settled.
Before long she was resting and dreaming
.

Much later when
her eyes finally opened, Tory’s first thought was that she was very tired.
She blinked and tried to focus before realizing that it was night. Why did this all feel so strange? Why was she so tired? She just wanted to roll over and not think about work, to snuggle up against Lee…

Suddenly
alert, Tory sat up and groaned
when the
sudden movement caused
pain to flare up in various
body
parts
.
She looked around and realized that she was in a hospital room that was dark except for a dimmed overhead light. It didn’t take longer than a few moments for her to remember that there had been a car accident, a horrible accident.

Lee!

Tory
ripped the blanket and sheet from her lower body but realized that the bed railings were up
. She was too dazed to figure out how to lower them, so she moved to the end of the bed
but before she could drop
from the end and onto the floor
she was stopped by two things; one was something strapped to her face, the other was an IV connection protruding from the back of her hand.

Tory pulled the oxygen line from her face and immediately her breathing became labored. It didn’t take long before she grew dizzy and lightheaded.
I’m going to blackout
. She tried to call out for help but couldn’t catch her breath. What had happened to her in the accident?!
Pain flared in her back and shoulder as she strained to take a breath.

I can’t breathe!
She reached for the oxygen and held it up to her mouth and nose, gulping big breaths
. Unfortunately she was now about as weak as a newborn kitten. Lee…

Tory sank back onto the bed.
Where was he?
Her world grew black.

~***~

Tory was unsure how long she listened to the two voices speaking quietly in Portuguese. It lulled her to sleep and gave her comfort even when she knew that she should be awake because something important had happened. She
had
to wake up but sleep felt so good.

She sighed in distress and the voices came to an immediate stop.

“Tory?”

“Hmmm…” She moaned.

“Get the nurse. Tory? Wake up now. You’ve been asleep
,
freira
,
but now it’s time to wake up.”

Her eyes opened to the sight of
Macey
. She blinked and grimaced and then tried to sit up.
Macey
’s face was etched in concern.

“No. You can’t sit up. You have some broken ribs and a collapsed lung. “

Tory gulped down a breath, too weak to do much more than to croak out one little word. “Lee.”

Mac
e
y
’s face dropped and she looked away.  “He’s okay.” After a moment she looked at Tory again and her face was
suddenly unreadable
.

She was lying. If he was okay then he would be her
e
now.
She gave her friend a pleading look before the last of her strength faded and she either slept or blacked out.

~***~

Tory could hear her mother’s voice and suddenly she was a little girl again. “Wake up Tory.” Was it time for school? She was so tired. She
couldn’t ever remember being this
tired.

“No Mama,” she muttered. Someone squeezed her hand and then a brusque voice spoke.

“She’s coming around. Come on Tory, you can do it.”

She frowned and her eyes slowly opened.
She saw the pale face of a white woman dressed in nurse’s scrubs.

“There you are. Look whose here; your Mom and Dad.”

Slowly she noted that Mama was holding her
hand and Daddy was sitting next to her patting her arm. She took a deep breath and realized that she had an oxygen mask on. She must have tried to reach up to move it because the nurse quickly chided her.