Free Love is Blind by Shayna B Page A

table, telling Blake where I was
placing everything so he’d know how to find it. I put some French
bread in a basket so we could have it with dinner and then went
back to the fridge. “What do you want to drink? We have milk, pop,
juice or water.”
    “Milk’s fine.”
    After everything was ready, I sat down beside
him and we ate in companionable silence. Every once in a while
Blake would ask me where something was and I’d tell him, but other
than that we didn’t talk too much. When we were done eating, I
started cleaning up and Blake surprised me by helping me out. He
brought stuff from the table to the counters for me, making the
cleanup go faster.
    When everything was put away, we went into the
living room and sat down on one of the couches. I turned the stereo
on so that music played softly from the speakers. Blake sat back
with a little smile on his face. “You know, that’s one of the first
meals I’ve had lately that no one tried to help me with
everything.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Sophie and my aunt always try and help me when
we sit down for supper. I know they mean well, but I don’t like
having to rely on them for everything. The way you explained where
everything was made it easy for me to do it all for myself. So
thanks.”
    I blinked a few times before smiling. “You’re
welcome. I didn’t realize I was doing anything differently than
everyone else. I figure you’ve had more than two years to adjust to
being blind; therefore, you should be able to do almost everything
for yourself.”
    He frowned. “How did you know how long I’ve been
blind for?”
    “David told me shortly after school started. He
said you had an accident of some sort a couple of years ago, but I
didn’t ask him anything else.”
    His brows rose. “Why not?”
    “It’s not his story to tell,” I replied.
    Blake gave me a slightly rueful smile. “You
know, I don’t think I’ll ever have you figured out. You don’t do
things in ways I expect you to.”
    “If I did everything that was expected of me,
then I probably wouldn’t be here with you today.” My phone rang and
I looked at the caller ID to see that Sophie was calling me. “Your
cousin is calling me,” I informed Blake before answering the call.
“Hey Sophie.”
    “Hey Hailey. Is my cousin with you? He’s
normally home by now.”
    “Yeah, he came to my place for dinner. He didn’t
let you know?”
    She snorted. “Blake doesn’t let anyone know
anything. I figured he’d be with you though, since you’re the only
one he ever does stuff with. Anyways, I had another reason for
calling you. I wanted to see if you wanted to go shopping on Friday
night.”
    “Sure, that sounds like fun. What time should I
pick you up?”
    “How about we go right after school?”
    “Okay, I can give you and Blake a ride home from
school and then we can go from there.”
    “Sounds like a plan. Talk to you later.”
    I hung up and glanced at Blake. “I assume you
heard all of that?”
    “Yeah. You’re going to regret going shopping
with her. She never stops talking.”
    I chuckled. “Sounds like Rachel. I’m used to
it.”
    “I should probably get going home,” he said,
getting to his feet.
    “Want me to walk home with you? Or will Abby be
able to find her way?”
    “Would you mind just walking to the park with
us? It’ll take a few times of coming here before she learns the way
herself.”
    “Sure, let’s go before it gets any colder.”
    We walked to the park together and said our
goodbyes. Then Tonto and I walked back home and it wasn’t until I
got back to the house that I realized my back was no longer as sore
as it had been earlier.
     

Chapter ten
     
    On Friday I dropped Blake off at his place after
school and then Sophie and I went to the mall. This was the first
time I’d done anything alone with her, but we were already good
friends since I saw her whenever I went to Blake’s to work on the
project.
    We shopped for a couple of hours before