Free Love is Blind by Shayna B Page B

going to
the food court to get something to eat. Once we had finished
eating, Sophie looked at me curiously. “So what’s your secret?” she
asked me.
    I raised an eyebrow. “Secret?”
    “Yeah. How’d you get through to Blake? I’ve been
trying for two years and I haven’t had any luck.”
    I sat back in my seat and shrugged. “I don’t
know. I’m stubborn, so that probably has something to do with it.”
I hesitated for a moment before continuing. “Honestly, I think it
helps that I didn’t know him before he lost his sight. We don’t
talk about it much, but I get the feeling that Blake resented that
everyone wanted him to be the same person that he was before. When
something that drastic happens to someone, it changes them in ways
that other people will never understand.” I gave her a rueful
smile. “Did any of that make sense?”
    She nodded thoughtfully. “It actually did. I
never really thought about it in that way. I admit that when he
moved in with us, I tried to get him to do the things he liked to
do in the past, but he had no interest in doing anything I
suggested. He used to love going out all the time and hanging out
with friends, but now he’s pretty much a recluse. When you said he
was at your place for dinner the other night, I was shocked. That’s
the first time he’s gone out anywhere aside from the park and
school.”
    “How long has he lived with you and your
mom?”
    “Since about two months after he went blind.
Blake refused to keep traveling with his parents while his dad was
campaigning, so they left him with us.” She was quiet for a moment
before she continued. “Blake and his dad never really got along all
that well and it got a lot worse after the accident. His mom
decided it would be easier for Blake to not have to try and deal
with his dad while he was adjusting to losing his sight. I think
she was right.”
    “How often do they visit him?”
    “Aunt Susan tries to make it here at least once
every other month, but Uncle Robert has only been back three times
since Blake started living with us.”
    I stared at her. “Seriously?”
    “Yeah, and none of those visits went very well.
Blake does okay when it’s just his mom visiting but he tends to
lose it whenever he has contact with his dad.”
    “What do you mean by ‘lose it’?”
    Sophie grimaced. “You may have noticed that
Blake has a bit of a temper sometimes. His dad brings out the worst
in him and the last time he was here, Blake put his fist through
his bedroom door. I don’t know what happened to cause it, but Blake
was even surlier than usual for weeks afterwards.”
    “He put his fist through a door?” I asked
incredulously.
    “Yeah. My mom was pissed because Blake has a
punching bag in his gym that he’s supposed to use when he needs to
let off some steam. But Blake was just so angry that he didn’t make
it that far.” She smiled wryly. “When it comes to his dad, Blake
doesn’t always think clearly.”
    “Apparently,” I muttered before glancing at my
watch. “Well, should we continue shopping? I want to go to the
bookstore still.”
    We shopped for another hour and then I drove her
back home. I had picked something up for Blake, so I went inside
with her and walked to his room. I knocked on the door and when he
opened it, I was struck speechless for a moment. He was shirtless,
wearing only a pair of black athletic shorts. I stared at his well-
defined chest and abs for a moment, idly wondering if I was
drooling. Nothing I had seen from him in the past had really hinted
that he looked like this under his shirt and I had this strange
urge to run my hands over him to see if his chest felt as perfect
as it looked.
    I blinked a few times and tore my gaze away from
his body to look at his face. He had an eyebrow raised and a small
smirk on his face. “Done checking me out yet?”
    “What makes you think I was checking you
out?”
    “You stopped breathing for a moment and then you
didn’t say