Free A Chance at Love by T. K. Chapin Page A

Pulling her hands gently away from her face, I held each of her hands in mine and said, “I’m not going anywhere.”
    “Really?” she asked.
    “Really.” Releasing one of her hands, I brushed a strand of loose hair away from her cheek and then rubbed a stray tear away as I cupped her cheek in my hand. She leaned into it and smiled as she kissed my hand.
    “You’re too good for me,” she said.
    “No, you deserve the best, Emily. I will fall short daily of being perfect, but I will try my hardest to make you happy.”
    Seeing one of the girls peek from around the corner of the wall that led to the back area behind the stage, I smiled and dropped my hand away from Emily’s face. “Looks like they want to get on with this practice,” I said, grinning.
    She smiled and said, “All right. I really want the skit to be a surprise for you. Could you . . . leave?”
    “Yeah, I’ll go.” I pulled her hand up to my lips and kissed the top of it. “I’ll call you later.”
    Her smile grew as the other people doing the skit came back on the stage. Her eyebrows shot up as they made their way up the stairs. “This is Kyle, everybody. Kyle, this is Heidi, Paul, Ronda, Jeremy, Tessa, and my younger sister, Liv.”
    Everyone was about our age, except for Liv. She looked about thirteen or so. She came over to me and looked up into my eyes. “You’d better be nice to my sister, mister! Or you’ve got me to deal with!”
    “Liv!” Emily scolded. “Stop that!”
    I laughed and said, “I’ll treat her like the princess she is.”
    “Awe . . .” one of the girls from the group said. “He’s so perfect, Emily! And he’s super cute!”
    Emily smiled.
    “All right, all. Nice meeting you. I’ll leave you all to it.”
    Leaving the sanctuary, I headed out to the parking lot to leave when I was stopped by a yell from the church.
    “Kyle!” Tom hollered, running out from the church as I was about to open my car door. I stopped and turned to him as he approached.
    Smiling, I said, “Hi, Tom.”
    “Hey . . .” he said, taking a moment to catch his breath. “I wanted to talk to you for a moment. She told you, right?”
    I nodded.
    “Good. You should know that she’s a pretty important girl in this church, and if you do anything that—”
    Raising a hand, I said, “Stop. I’m fine with her being blind. It’s not a big deal to me. I care about Emily.”
    He furrowed his eyebrows. “I don’t think you understand how big of a disability blindness truly is. She can’t drive. She can’t do a lot of things in life that you take for granted every day.”
    “I understand what being blind entails. Thanks, though.” I opened my car door, and he grabbed onto the door to stop me.
    “Just end it now if you can’t deal with it. Let the shock wear off and then re-analyze. It’s okay to not be with her, Kyle. Completely understandable.”
    I shook my head and got into my car. What a jerk , I thought to myself as I left the church parking lot. Her being blind didn’t matter to me. Sure, it might be inconvenient here or there, but it wasn’t something that would cause me not to be with her. I wasn’t falling for her because of what she saw, but for the way she made me feel.
     

     
    Getting home just a few minutes after dinner was underway, I grabbed a plate and dished myself a helping of my mother’s tuna casserole. Taking a seat at the table with Joanie and my mother, I bowed my head and said a silent prayer to myself.
    “How’d it go?” Joanie asked as I lifted my eyes and began to eat.
    “How’d what go?” my mother asked.
    “I went and met Emily.”
    My mom furrowed her eyebrows. “After she told you she wasn’t comfortable with letting you into that part of her life? That wasn’t very nice of you to do.”
    “I think it’s fine,” Joanie added.
    “I’m falling in love with her, Mom,” I said before taking a bite of my food.
    My mother smiled. “Oh, young love . . .” she said longingly. “Okay.