Page 72 of Love is Blind

Nothing.

To really make this happen though I needed to tell Ghost. After all, he was half the problem. That’s when I realized we had yet to exchange phone numbers.

I know, I know, crazy.

Ever the helpful meddler, Holly helped program his number into my phone before taking a break to give Maverick his lunch which was her in case you were wondering. She was the lunch. Are you seeing the recurring pattern yet?

Siri called Ghost and he answered on the third ring. He knew about me being late, so I filled him in on the potato salad debacle and told him we could only see each other on the weekends until I got a better handle on this work thing.

He laughed—like a full belly laugh and it was just too hard to be mad at him.

That sound was better than anything I had ever heard before and it made me emotional, so much so that I started crying. Me, Birdie Callaghan, the girl who doesn’t cry. There must be something in the water here because that was the second time it happened.

Anyway, Ghost’s solution to the problem was for me and Lucy to stay with him at the clubhouse and guess who agreed while she wiped her snotty nose on her sleeve. That’s right, this girl, right here.

Somewhere in the back of my head, I knew things were moving fast between us, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. The highs are so much higher were you don’t fly alone and we both have suffered through too many lows in the past.

After work he took me back to Emmy’s to get my things. On the way back, we made a pitstop at Walmart. Ghost wanted to get some cleaning supplies and one of those plastic bins with the drawers for my clothes. Four hundred and fifty-six dollars later, we had the bin, some cleaning products, a dog bed for Lucy, dog food, a mini refrigerator so we didn’t have to leave his room, a six pack of beer, two packages of men’s tees—one for him and one for me—and last but not least, a Smart TV.

But the best thing about our shopping trip was that Ghost only ripped one man’s head off when he ogled me.

Progress!

We grabbed take-out from Sally’s and went back to the clubhouse. We were so exhausted we barely finished our food before we both crashed. I woke up sometime in the middle of the night with Ghost’s arms wrapped tightly around me and Lucy at our feet.

I wasn’t late for work the next day and that night was even better than the one before it because when I got off of work, Ghost had the television all set up. He even signed up for Prime and downloadedDirty Dancingfor me. I listened, he watched—it was great.

The sexcapades resumed that night too.

Day three things got a little dicey. The dictation software was installed on H & M’s computer and I spent most of the day trying to learn the system. It took me three hours to send an invoice, but I finally did it. Discouraged and frustrated, I couldn’t wait for five o’clock to come. Ghost didn’t greet me like he usually did though. The club had business and me and Lucy were on our own or at least we were for about five minutes.

Holly insisted I go to her house for dinner. That’s when I met her and Maverick’s two oldest kids, Tara and Shep. I had already met their youngest, Theo, the previous day when Holly brought him to the compound so Leftie could watch him. All three kids were just as great as their parents, but after a while Tara and Shep retreated to their bedrooms and Holly put Theo to sleep. I was going to call an Uber to take me back to the clubhouse, but Ghost called and said he’d pick me up when they got back from the run.

With the kids off doing their own thing and Theo sound asleep, Holly told me all about her and Mav’s past. How they were married and divorced but never truly moved on from one another—even after Holly got remarried to a man named Colt. But the biggest shock of all was learning that Theo was Colt’s biological son and not Maverick’s. Then she shared how Colt died, Maverick stepped up and he and Holly found their way back to one another. It was quite the story and it also gave me a lot of insight into the club.

“If you’re going to be Ghost’s old lady, then there are things you need to know,” she said.

I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. It was a little premature to be assuming we’d grow old together. That’s when she explained that an old lady was another biker term, one that labeled me Ghost’s woman. In return for that knowledge, I asked if there was a biker thesaurus I could buy—one preferably available in audio format.

Turns out I didn’t need a thesaurus. In the days that followed, during our lunch hour, Holly gave me an education on the Satan’s Knights. She said the patch is sacred, that they’ll be times I resent it, but the good always outweighs the bad and not only would I be getting myself a man who would walk through fire for me, but I’d be getting a family of brothers who would die on the cross for me.

That was some pretty deep stuff, but she wasn’t done.

“You’re his queen and he’s your king. Whatever happens on the road, stays on the road. Don’t let him bring club business home. You’re his safe place and the bed you share is just as sacred as his patch.” Then she paused, took my hand, and said, “Welcome to the family.”

It’s been two days since that last conversation and I still can’t shake her words. More than that, though, I’m realizing in my quest to take away Ghost’s pain, I’ve lost my heart to him. I know it sounds crazy. It’s been less than two weeks and love at first sight doesn’t really apply here. In fact, one would think it’s harder to fall in love with someone so quickly when you’re blind. Hell, it should be nearly impossible. Think about it, when a relationship is new a lot of things are left unsaid because both parties are still testing the waters. They’re not sure if they can be their authentic selves yet and worry how their opinions and habits will be received. But what they don’t say out loud, they say with their eyes and their expressions. You can get to know a person just by staring and watching how they interact in certain situations and around other people.

By reading their face.

I don’t have that privilege, I rely on words, sounds, and how I feel whenever I’m around someone. I absorb their energy—good and bad.

Holding hands for me is as just as powerful as staring into someone’s eyes.

Listening to their laugh is like seeing them smile.

So, yeah, the process is different, but the feelings are the same and this feels a lot like love.

I don’t know what else you call it when hearing someone’s heartbeat against your ear fills you with so much peace and so much joy you wonder how you ever existed without hearing it.

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