Page 82 of Love is Blind

Holly drops her hand from my arm and reaches up on her tip toes, placing a quick kiss to my cheek. “Be safe. I got Birdie,” she whispers.

She goes to walk past me, but I tag her hand, giving it a squeeze.

Her eyes meet mine once again and I force myself to find my voice.

“Thanks for pulling the gun out of my mouth, Hol.” I glance toward the closed door and swallow hard against the lump in my throat. “Gave me the chance to see the world in color.”

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?”

I turn back to her.

“Yeah, it is.”

~*~

Openingthe door to my room, I find Birdie sitting Indian style on the bed, wearing a pair of leggings and my Satan’s Knight tee. My chest tightens at the sight and without even realizing it, I lift a hand and rub the spot that aches. She lifts her head and turns it toward the door, giving me those beautiful blue-green eyes of hers and the ache dulls.

“Ghost?”

“Yeah,” I rasp. Clearing my throat, I lower my hand and cross the room. Lucy lifts her head from the floor, and I give her head a pat before I take a seat on the edge of the bed.

My hand curls around her thigh and she leans her head on my shoulder.

“Don’t go,” she whispers. “Please.”

I turn and kiss the top of her head.

“Give you anything you want, baby,” I murmur against her soft hair. “But I can’t give you that.”

“If something happens to you—”

“Nothing is going to happen to me.” I pull away from her and take her face into my hands, touching my forehead to hers. “Got too much going for me now.”

She brings a hand to my chest and I immediately wonder if she can feel my heart hammering against it. But her hand doesn’t stay there long. Slowly it slides up my neck. She touches my beard, feeling the coarse hairs between her fingertips, then inches higher, tracing my lips with her thumb. A chill races down my spine and my pulse grows even more frantic.

Her touch is electric.

Her brand irrevocable.

She lays her hand on my cheek and lifts her chin and those blue eyes of hers lock with mine.

So very fucking beautiful.

“Remember that joke I was trying to tell you?”

“The one about the priest and the rabbi?”

She smiles.

“Yeah, sort of. I was using that as opening hook, but I think I got it now,” she says softly.

“Lay it on me.”

“A biker and a blind girl walk into a bar. They sit down next to each other, and the blind girl doesn’t know how to strike up a conversation, so she starts rattling on about the thing she wants at her funeral. You see, she thought her number was up. That it was just a matter of time before everything caught up to her and she wanted to have a little fun before that happened. So she ignored her cousins warnings and followed the biker into the bathroom. She got her way and he took her home with him, but she didn’t know he would be taking a piece of her heart that night too. I’ve made a lot of reckless decisions since I lost my vision, Ghost, but I made one right and that’s you. I’m sorry you have to clean up my messes, but if you come back in one piece, I promise I’ll color your whole world.” She pauses to sniffle, tears streaming down her cheeks. “That’s the joke,” she whispers. “The blind girl coloring the biker’s world.”

I thumb away her tears and shake my head.

“It’s not funny, it’s true,” I rasp. “You do color my world. You fucking breathe life into me and every day I’m with you, the hole I carry in my heart for Abigail gets a little smaller.”

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