LIB

Chapter 12

          A soft knocking on the door woke me up. I muttered quietly and snuggled into my pillow more. My brows furrowed when I realized that my pillow was harder then usual and it was moving. I slowly peeled my eyelids opened and saw Blake’s face. His eyes were still closed, but his lips were turned up into a smile.

            When I heard the door open, I turned my attention to it. Sophie poked her head in and her eyes widened when she saw me curled up against Blake’s side. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

            Blake shifted underneath me a little. “I was already awake.”

            I looked back up at him. “How long have you been awake for?”

            He shrugged. “I don’t know. Not long.”

            I turned to Sophie again. “Is something wrong?”

            She shook her head. “No, I just wanted to see how things were going, that’s all.”

            I sat up and stretched my arms over my head, wincing when the muscles in my back protested the movement. “Well, I got him calmed down,” I said.

            Blake sat up as well, his hand going to my back. He started lightly massaging the sore muscles as he turned his head in his cousin’s direction. “Thanks for calling her, Soph.”

Surprise flitted across her features. “No problem. But I thought you’d be angry with me for doing that.”

He shrugged. “I am kind of annoyed that you went behind my back, but in this case it worked out for the best. So thanks.”

She smiled. “You’re welcome. Hailey, are you staying here for the day?”

I glanced at Blake. “I don’t know.”

“I don’t have anything planned, so you can stay if you want,” he told me as he dropped his hand back to his side.

“I suppose that’s the closest thing to an invitation that I’ll be getting from you,” I said jokingly.

He grinned. “You’re probably right. So, are you going to stay?”

“Sure. But you have to take me and Sophie out for dinner later.”

The smile left his face. “Why do I have to do that?”

“Because we want you too. Right Sophie?”

Sophie bit her lip, but the look on my face must have convinced her. “Yeah, that would be fun.”

When I looked back at Blake, I saw that he was scowling, but I could also detect a bit of fear. Without looking away from him, I spoke to Sophie. “Sophie, why don’t you go take Abby out in the yard? We’ll be there shortly.”

Sophie looked between the two of us once, before nodding and closing the door behind her. I waited until I was sure she was gone before speaking again. “You haven’t been out to dinner since the accident, have you?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want everyone staring at me,” he snapped.

“Don’t get all snarky with me. Why would everyone stare at you?”

“Because I’m blind,” he said in voice that indicated I wasn’t too smart.

“Yeah, but it’s not like it’s easy to see that. You look like every other teenage boy that I’ve ever seen.”

“Why are you being so damn pushy about this?”