His One and Only(61)

“A few things like what?”

“You know, just a few things: pushed all the furniture up against the walls, replaced some of the bigger pieces with smaller ones so you wouldn’t stub your toes; put down carpet runners so it’d be easier for you get from place to place; put different air fresheners in different rooms, so you’d be able to smell which room was which; had all the hardwood floors carpeted when we were at our appointment in Birmingham; placed a white noise machine in your bathroom, so you’d instinctively know which way to go when you had to—well go; and put decorative gripping down in the tub, so you wouldn’t slip.”

Beau sat there frozen, his mouth hanging open.

Then Mac snapped his fingers. “Oh, and she also put magnet closures on all the drawers and cabinets, so you’d never walk into them. I think that’s all.”

“You still don’t deserve me,” he heard Josie say again.

And that’s when it hit him. Really hit him. Losing Josie to Colin Fairgood wasn’t bad. It was worse than that. In fact, it was the worst thing that had ever happened to him. Even worse than his blindness. Because Josie was the best thing that had ever happened to him. And all he had ever been was an ass to her, and now she was gone.

“Mac you’re married to somebody blind, right? All this stuff Josie did for me... did you do the same for your wife?”

“Truth be told, Josie gave me a few ideas,” Mac admitted.

“She wouldn’t have done all that if she didn’t care about me, would she?”

“No, sir, I don’t think she would have.”

“And I drove her away.”

Beau fell back on the floor.

“Sir, are you all right?” Mac asked above him.

“No,” Beau answered, his voice terse. A clear and bright image of Josie crying in his arms the day before came back to him. How could he have let himself get out of control like that? How could he have pulled all that shit last night? How could he have been so blind in every sense of the word?

Josie had been right. About him. About everything. He didn’t blame her for going off with Fairgood, because he’d made one thing more than clear last night. He still didn’t come anywhere close to deserving her.

He set his jaw. “Mac,” he said. “I’ll take that help up now.”

Mac must have been standing above him the whole time, because he grabbed his arm and helped him stand up. And by the time he made it to his feet, the pounding headache was gone, almost as if it had been waiting for him to come to his senses before it let up.

“Tell me this,” he said to Mac. “If I wanted to figure out how to get rid of you, how would I go about doing that?”

“Are you asking how to fire me again, sir?” Mac asked.

“No, I’m asking how to make it so I don’t need you to get stuff done anymore.”

Mac still sounded confused when he answered. “Well, a lot of blind people live on their own. Hell, my wife could probably do it without me if she really wanted to, but that would mean you’d actually have to go about learning all that stuff you said you didn’t want to learn.” Something finally seemed to click for Mac and he said, “Wait up, are you saying you want me to teach you how to get around by yourself? Like a real blind person?”

Beau rubbed the back of his neck, feeling more than sheepish that he’d refused to put himself in that category when they’d first met. But he manned up and answered, “Yeah. Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”





CHAPTER 21

Six months later



“YOU SURE ABOUT THIS MAN?” Mac asked when they pulled up to the Birmingham Grand six months later.

“More sure than I’ve ever been of anything in my life?” Beau answered.

Mac shook his head. Beau knew this because he could hear the sound of the man’s beard rubbing against his shirt. “Just the last time you were in this place, I ended up having to peel you off the bar floor.”

Beau stroked his chin, which he’d shaved this morning all by himself. It wasn’t the first time he’d done so, but it was the first time he’d gotten the job done without nicking himself or Mac having to wipe up any blood afterwards, so he’d been humming the Rocky theme rather triumphantly in his head all morning.

“I’ll be all right,” he told Mac.

He put his hand on the door handle and prepared to exit the car, but Mac said, “I could come with you.” He sounded less like the man who had been brutally training him to navigate in the real world and more like a fretful parent.

“I promise, I won’t pass out this time.”