“Hurry up, Tennyson. Sam will be here anytime to pick me up. You need to be dressed.”

“If I can’t go with you, why do I have to get dressed?” she pouts.

“Because Chase is taking you to the skating rink and you can’t go in your mermaid pajamas.”

“Why can’t I?” She protests as I pull her shirt off over her head.

I pull a shirt from a drawer. “Look, you can wear your mermaid shirt.” She walks over and takes it from me, which I assume means she is appeased.

“Okay.” She willingly raises her arms in the air.

* * *

I’ve made sure everything Nana could possibly need is within her reach, but I know she’s going to get out of bed as soon as we are all gone. She is one stubborn woman.

“I’ll get it,” Tennyson yells when she hears a knock on the door.

“Am I going to get to meet this man you are going on a date with?” Nana asks.

On cue, Tennyson drags Sam into Nana’s bedroom by the hand. “Yes, I guess you are.”

Tennyson beats me to the introductions. “This is Sam, he’s the man with the goat I was telling you about. He let me feed the ducks.” She places Sam’s hand in Nana’s.

“It’s very nice to meet you….” He trails off, unsure how to address her.

“Call me Nana, everyone else does.” She puts on a big smile for him. “He’s cute,” she says out loud and Tennyson giggles.

“I told you he was hubba hubba, Nana,” she says, still giggling.

“So, where are you taking my girl?” Chase walks into the room.

“Sailing,” Sam says.

“That sounds like fun, I haven’t been sailing in years,” Nana says. I think she’s flirting with him.

“How about I take you next time?” Surely, Sam is appeasing her.

“I want to go!” Tennyson stomps her feet.

“You can’t go until you learn how to swim,” I tell her as I kiss the top of her head.

Sam squats down in front of her. “I could teach you to swim. There is a nice clean lake at my house.”

“Really?” she asks and hugs his neck.

“Not today, though. Sam meant another time.” I know how her little mind works. “You are going skating, remember?”

Chase reaches down and picks her up as Sam stands. “Yes, you and I have a hot date.”

“Okay. I’ll see you later, Sam.” She waves her little hand at him as she and Chase head out the door.

“Alright, Nana. I’m leaving Sunny here with you. He will rat you out if you get out of this bed.”

“I’ll be good, I promise.” I can visualize her winking at Sam.

Sam takes my hand and leads me to his truck. “She winked at you when she said that didn’t she?”

“Actually, she winked and crossed her fingers,” he laughs.

“Damn stubborn woman,” I say.

“Watch your mouth,” he says as he closes the door behind me.

As soon as I hear the driver’s side door open, I ask, “What is it you have against me swearing?”

“I don’t know, I just don’t like it.”

“Okay, I will try to watch my language around you.” He’s quiet for a minute and I hear him take a deep breath in. “Sam, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he answers but his voice is masked with a shadow of pain. The roar of his truck engine drowns out his silence.

“Are we really going sailing?” I ask him.

“You said you like to be outside, I thought it might be fun.” His voice sounds normal now.

“I haven’t been since… my dad took me in high school.” It’s my turn for my voice to change.

His hand finds mine. “Sounds like you had a great dad.”

“I did. Both my parents were amazing. They got married really young and had me. They fell in love during high school. Mom was twenty years old when she had me. They struggled for a long time to get their education so they could make a living. Nana, my mom’s mom, took care of me a lot when I was growing up. I never thought all these years later that she would have to help take care of my little sister.”

“Given the circumstances, I’m sure she wouldn’t have it any other way,” he says.

“You’re right, she wouldn’t.”

We pull up to the lake a few minutes later. Sam helps me into the sailboat. “Please tell me you have done this before?” I say, a little unsure.

“Never, but I read up on it last night.”

“Are you serious?” My heart skips a beat as I stand up.

His hands are on my shoulders. “I promise, we will be okay.”

Sam walks me the length of the boat, explaining all the various useful nautical terms. For someone that has never sailed before, he does a great job of putting me at ease. He says it’s only a 28-foot sailboat. I run my hands over the smooth finish on the handrails and can picture them glinting in the sun. He takes my hand and places it on the helm of the boat, but the only thing I feel is his touch. It makes my skin feel flush.

“Sit here while I get things ready.” He leads me to the sitting area behind the helm. I can hear him untying ropes and I feel the boat gently lurch forward as soon as its tether to the dock is removed. The sun beats down heavily on my face. I place my wide-brim hat snugly on my head and dig through my bag for the sunscreen, which I apply generously to my legs where they are exposed below my short skirt. My arms are hidden from the sun under the sheer long-sleeve blouse that covers my tank top. Most importantly, I kick off my sandals and lather every inch of them with sunscreen. I learned to protect my feet the hard way last time I spent a day in the sun. I fell asleep on the beach without sunscreen on them and spent the next week limping around until the redness finally faded.

“Would you like some help with that?” I can almost hear a smile on his face.

“No, I can handle it.” Part of me wishes I needed lotion on my back, so that I could feel his hands again. I’ve never been with a man before. I was so focused on my education that I never made time for dating. Then I came back here blind, assuming no man would want a blind girl, so I focused hard on taking care of Tennyson and opening my shop. Sam makes me feel differently than anyone I’ve ever met. He seems comfortable in his own skin, unlike me.

“You’re awful quiet over there. What are you thinking about?” he asks.

I stand up and hold my hand out, the motion of the boat making me a little unsure of myself. He takes my hand in his. “I was thinking that I’d like to be back at the helm.”

He places my hand on the wheel and stands behind me, close enough to raise goosebumps over my whole body. His hands cover mine and he tells me which way I need to steer.

“I need to let the sails out. You got this,” he says. “Just keep us straight.”

He lets go and I bite my tongue against the fear that rises in my chest. The sail flutters and flaps loudly in the wind as it is let down, and he is soon behind me again.

“You did great,” he says.

“Thanks for this. It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed being outside, and never in a sailboat this size.”

Over the next hour, I listen as Sam describes the scenery on the shoreline. I love listening to him talk. His voice is deep and sexy. It kind of reminds me of one of my favorite country artists, Josh Turner. I wonder if he can sing like him? I secretly hope to myself.

“Do you sing, Sam?”

“Um, no,” he laughs. “What brought that up?”

“Oh, nothing.” I don’t want to tell him that I’m envisioning him as another man.

“I’m going to throw out the anchor here so we can eat some lunch,” he says.

“Did you hit up the picnic store again?” I laugh.

“I did, and I can promise you that it is way better food than I could make.”

* * *

We sit cross-legged on the wooden floor of the boat, enjoying our lunch and conversation together and sipping on a delicious bottle of wine. Our conversation touches on many subjects, but both of us steer carefully away from sharing anything too personal. I love hearing him tell me stories of August and Nashville, they sound like great people whom I would love to meet someday. He clearly misses them dearly and is very close to August, but he never says why he left.

“How long has it been since you’ve seen them?” I ask.

“Almost 3 years.” His voice is laced with sadness.

“I think you should go visit them.”

“I can’t. Not yet, anyway,” he says softly.

“Why not?” I want him to let me in.

“I did something stupid that almost cost them both of their lives.” He gets up off the floor.

“I’m sure whatever it was, they’ve forgiven you. They sound like really loving and caring people.” I follow suit, standing next to him.

“I haven’t forgiven myself, yet.”

“Then you need to find a way to let it go.” I reach out and touch his arm.

He moves closer to me. “Like you’ve learned to let things go?” His words are soft, but I know he is trying to get me to open up with him too.

“My situation is different from yours.” I sit back down.

“Different or not, there are still things that neither one of us want to let go of.” He joins me back on the floor.

“Let’s try something. Tell me something personal about you, something that you don’t like to talk about, and then I’ll tell you something about me. Deal?”

I hear the soft clink of his wine glass being lifted from the wood planks and he takes a sip. “My dad left when I was an infant. My mom and I had been in a car accident. I was injured and he couldn’t handle it, so he left the two of us and we’ve never seen or spoken to him again.”

I reach out and hold his hand. “I’m so sorry, Sam.”

“It was a long time ago, but I still hate him for leaving us.”

“Are you okay? I mean, you must have been pretty badly injured for him not to be able to handle it.”

“It took a long time, but yes, I’m fine.”

I don’t want to push him for details. I really thought he was going to tell me what happened with August, but I’m glad he told me about his father. It’s a start. “The night my parents were murdered it was storming really bad. Lightning was on top of us. That’s why I’m terrified of storms. It’s also the night I lost my sight.”

I feel his hand on my face, wiping away a tear I didn’t realize had fallen. “I’m so sorry about your parents. That must have been awful seeing them killed.”

“They came to New York for my graduation. They left Tennyson at home with Nana so they could enjoy The Big Apple, while they were there. They had never been to New York before. We had toured the city that day and my parents were so excited about all the things they had experienced. We had gone out to dinner and tried to catch a cab, but the city was so busy with all of the students graduating and other things going on that we couldn’t get one, so we decided to walk home. It wasn’t that far and the city was lit up. On the way home, it started to pour down rain and I knew a short-cut, so we took it. I had been that way many times.” I pause and collect myself. “Just as we made it over the foot bridge a man jumped out in front of us with a gun. He didn’t even give my dad a chance to hand him his wallet. He shot him and turned the gun on my mother. I tried to get to him before he shot her and he pushed me down. My head hit hard on the concrete of the bridge. I heard the gun go off over the crack of thunder. He held the gun out to shoot me and said, ‘It’s too bad I have to end your life.’ Before he could pull the trigger, I heard voices yelling at him and he ran off. He showed up later in my hospital room. I saw his face for a split second before he killed them, but his voice I will always remember. The hit to my head caused bleeding around my optic nerve and clots formed, causing blindness. He had come to my room to finish what he had started, but when he learned I couldn’t see, he told me I could live as long as I couldn’t identify him. If I ever got my sight back, he would come for me.”

Both of Sam’s hands are on my face. His lips touch my mouth and his kiss is so soft and comforting that I willingly open my lips for him. His tongue darts in. I can taste the salt of my tears on him. He pulls back and softly kisses my lips again. “Thank you for telling me,” he whispers between soft kisses.

I wrap my arms around him and we hold each other for a moment. “Is that why you won’t have the surgery?” he asks and I pull away from him.

“How did you know about that?” I ask, scowling.

“I overheard the doctor that day in the hospital mentioning surgery to you.”

“That’s part of the reason, yes.”

“What’s the other part?” he asks, placing his hand against my cheek again.

“The surgery is really expensive and I don’t have insurance, being self-employed. I’ve applied for a grant, but I’ve been turned down twice. Chase says he’s going to fill out the paperwork every three months until they accept me.”

“So if they accept you, you would go through with it?” he asks.

“No, because I can’t risk the man that killed my parents finding out about Tennyson.”

“Have you heard from him since that day? Does he even know where you are?”

“Somehow, he tracked me down. He sent a letter to my house, which Chase opened. It simply said that he was still watching me. Chase called the police, but they were unable to find anything. There were no fingerprints on the letter.”

“Damn, no wonder Chase is so protective of you.”

“He moved in with us shortly after that.”

“I get what you are saying, and I understand why you’re scared, but you can’t let him stop you from seeing again. I know you love your family and you want to protect them, but what a huge cost to you. You sacrificing your sight is too much. I’m sure if Tennyson was older and knew what you gave up to keep her safe, she would be angry at you. There has to be a way to catch this guy.”

“Unless I can a point out a face with the voice, my attorney said he wouldn’t be prosecuted.”

“Then you need to have the surgery to restore your vision so you can identify him and throw his sorry ass in jail.”

“There is still the issue of money.”

“You’ll get the grant, and then you will get the surgery.” He kisses my forehead. “You are an incredibly sweet, smart woman and you’ve adapted so well with your blindness. I don’t know how you do it, but you don’t have to anymore.”

He pulls me off the floor with him. “We need to start heading back before the evening storm clouds gather.”

* * *

The rest of the day was perfect. I think I’m falling for this sweet man. We made a date for tomorrow afternoon. He wants to show me his place and I have an idea that might get him to tell me his story about his friends. I spend the rest of the evening sitting next to Nana, Chase, and Tennyson on the couch watching movies. Well, they watched, I just listened. My thoughts drifted to Sam before I fell asleep.