Authors: Latrivia Nelson
“Hi, I’m LouAnn. The Prichard’s sent me over,” she said waiting for them to invite her in.
Bree looked her over while Hope simply looked passed her.
“Thank you for coming,” Hope said first, “please come in.”
Bree smiled and moved, allowing the woman to come into the open foyer of the home.
“You have a lovely place here,” LouAnn said, tucking her purse under her arm. She looked up above her at the crystal chandelier.
“Thank you,” Hope answered. “It’s been passed down for generations.”
“Please come have a seat in the living room,” Bree said, grabbing Hope to guide her.
Hope liked LouAnn’s voice, although she could do without the loud perfume. It smelled like a knock-off of Sunflower by Elizabeth Arden.
“How have you ladies been managing?” LouAnn asked sitting down on the brown antique Allistair sofa. She looked around as she talked, admiring everything, perfectly placed in the house.
Hope sat across from her on the wing-backed chair directly under the painting of her great grandmother. “We’ve been doing okay considering…”
“She’s doing much better now that she’s at home,” Bree followed up by saying, taking a seat in the opposite chair.
“Well, Sean told me about the situation. He said that Hope might need some in-home assistance for a while…indefinitely.” She reached inside her purse and pulled out a small folded piece of paper. “I have about 27 years in home health as a nurse. I recently retired, but I’m looking for work now that my grandson is in private school. I need to help my daughter out. She’s a single mother.”
Hope smiled.
A saint.
Bree took the folded paper and read it out loud to ensure that Hope could hear her. When she was done, she set it on the coffee table and nodded at LouAnn, pleased with her experience.
“Well, you have all the proper training,” Hope said impressed.
“When can you start?” Bree asked.
Hope frowned.
That was a bit premature.
She didn’t know if she wanted this woman in the same house with her…at least not yet. “Would you like some tea or coffee so that we can talk? Get to know each other,” she said, turning toward Bree’s voice.
“Coffee would be fine,” LouAnn said, standing up. “Why don’t you tell me where it is and I can fix us all a nice cup.” LouAnn was a simple woman who believed a lot stronger in actions than pretty words.
“I’ll show you were it is,” Bree said standing.
As they walked off, Hope sat in the living room listening to birds chirping out in the trees near the open windows and contemplated how she could find out more about LouAnn and make a serious decision before Bree left for Dallas. Normally, she would have liked the woman, but the mere fact that Sean had sent her over made her feel uncomfortable, especially since she knew how his mother felt about her in general.
Hearing the doorbell ring again, she rose up. She wasn’t expecting anyone else, and if Sean had shown up to oversee this, she’d kick him out herself.
“I’m coming.” Bree called out.
“No, I’ve got it.” Hope said, eager to do something on her own. She loved her friend, but Bree had to give her an opportunity to see how much of her own life she could manage.
Standing up, she slowly made her way to the door without help. It felt good to make the journey unaided. While short, it was a step in the right direction.
As the doorbell rang a second time, she opened the door feeling mildly accomplished. A broad smile crossed her lips. “Yes.”
There was an instant hesitation from the visitor.
“Hello,” the deep voice answered. “Are you Hope Daniels?”
“Yes, I am,” Hope answered, glad to hear that at least it wasn’t Sean. “Can I help you?”
Michael stared at her for a moment. It was as if she looked right through him. The wind blew through her long black hair and perfumed the breeze with sweet fragrance. He stumbled over his words. “I’m your new neighbor. I took over Mr. Jernigan’s smaller house on his property. When I arrived back from shopping today, he asked me to drop your mail by your home.” Extending his arm, he offered her the mail with a shaky hand.
Hope smiled, eyes sparkling like black diamonds in the sunlight. She ran her fingers past a wild strand of her unbound hair and tucked it behind her ear. “He finally found someone to take over Kelly’s house. Good. He’s been looking for months now.” Reaching out for the mail, she moved her hand right past the envelopes and into his wide chest. It felt like warm concrete to the touch. Her fingertips lingered there for a moment.
Getting control of herself, she recoiled, embarrassed at her misstep.
That had been his first physical interaction with a human being who did not work for him since he arrived. It wasn’t normal for people to touch royalty,
unless they were incredible drunk
. The small touch felt odd, like zingers coursing through his blood stream or maybe it was just being in her presence. Whatever it was paralyzed him.
Michael looked down at her hand and then back at her with a clever smile. Two things stuck out. She was absolutely breathtaking and based upon her wedding finger, she was single. But there was something off in her gaze at him.
“Sorry, I’m newly handicapped,” she explained with an embarrassed laugh.
“How so?” he asked, stepping closer.
Why did she not react?
“Oh, I was blinded in a car accident about a month and a half ago. I haven’t gotten the whole depth perception thing down yet. I hear you fine, but I can only see shades of light. Good thing that you weren’t a woman. I would have felt you right up,” she joked, twisting her lips into a rueful smile.
You still sort of did
, Michael thought to himself.
He liked that she couldn’t see him, it prevented the obvious, which was his inability to take his eyes off her.
But Hope could smell him. Sandalwood danced in her head. He smelled like heaven. Without knowing what he looked like at all, she knew that he must be beautiful. No man could ever sound so charming and not be.
Gently, Michael reached out for her hand and placed the mail inside of it. Holding on to her soft hand and feeling her fingers just a second longer, he looked into her eyes. They were soothing, despite her blindness and kind…so kind. “I’m sorry for your recent mishap. I hope it’s not permanent.”
“Oh, it’s not permanent,” she answered quickly. “The doctor says that it will come back as soon as they heal themselves.” A sigh followed, indicating that she wasn’t really as sure as she led on to be.
“Well, I’m Michael,” he said, heartstrings jerking inside. His body shadowed over hers, hiding her face from the sunlight. “It’s very nice to meet you.”
“I’m Hope Daniels,” she said, enjoying his voice. “But you already know that.” His lyrical accent wasn’t all Southern, but she couldn’t properly place it.
Finally realizing that they were not alone, Michael looked passed her to see two women glaring at him from the background. “We have a bit of an audience,” he whispered to Hope. “Are they your caretakers or bodyguards?”
Hope laughed, more than she had done in six weeks. “The tall pretty one is the nosiest woman you’ll ever meet. But she means well. Now, I don’t know much about the other one. I’m trying to figure out if she’ll be my new nurse until I’m better.”
“Well, she looks pleasant,” Michael said, nodding toward them. “Ladies.”
Bree raised a brow at Michael, but did not speak.
LouAnn on the other hand, glared at him with a look of surprise on her face.
What was with this girl and pulling attractive white men? What did she have that her daughter seemed to lack?
“Are you ready to finish our interview?” Bree asked, trying to pull Hope away from the conversation with Michael.
Hope glanced back toward her friend’s voice. “Just a moment.”
Michael smirked.
He knew what Bree was up to.
Cock blocking was an international pastime.
“Well, I had better get back to things, but it was nice to meet you, Michael,” Hope said, wishing that she could see his face. She turned back toward him.
“It was nice to meet you as well,” he said, drinking her in one last time.
She clutched the side of the door for balance. “Don’t be a stranger. If Mr. Jernigan liked you, you must be alright.” Her nervousness finally betrayed her and showed.
Michael chuckled. “He’s a nice old man, but I think that he thinks that I’m gay.”
“Why would he think that?” Hope asked, now even more curious about the strange man.
“I live with my best friend, Geoff. He’s a bit English and a proper asshole.”
Hope chuckled. “Well, are you gay? I mean, it’s alright if you are, but I’d be incredibly disappointed.”
“No,” he said, voice fading. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her even though he tried with everything in him to do so. The warmness of her brown perfect skin, the curve of her heart-shaped lips, the sinfully thick, wing-like flaps of her eyelashes and long natural arch of her brows made her look like an angel or the most beautiful devil he’d ever seen.
“Good,” she said, flirting just a little. “Then I’ll see you around for more than just mail service,
maybe
.”
“It would be my pleasure,” Michael said, ending his stay. “Have a lovely evening, Hope.”
Hope giggled. “You too.” Closing the door behind her, she left him there to contemplate her on the porch.
Chapter 6
The nights in Hernando were like something out of Mid Summer’s Night Dream. Perched on towering oak trees, owls hooted, crickets chirped, the moon blazed with nocturnal fury and a fresh, inviting breeze crept through the slightly open window.
It was a perfect setting for a peaceful evening. In fact, Michael could hear in his head quotes from Shakespeare even as he tossed and turned in bed. He was tormented but for once, not with the agony of his life but the idea of what it truly was. This peculiar woman and her millisecond of an introduction into his existence had birthed intrigue back into his consciousness.
Despite the peace around him, Michael simply couldn’t sleep. Every time that he closed his eyes, he thought of Hope and his eyes flashed back open to remind him that he was only a house away from her. Over the course of the night, he had committed her every feature to memory and played out every possible scenario that would cause for him to see her again.
He had to see her again.
Only, he didn’t know why…yet. But he intended to find out why she had become the flame and he the moth.
Maybe it was the fact that he had gone the longest he had ever gone without sex since his decision to come to the U.S.
Maybe it was because no one knew who he was and he lacked the very attention that he had fled, along with the incessant demands of his title.
But maybe there was something else that niggled at him.
He heard his brother’s voice suddenly and remembered the conversation with Richard back at the castle. “If a woman loves you, she loves you because you’re beautiful, royalty and/or rich. Look anywhere in the world, you’ll get the same answer. You can’t change who you are, and even if you lied to her, you couldn’t change how you look.”
Funny
. She didn’t know that he was rich, royal or beautiful. And yet, she seemed to like him.
Sitting up in the small queen sized bed, he finally pushed the covers off his naked body and stood up. The moonlight from outside illuminated his room and all six-feet of his muscular frame. Another thought crossed his mind, but this time it was sexual in nature. He imagined what she might feel like in bed with him, naked and sweating under the moon, wrapped in his embrace while he kissed each and every inch of her beautiful body.
That thought sent him over the edge and forced him to fight a growing erection. The last thing that he needed was that, less he find himself in the bathroom with a bottle of lube and his phone properly placed on Pornhub.com.
Slipping on a pair of pajama bottoms, he walked down the hall in the darkness, past the cameras installed by MI6 to watch their every move, to Geoff’s bedroom and found him up looking at his tablet.
“You can’t sleep either?” Michael asked, glad that he was not alone.
“It’s morning at home. I’m watching the news from London,” Geoff answered, not bothering to look up. “Why are you up? Please don’t tell me that you’d like to go to Wal-Mart again. I can only stomach that place once a day.”
Michael scratched the back of his neck. “I’m thinking about a girl.”
Geoff paused. Putting down his tablet, he huffed. “Who is she?”
“The neighbor,” Michael answered, leaning against the door. A brow rose. “She’s funny.”
“The senior citizen?” Geoff was extremely disappointed. He was hoping to get some rest on this remarkably boring adventure, but he knew that look in Michael, when he saw it.
“No, she’s not a senior citizen. From the looks of her, we’re very near in age,” Michael answered. He shrugged reluctantly. “But she is blind.”
Geoff huffed in relief. “Thank God.”
Shock overwhelmed Michael. “What? That’s a horrible thing to say.”
A yawn escaped the large, brooding man. “If she’s blind, it means that she can’t see you, and if she can’t see you then she can’t blow your cover.” Geoff picked his tablet back up and continued watching the live stream.
And she can’t ruin our plans
, he said to himself inwardly.
“Hope.” Michael said her name with complete reverence.
“Excuse me,” Geoff said.
Michael wiggled his nose. “Her name…it’s Hope.” Her face flashed in his memory again. “She’s Black,” he said as an afterthought. “She’s a beautiful, exotic woman.”
Geoff was not surprised. Michael had always been attracted to women who hailed from exotic locales or had exotic looks. Still he corrected his friend. “African-American. They don’t like to be called black anymore in this country. You should probably get that right before you say something to offend her and ruin the moment.”
“I’ll remember that,” Michael said, walking over to the chair in the corner. He plopped down most ungracious like. “It was the way that she looked at me that keeps playing in my mind.”
Geoff’s voice was flat and matter-of-fact. “How could she look at you? She’s blind.”
And there it was. Geoff’s off-color comments. “I know that she’s blind, Geoff. Damn. I just told you that. What I am saying is…,” he paused and looked over at his friend. “I’m saying it’s the way she looked through me. It’s been a while since I have met someone who seemed so calming. She was real.”
A real live girl
, Geoff mocked inwardly. “Jernigan is quite calming once you get pass his constant and abhorrent tobacco spitting and his situational deafness. Maybe you should try to make a match, since you’re not in the market.”
There was a long silence as Michael stared out of the window.
“Do you believe in destiny?” Michael asked.
“I believe in directing your attention toward what you want,” Geoff answered, a little more responsive than before. But he quickly shut off his emotions. “But I also believe that you can see what you want to see, or in her case…”
Michael huffed and stood up. “I give up. Good night, Geoff. Do get some sleep. You are absolutely crabby without your rest.” He picked up a pillow from the bed and threw it at Geoff’s head. “Don’t quit your day job. You’re a dreadfully unfunny bloke.”
Geoff smirked. “I’ll remember that. Goodnight, sir. Do try to get some rest.”
“Good night,” Michael said, leaving Geoff alone with his news broadcast.
Michael knew that going to sleep was not really an option, but talking to Geoff had given him an idea. This was a social media age. Surely, there had to be something about her on the Internet. Closing the door behind him as he entered his room, he turned on the light and grabbed his computer. Since it was far too late to stop by her home, he’d Google her.
***
Just a few hundred feet away from where Michael sat surfing the internet for Intel on his new muse, Hope sat up in bed under a mass of colorful patchwork quilts, while Bree oiled her scalp. With the windows open listening to the same chirping crickets that serenaded Michael and the same moon bathed the night, the two women drank tea and ate chocolate chip cookies while Ed Sheeran played on the stereo.
Like school girls, they laughed and played, forgetting all the troubles that came with the day. Unable to sleep on their last night before Bree’s departure, they decided to spend some much-needed quality time just talking like they used to do before things had gotten so complicated.
For Hope however, there was another motive for the late night chat. Today, unlike the ones before it had brought intrigue back into her life. For hours after the stranger had come to her door, she had recounted their conversation. How funny he was and quick witted. He had made her laugh and for a moment, forget that she was blind. While LouAnn was trying to convince her that she was qualified to work for her, Hope had been lost in her thoughts, trying desperately to figure out the brand of cologne that Michael had worn. When she moved from his cologne, she was only left with his funny accent and the brief touch of her skin and his when he held her hand. Was it possible that he liked her too?
She curled her legs under her and finally asked the question that she’d wanted to ask since earlier in the day.
“Tell me how he looked, Bree” she said, trying to repress her smile.
Bree parted Hope’s hair. “Who?”
Hope huffed. “You know
who
. Michael.”
“Oh, him,” Bree said, smiling. She chuckled. “He was handsome.”
“Like school boy handsome or Facebook post hot?” Hope asked, biting her lip. “Don’t leave out any detail.”
Bree couldn’t lie. Although she had only seen the man briefly and from a few feet away she could see that he was Facebook hot. “Well, he had wheat blonde hair, natural though, not the bleached kind. He had crystal blue eyes, great bone structure, wide lips for kissing and thick eyebrows.” She could feel Hope shift in the bed.
“What else?” Hope pried.
“He had a long thick neck, muscles and a wide chest and wide shoulders with a lot of definition and a flat stomach. And I liked that he had incredibly long legs and big hands.”
“Damn, you noticed all that?” Hope joked.
“Well, it’s not often that you see someone that attractive in Hernando.” Bree snickered. “He had big ass feet.”
Hope laughed. “He seemed really nice.”
“Yeah, you said that earlier,” she frowned. “You aren’t thinking of…”
Hope cut her off. “I’m not interested in going on the rebound. I just like the idea that a cute guy showed up while LouAnn was here. So, she can go back and report it to Sean. I hope he chokes on it.” Hope lied.
Bree didn’t believe her. She had known her friend for too long to be deceived. “You were flirting with him.”
“I was not,” Hope said, turning toward Bree.
“You were,” Bree taunted, straightening Hope’s head to continue her hair. “You were
blind
flirting,” she said, adding insult to injury.
“Well, maybe just a little. What harm could a little flirting do?”
“Don’t get hurt again,” Bree said seriously. “I don’t think I can bare it.”
“Neither can I,” Hope said, more solemnly. “I really liked Sean. I mean, I
really
liked him. Don’t get me wrong. I knew it was possible that we’d break up. That’s a possibility in any relationship. I just never thought that we’d break up over my race or what his family thought. And I never thought he’d cheat on me. And I wasn’t physically blind then. I just didn’t see it coming.”
“Men are pigs,” Bree said with finality.
“Yep, some of them are,” Hope agreed. But inwardly, she was hoping that Michael wasn’t. Something about him was different, though after only one interaction, she didn’t know what.
“Just promise me that you’ll get your sight back before you decide to get your groove back.”
Hope laughed. “I will.” She fiddled with her fingers. “I hope my sight comes back soon. Not for Michael, but because I don’t want LouAnn to be here long. I’m used to being my own woman. I don’t like the idea of having to depend on someone. Plus, every day that I spend like this, I can’t finish my work.”
Bree finished Hope’s hair and brushed the long tendrils back. Hugging her friend from behind, she prayed over her. “God is going to give you more than your sight back, little girl. He’s going to give you peace. You have to believe that. But you have to let Him do it in his own time.”
The soothing words brought tears to Hope’s eyes. “I really don’t know what I’d do without you,” she said, hugging her back. “I love you.”
“Love you too girl,” Bree said, kissing her shoulder.