“I brought you something.” He took her hand and led her to the table, then reached into the box and pulled out a cat toy. “I brought this for Fifi. It’s a crinkle ball, so it makes noise. I thought it might be easy for her to track, and I got her a mouse that has bells on it, too.” He reached into the box and pulled out another cat toy.
Ally’s heart melted as he handed her the toys. “You thought of Fifi.”
He wrinkled his brow. “She’s your pet. Of course I think of her.”
Ally sank down to the couch. It wouldn’t matter what else they did tonight. This was already up there as one of the best dates ever. “This is so thoughtful, and you knew just what to get her. Thank you.”
Fifi brushed against his leg, and he reached for her, nuzzling the kitty against his chin. He kissed the white spot on her head, then looked into her unseeing eyes.
“How about it, Fifi? Are you ready to have a little fun?” He sat beside Ally and set Fifi on the floor so he could help Ally open Fifi’s gifts.
“She’s going to love these. You should see what she can do with the plastic top to a two-liter bottle of soda. It keeps her entertained for hours.” Ally smiled up at him. “I love that you knew to get her noisy toys.”
“I have to admit, I stood in the pet store for a while trying to figure out what was best, and I thought about my mom. When she first lost her sight, she said the most difficult thing was realizing that when she turned her head, she wouldn’t see the source of the noises she heard. After being sighted for so long, I could only imagine what that must have been like. It didn’t take her long to hone her other senses, but the thing that struck me those first few weeks was how much sound meant to her.”
“For Fifi, too,” Ally said. It was a strange coincidence that Heath’s mother and her cat were blind. Coincidence or fate? Now she was just getting ahead of herself.
“That’s what I thought. My mother losing her sight gave me a whole new understanding of what it’s like to be blind. I never realized that when people who are blind take public transportation or even walk down the street, the sounds of other people provide guidance and helpful clues as to their surroundings. One of my mother’s friends who is blind said that when she takes a train, she follows the sounds of the other passengers to gauge the edge of the track, how close the train is, when to board. Of course she uses other indicators, and her cane, but it really opened my eyes. That’s what led me to think of the crinkle ball and the mouse with the bells. Fifi can track the sounds as she pushes them across the floor.”
Ally shook the mouse, and Fifi lifted her head, as if she could see the toy. Heath lowered himself to the hardwood and batted the ball with Fifi for a few minutes before she took off across the floor with her new toy.
“I brought you something, too.” Heath stood and reached into the box, withdrawing two medical journals. “There’s a few months’ worth in here. They’re mostly ortho related, but there are a few other topics. I thought you might want to look through them.”
“Really? Don’t you need these?” She dug through the box with her heart beating so fast she felt like it was Christmas morning.
“I’ve read them, and I’m happy to share.”
She wrapped her arms around him, went up on tiptoes, and kissed him again. “This is so nice of you. Thank you! I never would have figured this surprise out in a million years, and it’s just about the best surprise ever. I’m tempted to sit here and read instead of going out.”
Heath hugged her close. “We can do that if you’d rather. There’s a movie in there, too. It’s one of my favorites. Patch Adams, with Robin Williams.”
“Really?” She found the movie under a few of the journals. “I haven’t seen this in years. I love this movie.” She glanced over the couch at Fifi pawing at her new toy. “Would you be terribly disappointed if we just hung out here and watched this?”
“Sweetheart.” He sank down to the couch and pulled her onto his lap. “Nothing you do could ever disappoint me. I just want to spend time with you and to see you happy.”
Ally felt her heart opening a little more. She touched his five-o’clock shadow, which was too sexy not to press her lips to. Twice.
“Where did you come from, Heath Wild?”
He narrowed his eyes and said, “The better question is, what took us so long to find each other?”
Chapter Eleven
HEATH SLID A tray of biscuits into the oven while Ally stirred a pot of spaghetti sauce. He slid his hand around her waist and kissed her cheek, then moved to the cutting board and began chopping mushrooms. After they’d decided to stay in to watch the movie, they’d walked to the market down the street and picked up a few fresh vegetables and other ingredients to make homemade spaghetti sauce for their pasta dinner. Since they were short on time, they went with what Heath called his old fallback sauce, which involved crushed tomatoes, mushrooms, olive oil, garlic, basil, and other seasonings.