Jamie rubbed her back and rested his chin on her head.
“I’m sorry, B.” His voice still carried the hint of a chuckle, but he was no longer laughing. “I guess we’ve never really had good timing.”
She sniffled again. “What am I going to do?”
“I’ll take care of it,” he said. “Let’s get you cleaned up and back to the truck, and I’ll fix this.”
She nodded against him, but she had to ask.
“How?”
“I’ve already got the hotel in Tulsa booked. I’ll call Holly, have her overnight your glasses to the hotel, and you’ll have them before we head out tomorrow. Until then…”
He hesitated because they both knew what until then meant.
“I’m legally blind,” Brynn said.
He took in a deep breath, then sighed. Her head rose and fell with the action.
“Do you still trust me?” he asked, and she let out a bitter laugh.
“To not also take away my hearing? That would make this trip a double bummer.”
“To make sure you don’t miss a thing,” he said. “I’ll be your eyes for the rest of the evening and until the glasses arrive in the morning. And I’ll cover whatever it costs for Holly to get them here by then.”
Brynn righted herself and held a hand over her contact-free eye.
“I’m still mad at you.”
“As you should be.”
“But it’s a nice gesture. Very gentlemanly.”
A small smile formed on his lips.
“I’m glad you think I’m a gentleman.”
She shook her head. “The gesture was that of a gentleman, but you are still the pain in the ass who blinded me.”
He laughed. “Noted. Should we salvage the remaining lens and get you to the truck?”
“Lead the way,” she said, and gestured toward the sink. Of course she misinterpreted the depth of space and smacked her knuckles against the porcelain. “Dammit!”
Jamie grabbed her hand and placed a soft kiss against the throb of pain. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and she yanked her hand away, hastily removing the contact from her eye, dropping it in its case, and shoving both that and the solution into her bag.
Then she let her arms fall to her sides, lest she knock loose any more bone fragments from her most likely bruised hand.
Jamie linked his arm with hers and turned her toward the door. At least she thought they were facing the door.
“Shall we?” he asked.
“You’re not going to mess with me and put me in someone else’s car, are you?”
“I hadn’t thought of it until you mentioned it,” he said, amusement in his tone.
“Forget I said anything, then.”
“Forget what?” he asked.
“Exactly,” Brynn said, and bit back the beginning of a smile.
Chapter Eleven
Brynn’s phone made a tweeting sound on the nightstand, but she didn’t move. Jamie watched her from his bed as she lay across hers, eyes fixed on the ceiling.
“Do you want me to answer that for you?” he asked, but she waved him off.
“That’s Holly texting even though she knows I can’t read it.” She didn’t turn to him when she spoke, just stared straight up. “I can see a crack in the paint ten feet above me,” she said, “but I can’t read a freaking text.”
She hadn’t told him to read the text, but then she hadn’t told him not to, so he made the decision for himself.
“Holly says that we’re lucky it’s a weekday because the courier doesn’t overnight on weekends. The courier takes payment on delivery only, but since I already gave her my debit card number, she’s going online shopping with it, and your glasses will be here before noon tomorrow.”
Jamie put the phone back down next to their stacked room-service plates. Brynn wasn’t much in the mood for sightseeing, especially since it was nearly dark when they arrived. Since she couldn’t really see the sights anyway, she’d insisted they just eat in the room in case she made a mess of herself, which she hadn’t.
Jamie carried the plates from the room, placing them on the floor in the hall of Oklahoma’s Campbell Hotel. His intent was to surprise Brynn on their first night away with a place well above motel standard. Instead he’d surprised her in a Kansas gas station bathroom and cost her the luxury of vision for the next eighteen hours.
When he stepped back through the door, Brynn was lying on her side facing him.
“Stop,” she said, so he halted just inside the room. Then Brynn smiled, and he realized he hadn’t seen this expression on her since they’d played Truth or Dare.
“Hi,” she said to him and offered a small wave.
Jamie slid down the door so he was sitting against it. He understood.
“You can see me,” he said, and she nodded.
“You’re a little fuzzy around the edges, but I can actually tell your nose from your chin now.”
He laughed. “I actually feel a little fuzzy around the edges. This is a good distance?”