Page 31 of Leather and Longing (Island Tales #3)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Something had awoken Paul way before his alarm. He rubbed his eyes as he lay there, the sunlight already creeping through his curtains, Paul trying to shove off the last vestiges of sleep.

There was something I had to do….

Adam’s writing. His independence.

That was it.

He got out of bed and went to use the bathroom, his mind still focused on his task. He pulled on a pair of shorts and headed down to the kitchen to make some coffee. He needed the caffeine to give his brain its wake-up call.

Once he had his mug, Paul entered the office, sat at the desk and took out a notepad and pen from the drawer.

He scribbled down his thoughts, pausing now and again to sit back and drink more coffee, before coming back to his task.

After fifteen minutes he’d amassed a comprehensive list. More coffee was needed before he went any further, and he padded barefoot into the kitchen with his empty mug.

It was only as he poured out the coffee that he thought of something else to add to the list.

Settling into the comfortable office chair, Paul switched on the PC and monitor.

That was as far as he got. He didn’t have the password. Damn it. There was nothing he could do until Adam got up. Adam’s laptop was still in the box he’d brought down from the attic, but he wasn’t about to touch that.

His plans would have to wait.

Paul went back upstairs and grabbed a T-shirt. He paused at Adam’s door, listening for any sign that his boss was awake.

“You can come in, you know.” The note of wry humour didn’t escape him.

Paul smiled to himself and entered. Adam was lying in bed, looking alert. Paul came around to his side of the bed. “Good morning. Would you like me to bring you some coffee?”

Adam smiled and propped himself up on his elbows. “That would be good. I was actually lying here, thinking about doing it myself. I’m sure I’m perfectly capable of making a cup of coffee, instead of leaving you to do everything.”

Paul chuckled. “The coffee’s already made. I can pour you a cup.”

Adam cocked his head. “What got you out of bed so early this morning? It isn’t even seven yet.”

Shit .

“Did I wake you?”

Adam shook his head. “It wasn’t a great night for me.”

Now that he mentioned it, Paul could tell. The dark smudges under Adam’s eyes said it all.

“I’ll go fetch the coffee.” Paul left him and descended the staircase, his mind still on his list. He wanted to spend the morning conducting some online research, and if it went well, Adam’s immediate future would undergo some changes.

But there was a way he could make the start of the day a good deal more pleasant.

Paul retrieved bread from the freezer and popped the slices into the toaster.

He poured out a mug of coffee for Adam, and while the bread was toasting, he filled a bowl with muesli, slicing up strawberries and adding them to it.

When he was finished, he carried a tray up to Adam’s room, backing up to the door with care.

Adam sniffed the air and arched his eyebrows. “Breakfast in bed?” His lips twitched. “Okay, what have you broken? Or what is it you want?

Paul guffawed. “I see. I try to do something nice, and this is the thanks I get? I can always take it away, y’know.” He made as if to turn.

“No!”

Paul snickered. “Next time, think before you try to be funny at my expense.”

Adam sat up in bed and positioned a pillow in his lap. Paul placed the tray there and tried not to laugh when Adam attacked the toast with gusto.

“I’ll leave you to it. I’ll collect the tray later.”

Adam nodded, his mouth full. Paul collected Adam’s laundry from the hamper, and Adam swallowed. “What are you doing?”

“What you pay me for? Laundry, in this instance.”

Adam sighed. “Can it wait? At least until I get downstairs? I need to figure out how to use the damn washing machine.”

“Who washed your clothes before I came on the scene?”

Adam flushed. “Caroline. Just the once, mind you. Don’t forget, I haven’t been here all that long.

” He straightened. “I’ve been thinking about how much you do around the house.

If you’re going to be my PA, then it stands to reason you’ll have enough to occupy you without adding household chores to it.

And I think it’s about time I did more around the place. ”

Paul smiled. I am so proud of you right now.

“I’ve been thinking too, about the PA part. We’ll talk more later.” He chuckled. “And we’ll save laundry lessons for another day. I have something much more important to discuss.”

Adam stared at him. “That’s it? That’s all I get? I may well die from the suspense.”

Paul chuckled. “I think you’ll survive.” Then he left the room.

By the time Adam surfaced, Paul had the washing machine going, the kitchen shining, and the library dusted.

Adam paused in the kitchen doorway. “My, you’ve been industrious this morning.”

Paul stopped and stared. “How do you know?” It took him a moment to realize what was different.

Adam wasn’t wearing his glasses.

He chuckled. “I can smell lavender furniture polish in the library, the washing machine just entered its spin cycle and in here it smells of disinfectant.” He folded his arms across his chest and grinned. “How did I do?”

“You get a pat on the head for being observant.” Paul was definitely feeling bolder. “And I need to talk to you.”

Adam grimaced. “Not on one mug of coffee, you don’t.”

Paul laughed and went to pour out another. By the time he turned around, Adam was seated at the table. He joined him and sat opposite.

“What was the important thing we need to discuss?”

Paul leaned back. “It’s something you’ve mentioned a couple of times, but I wanted to know more. You said you went to Torquay. Why there?”

Adam took a long drink from his mug before answering.

“When I left the hospital, the therapists there arranged for me to stay at a rehab centre for the blind in order to acclimatize myself to my future. I stayed at the manor house for a month, and spent the time working one-to-one with a tutor. The aim was to give vision-impaired people the skills and confidence they needed to cope independently at home. They got us to master finding our way around a kitchen…”

Paul thought quickly. “I don’t understand. If that was the case, then why?—”

“Why am I so hopeless?” Adam interjected.

“Because back then I didn’t want to know.

” He sighed. “A lot of it has to do with my mind-set at the time. It was too soon after losing my sight completely. I’d retreated into a very dark place inside myself and the last thing I felt like doing was trying to learn a whole new set of skills.

” He shook his head. “I was a terrible student. I didn’t want to listen. ”

“You didn’t get a lot out of the experience, then.”

Adam’s face fell. “No. The most useful part of it all was finding this.” He tapped his watch with a finger. “At least I could see how quickly time was passing.” He snorted.

“Did they teach you braille?”

Adam shook his head. “Even if I’d had enough focus to pay a little attention, that wouldn’t have been enough to do something as complex as learning braille in only one month.

Not that any support worker would ever consider teaching someone braille during that crucial time.

Their time was limited, teaching newly blind people how to safely navigate around their home without hurting themselves, using their phone to call for help, using the bathroom, doing basic food prep…

That’s assuming the support workers could even read braille properly in the first place. ”

“I had no idea it took so long to learn,” Paul admitted. “So what happened after you left the rehab place?”

Adam snorted. “My friends decided to give me a wider berth, as if they didn’t want to be associated with disability.”

“Did you want them to see you?” Paul asked, lowering his voice.

Adam hesitated before responding. “That’s actually a fair point. I wasn’t the same person after I’d lost my sight.”

“In what way?” Paul wanted to know more.

“I suppose my personality underwent a change, for one thing. I became a loner who had acquaintances rather than friends. My attitude to London changed completely. I was living in one of the most vibrant, bustling cities in the world, and I’d never felt so alone.

” Adam drank his coffee, his brow furrowed.

In that moment, all Paul wanted to do was hug Adam, and the desire took him by surprise. He wanted to stroke his back, to speak with words that soothed the ache inside him. But he wasn’t sure of Adam’s reaction if he did.

“So you decided to come here.”

Adam nodded. “After a few weeks of locking myself away from the world in my flat, I was going crazy. I was in a cage, only able to go so far on my own, and that was my front door. There was one well-meaning but annoying neighbour who insisted on bringing me a cooked meal every night.” His brow cleared.

“Now I think about it, I treated her abominably, and she really didn’t deserve it.

Why she kept coming back after the way I spoke to her is beyond me. ”

“Maybe she’d had experience of dealing with someone who’d lost their sight,” Paul suggested.

Adam stared at him. “You may be right. I’m sure she mentioned her father or uncle or some such relative at some point.” He shrugged. “I wasn’t paying attention at the time.”

“It might be a good idea to send her some flowers, as a thank you.”

Adam’s face relaxed into a smile. “That’s a lovely thought. Would you mind organising it?”

“Yeah, I can do that.”

He finished his coffee. “But I digress. I decided to return to the island and shut out the world. My grandfather had left me this house, and it seemed the perfect solution. There was only one snag: Caroline and Dean were living here.”

“Oh?”

“Caroline’s husband, Terry, left her about fifteen years ago.

From what I can recall about my brother-in-law, this was no great loss.

The man never amounted to much. He didn’t work and did little to help around the house.

It was Caroline’s tea shop business that bought their home. ” He sighed. “She hates that house.”

“What’s wrong with it?” Paul wondered if that was why Caroline was so keen on visiting Adam. It made sense if she didn’t like her own home.

Adam chuckled. “Where do I start?” He counted off on his fingers. “She doesn’t like the area—they live in Ryde, by the way—but then she never did. It was all she could afford at the time. It’s too tiny for her liking. Her tea shop is in Ventnor, so she has to cross the island every day.”

Paul had to smile. There it was, that Island mentality he knew so well. He’d laugh when he heard his friends complaining about having to travel ‘all the way to Newport’, a journey that had to be all of fifteen to twenty minutes at most. “How long had she lived here?”

“Ever since the divorce. She’d asked me if I minded, and of course I hadn’t: I was living in London most of the time, when I wasn’t off sailing across the Atlantic with a crew. So she rented out her house, which then became another source of income, and she and Dean moved in here.”

“And then you wanted to move back.” Paul could see anyone being pissed off about that. To go from living by the sea in a beautiful house, to life in a tiny house in crowded Ryde….

Adam nodded. “Mind you, ever since I moved here, she keeps talking about finding me assisted accommodation, in a flat with a warden living close by. Plus, she wants me to meet other people who are vision impaired. I still remember a visit from a member of the IOW Society for the Blind. She talked about their meetings every Thursday, where they play dominoes and drink tea.” He shuddered.

“Can you see me playing dominoes? I mean, really?”

Paul couldn’t help his reaction. He burst out laughing. “God, no.”

It took Adam all of two seconds to join in with the laughter. “I know!” He sagged into his chair, smiling. “I was polite, though. I thanked her but declined.” He tilted his chin toward Paul. “Was there a purpose to your questions? Or was it just a ‘getting to know your employer better’ session?”

“I did have a purpose, yeah.” Paul’s heartbeat sped up. “I wanted to know more about your experiences since you lost your sight. I have a few ideas that might make things easier around here for you, but I’ll need to research them first.”

Adam sat up instantly, his back straight. “What do you need from me?” His voice was crisp, alert.

“Well, for one thing, I’ll need the password to use the PC in the office.”

Adam nodded. “All that information is written down somewhere. What else?”

“May I also have access to your laptop?”

Adam arched his eyebrows but nodded once more. “I’ll give you the password for that too.” He cocked his head to one side. “Anything else?”

“Yes. What type of mobile phone do you have?”

“An iPhone, not that I’ve used it much during the last month or so.”

There was an ache in Paul’s chest at the implications of Adam’s remark. “Can I have it? I’ll need that, too.”

“Sure.” A brief pause. “Will you need funds if your research pays off?”

Paul let out a grateful sigh. “Yes. I was going to ask.”

“That’s not a problem. I’ll give you my credit card.”

Paul grinned. “Ooh. I like the sound of that,” he joked.

Adam snickered. “Before you decide to go on a spending spree, please remember my sister is in charge of my accounts. She gets to see all the statements. So unless you want to explain to her why I appear to have purchased the entire contents of an online sex shop, think again.” That grin was all kinds of sexy.

“Aw, damn it.” Paul feigned disappointment. “Seriously though, am I okay to make purchases?”

“Sure. Be aware it has a limit of ten thousand pounds, and if I’m not happy with a purchase, you’re the one who’ll be paying it off.” Adam leaned forward. “You have an idea of what you’re looking for, don’t you?”

It was Paul’s turn to grin. “I have a list.”

Adam caught his breath, his lips parted. He held himself still. Finally, he spoke. “Good luck.”

Paul hadn’t missed the air of hopefulness that clung to Adam. It was a feeling he understood all too well. There was a fluttering in Paul’s belly, too.

I hope this pays off.