“Come on, Georgiana, let’s go inside and get ready to head to town,” but she didn’t. Didn’t she know that he’d figure out the truth if Georgiana merely stood here? “I should go inside too,” she said. “It really was good talking to you, Landon.”
She felt a movement to her left and instantly realized her mistake. When she’d been listening to her mother leave and wondering how to also head to the house, Landon and Sam had shifted to the left. But Georgiana had continued looking to the spot where they’d been, and she’d spoken to dead air.
The silence was worse than if he said anything, and Georgiana didn’t think she could stand hearing pity in Landon Cutter’s voice, so she turned toward the house and walked away.
Chapter Two
John was waiting on Landon when he returned to the house and barely let him change clothes before ushering him to the truck. “I was hoping we could talk some about the farm when I got in from work, but I couldn’t find you. We’ll have to talk later, though, because we’re meeting Casey at the square. You left your cell phone here so I couldn’t reach you.”
“My habit of carrying a cell phone kind of flew out the window over the last eight years,” Landon said distractedly as he climbed in the cab and rubbed his forehead. What had happened to Georgiana in the time he’d been gone?
John rounded the front of the truck and got behind the wheel. “What’s going on with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something. Where’d you go with Sam, anyway?”
“To the Sanders farm. And she was there, John.”
“Who? You mean Georgiana? She’s home?”
“Yes, Georgie’s home.”
“I thought she was in Tampa with Pete. I didn’t think they came home for visits at all.” He cranked down the window on the old truck. “Anytime I asked Eden how Georgiana was doing and why we never saw her anymore, she said that Pete’s job didn’t leave a lot of time for traveling. I know Eden has gone down there occasionally over the years. She’d ask me to keep an eye on her farm while she was gone. But I don’t think I’ve seen Georgiana back in Claremont since she and Pete got married. Odd that she’s back on the same day you get back, huh?”
“Yeah, odd.” Lots of things were odd about seeing Georgie today. Most of all what he’d determined right before he left her farm.
“Was Pete there too?”
“No, but he called their daughter while I was there. I guess he could’ve been calling from somewhere around here, but I got the impression he’s still in Tampa. Their little girl’s name is Abi, and she’s the spitting image of Georgie when she was little.”
“I’m sure I’ll see her if they’re staying in town a while.” John paused, then asked, “So, how’d Georgiana look? Still the same? And how did you handle seeing her again?”
Too many questions, and each one could warrant an extensive answer. But only one thing mattered to Landon, and there was only one thing he wanted to tell his brother. He kept seeing Georgiana speaking to him, talking to him, but he’d known the entire time that something was off. Her eyes. They were still that stunning hazel he remembered, but the light that shone through them was gone. “She’s blind, John. Georgiana’s blind.”
“What?” John stopped the truck at the end of the driveway and turned to face his brother. “What are you saying? You mean, like really blind? She can’t see?”
“No, she can’t see.” And Landon suspected she hadn’t been able to see in quite a while. Obviously she’d attempted to hide the truth from him, speaking to him as though everything was normal. But he’d sensed that something was off, and then at the end, when Sam had taken a couple of steps to the side and Georgie continued talking toward where they’d been, the truth hit Landon with the same force as that bullet in Afghanistan. Catching him unaware. Unprepared.
John shook his head and started the truck down the road leading to town. “How? Did she say what happened? When it happened? Do you think it’s temporary? Is that why she’s home, to let her mom help take care of her until she’s better?”
Landon hadn’t considered that. “I don’t know.”
“Well, I see Eden often, at church and around town. She’s never mentioned anything about Georgiana losing her sight. Seems like she’d have said something.”
“Unless Georgie asked her not to.”
“Why would she do that?” John asked.
“Maybe she didn’t want me to know,” Landon pondered aloud. Georgie would have known that he would’ve wanted to help her if she was hurting. He would have done whatever he could to get home and be with his friend if she were in trouble. But she’d also have known that he was serving his country and wouldn’t have wanted him to do anything differently because of her. And then there was the whole Pete factor. No way would Pete want some other guy coming home to check on his wife. “I can see her keeping that from me, especially while she knew I was still serving.”
John grabbed his old baseball cap off the seat and put it on. “I can see that, I guess.”
“Still can’t believe it,” Landon said. “She looks exactly the same. There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong, except she can’t see.” His heart ached for Georgie. How long had she been this way? “She definitely didn’t want me to know. I’m fairly certain she was trying to disguise the fact.”
“How do you disguise it? Couldn’t you tell looking at her? Or was she wearing sunglasses?”
“No sunglasses. And her eyes looked normal, but you know, like she wasn’t really paying attention. Kind of like someone daydreaming.”
“She didn’t have a cane?”
Landon shook his head. “No, she didn’t have anything like that.”
John’s mouth quirked to the side, brows dipped, and then he nodded. “Maybe she doesn’t need one. I mean, think about it. When the power goes out at the farm at night, we can’t see our hand in front of our face, but we still find our way around. Spatial memory, I think it’s called. Or something like that.”
“Yeah,” Landon said. “That’s probably it.” But his thoughts weren’t really focused on how Georgiana got around. He was more concerned with why she’d lost her sight to begin with. And he also wondered where Pete was while his blind wife and their daughter were at the farm.
John pulled into a parking spot behind one of the shops on the square. “Think you can stop thinking about it long enough to have dinner with our little brother?”
Landon nodded. “I’ll try. Why are we meeting Casey at the square instead of having dinner at the farm?”
“Because he leaves for the University of Alabama next week, and he’s trying to spend as much time as possible with Nadia Berry before he goes.” John grinned. “He’ll be home late tonight, so I thought it’d be nice for all of us to eat together. Nadia works at Carter Photography and is joining us for dinner.” He paused. “I haven’t told Casey about the troubles with the farm.”
“Good. I don’t want anything keeping
