My Brother's Forbidden Touch::Ch-16

"Would you like a Braille menu, ma'am?"

Raven looked surprised for a split second before her deep red, pouty little mouth turned into a grin.

"You have Braille menus?" she almost giggled.

"We do. They're pretty new," the hostess informed us as she put a plain white piece of heavy paper in Raven's hand. I could see the bumps on it.

Raven leaned toward me as the hostess left with a promise of Bernice being there soon to take our drink orders.

"This might be my favorite place in Cincinnati already. It feels so nice, and smells good, and they have Braille menus!"

"I hear their steaks are pretty good too, Raven," I grinned at her.

Raven's expression changed. She was reading the menu, and she looked puzzled.

"This place is called Hoosier Steaks , right?"

"Yep. There are a few of them in Indiana, and this is the first one in Ohio. Why?"

"Nothing really. Just wondering."

"Raven," I started. There was something I couldn't stop thinking about, and had been since we left home.

"Yeah?" Raven giggled at me.

"At home, you kissed me..."

Raven shrugged, but even in the dim restaurant lighting, I saw a flush rise on her cheeks.

"Dan, it's a little condescending to kiss your sister on the top of her head or on the forehead, even if it's a lot of work for you to bend all the way down to my face. You're finally an adult. We have our own place. You have a real job. We can kiss like grownups, can't we?"

"Sorry, Rae. I never..."

"You have before. I mean, um, I kissed you on the lips before."

"I was gonna say I never knew it was condescending, but when did you kiss me on the lips?"

"Oh." Raven murmured and turned her face away from me.

"The last time I was in your bed, and that's why I stopped sleeping with you, I mean in your bed. You didn't dream it; I kissed you."

"Hi, I'm Bernice. I'll be your server tonight. What can I get you to drink?"

Raven visibly relaxed and smiled toward Bernice, but the flush on her cheeks remained.

"Can we get champagne by the glass here?"

"Rae?"

"I want champagne to celebrate us finally moving in together, Dan."

"Congratulations!" Bernice giggled. "You two make an adorable couple."

"Thanks, Bernice," Raven chortled.

"We do have a house champagne, it's very dry though."

"Perfect. I don't like sweet champagne. Dan? Can we each have a glass?"

I didn't know my sister ever drank alcohol, and I had no idea what she was thinking. She had to know Bernice thought we had moved in together as a couple, not that we're brother and sister.

What was she talking about? She kissed me on the lips? That wasn't anywhere near what I remembered happening the last time she slept in my bed.

At that moment though, I was suddenly distracted, so I nodded and mumbled my agreement as my eyes locked with the eyes of a girl, a young girl, standing a few feet behind Raven.

"Bring us each a water, too, Bernice."

The girl's eyes instantly went to the floor and her face blushed bright red.

"Okay, I'll be right back with your drinks. Congratulations, again."

The girl was very young, literally barely a teenager, if that. She had to be thirteen or fourteen, at the most. She was very thin, with a mop of brown hair in what would have been banana curls surrounding her head, except they would be better described as pencil curls, no bigger around than a wooden pencil, and they almost reached her shoulders.

The second our server turned to leave, she looked back up and our eyes met again.

I had seen that general demeanor, stance, and distance before. She wanted an autograph, but I hadn't been asked for one of those since the summer after college when everyone still thought I was on my way to the NBA, before it became public knowledge that wasn't going to happen.

I smiled at her.

She blushed some more, then shrugged and her eyes turned to my sister and she stepped forward.

"Sorry, excuse me, hi? Are you Raven Tipton?"

I saw she had what looked exactly like one of the Braille books that Raven was always reading in her hand.

"Yes, I am," Raven replied with a question in her voice.

"Oh my God! I knew it was you!" she squealed.

"Well, yeah, it's me. Who are you?"

"I'm Heather, and I love you. You're my hero, um, I mean my hero is Robin, but I love you!"

Raven's cheeks glowed bright red immediately.

"Um, well, nice to meet you Heather."

"You saved my life, Raven. That's why I love you."

She was literally bouncing, and I was as confused as I had ever been in my entire life.

"Will you sign my book for me? Oh my God! Nobody's gonna believe I met you!"

"I don't understand how I could possibly have saved your life, Heather."

Raven sounded a little confused, and still looked embarrassed.

Heather put her book on the table and pushed it in front of Raven. There was a small picture on the front, just like most of Raven's Braille books. The picture looked like a little blonde girl wearing a homemade Superman -- Supergirl, I suppose -- costume. The title was Robin's Great Adventures.

At the bottom of the picture I could barely make out the words "A story by", then in larger letters "Raven Tipton".

"I know it doesn't seem like you could, but you did. I was ready to give up on school and ever learning anything. I wanted to just die. I have dyslexia really bad, and I could barely read. Everybody was talking about Robin and how brave and amazing she is. She seemed to be able to do anything, and she was blind. I wanted to read about her, but I couldn't. I couldn't even read kindergarten books and I was nine years old."

"Sweetheart," Raven murmured.

"I asked Mom to read it to me," Heather whimpered. She looked and sounded like she was about to cry.

"Robin is so brave, and strong, and being blind has to be worse than just having silly dyslexia. If she could..."

Heather's voice cracked and she really started crying then. Raven was crying, too. I was just getting more confused the longer their conversation went.

"Robin's my hero, so I wanted to be like her," Heather moaned. "I decided to try Braille, like Robin. It was hard, at first, but I tried real hard. Mom noticed, and got a teacher to teach me Braille cause I was trying so hard, and Mom and Dad had tried everything to help me but nothing worked."

Heather paused to sniffle and wipe her nose on her sleeve.

"When I read Braille, I don't have dyslexia. I could barely read anything a few years ago. I was even in special ed classes, but now I'm an honor student because my school has to give me Braille textbooks. That's how you saved my life."

Raven sat there, tears streaming down her face.

"Heather..." Raven moaned.

"Would you sign my book? This is the only one I have with me, or I'd ask if you would sign all of them. I have all your books. I would have brought them, hardbacks and all of them, if I knew you were here."

Raven wiped her cheeks and under her eyes hard with her fingers and sniffled a little herself.

"Of course, sweetie," she whispered hoarsely and held her hand out toward the girl.

"It's..."

Heather pointed to her book on the table in front of my sister.

"Raven, are you blind, like Robin?"

"I am."