My Brother's Forbidden Touch::Ch-17

Heather wrapped herself around my sister and hugged her like there was no tomorrow.

"Oh!" Raven gasped, then returned the hug with as much enthusiasm as Heather was hugging her.

"Forget Robin, you're my hero. A blind author is the bravest thing I've ever heard of!'

They hugged for a long time, while I just tried to wrap my head around the fact that Raven, my sister, is an author. She hadn't just written a book, but enough books that Heather wanted her to sign all of them, and a famous enough author to be recognized by a fan in a restaurant more than a hundred miles from home.

"Heather?" Raven asked as they disentangled and composed themselves.

"Did you have anything to do with this restaurant having a Braille menu?"

"Yeah," she giggled. "I guess they got tired of me asking for one, so they finally made one."

"So that's why it says 'Heather's Menu' at the top?"

"Yeah."

"That's a pretty brave thing to do, Heather."

"That's not brave. I just wanted to be able to decide what I want to eat without anybody helping me or just looking at the pictures like a baby."

"It's also admitting you're not like everybody else, and that's very brave."

"That's not brave, not like you."

"Everything I know about you is brave, Heather. That's why you don't think getting a restaurant to make a Braille menu just for you is brave."

"I just do what I have to do, even when it's scary."

"That's what brave is. You do it even when you're scared."

Heather's face blushed again, and she giggled.

She looked over at me, then waved.

"Hi," she squeaked at me.

"Oh, this is Dan, sorry. He's my brother."

"Your brother?"

"Yeah, he's my brother."

"I thought he was your boyfriend."

"He's too cute to be my boyfriend, Heather."

I thought Heather was going to choke from laughing so hard.

"You said you guys just moved in together, so, ya know, I do know what that means, and you're having champagne to celebrate."

"Oh, you heard that," Raven laughed.

"I know I wouldn't want to 'live with' my big brother."

I knew Raven didn't know about the air quotes Heather used around live with.

"He's my little brother so somebody has to take care of him."

"He's way cuter than my brother, but I might live with my brother if he was gonna take care of me, but I don't think he'd do that. He's not very nice to me."

"How old is, um, what's his name?"

"Bruce. He's twenty. He's seven years older than me almost."

"Give it a few years, Heather. He'll grow up by then. You'll see."

"I kinda doubt it, but I'll give him a chance I guess. As long as I don't have to 'live with' him."

"Now, where's the book you want me to sign?"

"On the table."

Raven moved both her hands from her lap and quickly found the book.

"This is the first one?" Raven asked as her fingers scanned the cover.

"Yeah. I have them all, but between new ones, I read the old ones again."

Raven picked up the pen Heather had put down with the book and opened the front cover.

"I don't really write with a pen and paper anymore, Heather," she explained. She carefully wrote a capital R followed by a straight line.

"So I'm just signing my name."

She wrote a capital T followed by another straight line, then flipped the book over and opened the last page.

"Don't share this with anybody," Raven instructed her while writing something.

"You can use it whenever you want, and I hope you do."

"Your phone number? You want me to text you?" Heather asked hopefully.

"Text or call. Either works."

"You have to have millions of fans. Why do you want to be friends with me?"

Heather looked confused.

"You're the only person who's ever asked me to sign my book for them, and who wouldn't want to be friends with a brave girl who's going to change the world one day? You've already changed your little part of it. I get to use your menu to order tonight."

####

I didn't remember what I had planned, or even why or if I actually had a plan for keeping my career away from Dan.

The fact that he knew now filled my head and overwhelmed thoughts of whatever that plan might have been.

I figured I had two choices. I could pretend he didn't know and ignore the whole thing, hoping it would just go away, or I could give him the excuse I was a teenager when Mom and Dad signed my first two book deals because I was a minor and I never thought to mention it to him.

The first choice absolutely wouldn't work, and the second one was so lame that even Dan wouldn't buy it, even with it being half true, just not the half that I never thought to mention it. I did think about telling him, almost every day, but it had gone on too long for it to be excusable. I had even avoided telling him when he gave me the perfect opening today.

"Well, that cat's out of the bag, isn't it?" I muttered as I searched for my champagne flute that I knew was somewhere nearby.

I found my drink without a response from my brother. Obviously my hope for levity in the situation was fruitless.

"To our new future?" I asked with my glass raised, then held my breath.

"To our new future, in which my sister is going to spill the beans about everything she's been hiding from me."

He didn't sound happy. He didn't sound unhappy, but I was hoping for happy.

Our glasses clinked together, and I released my breath as I brought mine to my lips.

"Danny? Are you mad?"

He chuckled, and sounded sincere.

"I guess that thing about being invisible and boring was total bullshit, Rae."