Acceptance, The (12 page)

“You’re a lot of wonderful which I need in my life. If you’re trying to make me change my mind it won’t work. If you don’t want to be with
me
because of all that, then fine. You make that decision. None of that fazes me. I’m done running from things I can’t control, Courtney. It wasn’t my style when I did it. Now, I’d like to take you into my house, which I hope is clean enough, and make you some dinner.”

She let herself smile. “Thank you.”

“No need. I want to see how far you’re going to try to push me. Something down in my gut tells me you can’t make me run. I like you an awful lot.”

His body moved and he opened his door. She sat a moment until he opened hers. It had only been a few days, but she knew what was brewing inside of her. She was scared to death of it, but it was there. She’d let it brew longer until she faced it. But she was fairly sure she was falling in love with this man she’d once thought smelled good—he was so much more.

Chapter Fourteen

The house smelled freshly cleaned and Courtney wondered if that had been what he’d done all day.

“This is the living room. The kitchen is just through here,” he said as he led her behind the couch and to the kitchen. “The bathroom and laundry room are just down the hall. Bedrooms are upstairs and the basement is a separate apartment. I didn’t realize the house was this small until I tried to explain it.”

She smiled, feeling the grip of his hand pressed against hers. “And how many of you would live here at a time?”

“I guess at the most there were three of us. Clara and Christian lived upstairs, and I lived downstairs.” He chuckled. “It’s been a blessing that my aunt kept this house. It has come in handy.”

“I think that’s awesome. Sort of a family tradition.”

“Yeah. You’re right.” They walked further into the house and she heard him pull out a chair. “Here, have a seat. I’m going to start on dinner.”

“I can help you.”

“Oh, don’t think you won’t.” He kissed her on the cheek. “But how about a glass of wine while I get it all pulled out?”

“I’d like that.” She sat down in the chair. “So, you only have one brother?”

“Yes. Spencer. We’re almost a year and a half apart.”

“You’ve never known your life without him?”

“Right. He and our cousin Avery were born on the same day only minutes, or hours apart. I really don’t remember. But they share the same birthday.”

She laughed. “That’s unique. I know you’ve told me you have a big family, but how many cousins do you have?”

He hummed and she knew he was thinking. “Only four. My father is an only child, so there are no cousins on that side.”

“I don’t have any cousins. My mother is an only child and so is my father. I don’t know if I have cousins from my biological father.”

She felt Tyler move next to her and set the glass on the table. “Your biological father?”

It was at that moment she realized she was more than a little comfortable around him. Never had she mentioned her biological father to anyone except when she was fighting with her mother earlier.

“Yeah. My mother was only sixteen when she had me. All I know about the man whose hair color I share is that he was military, too. I suppose her age and his might have been why he disappeared forever.” She shrugged. “That’s about all I know.”

“Does that bother you?”

“No. It’s just something I can throw into an argument when I’m fighting with my mother.”

“Do you fight a lot?”

She shrugged and felt for her glass. “I have a feeling we will for a bit.” She took a sip. “Usually we have an okay relationship. We do get along. But the past year or two with me having more independence, well, I think that bothers her.”

“So she’ll get over it?”

She laughed. “I hope so. I plan to have a career, a husband, children—a life. She needs someone to take care of.”

“Maybe she needs a career.”

“She had one. When I lost my sight she gave it up.”

“And what did she do?”

Courtney sipped her wine again. “Financial planning.”

“Fitzpatrick Financial?”

“Yes. She’s the heir to the franchise. And beyond that—now I’m the heir.”

She could hear Tyler move through the kitchen. He moved past her and set something in front of her. “Bowl in front of you. Head of lettuce to the side of you. Tear it up,” he said with a laugh.

He moved back to the counter and she could hear him working on something else. Courtney situated the bowl and went to work on the head of lettuce.

“So, what about you? What kind of financial planner are you?”

“My checkbook is in balance,” she nearly snorted out a laugh. “I don’t care anything about financial.”

“You want to be a writer.”

She tore a piece of lettuce and let it fall into the bowl. “Right.”

Tyler began pounding something. It sounded as if he were fixing the kitchen.

“What are you doing?”

Tyler stopped. “Pounding chicken.”

“What are you making?”

“Lemon garlic chicken. Sorry. I could have warned you.”

“Never be sorry. I try not to let everything freak me out.”

“I can see that.” He went back to pounding the chicken. “So you’ll be fine on Sunday, right?”

“Sunday?”

“Dinner, remember?”

“You’re going to introduce me to your perfect family.”

“Right.”

“You think they’ll freak me out?”

He walked back and set down something on the table. “Oh, no. I think you’re going to fall in love.”

She continued to rip the lettuce and toss it into the bowl. With everything she had, she tried to keep her face calm and placid. She didn’t want to think about falling in love with his whole family. That would certainly seal the deal—after all, every moment she spent with Tyler she knew she was falling in love him.

Dinner had been delightful. Tyler had surprised himself with garlic lemon chicken. He hoped he’d impressed her too, because he wasn’t a chef.

They’d cleaned up after dinner and now sat on the front porch and listened to the kids play down the street.

“I think that is one of the happiest sounds,” she said as she took a sip of her wine. “Fitz would always play in the street with his friends. You could hear him for miles.”

“Spencer and I didn’t get to do that. Of course the road up to our house is two miles long. So I suppose we had our own street to play on.”

“I’ll bet you had many things you did on that road that other kids couldn’t do.”

Tyler gave it some thought. “We had little go karts that we could drive and I suppose we wore out a few sets of tires on that road.”

“See, Fitz couldn’t have done that.”

Tyler laughed. “It seems to me, he was the kind of kid who would have loved that.”

She nodded. “He would have. My father was so serious with him always that Fitz really appreciated the moments when he could just be a kid.”

“That would have been hard.” In fact, Tyler couldn’t even imagine. Even when telling his father that he didn’t want to work for his company, his father understood. “What about you? What did the young Courtney do?”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I have boxes of pages that I wrote in braille.” She opened her eyes and smiled. “That way my mother couldn’t read it.”

“Not all of us get to do things openly and yet secretly.”

“I suppose. I won a poetry contest once. I wrote about Fitz.”

“What did you write?”

Her smile widened. “I wrote about what a smelly boy he was.”

Tyler burst out in laughter. “I’m sure he appreciated that.”

“He did. I let him wear my medal around his neck.” She let out a sigh. “He certainly kept things normal for me.”

“And yet he blamed himself?”

She shrugged, the moment now growing dark. “It was always there. I don’t blame him. How could I? But for as much joy as he always gave me, he wasn’t so joyous.”

“What do you mean?”

Courtney sipped her wine again. “My father is very strict. My mother, well, she’s a bit needy in her own way. And Fitz had a lot of both of them. Add in a lifetime of guilt over my condition and you end up with a very depressed young man. Oh, he didn’t mope around or anything. In fact, if you met him you’d never know. But if you lived with him—well you get it.”

“It’s almost as if there is a glow to you when you speak of him.”

“I loved him.”

“You always will.”

She turned her head toward him and held her hand out for him to take. “I really like you, Tyler Benson.”

He swallowed hard. “I really like you too, Courtney Field.”

“We’re a unique twosome, aren’t we? We both have trust funds that would keep us very comfortable and yet we aren’t interested in the industry in which we could take over. We both would rather follow our hearts and it is our heart that gets us in trouble.”

“How could that get us in trouble?”

“You ran when yours got hurt.”

“And you?”

“I tend to fall in love too fast.”

“And that’s bad?”

“Can be.”

“You’re afraid to fall in love with me?”

She licked her lips before she responded. “I’m vulnerable right now. Fitz is gone and he’s been my pillar of strength for a very long time.”

Tyler rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. “I think you’ve been your own.”

“But, it isn’t right for me to want to fall in love with you. Not when I’ve only known you a few days. Not when I spent the day of my brother’s funeral kissing you.”

“You want to fall in love with me?” He was inching in closer to her.

“Tyler, this is all very confusing. How could you want to fall in love with me? My family is all screwy. I’m in mourning and any moment I’ll burst into tears. And then there is the fact that I’ll never see your face. How can you…”

Tyler moved in closer. “You really do talk too much.” He lifted his hand to her cheek and pulled her to him. His lips brushed over hers with a need to make her understand that what was brewing in her was brewing in him too. There was no way he would say he loved her, not yet, but damn, he wasn’t going to let her go. This was worth fighting for. He wanted this.

A moan escaped her throat and only made him want her more. This wasn’t what he’d expected when he’d moved back home.

He’d completely fallen in love with this woman who picked him up at the airport. It didn’t matter to him that she’d never see his face. She seemed to see deeper inside of him than anyone ever had. All he had to do was prove to her that he wouldn’t run. They were matched with their hearts, no matter the circumstances that brought them together.

First, he’d prove to her he could love her and then he’d tell her. For now, he’d continue to kiss her breathless and hope that helped her understand.

Chapter Fifteen

When Tyler walked through the front door of the Starbucks in the Riverside Building that his father owned, he had a skip in his step and a whistle on his lips.

He’d stop by and say hello to his father later, but now he was going to meet with Avery and plan the gala of the year.

“You look too happy,” his cousin said with her eyes narrowed on him.

“I am happy,” he said and kissed her square in the middle of the forehead.

Tyler sat down in the chair across from her and studied her. Her dark hair matched her mother’s—black, shiny, and long. However, her father’s blue eyes peered out from dark lashes at him. If she weren’t his cousin she’d be someone he’d have taken a second glance at. Her cheeks had a rosy glow to them and that was because she was humored. Some things never changed.

Avery pushed a cup of coffee toward him. “I got your regular.”

“You’re the best.”

Now she laughed. “Dear God, I don’t remember the last time I saw you
this
happy. If this is what three years away does, I’m leaving tonight.”

Tyler held his hands around the paper cup wrapped in a cardboard sleeve. “No, this is what coming home does. You’re already here. No need to leave.”

“I don’t think this is all just coming home.”

Tyler tried to hold in the smile, but how could he? “No, this is all about a woman.”

Avery sat back in her chair, her legs crossed at the knee, and a perfectly manicured set of toes in a sandal bounced as she glared at him.

“Darcy said you met a woman on the plane.”

“I did.”

“You went to her brother’s funeral.”

“Yep, that’s her.” Now the smile was free and he couldn’t tuck it back.

“That’s kinda sick.”

Tyler leaned in. “No. And if you’re thinking I took advantage of a situation, well I didn’t. It just happened to be the reason she was on that flight and she asked me to be at the funeral.”

“But you’ve been seeing her.”

He sat back in his chair. “I have been. I’m bringing her to dinner on Sunday too.”

“You really do like her.”

“I do.” Avery sat forward and took Tyler’s hand. “I’m happy for you. Now tell me about her.”

Tyler thought about it for a moment. What could he tell her? Would she simply take the word perfect and let that be the way it was, because in his mind that
was
the word that explained Courtney.

“I think you should just meet her.”

“You’re trouble, you know that?”

“I do. And now you have to work with me. So, tell me cuz, what do you have done so far? What needs to be done for this gala?”

Avery pursed her lips and sulked back in her seat. “I have the venue.”

“Cool.”

He waited for her to speak again. But she didn’t.

The smile he’d felt pressed on his face began to diminish.

“That’s all?”

“Don’t judge me,” she snapped. “I don’t want to do this. This isn’t my kind of work. I don’t want to plan and promote.”

“Then why did you tell her you would?”

“She’s my mother.” Avery took a sip of her iced coffee through a straw. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Tyler let out a deep and painful breath. “So we have three months to completely put the event together? Are you serious? Shouldn’t something like this be planned for a year?”