Acceptance, The (17 page)

But the most amazing part of the evening had been being privy to all of the wonderful announcements that had flooded the house that night. Three siblings. Three babies.

Tyler brushed Courtney’s hair from her forehead. “What are you thinking?”

“You’re going to be an uncle.”

He chuckled. “I am. She looked happy too.”

Courtney rolled in closer to him, draping her arm over his bare chest.

“Do you think Ed was being dramatic and only telling everyone about the one baby?”

She felt him shift and knew he was looking down at her now. “One baby?”

Courtney pressed a kiss to his skin. “I assume by next week there will be more announcements. Maybe they don’t know yet.”

“Are you saying Darcy is pregnant?”

“That’s what I’m saying, but she didn’t. Not yet.”

She felt his breath escape and his chest move as he sucked in more air. “What makes you say that? How do you know that?”

Courtney ran her hand over his chest, letting her fingers linger in the small tuft of hair there. “She didn’t feel right, that came across in her voice. There was also this—I don’t know—energy to her. I can only assume she was glowing. I felt it.”

“If she comes back and says she’s having a baby I’m taking you on the road and we’re going to make money with your psychic ability.”

She rolled onto her back. “Fitz used to laugh at me, but he never doubted me. If I said something was going to happen he knew to watch out for it.”

Tyler rolled to his side and draped his arm over her. “Did you know he was going to die?”

Courtney bit down on her lip. “I didn’t want to know that so I think I fought it. But a little bit of me knew.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You have to assume that if someone you love is fighting in combat, there is that chance.”

“But did you know?”

Courtney felt the tremble start deep in her core until it worked its way to the surface and started her hands shaking.

She clenched them tight. “I knew nearly the moment it happened, from what I’ve learned. I woke up and screamed for him.”

“There’s something else. What is it?”

She turned her face toward his. “I don’t know. I mean they said he was killed in combat, but that doesn’t feel right.”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know. If he were sick, they would have said sick. If it had been an accident, they would have said that.”

“What else is there?”

“I don’t know. I have to accept I’m not always right.”

His lips grazed her forehead. “And Darcy and Ed?”

She laughed easily as she moved in closer to him and his arm pulled her to him tighter. “Oh, I think I’m right there. They are about to have two babies. A gift from another and a gift shared between them.”

“I’m looking forward to next week’s dinner,” he said easily.

So was she, she thought.

Rest should have come easily, but Courtney fought the insomnia in every way she could think of. But no number of sheep she counted was enough. No multiplication table was too hard. No amount of yoga breathing could put her soundly to sleep next to Tyler.

Her mind was filled with the what-ifs of Fitz’s death. What if a sniper got him? What if that was all there was to it? Why did she feel like there was a missing piece?

She rolled to her side. She knew why. Because she and Fitz were open to each other about everything—everything except his military career and what he couldn’t tell her.

There never should have been something they couldn’t say to each other—but she understood it. What she didn’t understand was his need to enlist and fight wars she didn’t understand. Didn’t they have their own wars to fight right here in Nashville?

There was a financial company lingering now that the heir had died. The fortune, no matter what it might be, would eventually fall to her, but the company—well, she could never run that.

And what did she care? She hated math and finances. There were some jobs a sighted person might be best at. That was one of them.

Tyler was turned away from her. She couldn’t feel his breath on her neck. If she were in her own home she’d get up and write something. Or do something. But as a stranger in his home she didn’t dare go wandering around.

So, she lay there and thought of Fitz. What would he think of Tyler? What would he have done with Fitzgerald Financial? What would he think of her writing stories of survivors for Simone’s organization?

The many questions in her head didn’t dull the buzzing that kept her awake. Not until she felt Tyler’s body roll toward her and his lips press to the back of her neck, did her muscles start to release.

Ed and Darcy were pregnant—this she was sure. Tyler loved her and there was a feeling deep in her gut that said this was forever even if she was cautious now. But no matter how much she wanted to believe that Fitz had been ambushed and killed something still nagged at her. When would she be able to let that go?

Chapter Twenty-One

Avery sat with Courtney at a table in an available conference room at Benson, Benson, and Hart. Tyler figured if he had a team working on the gala for
Diamond Gift,
they’d need some room to spread out. Nepotism had certainly played a part in his decision. When he’d asked for space, his father made sure it was available. Next to Tyler’s mother, Simone was the most important woman in his life.

They’d been friends since childhood. It was funny to Tyler that his Aunt Simone had known his father longer than anyone. When he was younger, he’d once thought they were brother and sister. They interacted with each other as he and Spencer did. Now he understood relationships—even non-romantic ones.

Avery and Courtney had their heads together discussing catering. Simone had sent Tyler sixteen different emails, which he was dealing with at the moment. The cell phone designated to them for the gala kept ringing and all the while he’d watch Courtney and notice she was smiling.

This gave her purpose and she was enjoying it far more than he was at the moment. It might not be assembling a building, but he sure was busy arranging just as many people and jobs.

The room stilled when there was a knock at the door. When Tyler looked up Michael Field stood in the doorway.

“Hello, sir.” Tyler quickly got to his feet and moved to the man who stood very large and stiff looking at him.

Courtney rose as well. He hadn’t even spoken, but she knew who was standing there. She certainly had an uncanny gift.

“Tyler,” Michael gave him a curt nod.

“It’s nice to see you. Please come in. We’re kinda spread out, but there is a chair…”

“I’ve just come for Courtney.”

Courtney moved around the table, her hands on each chair guiding her toward her father.

“I’m sorry. I forgot about meeting today.”

“Your mother said you were here. The receptionist out front showed me to the room.”

Courtney nodded and turned her head toward Tyler. “If you don’t mind, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“That’ll be fine,” Tyler said, his voice tense. “I’d be happy to pick you up.”

“Thank you. That would be nice.” She smiled at him and reached for her father’s arm. “Goodbye, Avery. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good-bye,” Avery called back as Courtney walked out of the room with her father.

Avery exchanged glances with Tyler.

“That was tense,” she said.

“Yep.”

“She didn’t even kiss you goodbye.”

As strange as it was, that part hadn’t fazed him. He’d expected her to be that way around her father when she was at the funeral. But to think that this was the normal way of life for her didn’t sit well with him. She was too much of a free spirit to be belittled by just the way the man said her name.

Avery tapped her pen against the table and bit down on her lip. “You don’t think she was abused do you?”

“Courtney?” The very suggestion was shocking to him. “No. I don’t think that.”

“It’s just I’ve seen women jump like that for men who abuse them. I’ve been around that my whole life with the work my mom has done.”

Tyler shook his head. “No. I don’t think that at all. I just think that he’s over protective of her.”

“Because she’s blind?”

He tucked his hands into his front pockets and rocked back on his heels. “Yeah.”

“My grandfather talks to my mother like that,” Avery said sitting back in her seat. “It’s as if no matter what she’s done in her life or no matter how many lives she’s changed, he wants to make sure she knows she’s beneath him.”

“That would be why she never went back to Paris?”

Avery nodded. “He doesn’t talk to me like that though. He’s very considerate where I’m concerned.”

“You’re his only granddaughter. Maybe that means something to him.”

“Maybe. And maybe Courtney’s father will begin to ease up on her when the pain of losing his son is over.”

Tyler thought about her father—and the fact that he wasn’t her birth father. He wondered, because it was normal to do so, if that had anything to do with how he treated her.

Pulling his hands from his pockets he rested them on the back of one of the boardroom chairs. “Okay, well, let’s get back to work. I want to have the catering menu finalized before we leave tonight.”

Avery pulled her hair back in her hands then let it drop down her back. “Will you at least feed me before we work all afternoon? I had a piece of toast for breakfast. I could really use something more substantial.”

Tyler laughed. “Of course. Chinese or Italian?”

“Oh, I only want a hot dog from the cart in the square.”

“Oh, good. You’re a cheap date. Why haven’t you been scooped up by a man yet?”

“Because I call the shots and too many men can’t handle that.”

Tyler grinned at his cousin as she stood from her seat and walked toward him.

Yes, it was going to take a very special man—a very secure man—to love Avery Keller.

~*~

Courtney sat in her father’s car with her hands clutching her purse on her lap. He hadn’t said a word to her for almost twenty minutes, which meant he was headed home with her.

“When they get Fitz’s headstone up I’d like to go out and plant flowers,” she said trying to ease the tension between them.

“We will make it a point to do that.”

“His birthday is next month. I think we should have dinner—a big dinner. Cook steaks and potatoes, just like he’d have wanted. Maybe I could even bake a cake.”

“Let’s see how your mother is doing by then. She’s had a hard week of it. You haven’t been around much.”

Ah! This was a buffer talk before her mother became emotional on her. Considerate, she thought.

“I spent the day with her last week clearing out Fitz’s things.” There was tension in her voice, she was sure her father picked up on that.

“She said you had Tyler over. That he’d spent the night.”

Courtney kept still, but took a moment to collect her thoughts. “He was there, yes. He was there through the night, yes. But she thinks he slept over, that’s not exactly correct.”

She heard her father’s large body shift uncomfortably in his seat and then he cleared his throat. “Do you want to elaborate?”

“Daddy,” she said knowing it would ease him back down. “I didn’t want to get rid of everything that was Fitz’s. There was no need to pack him away the day after we buried him. I asked Tyler to come over and help me find a few things. Nothing anyone would miss. But I needed his eyes.”

“You just met him.”

“I know. But you have to know there are just some people you meet that make everything okay. They are good people and Tyler Benson is one of those people.”

“So he just came over to help you?”

“Yes. I called him in the middle of the night and he came right over. Daddy, I really like him. He’s a good man.”

The car slowed and she felt him pull to the right. He was stopping the car.

“Listen, before we get home, I want to talk to you about this man. I’ve looked him up. I believe you when you say he’s not a gold digger.”

“Good, because he’s not. He gave up a job in his father’s business just to work for a non-profit. Gold diggers don’t do that.”

“I agree.” She heard him smack his lips together, which he did when he was deep in thought. “His family seems strong. His aunt is a Pierpont and has the non-profit.”

“Correct. She’s the heir to Pierpont Oil. Or was.”

“His uncle is a doctor and his other uncle a teacher. His father is the CEO of an enormous corporation. There wasn’t anything to say he didn’t come from good stock.”

“I know that, Daddy.”

“What do you know about his mother?”

Courtney swallowed hard. “She’s a very nice woman.”

“She was engaged once.”

“Oh,” she said and let her voice trail. “Well, he does have a sister he’s only known for a few years. She’d given her up at birth.”

Her father let out a low hum. “Did you know his mother killed an ex-lover?”

The muscles in her neck stiffened. She’d never lied to her father before. She wasn’t going to lie now. “No.”

“It was dropped in the press pretty quickly, from what I gathered.”

“Press? How hard did you really have to dig for that?” She knew better than that.

“I worry about you.”

“How do you know this, Daddy?”

He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “I have my connections. You know that. The point is I worry about you and the people you spend your time with. I need to be able to tell your mother who you’re
with.
”

The emphasis didn’t make her nerves calm any.

“Anyway, it was said to be in self-defense. His cousin Clara was involved and his Aunt Arianna. The theater his aunt owns was destroyed by fire and that was where this man’s body was found.”

Courtney felt a bead of sweat roll down her neck. “Who was the man?”

“Alexander Hamilton.”

“How do you know this was his mother’s lover?”

“I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt—old ex-lover. They are tied together in items going back nearly twenty-six or more years. He was some investor in L.A. and she worked in a law office that represented him.”