Acceptance, The (18 page)

She nodded. “And when did he die?”

“After Tyler was born.”

Courtney lifted her hand to her trembling lips. “Why are you telling me all of this?”

“So that you know who this man is. Everyone has skeletons in their closets, Courtney. His closet has murder and arson.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Avery went home by five o’clock, but Tyler sat in the quiet boardroom and stared at his phone.

NO NEED TO PICK ME UP. I’LL MEET YOU THERE TOMORROW. GOODNIGHT.

The text message had him a bit perplexed and worried. He’d hoped that after she’d spent the afternoon with her father she’d spend the night with him.

“You still working in here?”

Tyler turned at the sound of his father’s voice. “All done for today. Thanks for letting us use the space,” he said as he stood from his chair.

“All yours as long as you need it. I’ve told Simone for years she could have an office here. But she says it gives the wrong impression.”

Tyler laughed thinking of his aunt’s office. “When three people are working on a project, it’s necessary.”

Zach Benson, with his cap of nearly white hair, rested his hands on the back of the nearest chair. “So, Courtney…” He let it linger in the air. “She’s a nice girl.”

“She is.”

“Seems to be handling her brother’s death well too.”

“I think it’ll hit her soon. Right now she’s doing the brave thing and going on.”

“Are you ready for it when she does decide she needs to deal with it?”

Tyler bit down on his lip. “I am. They were very close. Something is going to trigger the emotions. You never know what it’s going to be.”

His father pulled out the chair he’d had his hands rested on and sat down. Tyler followed, realizing his father needed to talk.

“It might not be the same, but your mother would have things that set her off—about Darcy. When her birthday would pass or she’d see a little girl in just the right dress.”

“She’d get emotional about it?”

His father nodded. “She’d never let you or Spencer see that though, but it was there.”

“I suppose it was as if she’d lost Darcy the same way Courtney lost Fitz—her brother,” he added. “Unexpectedly.”

“I can’t imagine what it took for her to give Darcy away. She loved Darcy’s father. She looked forward to her birth and she never expected what came of it.”

Tyler rubbed his palms on the legs of his pants. He’d known of the man his mother once was engaged to, but he’d only learned of him when Darcy’s maternity had come to light. It had been one of the many reasons he’d had to leave and find himself.

“Did it bother you to know she loved someone like
him
?” Tyler had to know what the man felt.

His father tapped his fingers on the table. “When I fell in love with her I didn’t know any more than she’d been hurt by someone. I didn’t know it was physical.” He sat back in his chair. “She wouldn’t let me in emotionally. But I charmed her,” he said, grinning.

“When you found out about Darcy—the baby—did that change how you felt?”

His father shook his head. “No. It changed how your mother dealt with me. Not how I felt about her.”

“How did she deal with it?”

“She ran away,” he said very matter-of-factly.

Tyler dropped his shoulders and let the similarity in their actions squeeze at him. No wonder his mother had always been so easy on him. He’d caused her a world of hurt, but she’d always let him have his space. Then again, he didn’t let many people know where he was while he was
running.

“When did she come back to you?”

“She didn’t.” His father pushed his fingers through his hair and laced his hands behind his head. “I chased her down. I kept coming back and Uncle Carlos would turn me away as nicely as he could. Grandma would pat my face and tell me when she was ready, she’d come to me. I conned her into going out to the house.”

“That’s where you proposed to her. That I remember.”

Zach smiled and leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. “I couldn’t let her go. It didn’t matter what happened before me. I loved her. That’s what mattered.”

Tyler swallowed hard. “I think I feel that way about Courtney.”

“That’s quite a thing to say about someone you’ve only known a week.”

Tyler had never cared for heart to heart talks like these with his father. Zach Benson tended to rationalize things too much. Perhaps it was that analytical brain that made someone so successful at planning out massive building sites.

“I don’t have a lot of experience in this department,” Tyler admitted. “But everything is different now that I know her. I see the world differently. She taught me that.”

His father smiled. “Courtney, who can’t see, taught you to see the world differently.”

On a breath, Tyler smiled. “Yes. I can’t imagine anything could come my way now that I wouldn’t be able to handle.”

His father reached toward him and patted his hand. “I think you tumbled into love. That makes for one lucky man.”

Didn’t Tyler know that? “I think so too.”

Zach looked around the room at the table and the piles of papers. “Because I work with all sorts of creative types of people, I’m going to assume that all of this paperwork actually has purpose scattered around like this.”

Tyler let out a snort of a laugh. “Crazy enough, but yes. It’s perfectly organized.”

“You would have been miserable planning out buildings, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t hold it against you. I’m very proud of you for going to your aunt and asking to work with her. What she’s built there is no less than an amazing miracle.” Zach Benson shook his head and smiled. “I never would have thought in a million years that would be where Simone Pierpont would have ended up. See,” he said, standing. “Love will do strange things to you, like having you give up a fortune to marry a person who loves you.”

Tyler thought about Fitzsimons Financial and he wondered what Courtney was worth. Not because he was interested in financial gain, but because she didn’t seem pretentious.

Weren’t they a pair? Both were heirs to big corporations and they’d rather sit in a borrowed boardroom and plan events for a non-profit.

As his father left the room, Tyler began to pick up the papers which were scattered around. The printouts from Courtney’s interviews with women that
Diamond Gift
had touched were amazing. She’d been working on a program for the event. It was just what he’d wanted.

Courtney had a gift. She could make people tell her things, and give her permission to share them, better than anyone he’d ever known. Most of it was done over email, some by phone. He couldn’t help but wonder if some of the women saw her would things be different? Would they have said more or less knowing what Courtney dealt with every day?

Tyler sat down in one of the chairs and kicked his feet up onto the table, now that the office had cleared out.

It had only been a few hours, but he was missing Courtney.

The text message still had him perplexed. Why so cryptic? Why not call? Why stay away?

Tyler stacked the papers and set them in the box next to him. They’d talk about it tomorrow. Her family probably needed her for the night. He had to remember they were still all in mourning. They needed each other and he was a new fixture in her life—and by anyone else’s perspective not a permanent one.

His cell phone buzzed in his pocket. This time it was a text from his brother. BEER, PATIO, BBQ, YOUR HOUSE. Tyler laughed. That was just what he needed.

Tyler lit the grill and sat down in one of the chairs on the porch overlooking the back yard. The beer in his hand was cold, the air was hot, and his heart ached as he missed Courtney.

He heard the front door slam and a moment later his brother was standing in front of him, loosening his tie, and opening a beer.

“I got notice today that I have to fly out to Oregon tomorrow. Does anything sound less fun?” Spencer asked as he sat down next to Tyler.

“What’s in Oregon?”

“Lumber. Looking at a manufacturer that we could buy out and have under our belt.”

“I guess that’s good, right?”

Spencer nodded. “Especially with the new business venture I convinced Dad and Ed to take on.”

Tyler slid his brother a look. “What’s that?”

“Housing development.” Spencer lifted his beer in salute.

“BBH is going to build housing developments?”

“Starting in three years we will break ground on one just outside Memphis.”

“I didn’t think I’d ever see that happen.”

“That’s because you don’t give a crap about all of this.”

Tyler took a pull from his beer. His brother was right. His focus was on putting together a gala that would bring enough revenue to the
Diamond Gift
and in turn help more women out of bad situations.

“So,” Spencer pulled the tie off his neck, “tell me about Courtney. She seemed nice.”

“She’s more than nice.”

Spencer smiled. “Mom said you had it bad for her.”

“She said that?”

Spencer nodded as he drank from his bottle. “Said she figured this would be her new daughter-in-law.”

The heat on the porch kicked up and Tyler wiped the back of his hand across his brow. “Sure, we’re serious. I mean we’ve said things…”

“Are you kidding me?” Spencer planted his feet on the floor and sat forward to study his brother. “Said things? Like ‘I love you’ kind of things?”

“Yeah.”

“Man, you’ve known her a week. You don’t say stuff like that to a woman you just met.”

“Why not?”

Spencer groaned and leaned back in his chair. “It makes you a freaking wuss, that’s why.”

As if his brother had any room to talk in his prissy button up suit shirt.

“There’s a connection, okay? I wouldn’t expect you to understand. You’re not like me.”

“You’re right. I’d rather date a lot of women. I’m young. I’m good looking. I’m not going to tie myself down.”

They were different, he and his brother. They had a similar look, but Spencer had always been more carefree and Tyler more the caretaker. Maybe that came from being the oldest, he didn’t know.

“But in all seriousness, man,” Spencer looked at Tyler and gave him a nod. “I’m really sorry to hear about her brother.” He lifted his beer again in salute. “To our service men and women.”

Tyler smiled and lifted his bottle too. Something told him that Fitz Field was one hell of a man and he’d have liked to have known him.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Courtney had ignored Tyler’s text message telling her goodnight.

She needed to be alone tonight with her computer and the Internet. She needed to find out who this man was that held her heart so tight.

Sitting quietly through dinner while her mother sobbed had been heart wrenching enough. Hearing about the cards and phone calls that still came in with condolences had drained her. When Courtney returned home, after arguing with her mother about staying at their house, she’d collapsed into a chair and cried.

Now she went searching for answers on who Regan Keller was before she married Zach Benson. Really, she couldn’t be so cold as to have killed a man.

Her computer read story after story about Alexander Hamilton and his marriage to a wealthy debutante. She found connection to Hamilton and Pierpont Oil, which she thought was interesting. It had been three hours of searching before she came to an article that even mentioned Regan Keller and Alexander Hamilton together—and it was very brief.

Then she found the article about the fire at the Rockwell Theater. It had been gutted after an extensive remodel. The play
Annie
had been in rehearsals and Clara Keller was the lead.

The article went on to say that Regan Benson, Arianna Keller, and Clara Keller had all been treated for smoke inhalation and subsequent injuries. And then it mentioned the body.

The body of an unidentified man was also found inside the theater. There was evidence he had been shot.

Courtney rubbed her hands along her pant leg. Did her father really know what he was talking about?

She sulked back in her chair. Certainly he wouldn’t make something up just to detour her from loving a man.

Her father had said it was in self-defense. None of the articles that came up even mentioned Tyler’s mother as a suspect. She had to assume his source, most possibly police related, knew what they were talking about.

The point was, Regan Benson, mother of the man she loved, hadn’t been pegged as a killer by her own father. So what happened that she’d give up her baby and kill the man so many years later?

She had to know. She had to know the whole story and she needed Tyler to tell it to her. When she heard his voice she’d know the truth of it all. At that point she’d make her decision as to whether it was better to have loved and lost—or she’d fight for her man.

~*~

Tyler arrived in the office earlier than he’d planned. What else was he to do when he’d been tossing and turning all night long?

His father’s assistant, Mary Ellen, had let him into the board room and started a pot of coffee.

“You don’t need to do that. We can handle it,” he said as she added coffee grounds to the filter.

“It makes me happy. Probably why I’ve been doing it for so long.” She laughed and pressed the start button. “Who would have thought so many years would fly by so quickly? My baby is having a baby and Zach’s babies are running corporations and non-profits.”

“I’m not running anything.”

She smiled. “In time.” Mary Ellen walked past him and toward the door. “I met Courtney yesterday. She’s a lovely girl.”

“She is.”

“Your dad says you’re serious about her.”

Now Tyler laughed. “Everyone seems to think so.”

“Do you?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I think so too.”

“Perhaps it’s fate, you working from within BBH. Lots of true love has happened within the walls of these offices.” She gave him a wink and walked out of the room.