Acceptance, The (9 page)

In a few years his father would want to retire. His cousin Ed was holding the reins now, but Ed had always known that the company would eventually be Tyler and Spencer’s. But Tyler wasn’t sure he was cut out for real estate development on such a grand scale.

Spencer had a mind for business. Tyler wasn’t even sure what he had a mind for. He’d made due for three years. He’d learned a lot about the world, about making ends meet, and about himself. Yeah, he’d learned that he was selfish and self-centered.

Tyler let out a breath. He didn’t want to be that person anymore.

The kettle on the stove snapped him from his thoughts. He stood and walked to the kitchen as she lifted the kettle from the stove.

“I’ll try to stay out of your way,” he said leaning up against the counter.

“Fitz used to say that too.” She held a mug steady with her hand, rested the spout of the kettle on the mug, and poured. “I don’t really know why I’ll miss him so much around here. His things were here, but he wasn’t here more than a few weeks a year.”

“You gave him a place to call home.”

She shook her head and replaced the kettle on the stove. “No, he did that for me. He didn’t want me living under my parents’ feet for the rest of my life. So he bought this place and moved me in. It’s been my refuge.”

“You were close, you and your brother.”

“Very close. He felt responsible for me—for my situation.” She handed him a mug. “There are tea bags in the container on the table. You can choose what kind you want.”

Tyler picked up his mug and walked toward the table. He waited for her to set her mug down and take a seat, and then he sat next to her.

As he chose a tea, none of which were full strength coffee flavor, he asked, “Why did he feel responsible for your situation?”

Courtney opened her tea bag and bobbed it in her mug. “Because I’ve been blind since I was eight.”

“Right.”

She tucked her hair behind her ears and then cupped the mug in her hands. “Because he was the one who scared the horse who kicked me and eventually that caused me to lose my sight.”

There hadn’t been any kind of auditory gasp or movement, but she knew the silence of shock too.

Tyler’s tea bag bobbed against his mug as he lifted it in and out in a nervous ritual. He drummed his fingers against his thigh. She could almost hear his brain turning trying to think of something clever like everyone else had when she’d told them.

“How old was Fitz when that happened?”

Tyler had lived up to his element of surprise. He didn’t coddle the fact that an accident by her little brother at such a young age had robbed her of what everyone considered normal.

“Four.”

“That must have really affected him.”

“It did. He didn’t talk to me for a long time. He was afraid of me. By the time he was nine he was getting in fights over me. Then he was protecting me.” She pulled the bag of tea out of her mug and set it on a napkin she had pulled from the holder on the table. “He challenged me. He pushed me. But he always had my back. Like this house. He bought it a year ago.”

“So when he was nineteen?”

“Yes. Pissed my father off too. He took the money from his trust fund and bought a house.”

“That’s a sturdy financial decision.”

She laughed. “It was. He put my name on the title too so no one could ever take it away from me.”

Courtney heard him lean in and rest his arms on the table. “Do you ever think he knew he wouldn’t come back?”

In a nervous habit she tucked her hair back again. “He was very insightful like that. He’d never have told me though. He knew I was worried enough.”

Tyler covered her hand with his. “I think it sounds like you two made quite a pair.”

She smiled. “We did. I’m going to miss him so much I don’t even know how I’m going to deal with that.” That pain was creeping into her chest—the kind of pain that started as an ache and quickly began to choke you. Tears burned her throat and her breath began to hold in her lungs.

“You won’t do it alone. I’ll be here.”

She nodded. It was all she could do. He would be there. He’d said it more than once and she believed he meant it.

Tea had turned into a long talk about the man that Fitz was. They’d moved from the kitchen to the couch and when Tyler’s phone rang that was what had awakened him.

He shifted on the couch. His arm was numb from having had it draped over Courtney for the past few hours.

The ringing had her stirring too. She sat up and rubbed her face.

“What is that? Mine or yours?” Her voice shook with sleep.

“Mine.” He looked at the screen. “It’s my brother. Hey, Spence,” he said trying to make his eyes focus on the light coming in from the window.

“Want a ride? I’m heading into town. I can swing by and pick you up.”

“A ride? What the hell time is it?”

His brother laughed. “Man, it’s a quarter till nine. I told Dad you’d be there by nine-thirty.”

“Crap!” He stood from the couch. “I’ll be there closer to ten. But I can drive in. Do me a favor, have them get me a parking space and I’ll take the elevator up to his office.”

“You still have the key?”

“Yeah, just tell him I’ll be there.”

“I will. Where are you?” His brother’s tone had that edge to it—the kind that teetered on laughter.

“Bite me,” he said as Spencer started to laugh. He pushed the button to hang up the call as Courtney stood next to him.

“What time is it?”

“Eight forty-five.”

“Oh, God! My mother will be here any minute. You have to get out of here.”

“I’m gone.” He hurried to the front door with Courtney holding his hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

“Oh, it’s my fault. I called you here and then kept you here.”

Tyler searched his pocket for his keys and pulled them out. “I’ll talk to you later.” He bent down and pressed a kiss to her lips which must have surprised her.

He opened the door and hurried to his car. This wasn’t quite the way he’d wanted to prove to his father that he was man enough to accept responsibilities.

As he drove away from Courtney’s house, he passed a black Mercedes. The driver slowed, but Tyler pressed on. As soon as he could get home and showered he could get to his father. The bonus to it all would be that in a few hours he could call Courtney and compare days.

Tyler turned on his signal at the stop sign, looked both ways, and turned with a smile. He couldn’t believe how much he looked forward to that call.

Chapter Eleven

The front door opened and Courtney could hear her mother’s shoes on the hardwood floor.

“Courtney, where are you? Are you okay? Are you here? Where are you?”

She let out a groan. “Mother, I’m upstairs. I’ll be right down.”

She heard the familiar thud of her mother’s purse landing on the coffee table and then the coffee pot being filled at the sink. If it was past two in the afternoon, she would have heard the sound of the cupboard with wine being opened.

Courtney brushed through her hair and fastened it atop her head in a ponytail. She’d changed her clothes quickly and would have to remember later to pick the others up off the floor or she’d trip over them. But for now, she was in a hurry to get downstairs.

Her mother was pacing the kitchen when she’d made her way down to her. She could hear the click-clack of her expensive Italian shoes. They made a different sound than heavier soled ones.

“Good morning, Mother.”

“Don’t
good morning
me,” her mother said and her voice shook. “I saw him. I saw him drive away from here.”

Courtney walked to the counter and took a mug down from the cupboard. “And who did you see?”

“That man you left the funeral with yesterday. You left me there alone.”

“You said it was okay to go with him.”

“To our house. You left.”

Courtney poured herself a cup of coffee and when it warmed her body she realized just how tired she was. She and Tyler must have only rested a few hours.

“I couldn’t stand to be there any longer. We said goodbye to Fitz. I listened to everyone mumble about how sad it was. He was too young. He was a good solider. You would miss him but it was a sacrifice for the country.” She was gripping the mug now. “And I was tired of hearing the whispers about how well I was doing despite my short comings.”

“No one said that,” her mother argued.

“I heard them, Mother. I can’t see them hide their lips behind their hands. I hear their petty little voices.”

She could hear her mother sip her coffee and then set the mug on the table. “I just think it was inconsiderate of you to leave with a man during the reception. Do you know how that looks?”

“Like I needed some space? My brother was buried yesterday, Mother. My only brother.”

Her mother clucked her tongue. “You’ll need to move back home.”

Courtney set her mug on the counter and fisted her hands on her hips. “I am almost twenty-five years old. I will be just fine here.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Without Fitz here…”

“Mother, Fitz was never here. He probably slept in that bed twenty times in the last year. I’ve lived here myself all that time.”

Her mother’s fingers drummed on the table. “And now you have men staying here.”

Courtney grit her teeth together. “That’s not what happened.”

“That’s how it looked. And you should see you. Your shirt is on backward.”

She hated when her mother said it like that instead of nicely telling her. It didn’t happen often, but she’d been in a hurry.

Courtney picked up her coffee and walked to the table where she sat down across from her mother.

“Tyler was kind enough to drive me home after we took a drive.”

“A drive. You let a man you don’t know just drive you around?”

Courtney let the smile settle on her lips and she was sure it would drive her mother mad. “He took me to his grandmother’s house and introduced me.”

She could feel the tension begin to dissolve. “He took you to meet his grandmother?”

“Yes. She doesn’t live far from you. Audrey Benson. She’s a very nice woman. We had iced tea on her patio, walked through her rose garden, and went to the stables to meet the horses.”

That made her mother tense. “I don’t like you around horses. You know that.”

“One mistake. One misfortune. I’m not going to deny myself the pleasures of horses.”

“Courtney,” her mother’s voice went soft. “Aren’t you afraid?”

“Of horses? No.”

“Of anything?”

The only thing Courtney was afraid of was becoming petty like her mother. That wasn’t even fair, she thought as she took a sip of her coffee. Her mother was a kind woman who just needed a lot of attention. Fitz would give that to her. Her father would play it off as a disease. And her mother would fuss over Courtney when it suited her so that Courtney would give her attention. Other than that, no, Courtney wasn’t afraid of anything.

“It’s a waste of time to be afraid of anything. You have to look at the world each morning and realize it’s a wonder to just have another day.”

Her mother reached across the table and took her hand. “I forget you were born with the overly optimistic gene.”

“Good thing I was. And, Mother, I’m very optimistic about Tyler Benson.”

Her mother tugged her hand back. “I was afraid of that.”

~*~

Tyler pulled into the parking space his brother had left for him. He turned off the car, made sure he had his elevator key, and climbed out. The elevator went straight to his father’s office. Certainly a perk when you owned the entire building, he thought.

Normally he wouldn’t use the entrance. He wasn’t so good that he couldn’t walk through the front doors, but he was running late, he looked like hell, and man he was hungry.

When the elevator door opened, he stepped out into his father’s corner office. It was no surprise there were three smiling faces there to greet him. His father, his brother, and his cousin Ed.

“I owe you five bucks,” Ed said to Spencer. “He did show up.”

Tyler let his shoulders drop. “And you’re all sitting here waiting to see if I’d run, huh?”

“Your reputation precedes you now,” Ed moved toward him and placed his hand on his shoulder. “But it’s good to have you here.”

“Thanks.”

His father, who was leaned up against his desk, stood and looked at him. He’d heard it his whole life, “You look just like your father.” Looking at him now, he realized that in forty some years he’d be just as distinguished. At sixty-four, his father was a fit and nice looking man. And, from the photographs he’d seen, he looked just like his father Tyler Benson, whom Tyler was named for.

“Why don’t you two give me and Tyler a few minutes together?”

“Sure,” Spencer said. “Just don’t promote him to C.E.O. There is a whole initiation that has to happen. We don’t have his underwear to hang from the flag pole yet.”

Spencer and Ed chuckled as they walked toward the door. “Is hazing still out?” Ed asked as they walked out of the office.

“They’re going to give you a hard time, but they’re glad you’re home,” Tyler’s father said.

“I don’t know that I belong here.” The words had come quickly and they weren’t meant to hurt, but he’d seen his father’s posture stiffen.

Zach Benson could keep his cool and he did. He’d only nodded, smiled, and then led Tyler to the couch in the office to sit.

“If your mother heard you say you don’t belong here, it would break her heart.”

“Dad, I mean in the company. I know I belong in Nashville.”

His father’s shoulders softened and he relaxed back on the couch. “Now we’re making progress. What are your hesitations about being part of BBH?”

Where did he start? He didn’t like nepotism. He didn’t like big corporations. He’d seen enough poverty over the past three years he figured there was something he could do to change the world. The list went on and on.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that Spencer is cut out for all of this, just as Ed was. I’m not, Dad.”