Acceptance, The Read online

  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.”
<
br />   “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.”

  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 wor
k 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.