Acceptance, The Page 16

  “I’m sure you were in his thoughts when he died. I can’t imagine you weren’t.”

  “He should have fought harder.”

  He pulled her to him again. Yes, these tears would come again. She wasn’t ready to let Fitz’s death go yet.

  When Avery happened by the door again, he waved her in. Courtney sat up and wiped her eyes.

  “Everything okay in here?” Avery asked as she walked through the door.

  “Oh, I’m just having a meltdown,” Courtney laughed. “Good thing I don’t have to worry about whether my mascara ran down my cheeks.”

  “I hate when that happens,” Avery said.

  “My friend put mascara on me once. I have no idea if it looked good or not, but I remember my eyelashes getting stuck together.”

  Avery let out a hearty laugh. “Yep. Oh, what we do to look beautiful.”

  Tyler sat back in his chair and looked at Courtney. It was a shame she’d never know how beautiful she was on the outside, but it didn’t really seem to matter to her. Even with tear streaked cheeks, no one held a candle to her.

  Avery pulled a pile of papers out of the bag she’d carried in with her. “Well, now down to work. We just received RSVPs from four hundred people for the gala.”

  “Already?” Tyler sat up in his chair. “We didn’t even get all of the invites out yet.”

  She grinned wide at him. “I might have at one time mentioned to a few of our corporate sponsors something about a huge family event.”

  “You might have?”

  She grimaced. “I told you I hate this.” She handed him the papers. “It’s worth two million to the organization if we can make something family friendly happen.”

  Tyler felt the blood drain from his head. Hadn’t there been enough stress this morning? He rubbed at his temples and let out a breath. Okay, he could do this. He winced at the pain in his chest caused by the stress his cousin had caused. Sure—he could do this.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  It had become work and Tyler had roped Courtney into it much more than getting some information on past recipients. The Diamond Gift was having a family extravaganza—thanks to Avery’s mention of it.

  The entire week had been spent with long hours, late nights, and about a million phone calls between the three of them.

  Thanks to the long list of connections that Simone and his father had, they were able keep the venue and expand it out into the parking lot. They would have tents and events outside as well as dancing and entertaining inside.

  One thing was for sure, Courtney was not only the most organized person he’d ever known, and Avery the least, but she was brilliant with the ideas.

  Avery pulled the pencil, which was holding up her bun, out of her hair. It fell over her shoulders and she shoved it back.

  “It is nine o’clock on Friday night and I’m in a board room hashing out details on an event that is two and a half months away.”

  “Which is three times its size,” Tyler reminded her.

  “And worth three times as much.”

  He laughed. “Go home. We need to finalize the menu tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow? Saturday?”

  He tossed a wadded paper in her direction. “Nine o’clock too early?”

  “Damn early for a Saturday,” she groaned as she stood and gathered her bag. “It’s a good thing I respect Courtney or I’d probably kick your ass for making me work so hard.”

  “I could have taken the job next year and this would have all been yours.”

  She groaned. “Well played. I’ll see you both in the morning.”

  When Avery had left, Tyler rolled his chair closer to Courtney’s. Her fingers were flying on the keys of her computer and her headphones were tucked into her ears so she could hear the words she was typing.

  Tyler gently took hold of her wrists and removed her hands from the keyboard.

  She laughed as she turned toward him. “Do you need something, Mr. Benson?”

  Tyler pulled the ear buds from her ears and laid them atop her keyboard. “There is no one in this whole building,” he said brushing her hair over her shoulder.

  “You’re a liar. There is security. Video recording cameras. And I can hear a vacuum.”

  “I don’t hear that.”

  “You don’t have my superpowers, remember?”

  Tyler moved in closer to her resting his hand on her cheek. “My father has a Murphy bed in his office.”

  Courtney pulled back. “I’m not even going in there, let alone having sex with you in your father’s office.”

  Now he laughed. “If I take you home?”

  “Your home.”

  “Good. You’re sensible. It’s closer.” He moved in and took her mouth with his.

  He was feeling a need for her surge through him, but when she opened up to his kiss he was very sure it surged through her as well.

  “We have to go through my dad’s office to get the private elevator.”

  “Fine, but we’re not stopping. You can wait till we get home.”

  “Can you?”

  She gave him a firm shove against the chest. “I guess we’ll have to see.”

  ~*~

  They had made it home, barely, before they slammed the front door and took in after each other, tearing off clothes.

  Tyler was more than a little happy that he was the only one living in the house. That was rare enough with his family, but at that moment it was an absolute blessing because most of the moaning seemed to be coming from him.

  They were a storm of hands and lips as they maneuvered from the front door toward the couch. Tyler managed to kick the end table and then the coffee table warranting a laugh from Courtney.

  “Why are you laughing?” he asked with his lips pressed to hers as he pushed her shirt off her shoulders.

  “I’m the one who hasn’t fallen over anything. You’d never make it in my world.” She gave him a shove forcing him onto his back on the couch before she straddled him. “But you’ll never feel like I do either.”

  His fingers pulled at the straps on her bra as she shook her head back letting her hair move behind her.

  “What does that mean? I’m obviously feeling a whole lot right now.”

  She was smiling down at him. “I feel your breath.” She pressed her fingers to his lips. “I know your heart beat.” Her hands glided down his throat to his chest.

  Courtney unclasped the bra that kept her skin from his hands and let it drop off her arm to the floor.

  “You have a scar here,” she said tracing her finger down his side to the scar over his hip. “You have another on your back at your shoulder blade.”

  She lowered herself, pressing her bare breasts against his chest. “Your voice rises slightly when you’re worried about something and gets deeper when you’re on the phone with people.”

  Pressing her lips to his chest she let her hands roam over his shoulders. “And when I kiss you right here,” she moved her lips to his collarbone. “You gasp.”

  He did just that and then sucked in another breath, giving her hair a tug and bringing her mouth to his. “I know things about your body too.”

  “Yes, you do.” She kissed him. “But you can’t make love in the dark without falling into things. I can.”

  “Well, I guess I’ll never match up.” He cupped her breasts in his hands sending her upright over him. “I’ll just have to make it count.”

  ~*~

  Tyler watched Courtney sleep in his arms. Two weeks ago, she’d dropped her scarf and he’d picked it up. The moment she’d held out her hand to take it from him he was sure that was when he’d fallen in love with her.

  Now her skin was pressed to his and he did know her heartbeat.

  His cousin Clara and her husband came to mind. They hadn’t known each other much longer when they’d run off to Las Vegas and gotten married. Now they were starting a family.

  Tyler pressed a kiss to her head in the darkness of early morning. She wasn�
�t the fly off and get married kind of girl and he owed his mother more than that. And what did it matter if they got married tomorrow or in four years? This was the woman. She was the right one and his heart knew that even after only two weeks.

  Courtney stirred against him. “What time is it?” Her voice was soft.

  “Three o’clock.”

  “You’re awake, why?”

  Tyler brushed his hand over her shoulder and pulled her closer. “I was watching you sleep.”

  She moaned against him, perhaps more in protest than with enjoyment. “Why?”

  “I want to marry you.”

  She stilled even more against him and then pushed herself up on her elbow. “You need more sleep. Go to sleep,” she said lowering herself back to his chest.

  That wasn’t going to do. It burned in him now. He rolled her onto her back and leaned in over her. “Not now. Not this month or even this year, but I want to marry you.”

  “Let’s talk about it in the morning. After coffee. I think you need coffee.”

  He let out a small laugh. “I’m fine. I don’t need coffee. I don’t need sleep.” He sat up and pulled her to sit too. “Do you love me?”

  “Yes,” she said but it wavered as though she thought he was crazy.

  “Between you and me, and no one else, someday will you marry me?”

  Courtney was tense and he didn’t blame her. Her face was still full of sleep and as she ran her hands over her it he knew she was still trying to comprehend what he was doing.

  “Really, we should talk about this…”

  “Now.” He took her hands in his. “I’m not going to run and tell my family and until I can make one hell of a to- do about it—in time—we wouldn’t mention it to your parents either. But, Courtney, someday in the not too distant future would you marry me?”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “About you, yes.”

  “You’re proposing to me, naked in your bed at three in the morning?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ve known you two weeks.”

  “Long enough.”

  “But we’re not going to tell anyone, yet? This is between you and me?”

  He laughed and ended it on a breath, “Yes.”

  She wasn’t answering him as quickly as he’d have liked. Okay, in her defense he’d stumped her while she was still sleepy.

  “Courtney…” he reached for her, brushed his hand down her hair. “I didn’t mean to…”

  “I can’t imagine not being your wife.”

  He held still for a moment. “What does that mean?”

  “I’ve thought about it. I’ve been thinking about it for two weeks.” She gathered his hands in hers. “I’ll never see the faces of my children. I’ll never know when you’ve become an old man—well I’ll never see it. I may be very independent, but there is a factor that I’ll always need something—someone to guide me through my day to day. There is a lot to think about here.”

  “I know but…”

  She pressed her fingers to his lips to stop him. “But, those are fears I’ve always had. Who could possibly love me enough to take care of me forever? Who would take the time to make sure I know what my children look like? Who would…?”

  “I would,” he said against her fingers before she lowered them. “I would do all of that because to me it’s not a burden.”

  “I believe that.” Her voice trembled now and not because of sleep.

  “Then?”

  She ran her hands up his arms until they were linked around his neck. She pulled him back to her and eased him down over her. “Then, in time, when we are ready to take that step and tell our parents, I would be honored to marry you, Tyler.”

  He felt tears burn in his eyes, but he wouldn’t let them fall. Not now. “You’ll marry me?”

  “Yes.”

  “You glow in the moonlight.”

  “And you have a bad habit of talking too much,” she said as she rolled him over on his back and made love to him—him the happiest man in the world at the moment.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The home that had been Tyler’s grandparents’ house and now was Ed and Darcy’s home was loud and fragrant, again. It was Sunday and Tyler had managed to be with his family for the third Sunday in a row. Yes, this was why he’d come home. The chance to fall in love with a beautiful woman was only a bonus.

  Ed and Chris were setting up tables on the back lawn when Tyler arrived.

  “Did you decide the house was too small?” he joked as he walked out the back door.

  “It’s warm and beautiful. So we’re grilling tonight,” Ed responded as he leveled out the table in the grass. “Where’s Courtney?”

  “I lost her already. It seems as though your wife has some ideas to share with her and Avery about the gala.”

  Ed laughed. “Girls planning a party. She fits right in.”

  “Hey,” Chris shouted toward him. “Catch.” He threw him a can of beer, wet from the cooler.

  “Thanks.”

  Ed and Chris moved toward him. “I remember our dads standing out here doing this. Full circle, huh?” Tyler noted as Spencer walked out of the house, grabbed his own beer, and joined them.

  “And now you all have kids coming.”

  Ed’s eyes flashed wide for a moment and then he smiled. “We met with the birth mother yesterday. The baby is due next week, so really anytime.”

  “That’s crazy,” Spencer added his opinion. “Are you ready for that?”

  “No,” Ed laughed loud. “I’m not. But at the same time I am. I’ve never been more excited about anything in my life.”

  Tyler wondered if there was more to it the way something danced in Ed’s eyes. Then he thought about Courtney’s feeling that they were expecting too. He wondered if the night would grow even more eventful.

  Courtney had a bowl of potato salad, she’d helped Tyler’s grandmother make, in her arms. Authentic German potato salad, his grandmother had told her in a deep full, muddled accent.

  Darcy had held open the door for her and told her the location and number of steps to walk down.

  When she hit the soft grass at the bottom she stopped. She could sense Tyler standing right in front of her.

  “You’re beautiful,” he said softly as he moved in and kissed her on the cheek.

  “It’s the potato salad.”

  She heard him breathe in the fragrant whiff. “Grandma made salad?”

  “Grandma taught me how to make it.”

  “I have got to be the luckiest man in the world. A beautiful woman who can make my grandmother’s salad. C’mon, I’ll show you to the table.”

  He offered her his elbow and they walked to the table that Ed and Christian had set out in the yard.

  Noise was a staple at these dinners, she’d quickly learned. But it was the most pleasant noise she’d ever heard in her life. Dinner at her house was all about her mother talking about herself.

  Somewhere between her bite of Grandma’s salad and the sip of Madeline’s lemonade, Ed had stood and announced that they had an announcement. She grinned and Tyler took her hand and gave it a squeeze.

  “As you know Darcy and I will be parents very soon.”

  “Very soon,” Darcy said enthusiastically. “The baby is due anytime. We met the mother and the baby is full and healthy and ready.”

  “Right. Well, this will be good practice for us.” She heard a cell phone ring and Ed cleared his throat. “Yes. When? Where? Um, yes, okay. Twenty minutes.”

  The crowd which was usually loud was hushed to absolute silence.

  “Ed, are you okay?” she heard his father ask.

  “Yeah, um, wow.”

  “Ed, what is it?” Darcy’s voice was filled with fear.

  “Oh, well, let me finish my announcement. Yeah. Anyway, all of this will be great practice for us because Darcy and I are expecting our own baby as well.”

  Tyler leaned in to Courtney as the voices of the family raised in congr
atulations.

  “You were right. That superhero power again.”

  “Hold on. There’s more,” she whispered to him.

  “Um, thanks everyone. But we have to go,” Ed’s voice was hurried and Courtney heard the folding chair behind him move.

  “Ed, what’s going on?” Darcy asked, again her voice filled with panic. Courtney heard Ed whisper something. “Oh. Oh! Oh, we have to go. We have to go.”

  “What happened?” Ed’s mother now asked.

  “Our baby is on the way. That was the birth mother’s mother. They just took her to the hospital.”

  “Go. Go!” Simone said through tears, obviously moved that she’d helped yet someone else.

  There were cheers and sobs filling the air among the breeze rustled song of the leaves in the trees. Courtney felt the stir of emotion begin to take over with Tyler’s hand in her own.

  She moved in closer to him. “I love your family. You need to know that.”

  “I know that.” He kissed her cheek.

  “I want to be part of this,” she said as softly near his ear as she could.

  “When you’re ready we’ll make our own announcement then.”

  She rested her cheek against his. “In time. Today and next week certainly belong to Ed and Darcy.”

  “Carlos and Madeline just ran out too. My mother is already in the house. I don’t think my father knows what’s going on,” he said with a chuckle

  “I’m thinking this party will be relocating.”

  “I suppose you’re right. That’s how we roll here.”

  “That’s because life and family is so important.”

  “Couldn’t have said it better myself.” She felt him shift. “There go Warner and Clara.” He laughed. “Tori is crying, and the kids are trying to pull her into the house to leave. I think Chris is already in the car.”

  “Perhaps Uncle Tyler should be there too.”

  “Uncle Tyler.” He sighed—actually sighed. “Hadn’t thought about that really. But I’ll go later. I think there are going to be a lot of visitors. She won’t miss me.”