The Acceptance
Page 2

He knew that staring at her with his eyes wide open wasn’t going to make her aware of how stunned he was, but for some reason he was sure she knew.
“How do you know all that?”
The smile on her mouth turned into a playful pucker forcing her cheeks to dimple on both sides. “You handed me my scarf with your left hand. You don’t have a ring.”
“You felt for a ring?”
“I dropped the scarf on purpose. You smelled good.”
That made him laugh aloud. “Okay, keep going.”
“I’ve held the arms of many people. I’m five-five, so I know my heights from there.”
“I’m six-three.”
“I was close.”
“My education?”
“You have an accent, but your words have a refined quality to them. I’d guess you can speak more than one language.”
“My father speaks French, and so does my aunt. I’ve always known both.”
She nodded slowly as though she were collecting her reward for knowing so much.
“Okay, those are all logical. How do you know I have blue eyes?”
“That one was a guess, but I was right. You just told me.”
“You have quite a talent.”
Courtney turned her head toward the window. “You also seemed lost.”
“I beg your pardon. How would you know that?”
“I could feel it. It felt as though you could use some company and I sure know I could.”
He wasn’t sure how this woman could tell so much about him, but she had a keen sense of the world around her.
The last passenger to board the plane was a soldier in uniform. As he passed by their row he looked down at Courtney as if he knew she’d be there and then he continued to his seat which Tyler noted was the seat he was to have occupied.
As the doors were secured the pilot came over the speaker.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, we will be starting our flight shortly. I wanted to inform you that we have the honor of flying a vet home to his final resting place today.”
The air in the plane grew thick and Tyler could hear the many gasps and even sobs which had come from that announcement. He turned toward Courtney who had gripped her hands in front of her and pressed her forehead to her white knuckles.
“Are you okay?”
She lifted her head and he could see the tears streak down her cheek from under her sunglasses. Hesitantly she nodded.
“I’m finally getting to make the journey to take my brother home.”
Tyler let out a long breath and watched as this woman he’d just met turn her face towards the warmth of the sun coming in through the small window.
He’d gained a sister and felt like his world had ended.
Courtney had lost a brother and yet was thankful to be with him on his final ride home.
Tyler rested his head against the back of his seat. His life didn’t make any more sense than it had three years ago when he’d left Nashville. But at least when he got there his brother, sister, and his parents would be there.
What was there for Courtney?
Chapter Two
Courtney sat with her face toward the window as the plane took off. The trip was already harder than she’d imagined and now she’d involved a man she didn’t even know into her misery.
He was sitting with his face forward, his hands in his lap, but she knew his eyes were on her. She’d spent most of her life with someone keeping watch over her with their peripheral vision.
Usually someone on a plane seated next to her would be stiff—rigid as though they were worried about having to help her, the poor blind girl. But that wasn’t the vibe she was getting from him. He was just waiting until she spoke again.
“I suppose the weather will be getting warmer soon. Nothing quite like Nashville in the summer.”
She heard the laugh that rattled in his throat. “There is this enormous boulder in the middle of a stream on my grandmother’s property. My brother and I would spend hours laying on that rock when it was hot.” He let out a soft breath. “When it would get hotter you’d stick your feet back into the water.”
“That sounds nice.”
“Oh, it was—is. She has horses and a garden. So you’d spend time on the rock and then run through the field to the horses and go for a ride. We’d cut my mother bouquets of flowers from her rose garden and my grandmother would never complain.”
“I love roses.”
She knew he’d turned his head to face her. “Do you?”
Courtney nodded. “My brother was actually the last person to buy me some when he was on leave last year. They were in an enormous arrangement. If I think about them hard enough I can still smell them, feel them.”
“Feel them?”
“Yes. The satin soft touch of their petals. I know they were red because he told me, but I imagined they were pastel.”
“So you get to imagine things look just as you’d like them to?”
“I guess I do.”
“Pastel roses are pretty.”
She smiled. “I always thought they were.”
She heard him run his hand over his cheek and he was due for a shave, though she was sure he was stunning with the slight bit of beard growth. But she also was sure he was thinking.
“So you know pastel? Does that mean you have had sight?”
The whole fact that this man was talking to her as if she were perfectly normal had her heart fluttering. Usually when she did the drop the scarf thing with a good smelling man he wouldn’t even acknowledge her after she’d get her scarf back. More often some old lady would end up picking it up.
But Tyler was different. He didn’t seem put off by her lack of sight. Well, okay, he was polite. The flight was only a mere few hours. He might walk right off that plane and never care to look back. But at this point what did she have to lose?
“I was eight when I lost my sight. I remember many things, many people. I’m lucky that way. I can remember colors.”
He leaned in closer to her and she could feel his body heat as he grew closer. “I’ll bet the colors you see are much more vivid.”
She tried not to sigh, but it was damn near impossible.
“My favorite color was pink. I see it most often. I can see light and dark.”
“As in day and night?”
She smiled. “Yes.”
“I don’t know that I’ve ever had a favorite color.”