The Acceptance
Page 40

“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.”