Acceptance, The (22 page)

“We’ve discussed it.”

“So this is already done? You’re here to show off your manners?”

Now Tyler’s palms were sweaty too. “Sir, I think it is very important to have the family’s blessing for such things. We have discussed getting married, but I’d like to propose to her and make it very special.”

“When do you want to do this?”

“At the
Diamond Gift
gala, sir.”

Michael Field nodded slowly. “Her mother mentioned that we were attending.”

“Yes.”

“Courtney isn’t going to be the easiest wife, you know. She will always need someone to watch after her.”

“Sir, I’m aware of the limitations she has, but I also see the fierce independence she has as well. I don’t see her blindness as any kind of curse and neither does she.”

“Fitz did,” he said very sternly.

“I’m sorry he felt that way. I know he felt some guilt over it. But she doesn’t see it like that. And her blindness doesn’t affect me and it does little to detour her.”

“Children. How will she care for children?”

“I think she’ll care for them just fine. She does remarkably wonderful around my niece.”

Michael Field nodded slowly.

“You’ve only known her a few months. How can you make a lifetime worth of assumption in a few months?”

“With all due respect sir, I think I knew in the first week this is what I wanted. I love your daughter very much.”

Courtney’s father picked up a glass of lemonade and sipped it slow, keeping a steady eye on Tyler the entire time.

“A lesser man would have bought her a gold band since she can’t see the shimmer and beauty in the one you showed me.”

“She sees more than we do. She’s certainly taught me that.”

Michael Field stood and Tyler followed. It was now that he realized what an enormous stature he had and how small and weak Tyler must look to him.

Courtney’s father held out his hand to Tyler. “It takes quite a man to see those qualities in a woman, sighted or not. You have my blessing.”

Tyler shook Michael Field’s hand and hoped that he wasn’t too zealous or nervous when he thanked him sincerely for everything.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Courtney couldn’t remember the last time she and her mother had laughed so much. They’d had brunch and Courtney might have had one too many mimosas.

Her mother insisted on going shopping for new dresses to wear to the gala. Because she was having so much fun, Courtney had agreed.

“I think that looks lovely on you,” her mother said as she stepped out of the fitting room.

“I like how it feels,” she said running her hands down over the skirt. “Tell me about it.”

“It’s lovely. There are a lot of festive colors. The main color is turquoise with splashes of yellows, oranges, purples, white, and reds.”

“Oh, my. That sounds very loud.”

“But that’s the thing. It’s not. It’s so beautiful and the colors against your skin…” Her words cut off. “Oh, honey. It’s just beautiful.”

Courtney figured that if her mother was emotionally moved by the dress than it must look fantastic. She couldn’t wait for Tyler to see it. She placed her hand on her chest and felt the neckline. She liked that, too.

“It’s settled then. This is the dress.”

“Oh, Courtney, Tyler is going to love it,” her mother said the thrilling buzz that went through her when her mother actually acknowledged him.

Courtney had been very careful to not talk about him too much outside the realm of the gala, but there must have been something that spoke volumes to her mother.

Her mother searched for a dress for herself, though her mother didn’t seem as easy to please.

“I’m worried I won’t look right,” she said after the fourth dress.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, this is a big thing. I mean I’ve seen it in the news for years. There are some very elite names there.”

“Yes, that’s how the organization makes their money.”

“I know. I just want to look right.”

Courtney reached out her hand to touch her mother. “You will look just fine. Trust me. The people you are going to meet are very welcoming and accepting. Never could you look wrong to them.”

“If they are anything like Tyler, I’m sure they will be very nice.”

Courtney smiled. “You like him? Really?”

“Oh, of course I do, honey. I think he’s a very nice young man.”

“What if I told you I could see spending my life with him?”

The room was quiet. Courtney had hit a nerve. “Well, that is a very long way away. Perhaps we could talk about that some other time. I’ll try on that blue dress. I did kind of like it best,” her mother said leaving her alone.”

It wasn’t so far away, she wanted to tell her. There was a stink of emotion taking over. What had she really expected? She needed to be grateful enough that her mother liked him, perhaps when she met the whole family, she’d understand how amazing they all really were.

Courtney tried not to let the single little thing her mother said upset her, but it was hard. That was until she walked through the front door of her house and smelled the aroma of grilled steaks and baked potatoes.

Of course her mother had insisted on walking her inside. She wondered how this might go.

“Who is here?” she asked the moment they walked in the door.

“Who do you think, Mother.”

“You’re home,” Tyler called from the kitchen and a moment later she felt him in the same room. “Oh, hello, Mrs. Field.”

“Tyler.”

“It’s very nice to see you see you.” He moved in, wrapped his arm around Courtney’s waist and kissed her softly on the cheek. “How was your day of shopping?”

“It was wonderful,” her mother said. “I bought Courtney a beautiful dress for the gala, since it’s less formal than in the past.”

Courtney felt the sting of her words, perhaps Tyler didn’t.

“Yes, it’ll be family friendly and I think an enormous success,” he said and Courtney had to admit she loved how he handled things. “Courtney has written some amazing pieces for the media and for our event specific press kits.”

“She always was good at dabbling in writing. Though nothing serious.”

Courtney’s body tensed.

“Oh, I don’t know. I’ve read many of her things and she’s got some amazing talent. When the gala is over, and we have some breathing room, my cousin’s husband Warner said he knew a few people who could look at her work. It’s very promising.” He gave her a squeeze to let her know he was on her side. “I’ve grilled some steaks and potatoes. Would you be able to join us, Mrs. Field?”

Courtney wondered what he was doing. She certainly wasn’t in the mood for her mother any longer, which was sad, because they’d had the very best start to it.

“Oh, Tyler, that’s very generous. I’d best be going.”

“It was certainly nice to see you.” He let go of Courtney and she heard him walk to the door. Literally escorting her mother out.

When the door closed, Courtney sighed as she heard him walk back toward her. “She wears me out.”

“She’s out of sorts. Her son is gone and her daughter is moving on.”

“Did you see how she belittled our event and my writing?”

He smoothed his hands over her hair and kissed her on the forehead. “And did you see how it all doesn’t matter? You’re here. I’m here. I made dinner. Let’s eat.”

The meal, Tyler thought, was fine. He was a good enough cook. But Courtney’s mind was preoccupied—obviously still irritated with her mother.

This was new ground for him. As lost as he’d been over the truth about Darcy and what his mother had been through, he’d never really been irritated at her. Sure, annoyed when he’d gotten in trouble as a kid. Horrified when she’d caught him smoking with Jep out back when they were thirteen. Though that one made him want to laugh. The two of them had no idea what they were doing. But Jep had hijacked the cigarette from his dad and they were going to give it a try. Oh, was she ever mad.

But never had she blatantly discredited him as Mary had done to Courtney in the few minutes she was in her home. If that was how Courtney had grown up—and Fitz too—it was no wonder why Courtney wanted to fight to be independent. Being blind wasn’t such a bad thing in contrast to living at home.

“I could certainly get used to you cooking like this,” she said as she finished her bite and then sipped at her iced tea.

“I have about four meals I can cook well. This is one of them.”

“Well, let’s do this often.” She laughed and reached for him. “Thank you for handling her the way you did. I’m not sure I can convince you she’s different, usually. This seems to be the only side you’ve seen.”

“A woman with a very direct husband, a son who has been killed in combat, and a very independent daughter who doesn’t need her all the time, is what I see. She’s just a bit out of sorts.”

“You always tell me I see more than sighted people. I can read them. But I think you do too.”

“Sometimes when you’re too close to it, you can’t see what’s going on.”

“Like when you left.”

He winced. “Exactly. I had to step away from it to realize she hadn’t hurt me. She’d protected me by not telling me about everything. Spencer understood that. Me—I had to go have a pity party.”

Courtney stood and moved to him, sitting down on his lap, and wrapping her arms around his neck. “I’m very glad your pity party ended when it did. I’m very happy that fate threw you on that plane.”

“I’m just glad that when it did, I still smelled good.”

She laughed and rested her head on his shoulder. “Let’s clean this up and spend the rest of the night numbing our brain in front of the TV cuddled up.”

“I think that sounds like a fine idea.”

They moved in sync in the kitchen, cleaning dishes and wrapping up leftovers. Tyler washed the dishes and Courtney dried them. They laughed. They talked about the gala. They fell deeper in love over simple and everyday activities.

When everything was tidy and back in place—which was necessary for her safety and was going to take some work on Tyler’s part—they moved toward the living room to spend their evening wrapped in each other’s arms.

As they passed the table by the stairs, Tyler looked down at the basket filled with mail. “I’ve been meaning to ask you. Why do you have a basket of unopened mail?”

She stopped and turned to him. “I just put it there when it comes and my mother usually comes by and helps me take care of it. Mail doesn’t usually come in braille. But I haven’t been spending time with her. Oh, Tyler, there are probably some very important bills in there.”

“Okay, let’s take this into the kitchen and go through it. I’m here now. I can help you with this every day.”

She nodded, but the crease between her brows told him that this was one of those cases where she needed someone’s help and that bothered her.

Tyler picked up the basket and they walked back to the kitchen. For the next hour, they sorted envelopes according to what they were. Courtney pulled out her laptop and as Tyler told her what bill was to be paid, she entered it into the computer and sent the payment through the bank.

Eventually the pile was dwindled down to junk mail, sale ads, and one letter.

“It’s just addressed to the family of Fitz Field,” he said.

“A sympathy card?”

“No, it must be a letter. No return address on it.”

She lifted her hands in the air and sat back in her chair away from the computer. “Let’s hear it then.”

Tyler opened the letter and pulled out two sheets. One was crisp and pristine the other very obviously had been tattered and folded many times.

Tyler began to read, “To the family of Fitz. I hope I have waited long enough to send this letter. I was with Fitz when he was injured in combat. We had taken fire and he’d been hit in the leg. It wasn’t a fatal wound, in fact, except for the chance of infection, it was only a flesh wound as the bullet hadn’t even lodged itself in his leg.” Tyler took a breath and continued.

“When we were able to take cover, we were in an area where there was still heavy gunfire. We had the unfortunate moment to come across a young Afghan man who was very scared. He held us at gunpoint, but obviously he was in as wrong a place as we were.

“He shared with us his food and at one point Fitz asked him if he had something he could write on. Fitz spent the next few hours penning the note I have sent along.

“I know he was in some pain, but he’d not been himself in months. He was angry and spoke of his father many times. And on more than one occasion he mentioned that he never should have been in a war. He should have been home running some financial company. That was what he wanted to do. The military was never his choosing.”

Tyler stopped for a moment and looked at Courtney whose face was pale. “Maybe we should stop for now.”

“Are you kidding me?” she snapped out at him. “Finish the damn letter. In fact, read Fitz’s letter. I want you to read Fitz’s letter.”

Tyler looked at the second piece of paper. It had been wet, ripped, and drenched in blood. But the only part of the letter he could read was the writing at the top.

“I can’t read this. It’s for you.”

Courtney’s lips pursed and her cheeks grew redder from anger mixed with the tears that were filling her eyes. “Don’t mess around. I’m not kidding. Read it.”

“The only part I can read says,
For Courtney. Please get this to her.
” He swallowed and placed the letter in her hands. “It’s in braille, done with the tip of a pen.”

Her hands shook as she took the paper. “I taught him braille so we could send notes to each other and my mother would never be able to read them.”

“I don’t know how well you’ll be able to read it. It has been folded.”

Courtney set the paper flat on the table and gently skimmed her fingers over the raised bumps on the paper. She did it repeatedly.

Her lips trembled. Her nose grew redder and she closed her eyes as the first tear rolled down her cheek.

“Can you read it? Do you understand it?”

She nodded and wiped her eyes.