Acceptance, The (21 page)

“Then we should help clean up. This house needs to be ready for that new life coming home to it.”

The phone call had come in after Tyler and Courtney had settled in on her sofa.

“I’m an uncle,” Tyler pulled Courtney closer to him.

“To a nephew or a niece?”

He chuckled. “Oh, yeah.” He kissed her on the forehead. “Her name is Emily.”

“After your grandmother.”

Tyler stroked her hair. “Yeah. She created the eclectic family and Ed and Darcy consciously added to it with that in mind.”

“I think that’s beautiful.”

“She’s completely healthy and they can take her home tomorrow.”

“And the birth mother?”

“She’s doing fine. She’s fourteen.”

“Oh, my.”

“Yeah. She is very sure she doesn’t want to be a mother and she tried to hide the pregnancy until it was too late.”

“Small blessings in everything,” Courtney added.

“We’ve been invited over tomorrow. I told them we’d come with Avery at lunch since we have a lot of work to do.”

Courtney snuggled in closer to him and Tyler contemplated everything that had happened. He’d never stopped to realize that life moved so fast. In one moment a life could be taken from you or the gift of life could be given.

One moment you’re a child—the next you’re in charge of your own future.

Clearly now, he thought of the moment at dinner when Courtney said she wanted to be part of his family. Didn’t he want that more than anything? It was much too soon to bring it up to her parents, he was sure of that. But he wouldn’t dream about announcing it until he’d spoken to her father—asked his approval.

Dear Lord, what would he do if he didn’t get it?

“You’re thinking awful hard,” Courtney said.

“I am. So much has happened in the past few weeks. I was just taking inventory.”

“The day Fitz died I thought I would too,” she said. “My heart was so broken I didn’t think it would ever mend.”

She sat up next to him and turned toward him. “I couldn’t have expected that I’d meet you on that plane and my whole life would change.”

“Small blessings in everything, just as you said.”

She leaned back into him again. “I could have done with having had it all and Fitz here too.”

Tyler draped his arm over her shoulders. “I know. But he’d never have left you on purpose.”

“No. Nothing could ever make him have done that.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Courtney wasn’t sure lunchtime was ever going to come. They were making great progress, but the truth was she and Avery wanted to go see the baby and not much more was going to get done until they had their opportunity.

Tyler finally agreed, called and made sure they had the baby home, and they headed over.

Avery all but pushed them both out of the way when they walked into Ed and Darcy’s house. “I’m holding her first.”

Courtney laughed. “You know, she’s being silly. She’ll hold her first and look at her. I’ll hold her longer and really get to know her.”

Tyler laughed as they walked in.

“Oh, Ed, she’s beautiful,” Avery was saying when Tyler led Courtney into the living room.

“She is. She’s absolutely perfect.”

“I was thinking I’d have more time to prepare,” Darcy said. “Two weeks to become a mother, that’s not normal.”

“I’m sure your mother and father felt the same way,” Courtney said and then wondered if she should have.

The room was silent for a moment. “You’re right. You know I remember my mother saying that. They’d waited years for a baby and then one day they got a phone call that there was a baby and they could come and get her.” Courtney felt Darcy’s hand on her arm. “Thank you for reminding me that I was someone’s miracle too.”

The tension in the room subsided. Darcy walked Courtney through the nursery they had put together so quickly.

“The bassinette is one that has been in the Keller family for years. Curtis slept in it. Ed, Chris, and Clara. And of course Tyler and Spencer. I suppose it’s going to be a very busy bed here soon,” Darcy said softly.

“Does it bother you to all be having babies at the same time?”

“Oh no,” she said very quickly. “What a blessing. My sisters and I will have a lot in common, don’t you think? We can go out and eat strange things. We can complain about this and that together. And in the end we can hold and coo over our own babies because none of us will be fighting to hold the other’s baby.”

Courtney laughed. “Sounds like it’s all worked out.”

“And you and Tyler?”

“What about us?” she asked and her voice fluttered a bit.

“I know you haven’t known each other long, but you’re very serious.”

Courtney swallowed hard. “We are. There is a lot of excitement and a lot of mourning going on around us right now. We need to take some time to figure it all out.”

Darcy rested her hand on Courtney’s arm again. “I’m so sorry about your brother.”

“Thank you. It’s hit me a few times. I’m sure it will many, many more.”

“C’mon, time for Avery to give up the baby,” Darcy laughed and escorted Courtney back down the steps.

Tyler would admit he wasn’t one for holding babies. In fact, other than Spencer, and he himself was not more than a baby, he didn’t remember holding them.

But when Courtney came back into the room that was what he was doing. Holding his niece and he could have sworn she smiled at him.

“Come sit by me. I have Emily.”

He reached a hand up to guide her down next to him.

“Are you ready for her?”

“I’m nervous. I haven’t held too many babies.”

“Me neither, but she seems content. I’m going to lay her in your arms.”

Courtney held her arms to accept the baby and Tyler slid Emily into them.

“Oh, my! This is wonderful,” Courtney said holding back the tears that were forming. “Tell me what she looks like,” she said as she let Emily wrap her little hand around her finger.

“She’s dark like Ed,” Darcy said. “Ed is half Puerto Rican and half Italian. Emily is Hispanic.”

“You truly have continued the eclectic mix of your family.”

“That was our plan,” Ed said.

“She has a full head of black hair,” Darcy continued and Courtney smoothed her hand over Emily’s head.

“It’ll be curly too. In time,” she said.

“How do you know that?”

Tyler laughed. “She has these superpowers like that. You don’t want to second-guess her. She knew you were pregnant when you hadn’t announced it yet.”

“You did?” Darcy laughed.

“I can see the things others can’t,” she said with a brilliant smile as Emily cuddled closer to her.

Tyler draped his arm over her shoulders and looked down at that new eclectic addition to the Keller family. This baby would never know anything but love and compassion. That’s how the family worked. And as Courtney cooed to the baby and felt her with delicate hands Tyler knew that Courtney, with her superpowers, belonged here too.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Planning, negotiating, replanning, and late nights became the norm for the next two months. But the team of Tyler, Avery, and Courtney had pulled it off. The event was a mere two weeks away and Tyler was pleased with what they’d done in such a short amount of time.

He worked at Courtney’s desk, in the corner of her living room, while she prepared dinner for him. Piece by piece, his life had been slowly moved into her house and only unimportant items remained in his house for the time being. When they announced their engagement, then he would move in completely.

They’d discussed it. It made sense for her to live where she knew the layout the best. Though, in time, when they had their own family, that would have to change. Neither of their houses were big enough for more than one child. At least that’s what Tyler thought since he’d had ample room to run and play.

Courtney had been a little edgy the past two weeks dealing with her mother, and Tyler thought that was acceptable. After all, Fitz’s birthday had passed, the headstone had been erected, and her mother had fallen apart on more than one occasion while Courtney had been the rock to settle her. And Tyler had been there after to settle Courtney.

What had surprised him most was the lack of people who contacted Courtney to see if she was okay since Fitz’s death. She loved him so, but didn’t the rest of the world? He couldn’t think of a single time her phone had rang and someone had said, “I’m calling to see how you’re feeling.”

He thought better of that. His own mother had called her nearly every week to do that.

Pride swelled in him. That’s what she needed more than anything at this point. She needed to be his wife and an official part of his family.

Tomorrow. He would go to her father tomorrow and ask for her hand in marriage. He’d propose at the gala. Yes, that would be the perfect venue to make it official. Of course he’d keep it under his hat and not make a scene. But this had brought them together. It had let Courtney shine as a writer and a planner of big things. She might not see the world the way he did, but she saw a bigger picture, that was for sure.

“Dinner is ready,” Courtney’s voice broke the silence he was sitting in.

She stood in the doorway, a vision of beauty in an apron.

“Smells wonderful.”

“You’re a man. It’s food. Of course it’s wonderful.” She laughed easily.

Tyler stood and moved to her swiftly. He gathered her in his arms and pressed a kiss to her lips. “I love you.”

“Those are big words for a simple meal.”

“It’s not the meal. It’s so much more.”

She held her hands to his chest. “I love you too. Now let’s eat before it gets cold.”

She turned out of his arms and went back into the kitchen.

Oh, in two weeks she’d understand the extent of those words and then for the rest of her life he’d make sure to fully show her. He’d seen his parents over his life. They never faltered in their love. They never distrusted the other one. Sure, there had been arguments and tears, and in the end hugs and kisses.

Courtney Field deserved that for the rest of her life, or the rest of his at least.

He sat down at the table across from where she sat. He thought, this was to be the norm—dinner with the most beautiful woman on the planet—forever.

~*~

Courtney and her mother were going to go shopping. Tyler had to give her credit. She was doing everything she could to ease her mother’s pain

Tyler had called her father. Michael Field had invited him over.

He was sure he’d much rather have met the man in public. If what Tyler had to say upset the man, who knew what he was capable of doing.

Tyler pulled up in front of the house he’d been to a few times since the reception after Fitz’s funeral. As he walked up the front steps and held his finger out for the doorbell he heard his name being called from the garage.

He stepped off the porch and followed the noises around to the side door of the massive garage where he found Michael Field with the barrel of a shotgun in his hand and a rag.

Tyler couldn’t help but think of the Rodney Atkins song about the dad cleaning his gun when boys came to call on his daughter. He wondered if this was some kind of similar maneuver.

“Mr. Field, thank you for meeting with me.”

Michael Field gave a grunt. “I figure you’ve come out here man to man since you’ve never come alone before.”

The garage was very warm, but Tyler didn’t fidget, that would certainly come across as weak.

“I have.”

“Do you shoot?”

“Yes, sir. My mother was a champion marksman. She taught me well.”

He saw it flash in the man’s eyes, the comment about his mother and a gun, but he didn’t say anything else.

“C’mon. I have a trap set up out back. Let’s see if any of that wore off on you.”

Tyler smiled and nodded nervously. It was Tennessee after all. He couldn’t be the only man who showed up to ask the blessing of a man to marry his daughter and a gun was involved.

He followed Michael Field around the garage and out into the field where he had, in fact, set up a range with a trap and boxes of clay pigeons.

“Can you Skeet shoot?” he asked, turning toward Tyler.

“I can.”

And that was all it took to have Michael Field hand him a gun and set forth to have him prove that he could in fact shoot Skeet along side a man of distinguished Military honor.

After two hours, Tyler’s shoulder was numb. And most assuredly, there’d be a huge bruise there tomorrow. But the smile that very nearly crept onto Michael Field’s face was worth his own pain.

“C’mon. Maria has some lemonade on the porch for us,” Michael said as he led Tyler around the back of the house.

When they approached the house, Maria walked out of the kitchen with a tray of lemonade over ice and a pitcher to fill from.

Michael motioned for Tyler to sit. When he did he winced from the pain in his shoulder and Michael laughed.

“Gets ya every time, doesn’t it?”

“I haven’t shot in a long time,” Tyler admitted.

“You did a lot of traveling, I understand.”

“Yes. Took a few years to find myself. Worked in different places around the world.”

“A man needs to do that. Military did that for me.”

Tyler hadn’t thought they’d have been on the same level with that, but perhaps it would make it easier now.

“Let’s get down to it. Why are you here?”

Now Tyler felt the sweat bead up on his neck and the air grow so thick he thought he’d choke.

“Sir, I know I haven’t known your daughter very long. And I realize that circumstances in which we met were a bit odd. But,” he reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring box he carried with him. “I’d like to ask her to marry me.”

He opened the box to show him the solitaire he’d picked out with Avery to present to Courtney.

Michael Field took it from him and studied it, silently. After a long moment he handed it back.

“What makes you think she’ll marry you?”