Free Acceptance, The by Bernadette Marie Page B

some?”
    “That would be nice.”
    “You find something to watch. I’ll be right back.”
    He sat down and watched her from the couch. Everything in the small kitchen was in an appointed place and she moved with ease through the room as she filled the water, set it on the stove to boil, and pulled down two mugs.
    There was a gracefulness to her—a peace. He needed that kind of peace in his life too. Tomorrow—or in a few hours—he’d meet his father in his office downtown and they’d discuss Tyler’s future at Benson, Benson, and Hart.
    In a few years his father would want to retire. His cousin Ed was holding the reins now, but Ed had always known that the company would eventually be Tyler and Spencer’s. But Tyler wasn’t sure he was cut out for real estate development on such a grand scale.
    Spencer had a mind for business. Tyler wasn’t even sure what he had a mind for. He’d made due for three years. He’d learned a lot about the world, about making ends meet, and about himself. Yeah, he’d learned that he was selfish and self-centered.
    Tyler let out a breath. He didn’t want to be that person anymore.
    The kettle on the stove snapped him from his thoughts. He stood and walked to the kitchen as she lifted the kettle from the stove.
    “I’ll try to stay out of your way,” he said leaning up against the counter.
    “Fitz used to say that too.” She held a mug steady with her hand, rested the spout of the kettle on the mug, and poured. “I don’t really know why I’ll miss him so much around here. His things were here, but he wasn’t here more than a few weeks a year.”
    “You gave him a place to call home.”
    She shook her head and replaced the kettle on the stove. “No, he did that for me. He didn’t want me living under my parents’ feet for the rest of my life. So he bought this place and moved me in. It’s been my refuge.”
    “You were close, you and your brother.”
    “Very close. He felt responsible for me—for my situation.” She handed him a mug. “There are tea bags in the container on the table. You can choose what kind you want.”
    Tyler picked up his mug and walked toward the table. He waited for her to set her mug down and take a seat, and then he sat next to her.
    As he chose a tea, none of which were full strength coffee flavor, he asked, “Why did he feel responsible for your situation?”
    Courtney opened her tea bag and bobbed it in her mug. “Because I’ve been blind since I was eight.”
    “Right.”
    She tucked her hair behind her ears and then cupped the mug in her hands. “Because he was the one who scared the horse who kicked me and eventually that caused me to lose my sight.”
     
    There hadn’t been any kind of auditory gasp or movement, but she knew the silence of shock too.
    Tyler’s tea bag bobbed against his mug as he lifted it in and out in a nervous ritual. He drummed his fingers against his thigh. She could almost hear his brain turning trying to think of something clever like everyone else had when she’d told them.
    “How old was Fitz when that happened?”
    Tyler had lived up to his element of surprise. He didn’t coddle the fact that an accident by her little brother at such a young age had robbed her of what everyone considered normal.
    “Four.”
    “That must have really affected him.”
    “It did. He didn’t talk to me for a long time. He was afraid of me. By the time he was nine he was getting in fights over me. Then he was protecting me.” She pulled the bag of tea out of her mug and set it on a napkin she had pulled from the holder on the table. “He challenged me. He pushed me. But he always had my back. Like this house. He bought it a year ago.”
    “So when he was nineteen?”
    “Yes. Pissed my father off too. He took the money from his trust fund and bought a house.”
    “That’s a sturdy financial decision.”
    She laughed. “It was. He put my name on the title too so no one could ever take it away from