Acceptance, The

by Bernadette Marie

  The Acceptance

  The Keller Family Series

  Book 8

  By

  Bernadette Marie

  5 Prince Publishing

  Denver, CO

  www.5princebooks.com

  Copyright 2014

  This is a fictional work. The names, characters, incidents, places, and locations are solely the concepts and products of the author’s imagination or are used to create a fictitious story and should not be construed as real.

  5 PRINCE PUBLISHING AND BOOKS, LLC

  PO Box 16507

  Denver, CO 80216

  www.5PrinceBooks.com

  ISBN 13: 978-1-63112-036-7ISBN 10: 1631120360

  The Acceptance

  Bernadette Marie

  Copyright Bernadette Marie 2014

  Published by 5 Prince Publishing

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations, reviews, and articles. For any other permission please contact 5 Prince Publishing and Books, LLC.

  First Edition/First Printing June 2014 Printed U.S.A.

  5 PRINCE PUBLISHING AND BOOKS, LLC.

  For Stan,

  You make accepting the things I can’t change easier

  by just being by my side…always.

  Acknowledgements

  For Stan who validates me everyday by supporting me, encouraging me, respecting my time working at home, and never ever complaining about domestic things that are overlooked.

  For my Fab 5 who accept me with every flaw I have and teach me every day something new to better myself.

  For Mom, Dad, and Anni who have always accepted me—me who piles things everywhere, loses things always, talks non-stop, and dreams excessively BIG!

  For Connie, Clare, and Marie who accept my horrible organization skills with humor and love, and always continue to keep me on track!

  For Sara and June who accept manuscripts written late at night, with my eyes closed, and diligently make them look nice.

  For Jo, who had no choices when she became my suitemate in college, who accepted the challenges set before her as a woman who faced the world without eyesight. She taught me more than I ever knew. You can see quite a bit without physically seeing anything.

  Dear Reader,

  It’s hard to believe that we are into book eight in the Keller Series. I have been blessed, as an author, with the outpouring of love toward this family,

  We have literally have watched Tyler Benson grow up right in front of our eyes. The eldest son of Regan and Zach Benson is now finding his place in the world.

  Courtney Field is an inspiration to anyone ever challenged. This woman was so much fun to write because she is blind, yet she sees the world clearly.

  Together they help each other accept the events in their lives which threaten to tear them apart. But sometimes, just having the right person by your side makes anything possible.

  Enjoy The Acceptance!

  Book nine, The Merger, Spencer Benson’s story, will be coming to you in the fall of 2014.

  Happy Reading!

  Bernadette Marie

  The Acceptance

  Chapter One

  There was something about an airport. People were coming and going. Some were heading out for adventure and some were heading home—just like Tyler Benson.

  Nashville would always be home. He’d taken nearly three years to see the world and think his life through. He wasn’t sure he had a better grasp on it yet, but he knew one thing—he missed his family.

  Why had he let his mother’s choices affect him so much? Things must have been pretty bad for her if she gave up a child and never spoke of it again.

  The man in him understood. She was protecting him and his brother from what had happened to her when she’d fallen in love with an abusive man who tried to kill her. But the boy in him was still hurt.

  Heading back wouldn’t fix everything. He assumed there’d be a lot of late night talks over the kitchen table as there had been when he was a teenager. His father already had offered him a good job in the construction firm which had been in the family for generations. And—he needed to finally get to really know his sister.

  Darcy had been as shocked as Tyler when she’d learned who her mother was. After all, she’d fallen in love with Tyler’s cousin—that had to have been a little odd. But the Keller family was eclectic. It was made up of lots of adopted children, but they were still one big family.

  His cousin Ed and his sister Darcy had been married over a year now. Their wedding had been the only time Tyler had been home in three years. Now it was time to face his parents and ask for some forgiveness, though he was sure they’d give it to him. Everyone understood his need to find himself.

  They called his flight from New York to Nashville. It was time to board the plane. He stood and moved toward the line as a woman ran right into him.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said quickly.

  “It’s no problem.” He looked down and noticed she’d dropped her scarf. “You dropped this.” He bent down to pick it up and hand it to her.

  The woman only held out her hand, but didn’t reach for it. Tyler placed it in her open hand.

  “Oh, thank you. I lose more things.” She gave a casual laugh and continued on. It was then he noticed the cane in her other hand.

  “Do you need an arm to get on the plane?”

  She smiled at him, though her eyes were shielded behind big sunglasses. “Are you a nice man or do you feel sorry for me?”

  That was quite a question, he thought. “Well, I’d like to think it was because I was raised right.”

  “You’re from the South.” She thought a moment. “Tennessee?”

  “Yes. Born and raised in Nashville.”

  She leaned in closer to him. “I guessed from your accent and since we’re getting on a flight bound that way.”

  He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Offer still holds.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “I’m Tyler. Tyler Benson.”

  “Courtney Field and, Mr. Benson, I’d love to have you guide me if you don’t mind.”

  “It would be my pleasure.”

  He let her take his arm, though she didn’t interlock elbows, instead she held the back of his arm just above his elbow.

  When they approached the door, Courtney held out her ticket and the woman scanned it and placed the stub back in her hand. She then did the same for Tyler.

  Once checked in, they walked down the jet bridge.

  “Do you travel a lot, Mr. Benson?”

  “It’s Tyler, and I’ve been doing my fair share the past few years. How about you?”

  “I’ve been seeing the world, though not intentionally. So yes, I travel quite a bit. But this is a special trip back home.”

  He desperately wanted to ask her why she said she’d been seeing the world. Could she see? Was it just a figure of speech?

  “Hello, Ms. Field.” The stewardess greeted her as they walked on board.

  “Celia.” Courtney smiled, having obviously recognized the woman’s voice. “I didn’t expect you on this flight.”

  “I’m state side now.” Celia took Courtney’s hand which still held her cane and patted it. “I’ve heard we have your brother on board,” she said softly.

  Courtney nodded. “Finally.”

  “Your family has been in my thoughts for a long time.”

  “Thank you,” Courtney said. “Oh, Celia, this is Tyler. My arm candy for the walk down the jet way.”

  Celia looked at Tyler and then back at Courtney. “I thought you had an escort.”

  “It’s always good to make a new friend. How’s he look?”<
br />
  Celia scanned another look over him. “You did good.”

  Tyler forced a smile. “Thank you?”

  Celia laughed. “Courtney, can I help you find your seat?”

  “If you don’t mind, I’ll use my arm candy.”

  Tyler looked at her ticket. “You’re in 3A.”

  “Yep, that sounds right. Where are you?”

  “I’m in 4F.”

  “You like the window too?”

  “Luck of the draw really.”

  Courtney stopped and turned back to Celia. “Can you see if you can arrange my escort to trade to 4F?”

  The smile on Celia’s face and the look she casually gave to Tyler made him a little nervous. His good deed had warranted him a seat change?

  “Do you mind sitting by me on the flight? I could use some good company,” Courtney asked.

  Tyler thought about the past three years and wondered if he could be good company. But, like he’d told her before, he’d been raised right. And if the woman wanted to sit by him who was he to turn her down?

  “If the other passenger doesn’t mind changing, I’d be happy to switch.”

  “I still like the window. I hope that’s okay,” she said as she walked toward her seat.

  Once they were seated, Courtney turned to him. “Thank you for picking up my scarf.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Thanks for keeping me company. This trip home is a hard one and it’ll be nice to have a handsome man to talk to.”

  He wondered what made her trip so hard, besides the obvious hindrance of not being able to see the world around her.

  “How do you know I’m so handsome? Celia might have been lying to you.”

  She smiled. “Oh, I can tell you’re handsome. And you’re not married. I would guess you’re in your mid to late twenties. You were well educated. You’re about six-two. And you have blue eyes.”

  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 be
t 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.”

  “I would guess your favorite color would be blue.”

  “Like my eyes.”

  On a laugh she said, “Yes, just like that.”

  “Why blue?”

  “Because you’re easy and cool.”

  “Cool?” That had actually made his voice rise. “Oh, I don’t know about that.”

  “You are. You’re cool with people. Not as like your cold to them, you’re cool around them. They don’t ruffle your feathers too much.”

  “Around strangers I suppose.”

  “But around family?”

  She felt the seat next to her bounce a bit. That had hit a nerve.

  It took a moment, but she heard him take the breath to tell her about his family.

  “I have a wonderful family. But I’ve been on a bit of a self-exploration of sorts for the past few years.”

  Courtney nodded. “You needed to find yourself?”

  “Yes,” he said with an excited pitch to his voice as if she understood exactly what he meant. And didn’t she? Hadn’t she been doing much of the same herself?

  “What made you decide you needed to find yourself? Was your college major not what you thought it would be?”

  He laughed. “No. I found out I had a relative I didn’t know about.”

  Courtney tucked her hair behind her ear casually. “That could be very broad. You have a cousin you’d never met?”

  “A sister.”

  “Now that is a bit more intriguing.”

  “I suppose. She’s wonderful actually. The last time I was back in Nashville was for her wedding.”