“I couldn’t stand to be there any longer. We said goodbye to Fitz. I listened to everyone mumble about how sad it was. He was too young. He was a good solider. You would miss him but it was a sacrifice for the country.” She was gripping the mug now. “And I was tired of hearing the whispers about how well I was doing despite my short comings.”

“No one said that,” her mother argued.

“I heard them, Mother. I can’t see them hide their lips behind their hands. I hear their petty little voices.”

She could hear her mother sip her coffee and then set the mug on the table. “I just think it was inconsiderate of you to leave with a man during the reception. Do you know how that looks?”

“Like I needed some space? My brother was buried yesterday, Mother. My only brother.”

Her mother clucked her tongue. “You’ll need to move back home.”

Courtney set her mug on the counter and fisted her hands on her hips. “I am almost twenty-five years old. I will be just fine here.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Without Fitz here…”

“Mother, Fitz was never here. He probably slept in that bed twenty times in the last year. I’ve lived here myself all that time.”

Her mother’s fingers drummed on the table. “And now you have men staying here.”

Courtney grit her teeth together. “That’s not what happened.”

“That’s how it looked. And you should see you. Your shirt is on backward.”

She hated when her mother said it like that instead of nicely telling her. It didn’t happen often, but she’d been in a hurry.

Courtney picked up her coffee and walked to the table where she sat down across from her mother.

“Tyler was kind enough to drive me home after we took a drive.”

“A drive. You let a man you don’t know just drive you around?”

Courtney let the smile settle on her lips and she was sure it would drive her mother mad. “He took me to his grandmother’s house and introduced me.”

She could feel the tension begin to dissolve. “He took you to meet his grandmother?”

“Yes. She doesn’t live far from you. Audrey Benson. She’s a very nice woman. We had iced tea on her patio, walked through her rose garden, and went to the stables to meet the horses.”

That made her mother tense. “I don’t like you around horses. You know that.”

“One mistake. One misfortune. I’m not going to deny myself the pleasures of horses.”

“Courtney,” her mother’s voice went soft. “Aren’t you afraid?”

“Of horses? No.”

“Of anything?”

The only thing Courtney was afraid of was becoming petty like her mother. That wasn’t even fair, she thought as she took a sip of her coffee. Her mother was a kind woman who just needed a lot of attention. Fitz would give that to her. Her father would play it off as a disease. And her mother would fuss over Courtney when it suited her so that Courtney would give her attention. Other than that, no, Courtney wasn’t afraid of anything.

“It’s a waste of time to be afraid of anything. You have to look at the world each morning and realize it’s a wonder to just have another day.”

Her mother reached across the table and took her hand. “I forget you were born with the overly optimistic gene.”

“Good thing I was. And, Mother, I’m very optimistic about Tyler Benson.”

Her mother tugged her hand back. “I was afraid of that.”

~*~

Tyler pulled into the parking space his brother had left for him. He turned off the car, made sure he had his elevator key, and climbed out. The elevator went straight to his father’s office. Certainly a perk when you owned the entire building, he thought.

Normally he wouldn’t use the entrance. He wasn’t so good that he couldn’t walk through the front doors, but he was running late, he looked like hell, and man he was hungry.

When the elevator door opened, he stepped out into his father’s corner office. It was no surprise there were three smiling faces there to greet him. His father, his brother, and his cousin Ed.

“I owe you five bucks,” Ed said to Spencer. “He did show up.”

Tyler let his shoulders drop. “And you’re all sitting here waiting to see if I’d run, huh?”

“Your reputation precedes you now,” Ed moved toward him and placed his hand on his shoulder. “But it’s good to have you here.”

“Thanks.”

His father, who was leaned up against his desk, stood and looked at him. He’d heard it his whole life, “You look just like your father.” Looking at him now, he realized that in forty some years he’d be just as distinguished. At sixty-four, his father was a fit and nice looking man. And, from the photographs he’d seen, he looked just like his father Tyler Benson, whom Tyler was named for.

“Why don’t you two give me and Tyler a few minutes together?”

“Sure,” Spencer said. “Just don’t promote him to C.E.O. There is a whole initiation that has to happen. We don’t have his underwear to hang from the flag pole yet.”

Spencer and Ed chuckled as they walked toward the door. “Is hazing still out?” Ed asked as they walked out of the office.

“They’re going to give you a hard time, but they’re glad you’re home,” Tyler’s father said.

“I don’t know that I belong here.” The words had come quickly and they weren’t meant to hurt, but he’d seen his father’s posture stiffen.

Zach Benson could keep his cool and he did. He’d only nodded, smiled, and then led Tyler to the couch in the office to sit.

“If your mother heard you say you don’t belong here, it would break her heart.”

“Dad, I mean in the company. I know I belong in Nashville.”

His father’s shoulders softened and he relaxed back on the couch. “Now we’re making progress. What are your hesitations about being part of BBH?”

Where did he start? He didn’t like nepotism. He didn’t like big corporations. He’d seen enough poverty over the past three years he figured there was something he could do to change the world. The list went on and on.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that Spencer is cut out for all of this, just as Ed was. I’m not, Dad.”