Tyler shrugged. “Not to hear her talk about it. I mean, she wouldn’t have wished it on herself, but she’s no less a person because of it.”

“She’s beautiful and she fits in well. I’d say you did good.”

“She did good. She made a move on me.” He laughed. “I smelled good.”

Ed chuckled too. “You’re in love with her.”

Tyler looked up from his beer. “Completely.” He took a sip and then let out a long breath. “I’m not dumb though. I know she has a lot of healing to do over her brother. But after I met her, I had a renewed sense of what I was supposed to do. I drove right here to see my mom and Darcy last week. And when I came to see you all about a job—suddenly I knew that wasn’t what I wanted.”

Ed rested his hand on Tyler’s shoulder. “She’s good for you. And I think you’ll be good for her too. C’mon, let’s get this in the house.”

They each picked up a handle of the cooler and carried it back to the house where Tyler could hear laughter flow—specifically Courtney’s.

He and Ed set the cooler by the back door. One thing about her not seeing him in the kitchen was it didn’t distract her from her conversation. Avery had exchanged seats with Christian’s wife Tori. They were holding hands, heads nearly pressed together, and they were talking. There were tears. There were smiles. There were laughs.

Ed had been right. They would connect and it seemed to be good for both of them. How amazing was this family? He should have remembered how amazing they were. They had already taken Courtney under wing and embraced her. Wouldn’t they have done that for him too? He’d isolated himself over his mother’s confessions. He’d let himself cut off his entire existence from what he’d known.

Guilt threatened to choke him. Not once had he taken the time to think about what she’d gone through before he selfishly took himself out of the picture and decided he needed time to process what his mother had done—to him.

A bead of sweat formed on his brow and he quickly wiped it away. What could she possibly have had to endure to give away a child?

As Courtney’s laughter rang out, it pulled him from his spiral of pity. It was his mother now seated next to her where Simone had been. She was leaned in close to her and each of them wore a smile that turned their cheeks high and their eyes bright.

Courtney was right. She didn’t look blind. Her eyes danced on the story his mother told her and her laughter only brightened them. He reminded himself that only a week ago she’d been on an airplane that carried the body of her brother and yet here she was laughing and enjoying the life she had.

It was quite obvious that Courtney no longer feared his mother.

Spencer moved in next to Tyler, opened the cooler, and retrieved a beer. He twisted off the top and nudged his brother.

“Is it a sign when your mother takes to your girlfriend like that?”

Tyler shrugged. “I never really brought anyone home to her before. Not anyone of significance.”

Spencer laughed. “Tonya Kincade.”

That caused Tyler to snort a laugh. “You thought that was significant?”

“I did. What were you, seventeen? So I was sixteen?”

“Yeah, so?”

“So,” Spencer drew out the word as he drummed his fingers against the bottle of his beer. “She was about a foot taller than you and was very well endowed.”

“You’re a pig,” Tyler joked as he pulled from his beer. “But you’re right. If I remember correctly that was all she had going for her.”

“Maybe at the time.”

Tyler turned and looked at his brother who swept his dark hair back with a shake of his head.

“She’s not as dim as I think she was?”

Spencer laughed. “Dr. Kincade. Okay, she’s not a doctor yet, but she’s in med school. Uncle Curtis told me he’d run into her. Pediatrics.”

“Good for her.” Tyler meant it. He didn’t really remember much about her, but he did remember her taking a very long time to understand that he wanted more than star gazing in the back of his car.

He thought about that for a moment. Maybe she wasn’t so dim. Somehow, he remembered, that very endowed young woman took their conversation and hungry kisses down another path, so to speak. By the end of the night he hadn’t done more than kiss her, her virginity and his were both intact, and he’d gone home not even upset that she’d led him on and he’d gone home without any kind of manly reward.

It had been a long time since he’d thought about her or any other woman for that matter. And wasn’t it interesting that as he stood there listening to his lover’s laugh mix with his mother’s, he realized this was a memory he’d keep.

“So you’re working with Simone now, huh?” Spencer asked.

Tyler nodded, breaking thoughts that had kept him silent for a moment. “Feels like the right thing to me.”

“Good. You’d be in my way anyway.” Spencer smiled behind his bottle as he sipped his beer.

Tyler laughed. Could they be more different? His hair was light, Spencer’s was dark like their mother’s. Tyler’s eyes were blue. Spencer’s were brown. A year in age separated them and about four inches in height, in Tyler’s favor.

Spencer had a mind for business and Tyler’s mind tended to wander.

At the moment it wandered back to Courtney who was now engaged in a conversation with his grandmother who had taken a seat at the small table across from her.

“Where all have you lived?” His grandmother’s voice shook with her many years.

“Oh,” Courtney pushed back her shoulders and considered. “Germany, Japan, a short time in England, and a few weeks in Italy.”

“A few weeks?”

“Yes. About the time we got settled they decided to send us back to the States.”

“It’s been a lifetime since I’ve been to Europe.” His grandmother sighed. “I’m happy to have those memories.”

“As am I,” Courtney said.

“Have you always been without your sight?” His grandmother asked and it seemed as though the room stilled.

Tyler took one step toward the table when he noticed Courtney’s smile. “No. I was eight. I can remember colors and un-aged faces. My last visual memory is of my brother. He was four and we’d picked my mother a bouquet of wild daises.”