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?”

“We’ve discussed it.”

“So this is already done? You’re here to show off your manners?”

Now Tyler’s palms were sweaty too. “Sir, I think it is very important to have the family’s blessing for such things. We have discussed getting married, but I’d like to propose to her and make it very special.”

“When do you want to do this?”

“At the Diamond Gift gala, sir.”

Michael Field nodded slowly. “Her mother mentioned that we were attending.”

“Yes.”

“Courtney isn’t going to be the easiest wife, you know. She will always need someone to watch after her.”

“Sir, I’m aware of the limitations she has, but I also see the fierce independence she has as well. I don’t see her blindness as any kind of curse and neither does she.”

“Fitz did,” he said very sternly.

“I’m sorry he felt that way. I know he felt some guilt over it. But she doesn’t see it like that. And her blindness doesn’t affect me and it does little to detour her.”

“Children. How will she care for children?”

“I think she’ll care for them just fine. She does remarkably wonderful around my niece.”

Michael Field nodded slowly.

“You’ve only known her a few months. How can you make a lifetime worth of assumption in a few months?”

“With all due respect sir, I think I knew in the first week this is what I wanted. I love your daughter very much.”

Courtney’s father picked up a glass of lemonade and sipped it slow, keeping a steady eye on Tyler the entire time.

“A lesser man would have bought her a gold band since she can’t see the shimmer and beauty in the one you showed me.”

“She sees more than we do. She’s certainly taught me that.”

Michael Field stood and Tyler followed. It was now that he realized what an enormous stature he had and how small and weak Tyler must look to him.

Courtney’s father held out his hand to Tyler. “It takes quite a man to see those qualities in a woman, sighted or not. You have my blessing.”

Tyler shook Michael Field’s hand and hoped that he wasn’t too zealous or nervous when he thanked him sincerely for everything.