The tears started again. “You forgive me?”
“I did that the moment I learned about it. I had to learn to forgive myself for what I felt about it.”
She pulled him back into her arms. “I’m glad you’re home.”
He noticed his brother and sister standing in the doorway to the kitchen. Spencer had his arm around Darcy’s shoulders and she sobbed.
As his mother pulled back he went to them. These were the two people he shared his blood with and he had abandoned them.
Tyler was immediately pulled into their embrace.
“I let you guys down. I’m sorry. I want to make it up to you.”
He could feel Darcy sob, just as their mother had, and even Spencer sniffed back tears.
Darcy stepped back and looked at him. “We have time. We have all the time in the world to get to know each other.”
“You didn’t deserve this from me. I shouldn’t have left.”
“You needed to do what was in your heart to make it all okay. But you standing here in my house makes me think that perhaps you’ve made amends with it all.”
“I think I have.”
The house seemed smaller with so many people there. The dining room table had been extended and two more card tables added. His grandmother and grandfather sat where they had all the years he’d grown up eating family dinners there.
Though they’d asked about what he’d done while he wasn’t in Nashville, they didn’t focus on him the entire time and that made him more comfortable. He supposed in time they’d all corner him and ask him about his years away. But for now he was just happy to be surrounded by them.
Uncle John passed the basket of rolls to Tyler. “Do you need a place?” he asked.
“I guess I do. I have a room reserved at a hotel for tonight…”
“You what?” His mother’s voice broke as she questioned his plans. “You never have to do that when you’re in town. For the night or permanently.”
His father rested his hand over his mother’s.
“I know, Mom,” he said softly. “This was hard. I needed a night to think.”
Spencer laughed. “You needed a night to think and you came here?”
Tyler swallowed hard. “Well, I’d forgotten about dinner on Sundays. I came directly here to see Darcy.”
Darcy pursed her lips and batted her moist eyes. “You know, Tyler, I have some wine chilling in the refrigerator out back in the garage. Why don’t you go with me and we’ll bring it in.”
She stood from the table as everyone watched. Then, their eyes turned toward him. He stood and followed her to the kitchen and out the back door.
When he reached her she was on the back step taking a deep breath of the air he’d missed so much. She didn’t turn to him.
“Why did you come here first?” she asked.
“You’re my sister and I forgot to embrace what a wonderful thing that is.”
She turned now, her eyes shimmering from lingering tears in the low light of dusk. “You’re okay with that now?”
Tyler nodded. “What my mother—our mother—went through was horrible. She did what she did to protect you. She didn’t say anything to the rest of us to do the same.”
Darcy reached out a hand to him and he took it. “I love you and Spencer. When I fell in love with Ed, I thought I’d never need to find my birth mother. I thought that my entire life had become whole when I landed in this family. And to find out I belonged,” she sighed. “You can’t imagine what that did for me.”
“You do belong.”
“And so do you. It hurt when you left. It hurt Regan and Zach. Spencer has been lost…”
“And you?”
She batted her eyes quickly. “It hurt, Tyler. You hurt me by leaving.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You had to do it. I get it. But I felt as though just as I was finding my family I cost you yours. That’s a heavy burden to have carried for these past few years.”
Tyler pulled Darcy into his arms and held her against him. “I’m sorry I hurt you. I’ll never do it again.” He pulled her back at arm’s length and looked her in the eyes. “I came here first because I knew my mother and father would forgive me. I needed to make sure you would.”
She dropped her shoulders. “Tyler, there was nothing to forgive.” Darcy pulled him back to her and held him tight. “But I’m glad you’re home.”
“So am I,” he said as his phone vibrated in his pocket and Darcy jumped back laughing.
“Word is out, huh? Everyone is looking for you now?”
He looked at the screen and smiled. “This is a woman I met on the plane.”
Darcy laughed as she walked toward the detached garage and he followed. “You’re picking up women?”
“She was escorting her brother home. His final trip home,” he said softly.
Darcy turned. “He was…”
“A soldier. Killed in combat.”
Darcy covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh, Tyler…”
“She’s something too. Her name is Courtney. You’d like her.”
She watched him carefully and then dropped her hands. “You like this woman.”
“I do.” He looked down at his phone. “She just texted me the information for his funeral.”
“Are you going to go?” She began walking again with him following.
“I don’t know. I just met her. Isn’t that a little…”
“Wonderful.” She pushed open the door. “Tyler, she’s asking you to be there. That means she needs your comfort.”
That did something funny to his heart rate. “You think I should go?”
“I do,” she said as she opened the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of wine. “I’d be happy to go with you if you’d like.”
Tyler slid his phone back into his pocket and took the bottles from her. “No, but thank you. I’ll sleep on it and then decide.”
“You’d better sleep on it at Regan’s. If you sleep in a hotel tonight, she might banish you for good.”
He knew that was truth enough.
As they walked back to the house he thought of Courtney. He and Darcy seemed to have mended their very brief but important relationship. Courtney had lost that relationship when her brother died.