A Fire That Burns (31 page)

“Long naps,” Michael cut in and watched Austin burst out laughing.

“Ah, she subjected you to them too then?” Tyler asked and watched Austin
before looking at Michael. “Did she give you the whole
‘Just resting my eyes
for five minutes and we’ll be peachy’
statement?”

Michael nodded, chuckling away, “Oh yeah, and the ‘
Micro naps are
healthy’
one, except she never did a micro nap because I don’ think three
hours at a time classes as micro.”

“
Naps
are healthy though,” Austin cut in as she watched Tyler and
Michael work towards conjuring up secrets that both had experienced. “Believe
me; I will graciously take multiple naps while you two are on Austin watch.”
She watched them both begin to make a comment, “And I bet my next income on a
computer system that my technically magical fingers make that you both will
join me every single time!”

Neither said a word, both exchanged wayward looks before looking back at
Austin.

“You both are so scarily alike at times it’s unreal! I can read you
easier than I read a book sometimes,” she teased them and grinned at them.

“Yup, she’s all set for an amazing recovery now,” Tom chimed as he
walked into the room to see Tyler and Michael sitting on either side of the bed
at Austin’s feet. “We get to take her home within the next three, four days.”

“Her?” Austin asked with a cocked brow. “I lose a name now? Is this the
new hospital bedside manner doctors have to offer?”

“Patient-doctor confidentiality and all that jazz,
Aust
,”
Tom teased her even more with a smirk. “If it makes you feel any better you’ll
be home before next Monday.”

“That does make this seem less crappy,” Austin optimized happily as she
thought ahead to
getting
out of here. “And what’s the
protocol for recovery this time around?”

“A simple, stress free recovery,” Tom said,
then
gave both men a careful glare as he dabbled with the next subject matter. As
much as Austin was sure it was over, he wasn’t so sure that a man would just
lay
down and get over loving a woman. So he was the cautious
part of Austin’s brain for her. “I’ve
gotta
ask,” Tom
began and he sat at the bottom of the bed. “Is everything okay between this
trio
? Or do I have to worry about pulling apart fights and
watching my little sister flee said fights?

“No, I think we’re all good,” Tyler said and looked to Michael who
agreed profusely.

“I’m just the buffer,” Michael said almost proudly. “I’m the one that’s
going to make sure her and Tyler don’t repeat history.”

“Oh believe me, I lost her once, I don’t plan on repeating it,” Tyler
announced as he sat up straight to make sure they got the idea. There was no
way he was going to let history have the opportunity to repeat itself. He had
lost her for six years; he wasn’t going to lose her for another
moment
 
–
or for a
lifetime.

    
As she
listened, Austin was reassured her life was finally getting back to normal. For
that, she couldn’t be happier to realize that both her
favorite
men were here to stick by her side for the right reasons and for the right path
to loving her.

Chapter Fifty-Five

“THIS
-is-the-life,” Austin
mused as she relaxed into the sun lounger in her parents’ back yard. In a
whirlwind three days she had come on leaps and bounds and actually taken her
recovery seriously and forgot about her drive for independence. Now with Tyler
currently at work, Austin knew she wasn’t needed for any form of over exertion,
so she spent her first day just relaxing with Michael.

“You’re telling me?” Michael quipped, “If I could, I would give up work
and do this for a lifetime.”

Austin giggled a little, “Get a decent talent like mine and you can,
Mikey
.”

“Hey!” Michael chided her with an amused grin that took away his hurt.

“Aussie,” Jane called out as she interrupted the pair. “You’re needed,”
Jane said as she came out with Nicolas behind her.

“I am?” Austin asked as she sat up a little with anticipation. She
looked up at her father as he came and put his hand out of her.

“You’ll like what you’re needed for, Kiddo,” Nicolas told her as she
took his hand with no hesitation.

“What is it I’m needed for exactly?” Austin asked as she was helped to
stand by her father. “Where are we going?” No one said anything as she was led
around outside and she continued to press and ponder, but got nowhere.

Everyone just walked.

Austin was getting agitated, “Guys, seriously. What is it I’m needed
for?”

“This,” Nicolas told her and then let her hand go and stepped back so
that Austin was left to marvel at the sight before her.

Austin looked up at the house, her eyes welling as all of a sudden it
was some grand masterpiece, not a magnificent framework. The house now had
walls, windows, and doorways. It now had character and poise and it screamed at
them that it was unique.

It was her and Tyler’s idea of a family home.

As that connotation hit her, she bit her lip and felt her emotions
cripple her. This house had been built up in haste beforehand, but after the
fire, it was really taking shape quicker than she had ever anticipated and she
never thought she would see it this perfect in such a short amount of time.

“Hey Baby!” Tyler said as he ran down from the house.
“Surprise!”

“You’re supposed to be
working
,” Austin chided him tearfully, the
shock still pumping in her veins. “Not building our dream home.”

Tyler turned to her with bright smile, “That is working in my eyes, Aussie.”
Tyler told her and then smirked, “Now, before I have to see Miss Impatient came
out to play, I best give you a grand tour so that you know exactly what is
needed of you.”

“Can’t you just tell me?” Austin asked as her shock refused to subside.
“I mean, isn’t that easier to do?”

Shaking his head, he spoke to her; “Na uh, Baby Girl. Some things are
better shown than told.”

“
Gonna
show me then?” Austin quipped
intrigued.

“Of course,” Tyler told her and put his hand out to her and then whisked
her away.

Austin knew this had to be good as she looked over her shoulder and saw
everyone smiling. Looking back, she didn’t think she would be back in this
house so soon, but she was, and she was excited to see the new layout, the new
future.

They seemed to bypass rooms, Tyler pointing out the work that had
happened, the plans that were in action, but he seemed to rush through them,
implying that the importance was situated upstairs. It wasn’t until she finally
stopped that she realized just how fast tracked the progress of this house was.

Standing in the room, Austin’s eyes watered heavily and she looked
around at the detail. Out of all the rooms completed, Tyler had finished and
furnished the bedroom wholly and it now stood in its full glory.

This was how she had always dreamt it to be - spacious and comforting;
bright and airy; quaint and
colorful
. Everything and
nothing combined in unison to create solid perfection. The walls of the room
were pale and neutral, but the grand bed – one that had only been in her dreams
– was covered in sheets that added
color
, pillows and
cushions piling on the bed in reds and purples; blues and yellows. The
magnificent white dresser sat opposite the bed, with the door to a walk in
closet directly next to it. The large mirror above the dresser added to making
the room grow and the large bay window only added to the room feeling like
something from a distant fairytale fantasy.

“This room, Sunny, is exactly how we dreamt it,” Tyler told her as he
let her hand go and walked into the room. “Think of all the mornings waking up
in here.
The big bed, the open windows, the light.
It
is exactly how we dreamt it to be, Baby! Exactly how you had told me you wanted
it. How I told you I wanted it. This is reality now!”

As she watched Tyler walk to the bay window area, his arms stretched as
he persisted to show her the grand scheme of the house.
His
ideas slotting in with hers perfectly.
All of their old plans coming
alive, because after all, this room was exactly how they had imagined it to be
the night they had laid in Point Arena Cove after they had decided to buy up
and make this their dream house.

Dreams were always a reality whenever she was around Tyler, and it
seemed that after growing up knowing that, she finally had it back.

It was hers to keep.
No one else’s.
All hers.

Except now that concept of reality was by far a lot scarier than it had
ever been.

“Tyler,” Austin called out, her stomach becoming an unsettled mess as
the butterflies fought the feelings of anxiety snaking around her body.
Realization hitting her harder than ever before.

“You okay, Baby?” Tyler asked as he came to stand in front of her.

Without any shift in her emotional battle, Austin just spoke: “I want to
marry you,” Austin said as she turned to Tyler. Her face was drawn with how
serious she was feeling
,
there was no joke to it, no
signs of a lie, just pure truth.

However, she was met with stunned silence and the look on Tyler’s face
could be described as nothing less than pure fear.

Austin’s stomach churned with regret.

   
Fuck!

Chapter Fifty-Six

“JOKING!”
Austin tried to say
as she felt the lump in her throat expand. She could feel herself beginning to
tear up over what she had just done. It was an immediate impulse to this moment
- knee jerk even.

Stupid, Austin, stupid!

Austin took in Tyler’s shocked expression as it remained unchanged and
her heart beat was slowly picking up, “I was joking, Ty. We’re not ready for
that.”

She knew it was a half truth, because at that moment, she believed that
she and Tyler could jump a few steps in this relationship and they would
survive. Especially seeing how they were forced apart years before. They didn’t
break up because of an argument, or because of mutual feelings. They were
forced apart, but right now all she could do was laugh. Laugh nervously in a
bid to hide the fact that she was ready to cry at what damage she had just
brought down on them.

Tyler felt his heart balloon, that sentence had sealed Austin’s heart in
his hand forever. He owned that one single muscle and he knew that for the rest
of forever he would look after it and cherish it for the fragile, precious,
loving thing it was.

Going towards her, he grabbed her gently and kissed her heavily.
Allowing the passion and want to travel from his lips to hers and he just
carried it going until he was ready to take her joke and make it a truth.

Pulling apart breathless, he looked at her intently. “I was ready for
that the moment you came back to town,” Tyler told her and his expression broke
into a grin.

“Really?”
Austin asked him meekly and doubtfully.

“Really,” he told her as a tear dropped from the corner of her eye left
eye. “Why are you crying, Sunny?” Tyler asked as they separated and he could
see how glassy her eyes had become and how ready she was to break.

“I thought I had just screwed up,” Austin admitted to him sorrowfully.
“I don’t want to screw this up, not when it’s the best thing to happen in so
long.”

Tyler’s heart slowed its beating as he realized that Austin had gone without
so much, but now she had it all back, she didn’t want to lose it. “Can I tell
you something?” he asked her lightly.

“What?” Austin questioned as she could feel the overwhelming sincerity
filling the air.

“When I saw you in the hospital after the fire, I have never felt so
useless,” Tyler started to tell her. “Then when you started to get panicky and
Tom had to step in, there was so much jealousy in me for him being the one to
calm you down. I wanted so much to just step in, wrap my arms around you and
make everything better, but I knew that I couldn’t just do that, and it was
like the six years of us being apart attacked me. I never want to have to feel
like I can’t help you and that I don’t have the right to help you.” He ran his
hand up the side of her face as she looked at him intensely, “I want to be the
only person that can calm you when you’re hurt, be your support when you feel
lost and I want to be the one that catches you every time you fall.”

“Believe me, Tyler, since the fire, you have caught me repetitively, but
that night so many people came back to me – my mom, my brothers - that having
you as well felt too unreal. I mean why would you ever love me when you
believed that I had purposefully hurt Natasha? I didn’t blame you for hating me
because she put on a convincing charade. Even I was starting to believe it,”
Austin scoffed at him. “Had that night not happened, I would have watched my
own worse nightmare happen, so I’m glad that fire happened.”

“I’m not,” Tyler replied lightly, “You got hurt, badly hurt.”

“But I got you back,” Austin retorted truthfully and smiled as his thumb
ran across her cheek. “You came back to me and proved who you really loved.”

“It’s always been you,” Tyler said and leaned down to kiss her. “Even
Natasha knew that which was why she did what she did. I don’t intend to love a
fool anymore. I plan to love you and only you.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” she said and reached up to kiss him.
Everything that had happened – the six year separation, Natasha, the fire –
seemed so insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

This was how both their lives were supposed to end up.

***

Going back out into the warm air, Austin could see her
family and Michael still waiting, this time with Tanya discussing something
with her mom. She squeezed Tyler’ hand excited and felt a whole new spring in
her step.
A bounce that had been lost years ago from her
spirit.

Now, however, it was more than a little back and she was excited for it
to stay where it was.

“What took you so long?” Tom asked as he looked at the newfound feeling
surrounding the pair. “We were going to come looking, but Dean didn’t think it
would be safe.”

“It was all PG rated,” Austin teased back animatedly.

Laughing Tom crooked an eyebrow and looked at Michael, “Austin Pearson
version or otherwise?”

“That you’ll never know, big brother,” Austin replied satisfied with
being able to tease her brother so.

“What are you hiding from us?” Michael asked
,
he knew the look she was giving him. He had been on the receiving end of it when
she found something juicy at work or when she was after something.

Looking at Tyler, he chuckled as Austin gave him an expectant look, “Go
for it, Aussie.”

Swinging her body side to side with mounting excitement, she looked at
everyone as her smile grew. “We might just be engaged,” Austin admitted as she
scrunched her face up with excited happiness.

“What?” Everyone gasped together.

“She asked me and freaked, and well, let’s just say, she’s going to get
a proper proposal, but we’re back to where we were years ago,” Tyler said as he
put his arm around her side and pulled her close to him. “Although this time, I
intend to see it through to the marriage license.”

“I guess we best have some congratulation drinks later,” Jane announced
proudly. She had seen her daughters’ happiness grow in leaps and bounds, but
now she could see it solidifying and with it, she could see the true Tyler was
back with them.

It was like seeing a spell – or a curse! – broken at long last.

    
Even
Michael couldn’t mistake that, for once, the smile on Austin’s face was one
that could ignite the sun if it were to burn out. He would never be jealous of
losing her to Tyler now.