A Fire That Burns (33 page)

“I’d rather that, than you treat me like a china doll,” she reprimanded
him sternly, “I’m not fragile, Ty, I’m not going to break on you!” she chided
him, and took his hands to continue dancing. “See,” she started, “I’m fine and
I want to enjoy my birthday with you.”

“Can I give you one last present?” Tyler asked her, knowing how to make
her enjoy the moment even more.

Austin tilted her head to the side, “I think you already gave me enough,
T.”

Tyler shook his head, “Can I give you one last present?” he asked her
again and smiled, “Or, well, propose something?”

“Hmm, seeing as we’re already engaged, I would say go for it and propose
something else,” Austin answered intrigued and wanted to know exactly what he
had up his sleeve.

Chuckling, he stilled their dancing, “Would you marry me within the next
few weeks? I mean, without any planning, except for what I have already
planned,” Tyler asked her simply. He didn’t want to be seen as cocky, but he
had arranged for this to happen on her birthday, for him to be able to tell her
he had set a date.

“Yes,” Austin whispered back at him, “In a heartbeat.”

“Good, because our first night as newlyweds will be in our new house,
and it’s
all
happening two weeks from tonight,” Tyler told her with a
sense of glee, and his eyes showed her what exactly was going to roll out. They
still had six years of loving to make up, for and if they were newlyweds, then
the passion was going to be explosive. Babies could wait; this was a time for
them.

    
Now Austin
was truly happy for ever coming home.

Chapter Fifty-Nine

BITTERNESS
tore her to shreds.
She should be married right now. She should be Mrs. Austin Armstrong, and her life
should make sense. However, she wasn’t married and the day Tyler had promised
to make her a wedded woman had come and gone. Four days ago she should’ve had
that idealistic wedding he had planned, and yet, Tyler was nowhere in sight,
and hadn’t been for the most part of those four days.

It did nothing to settle her mind when he came home late at night and
fell right to sleep. He missed mealtimes, he texted to say he was working a
case brought to his desk. The doubts began to bubble up within her and tear her
soul to shreds.

At first she believed it was her – after all, she wasn’t exactly
aesthetically beautiful anymore. Her physical appearance damaged and scarred on
one-half, perfect on the other. Maybe Tyler couldn’t deal with that and the
memories it relinquished upon them. Maybe she wasn’t enough. Maybe she was too
much. Maybe he did it all out of pity.

Austin didn’t want to live like this, with this feeling, but she
couldn’t help it. Left alone in their new home wasn’t easy on her in daylight
hours, but in the middle of the night, when she lay awake, she couldn’t stop
herself from hating that her wedding day had vanished with just one phone call.

The biggest shock, in actual fact, was the day before her supposed
wedding day. After constant complaints regarding her health the previous two
weeks, Tom had spoken up, and worried that her fatigue and sickness was more to
do with her body rejecting the skin grafts again than anything else. In a
panic, he had joined her at the hospital when Tyler had been called to work. He
had stuck by her side like he had when she was nineteen, and like he had in the
aftermath of the fire. It seemed he was not just her big brother, but always
her hero.

He didn’t even leave her side when she was ushered into a room and was
seen to by the medical staff. After having blood drawn and her burns inspected,
she found out her wounds were perfectly healthy. However, she was in fact
pregnant – regardless of the pregnancy tests she had taken. After an
ultrasound, the doctor estimated she had conceived the day in the house when
she and Tyler had given to passion. Tyler had told her to forget about that
day, about their moment of lust, and she had. Now it was all she could
remember. Austin remembered the pipe spraying water, them both getting entirely
soaked, their moment of laughter leading into a moment of love that ended with
regret.

That day had given her life, and even as she looked down at her stomach,
she was amazed she wasn’t showing more than she thought she would. Apparently
the stress upon her body was having an adverse effect and the doctor admitted
she might barely show at all. He had told her it was normal and had even shown
her, her and Tyler’s healthy baby. He had then looked over her chart, trying to
figure out why all the tests ran when she was first admitted to the hospital
after the fire hadn’t shown up a pregnancy. There was no explanation, but with
a healthy baby, Austin had just wanted to go home and tell the man she loved he
was going to be a father. Nothing else mattered in that moment. Why should it?
She was
carry
Tyler’s baby again. This was their
second chance at pure, unadulterated happiness.

Her plan was to tell him on their first night as husband and wife, but
that dream imploded and died when Tyler got sucked into work and had to
postpone the wedding. It had killed Austin, admittedly, but she masked her
emotions, stuck on a smile, and said that they had the rest of their lives to
get married. She didn’t want to tell him in the few minutes they shared during
the day. That wasn’t how a woman told a man she was giving him a family, and
she refused to do it like that when his attention was obviously on something
else. That was her downfall.

Austin Pearson – ever the martyr.

Picking up the dinner plate she had laid out earlier for Tyler, Austin
took the short walk over to the trashcan and pressed her foot onto the pedal to
raise the lid. With a sad sigh she realized only one thing - she was back where
she was seven years ago.

Home alone with a cooked meal on the table, ignored and pregnant.

Apparently that was the story of her life.

To Be Continued...

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My biggest acknowledgement goes to my mum, without who
I wouldn’t have faith in myself to carry on pursuing my dreams. When all else
fails, she is the one on the sidelines of life cheering me on. She’s my hero,
my confidante, and most importantly, she’s my inspiration.

Lee and Darren – the best big brothers a girl could have - who like to
strike up support in their random ways and actually inspire me in every way
possible.

‘
Nou-Nou
’, who makes me a proud granddaughter,
I am never happier than when I know I’ve made you proud, and made you laugh
with my crazy antics.

Dad, for empowering me in ways he wouldn’t understand.

Sukh
, without
you I wouldn’t be able to be ‘me’. You believed in me from day one and have
shared my obsession with writing ever since. You showed support like no other
person.
 
You’ve been my rock and you
embraced my writing when I was scared no one would.

Emma, my first friend I made when I started writing and still one of my
closest friends all these years on. You’ve never changed the way you think of
me, the way you love me and the way you support me. You make me joining the
writing world more worthwhile.

Heather and Amy – without you two I’d have a mess of errors and not a
book!!
 
You’ve kept my sanity in check,
kicked my self-doubts and always been ready to pick me when I needed it.

Beth, my partner in crime, you’ve been a rock helping with formatting,
editing, and loving my book. You’re always there for me, and always ready to
pick me up when I think I’ve hit rock bottom.

Ada
, you’ve
become my little star. I can’t thank you for the belief you have in me but, I
will forever cherish it.

Nicola, Sue,
Steph
, and
Jordyn
– without you I wouldn’t have my sounding boards, my bad idea killers or my
emotional support. You understood the person under the writer far more than
most.

And lastly, I couldn’t forget everyone that saw me for ‘
Kirsty
’ and not my writing
pseudoym
.
You loved my writing first and loved me when you got to know me. You’ve been
there through the new stories, the ‘trolls’, the jokes, and all my sarcastic
randomness.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kirsty
is a twenty-two year old British writer. She
has a degree in Education Studies and a hope to pursue a career working with
disabled children. Writing is a hobby she hopes to continue throughout life.

To learn more about
Kirsty
,
visit-

 
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Kirsty-Anne-Still/524455580934384