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  Austin rested her head against Tyler’s chest and smiled, ignoring her brother. “How was she?”

  “Well,” he started and looked at his niece as she looked at him and stuck her tongue out at him. He looked back at Austin and Tyler and just couldn’t resist laughing, “That’s how she’s been.” He looked back to his niece. “You’ve been a little terror haven’t you, Gracie?”

  “No!” Grace shouted and shook her head, giggling along with it. “No, no, no! Imma good girl!”

  “Not when you’re keeping your mama up,” Tyler said as he went over and took his daughter from her uncle’s safe arms.

  “We pwayed pwincesses!” Grace smiled from ear to ear as she told her father proudly. “You tomorrow daddy?”

  “Oh no,” Tyler shook his head. “Tonight you’re sleeping or we don’t go to the park tomorrow.” He watched as Grace’s eyes went wide, her mouth slacking some as she just stared at him in horror. For a little girl, her dramatics were spot on. “Now what do you say, baby, do you want a whole day at the park or sitting here doing nothing?”

  Grace’s face transformed into mischievous grin and she couldn’t withhold on her excitement. “Park!”

  “Seems the little one’s spoken,” Austin laughed at her daughter and husband. “Now, Gracie, take daddy outside and keep him busy. Uncle Tommy and I have things to do.”

  “Oka, mommy!” The exclamation was full of excitement and she just allowed her father to carry her outside.

  “Want a beer?” Austin asked her brother who just nodded. She grabbed a bottle of water for herself and handed him his beer. “I say we go outside before we have to get things really ready for dinner.”

  “I’ll be out in a moment,” Tom told her, grabbing his cell phone from his pocket. “I just need to call Alice and I’ll follow you.”

  “She best be coming over,” Austin grinned at her brother. She couldn’t deny she loved her sister-in-law as though she were her real sister.

  “That’s what I’m checking on her for.” Tom smirked, and dialled her number. “Go on, I’ll be out in like two seconds.”

  “Okay,” Austin replied and took herself out of the house and onto the decking outside. She ignored the tables and chairs and decided to sit on the steps leading down onto the grass and watched her little family messing around before her.

  It was moments like this she wondered how she got so lucky. After her spate of bad luck, she didn’t know if she was worthy of this life - the life so full of love and happiness. She had no idea how she came to acquire it all, and even though there were parts of her life she was better off forgetting, Austin couldn’t have wished for a better happily ever after.

  “You’re too quiet,” Tom said as he sat down beside her, his beer bottle in hand, a relaxed expression on his face. “What’s happened?”

  Austin had to smile, her brother read her like an open book. “I thought I saw Natasha earlier,” she admitted to her brother and watched as the disbelief washed through his expression. Now he thought she was crazy too. “I know it’s insane, but she’s literally been exploding our mail box with letters to Tyler, and it plays on my mind.”

  “She’s played some really important roles in your life,” Tom comforted her. If anyone, he was the best at understanding his sister’s mentality right now. He looked out at Tyler playing around with Grace, and pointed to them with his beer bottle. “But she had no doing in that.”

  Austin watched Tyler make their daughter giggle out loudly and she felt her eyes water. “It took too long for us to get to this point.” She ran a hand up her arm, tugging on her sleeve to hide the burns down her right arm. She knew no one cared about the scarring, but sometimes she felt raw and vulnerable under their reminders. “I watch her sleeping some nights and wonder what life would have been like had I never lost the first one.”

  “Probably not as formidable,” Tom countered with certainty. “He needed to lose you to realise how much he needed you, and you had to come to find out the same. We’ve been over this for the past several years, Aussie. What happened, well it happened for a reason. However painful it was for us to live through, we did. We all survived and look at us now.”

  “Look at you now, you mean,” she quipped sarcastically. “You turn into a pile of emotional mush when you get a chance.” She laughed but silenced herself into a bright smile, “Thank you.”

  “For what?” he asked her completely confused.

  “For loving me enough to bring me back and remain on my side. You never once believed the rumours or Natasha. You didn’t even turn on me when mom tried.” She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder and watched her husband and daughter, “Without you I wouldn’t have this.”

  “You and Tyler were meant to be, Aussie,” Tom told her and put his arm around her. “Now stop being such an over thinker and get this barbeque going.”

  Hitting her brother as she sat up, she scowled at him playfully and finally took a stand. “You going to get Alice or is she just coming over?”

  “I was going to steal my niece and go and get her,” Tom smiled, “Is that okay?”

  “Go for it,” Austin said as she stood up from the step she and Tom were sat on. “Hey, Ty, Tom wants to take Gracie with him while we get things ready for the party.”

  “Hmm,” Tyler mused as he picked his daughter up, “How do you feel about going off with Uncle Tommy for another adventure, baby girl?”

  “Tommy!” Grace exclaimed excited, and clapped her hands together repetitively.

  “Yeah, it’s just you and I, Gracie-pop,” Tom said he took his niece once again. “Gonna say bye-bye to your mommy and daddy?”

  Gracie nodded, and waved at her parents, giving them her widest toothiest grin possible and allowed her uncle to carry her out of the house, talking away at him.

  “How did we make such a happy little girl?” Austin asked after she had come from seeing Tom and Grace off.

  Tyler took his wife in his arms and pulled her flush against his body, “I say she gets it all from her mother.”

  “Not true,” Austin smirked looking into her husband’s eyes with pure adoration. “She makes everything so worth it. We did good, Tyler.”

  “Oh, Mrs. Armstrong, look how our lives turned out since my near miss,” Tyler quipped, a sanctimonious smirk grazed across his lips. “I’d say we did pretty damn well since that night.”

  Austin reached up, “Just think had you not come home to me.”

  Wincing, Tyler exhaled, “No way. That’s not a thought I want when I have the perfect life right in front of me.”

  Chapter Two

  September 2012 - Three Years ago

  TYLER stepped out of his police cruiser, his heart slowing beating, his body weary. He had been on a continual shift for the past four days and all because of Natasha Truman. She was trying for a release already – one she was delusional over – and working with her father made Tyler extremely distant with all forms of life. Knowing the pull that man had with authority worried Tyler. So he had planned to keep a close eye on things to make sure Natasha remained where she was.

  He’d barely ate, barely drank, and sleep evaded him. If that bitch thought she was getting out anytime soon she was mistaken. She would get out of that prison cell over his dead body and not a moment before.

  He would fight night and day to make sure Natasha suffered for the pain and turmoil she had caused Austin and for what she had made him endure. He was burnt out of feelings for her, hated the thought of her, and would fight until the death to keep her locked away, paying for everything she had ever bestowed on anyone’s life.

  He would fight to protect Austin from an unhappy world where punishment wasn’t given and evil didn’t get its comeuppance. However, in trying to protect Austin, he had neglected her. It wasn’t until two hours earlier, when everything was tied up and Natasha was reminded that fresh air was a pipe dream, that he realized that fact. The first thing he had done was punch a wall. He had neglected Austin for work aga
in. And although it wasn’t the same reason, Austin was still in the dark, and still left at home alone day and night recently.

  Instead of waiting and getting married first, they had moved into the house – unable to keep themselves from it – then he received a call and had been at work ever since. Even though he might have missed the promised date of their wedding, what Tyler had planned now, with the help of Tom, was so much better than the original idea. He was going to whisk his girl off her feet, right after an ‘on-bent-knees’ grovelling apology, and make her an Armstrong by the time dusk set in.

  He wasn’t taking no for an answer.

  His happily ever after was just through the door in front of him, and he would be damned before he missed out on that life he was supposed to have with Austin. With that connotation in mind, he closed the door to his car and took the walk up the drive.

  As he opened the door, he had a direct view of the kitchen, and what he saw stopped his heart from beating entirely, his body turning cold with the thought that he had brought her to this point again. “I hope you’re not going to throw my dinner in the trash,” he called out as she was about to begin scrapping the food from the plate and into the trash can beneath.

  Looking up, Austin’s mouth fell open, and without a thought, she listened to him. She stood up, put the plate down on the countertop, and launched herself at him in need of his physical contact. She could be angry later, but for now, he was home.

  She didn’t mean to, but she began crying out. Whether it was for the release of demonic thoughts that they were destined for a repeat of the past, or liberation that it was her that was most important to him, she didn’t know, but she needed this. It was cathartic and rid her of any form of negativity that decided to claim her body as a home.

  She began to cry so hard the tears pierced through Tyler’s uniform and onto his skin, burning him for his misdeed of neglect, like holy water on a sinner. He lavished the feel of her in his arms, counted his blessings that she didn’t just push him from the house and tell him it was over – for good.

  “Where have you been?” Austin asked, her voice muffled as she spoke into his chest, relief gripping her tightly now that Tyler had his arms around her. Her fear of the past banished, gone with just him coming home and stopping her from enacting a scene from years ago.

  “Securing our happy ever after, Sunny,” he told her, kissing into her hair and vowing never to get her to this point again. He wanted to keep their fire burning, keep their love alive, and never allow her to doubt him ever again.

  Austin moved a little, that happy ending beckoning them forth, bringing her lips to his ear, she whispered, “I’m pregnant.”

  ***

  “Where are you taking me?” Austin giggled, her hands coming up to the blindfold covering her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to tear the material from her eyes and find out, she wanted to know what Tyler was being so secretive over.

  Tyler chuckled at her musings; he had spent a few minutes guiding her down the road, all the while listening to her try and squeeze even the simplest of answers from him. “Na uh, Sunny. You won’t know until I think it’s time.”

  “Well, if you have it your way, then I could be blindfolded for days,” she paused, her lips slipping into an easy, seductive smirk. “All the while you could do anything you-damn-well-please.”

  He stopped her, stepping in towards her, his chest against her back, his body leaning to her ear slightly. “You just told me you were with child, I would love to be doing nothing but worshipping your body right now, but there are some matters that need our attention.” He leaned in closer, his breath heating her skin as his breathing became rugged, his tone becoming huskier as he spoke. “But believe me, after this, I’ll make sure you won’t be walking right for days.”

  “Only days?” she quickly teased, smirking as she said it.

  “I exaggerated,” he announced, still whispering into her ear with sensuality and poise all rolled into a confident tone. “Don’t want to disturb the peace or anything.”

  “You’re a cop,” Austin stated, still standing on her spot, her husband leering sexually over her as she stood, God knew where, blindfolded and full with anticipation. “I’m sure you could bend the rules.”

  Turning her to face him. “Let’s chance it,” he said, cupping his hands around either side of her ass, he pulled her up, forcing her legs to wrap around his waist for support as he slammed his lips against hers and kissed her as if it were his only life line. He felt himself moan and deepen the kiss and wanted nothing more than to see the pool of love dance in her eyes, but he had a plan, and he wasn’t going to ruin it. So he pulled back, and watched her remain quietly blindfolded for a moment, her breathing slightly staccato.

  “Was that my surprise?” Austin asked suddenly, biting her deliciously bruised lip.

  He put her down onto her feet. “Not even close,” he chuckled and took her hand, leading her forward again. He walked the rest of the way, ignoring her attempts for hints and tips, or outright answers. “We’re nearly there so if you don’t behave you won’t get it.” He laughed as she quickly shut up and waked beside him, trusting him wholly.

  The moment she found herself stopped, Austin felt the presence of multiple people around. Now she began to feel nervous at what was on the other side of the blindfold.

  “Ready?” he asked, and the answer was a silent nod of her head. He untied the knot from the back of her and allowed the blindfold to fall free, allowing her to see the view before them.

  Austin blinked a few times, trying to regain better vision as the light flooded her. The moment the brightness dulled, she found herself staring at a set up in the garden complete with a flowered archway at the end of a rolled out red carpet, seating on either side, and her favorite flowers used as decorations.

  “Wh-what is this?” she asked, looking to Tyler, before looking around and seeing her entire family and Tyler’s around her.

  Tyler just stood grinning at his fiancée’s utter astonishment. “This, Austin Pearson, is our wedding.”

  “What?!” she exclaimed, her eyes bulging as the words hit her heavier than freight train. “It can’t be!”

  “Why not?” Tyler asked aghast, slightly taken back.

  “Nothing’s planned! I have no dress, no bridesmaids, no flowers, no nothing!” Austin claimed, the shock making her think irrationally.

  Tyler shot Jane a pleading look.

  “We have that sorted,” Jane commented, grabbing Austin’s hand and began dragging her away from Tyler.

  Austin managed one last look over her shoulder before she was whisked off further into the house. He only blew her a kiss and watched her leave so she decided to just go with it, and not fight. She knew she wouldn’t win, and her heart wanted to know what Tyler had been doing aside from getting Natasha thrown into a jail cell for life.

  “He picked the dress,” Jane remarked the moment they walked into Austin’s old bedroom. She went over to the large hanging white bag, and put her hand to the zip before looking to Austin. “I’m still amazed at how clearly he knows you.”

  “Show me,” she whispered, wanting to know herself. She stepped forward the lower the zipper went; ready to see the gown that would take her from single life to married life.

  Her eyes began to water heavy as her hand moved over the lace and embroidery marking the dress beautifully. This was her wedding dress. She would make her dreams come true wearing this. Her life would finally find that meeting place she had been searching years for. As her mother uncovered it further, her tears began to stream.

  “It’s perfect,” she said, her hand running the length of the dress, absorbing all of its glory. Tyler had chosen a dress of simple elegance and it was everything she used to dream of. From the simple A-line cut, to the lace covering all of it, the bodice laced with jewels on the waistline. He had made sure she was covered, most of her arms would be covered by this, and her eyes watered more. Even though some of her scars would be o
n show, he had made sure not many were.

  Looking at the dress, Austin felt another part of her fall in love with Tyler all over again. Just as the magic of the dress began to cloak her, her hand immediately came up to the burn scars on her arm. The panic immediately set in and she felt herself become nervous.

  “He won’t care about the scars,” Sienna stepped in. She had been watching her baby sister for a few minutes before realizing where Austin’s mind was free falling to. “You are more than just scars to him. He sees passed them.”

  “I’m imperfect,” Austin whispered as she looked away from her sister’s reflection and to her arm. “Why would he want someone that’s going to be scarred for life?”

  Sienna stepped towards Austin, her hands coming to her sister’s shoulders and she smiled reassuringly. “He loves you. He loves you so, so much, Aus. All he sees with you is perfection. The way he sees it, Aussie, is that he has his life back. A life he spent so long looking for.”

  “Is she panicking?” Tom’s voice drifting in from the doorway as he came into the room quickly and then abruptly stopped. “I’m going to back up out of this room, then I’ll give you ten minutes and when I come back in I want some semblance of makeup done, the dress on and doubts gone.”

  The moment he had shut the door, Austin found herself literally stripped and dressed. The moment the dress flowed across every curve of hers and hit the floor, she felt like the world was slowing down for her. That everyone was here to watch this moment.

  “I don’t want much done to my hair,” she stated quickly, skimming her palms over the beauty wrapped around her. “Not too much makeup either.”

  “I think that would be the perfect choice,” Jane stated as she slipped the dress up and guided Austin to a chair. Quickly, she was brushing Austin’s hair out of the ponytail, while Sienna applied a light, yet effect layer of makeup.

  Sienna was not quite finished when there was a knock at the door, and Tom walked in to find them not quite ready. “I have to say that you did good for ten minutes,” he remarked, looking to his watch. “Okay, twelve.”