A Fire That Burns Read Online Free PDF Page B

to
be done.”
    “Like the kiss?” Austin questioned him as her mind flashed back to
Saturday night at her parents.
    Tyler nodded, “Much like that kiss,” he told her and then pushed her a little. “So how did you make your fortune?” Tyler said
pressing on with the subject matter. “I’m intrigued.”
    Austin knew she could dwell for a moment, or she could embrace this
moment. The latter definitely seemed much more worthwhile. “The computer system
at the police department, what do you think of it?”
    “Best damn system we could have,” Tyler praised quickly. “Gives us
everything we need when we need it   and when it crashes it fixes itself.”
    Chuckling to herself she looked at him, “That’s because I was the one
that made it and I’m the one that gets an alert when it crashes.” She watched
Tyler look at her with astonishing confusion. “You knew I was one of those
gadget freaks thanks to Danny and when I left here I quickly learned the ways
of a computer system. Binary codes, virtual pathways, hard drives, software,
everything. It keep me close to him in some way, and
then you,” Austin babbled on, “I got noticed and then all of a sudden I’ve got
requests left, right and center to make system
software for major corporations and then the money started rolling in.”
    “Right, so you haven’t had much me time?” He questioned her as
he thought to how much time that must have taken up.
    “None and it’s how I like it. Makes me get away from
my thoughts. You remember how dangerous those were,” she dropped in and
smirked as he laughed.   “I had a few days
out, but I literally focused on getting enough to live.”
    “Enough to live
forever on?” Tyler quipped at her.
    Smirking, she looked at him, “That wasn’t my intention. It just
happened.”
    “You never have intent with anything so I believe you,” he teased her
and then sat up straight. “Right I need to go use the bathroom,” Tyler said
finishing off his bottle and standing. “I’ll be right back.”
    Austin knew she didn’t need to tell him where he was going. Tom had
already said that he and Tyler were still close friends. So she let him go
while she swirled the remainder of her beer around in the bottle.
    Hearing the door open she turned around on her seat and watched as Tom
came into the room. His face was sullen, his eyes looked sorry and he didn’t
take notice of the two beer bottles on the countertop that signified someone
else was here.
    “You okay?” he asked her and she nodded. “It kicked off so dad sent us
all home. Mom doesn’t want to see us until she’s ready apparently.”
    Looking away, Austin felt her heart sink as she felt bad for disrupting
a perfect marriage like that of her parents. It was never her intention, but
she never expected her mother to literally make her some sort of abomination
for coming back home.
    “Have you ever thought it’s about time you told them the truth?” Tom
asked Austin, not knowing that Tyler was just coming down the stairs. “I mean,
come on, maybe mom will let you back in then and all this stress and tension
will just go.”
    “Yeah and dad will disown me in its place,” Austin shot back in a low
tone, her voice trying to be a whisper, but she couldn’t keep it that way.   “What happened is dead and buried, Tom. I
made sure of that.”
    “Yeah and it really shows that,” he said and stood up and headed to
kitchen. “Really shows that you’re over it by the fact that you’re home
and miserable. Six years hasn’t done you any good, it just worked as a good
distraction for a while. It worked until you decided you were done with running
scared and alone.”
      “And you wonder why I’m miserable,”
Austin muttered and watched Tyler walk through the door. “Did you want to stay
for something to eat, Tyler?” She asked and she heard her brother turn around
as he now realized they weren’t alone.
    Tyler felt angry all of a sudden.   One of his closest