Chapter Two: Beach Life
Austin rubs her eyes, hearing the phone ringing on the other room. She wonders what time it is as she rolls out of bed and her feet touch the cool hardwood.
The phone stops ringing before she can get to it, so she checked the caller id, but doesn't recognize the number.
Austin sits the phone back down and something through the window catches her eye. She walks over and looks out one of the many windows that have a beautiful view of the ocean.
She spies Liam and Beau, both in their swim trunks, playing in the sand.
Austin smiles. She loved living in paradise.
After getting dressed, she picks up the toys that are scattered across the house. She puts the toys back in Beau's toy chest and continues to clean.
She dusts the many pictures of Beau that are hanging on the walls and then cleaned the spilt cereal off his highchair.
Austin looks around the now, spotless house. She admires the tan living room walls, with black and white pictures of Beau when he was just a few weeks old, and even one of all three of them, hanging on the walls. She remembers picking out the white couch and rug and remembers how she was so naive about how messy babies were. Austin really loved her house, everything in it she and Liam had picked out and it actually looked good.
She grabbed two towels out of the linen closet and her new canon camera before walking out onto her back porch.
Austin snapped a few pictures of Liam and Beau without them knowing. She got one of them laughing and one of Liam throwing beau up in the air.
"Your up!" Liam yelled to Austin.
"Yeah, you guys ready to come in?"
"Yeah, one sec!" Liam scooped Beau up into his arms and then managed to grab the beach ball, sunscreen and Beau's white floppy hat with his other.
Austin takes Beau from Liam, wrapping him in a dinosaur towel, trying to get all the sand off.
"What time is practice today?" Austin asked.
"Three to six." Liam said.
"Jeez, what time do you have class?"
"I have one from two to three."
"So, you'll be gone from two till six?"
"What do you want me to do, Austin?" He stared at her. "I have class and then practice."
"It's fine." She turned and walked inside with Beau.
Liam let out a sigh before walking in behind her.
Austin swaddled Beau in her arms, his eyes were finally shut and his crying had finally stopped.
She placed him gently in his crib and then backed out slowly, trying to to wake him. Austin heard the phone start to ring and ran as fast as she could to it.
"Hello?" She whispered.
"Austin." A guys voice said on the other line.
"Who's this?" She said walking into her room and closing the door.
"It's Brett."
"How did you get this number?" She asked.
"It doesn't matter, Austin I have to tell you something."
She swallowed hard. "What?"
"Mom and Dad are fine, it's not them."
"Jesus Brett, you scared the hell out of me." Austin breathed.
"It's Sonny." Brett told her. "He had a stroke and they don't know how long he has."
Austin put her hand to her mouth. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because Clay needs someone and he needs you."
"Brett, I know you want to help, but I don't think I'm who Clay needs right now."
"He would never call you himself, so I am." He said. "Just come, Austin, for a few days. After all that Sonny's done for you, you need to tell him how much he means to you."
"I'll talk to Liam, Brett."
"We miss you, Austin."
Austin swallowed again. "I'll see you soon."
Liam came in at fifteen past six. Austin was sitting on the floor playing with Beau.
"Hey." He smiled.
"Hey, we need to talk." She said watching his smile fade to a worried expression.
"Okay." He sat down beside her.
"My brother called."
"How did he get our number?"
"I don't know, but that's not what I wanted to talk about." she said. "Sonny had a stroke and they don't think he's gonna make it."
"Wow, that's so sad."
"Yeah, so I was thinking we should fly up there."
"Austin, I have a game tomorrow, we can't just drop everything and fly to New York."
"You wanted to last night."
"No, I wanted to plan a trip, sometime in the near future."
"Well he doesn't have long, Liam." She said. "I have to go."
Liam sighed. "I'm guessing your gonna take Beau."
"Well how are you gonna watch him with your schedule?" She rolled her eyes.
"When will you be back?"
"A couple of days."
Liam nodded. "Alright."
A/N: Tension, Tension, Tension! What do you want to happen when Clay and Austin see eachother after all this time? Thanks for reading and please Review:)!:)
