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He didn’t hate Austin nearly as much as he thought he would. It wasn’t even close to what he was used to. Everything was smaller than in New York, people were much closer, not in a physical way, but in an emotional one. They knew everything about each other and news traveled fast. Everyone in Austin proper had known about him and his dad before their plane even touched down.
They’d known about his injury before they’d even met him. They’d expected the limp and the sour attitude that came along with a career-ending leg break. His dad’s new team had looked at them with pity for a few days, feeling somewhat guilty every time he went to the firehouse to visit or bring his dad lunch. That was until he started hanging around and kicking their asses at foosball and video games, which earned him a little respect, the amount of which grew every day, until they were friends.
So yeah, he sort of liked Austin. He felt that he’d finally settled in and as soon as he’d said as much to his dad, Owen had decided that meant he was ready for a job, ready to be a “functioning member of society” as he had put it.
So he’d started his search. A few internet ads led to dead ends, jobs he wasn’t qualified for and ones he was but that paid next to nothing. Judd, his dad’s second in command had given him the name of a shop downtown, Reyes Antiques , owned by the mother of a friend of his. They were looking for holiday help. Judd had also said they had a son TK might also be interested, winking as he did.
Two days later, TK was pushing his way into the little shop, the doorbell chiming on his way in. He was greeted by a woman who seemed to be the epitome of motherly. She told him her name was Andrea and to call for her if he needed help or found something he liked.
“Actually, I’m here about the job. Judd sent me over.”
“Oh, you must be TJ. Judd has told me about you, you’re Captain Strand’s son.”
“TK,” he corrected gently.
“Oh, I’m sorry mijo . My son tells me I’d forget his name if I wasn’t his mother.”
“It’s alright. Really, it’s an easy mistake.”
Andrea gave him a tour of the shop, which was packed to the brim, but meticulously organized. Nothing was out of place and there wasn’t a speck of dust in sight, not even on the highest shelves or most hidden places.
“My daughters have helped in the shop almost as long as I’ve owned it, but they left for
college this fall and it’s just a bit much to handle on my own.”
“I understand. How about your son? You mentioned him earlier.”
“Oh my Carlos, he does what he can. But he’s a police officer, so he’s busy more often than not.”
“Well, I’d be happy to take the job, Mrs. Reyes.”
“Please TK, call me Andrea. Let me get you some paperwork and we can talk about a schedule.”
The store was open every day of the week except for Thursdays, designed to give them a day off before the weekend when the shop got the busiest. TK would work the full day on Monday and Wednesday, with a half day on Tuesday, followed by the full weekend and a day off again on Sunday. Andrea said he was free to rearrange his schedule if needed and that she would pay him extra for any long days during the holiday rush.
His first month was easy. Most weekdays were slow, customers few and far between, so they’d spend most of the day taking inventory and rearranging parts of the store to make room for new items donated or purchased by Andrea. They spent most of their time chatting, silent moments filled with the soft Spanish music Andrea always had playing in the background. His high school Spanish classes allowed him to catch a few words, but most of it he didn’t understand. Andrea also spoke in Spanish fairly often, TK usually asking her to translate. She’d begun teaching him, a few words and phrases here and there, quizzing him when the shop was empty and they’d run out of things to organize. He also talked about himself, telling her about his days in New York and his time as a firefighter at the 252.
“Why aren’t you working with your father here at the 126 then mijo ?” she had asked after he’d told her the story of rescuing a man from the Chrysler building.
“A week after that we responded to a fire in a high rise. The structure was unstable and they didn’t warn us in time, the floor gave out and I pushed my partner out of the way. I fell four stories and landed on my feet. I fractured my pelvis and my femur and pretty much shattered my right ankle. I had three surgeries and about twenty screws are holding my leg together right now. It was career-ending, and I couldn’t pass my recertification test. Even if I could, I’m not sure I want to anymore. I don’t think I could survive an injury like that again, and honestly, I don’t have a place in the firehouse anymore.”
Andrea had wrapped him up in a hug and he cried tears he didn’t know he’d been holding back into her shoulder. She’d let him cry, then wiped his eyes and handed him a tissue to blow his nose.
“You will always have a place here TK.”
Shifts picked up the closer they got to the holidays, with people coming in from out of town, and exploring local thrift and antique stores. There were also those who came in looking for strangely specific gifts for picky family members, and TK found joy in helping them find exactly what they were looking for.
Andrea praised him for it, saying that he reminded her of her son, who as a young boy, could have sold anyone anything in the store, just with his eyes. For as much as TK had heard about the man, he’d never actually met him. He felt like they were best friends, after hearing all of the stories Andrea told him, always with a fond smile and a hint of tears in her eyes.
He’d met her other children, twin girls, Sofie and Mia when they’d come home from college and returned to helping their mother in the store over their break. They were sweet, but they were always teasing him mercilessly, making him somewhat glad to be an only child. He couldn’t imagine what their actual brother had gone through growing up with them. He asked them questions about him, trying to get any information he could about the mysterious Carlos Reyes.
He got the usual younger sibling answers, that he was annoying and overprotective, but the girls had their fair share of stories about him as well. They told him about the time they’d snuck out to go to a party and Carlos, who was in the academy at the time, had shown up in a patrol car and driven them home with sirens blaring. They hadn’t talked to him for a solid week after that, but he had won their forgiveness with ice cream and driving lessons in his Camaro.
“You might finally get to meet him today,” Mia said casually one afternoon as they were carrying new inventory off of their father’s truck.
He ducked his head to keep the rain out of his eyes, Austin had been caught in a torrential downpour for the past week, and looked at her out of the corner of his eye, “Who?”
“Carlos. He said he was going to stop by to help around the store and have lunch with Mami before she leaves.”
Andrea and her husband, Gabriel, were going on a weekend vacation to an antique show in Houston, looking to pick up some extra inventory before the Christmas rush started. The big holiday was only two weeks away and they wanted special items for the store.
“You probably feel like you know him already, as much as Mami talks about him.”
“She talks about TK just as much.”
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was trying to set you two up,” Mia giggled.
“I’m pretty sure that is her plan,” Sofie said.
“Oh shut up both of you. Your mother isn’t trying to set me up with your brother, who I know absolutely nothing about.”
The girls shared a look and rolled their eyes before getting back to the task at hand.
TK was at the register, trying to down out the sound of the girls and their Tik Tok videos when the bell above the door rang.
He looked up and almost did a double-take. The man who had just entered was the most gorgeous man he’d ever seen, with tan skin and arms as big around as his head. His brain registered the police uniform and he put two and two together that this man must be Andrea’s son.
“Hey,” he greeted, doing his best to act like he wasn’t just salivating over the guy. “You must be Carlos.”
“Yeah. And you must be the TJ my mother has talked about non-stop for months,” he replied with an air of teasing in his voice.
“Actually it’s TK.”
“Of course,” he rolled his eyes. “I’m sorry about her, I wouldn’t put it past her to get her own kids’ names wrong.”
“Nah don’t worry about it. She always gets it right to my face.”
“Well, that’s something.”
The silence that followed their exchange was painfully awkward and TK momentarily forget why Carlos had even walked into the store.
“I uh, I think your mom is in the back. I’ll go grab her.”
He didn’t wait for Carlos to answer, just turned and walked toward the back of the store as fast as he could without sprinting.
“Hey Andrea,” he peeked around the corner. “Carlos is here.”
“Oh good. TK would you like to join us for lunch?”
“I wouldn’t want to intrude.”
“Nonsense, join us. There’s plenty.”
“Yeah TK have lunch with us,” Mia encouraged.
“Yeah, you should spend some time with Carlos,” Sofie winked.
The three of them followed Andrea back into the store, TK stopping to elbow the girls.
“You two are menaces,” he hissed.
Lunch was the best part of his day by far. Watching Mia and Sofie tease Carlos in the way they always teased him, seeing him blush and tell them to be quiet, all while giving them a ridiculously fond look. Andrea had been right if she was trying to set them up as the girls said. He was absolutely TK’s type. Strong, sweet, incredibly handsome. He asked TK about himself and about being a firefighter, why he wasn’t anymore. TK had given him an abbreviated version of the story, this time without the tears. Carlos had still given him a sympathetic look.
“I’m sorry TK, that must have been hard. But you are ridiculously strong, for going through that and coming out the other side.”
TK ducked his head and blushed, Carlos’ foot nudging against his under the table.
Their lunch was cut short by an alarm on Carlos’ phone, signaling it was time for him to go back to work. He kissed his mother and sisters on the head, then pulled the three of them in for a tight hug.
“I’ll see you two at home,” he said to his sisters. “And I’ll see you next week Mami. You and Dad be safe okay?”
“Of course Carlitos. TK, walk him out, please. So he doesn’t get lost in our mess.”
“Of course Andrea.”
TK lead Carlos through the shelves back toward the front of the store. They lingered by the door for a moment, TK not really knowing what to say.
“Uh thank you, for lunch.”
“Yeah no problem,” Carlos hesitated for a moment. “Hey, TK?”
“Yeah?”
“This is probably weird, so please tell me to shut up if you think it’s weird, but uh, can I give you my number? We can go out sometime, or something. If you want.”
TK let him keep going for a minute, flustered Carlos was ridiculously cute.
“Yeah sure. I’d like that.”
TK handed over his phone, letting Carlos put in his number and send himself a text so he had TK’s.
“I gotta go, but I’ll text you later?”
“I’d like that.”
Two hours later, TK’s phone chimed with a text. Carlos had sent him the location of a bar and a question mark.
TK smiled and typed out a response.
“I get off at six.”
“I’ll pick you up at six-fifteen.”
“Great. See you then :)”
"I'll see you then TK"