Page 89 of From the Embers
My head snapped up and I found Eason on bended knee in the middle of the kids. Their little hands never lowered even as he started speaking.
“I have loved you since before I knew I loved you. I have loved you since before I was supposed to love you. And I will continue to love you every single day for the rest of eternity. I cannot tell you life will always be easy. Let’s be honest, I’m still going to call you Sug sometimes.”
I laughed and a tear rolled down my cheek.
He wiped it away before continuing. “But I can tell you that I will always be here for you in any and every way you need. I’ll be your best friend. Your biggest fan. The man who drives you crazy in both good and bad ways. I don’t care how you need me or even if you need me at all—I’ll still be here, considering myself the luckiest man on the planet as long as we do this life together.” He lifted the diamond ring from the jar and held it out in front of him. “Bree, will you do me the biggest honor of my life and marry me?”
This.
Man.
I’d thought my life was over the day of the fire, but little had I known, as I’d woken up in his arms outside that raging inferno, it was only the start of forever.
It was by far the easiest question I would ever answer.
“Yes,” I breathed. Rising to my knees, I threw my arms around his neck, repeating, “Yes, yes, yes, yes.”
He slid the ring on my finger and then let out a loud laugh, standing up with me in his arms.
“She said yes! That means they are getting married,” Asher explained to the girls.
A round of cheers and giggles broke out around us as Eason peppered kisses all over my face.
A thought struck me and I leaned away to catch his eyes. “How long has that ring been in that jar?”
He beamed with pride. “Since I brought it home from California.”
“Were you ever planning on telling me?”
“Well, I do know how you love a surprise.”
I laughed. “I liked this one.”
“Good. I don’t want to hear a single peep about me eating your red M&M’s from now on. I’d have finished the jar by now.”
He could have every M&M in the world for all I cared. He could even call me Sug, though I wasn’t about to tell him that.
“I love you so much.”
He smiled the most beautiful grin I had ever seen, and because it was Eason, that was saying a lot. “I love you too.”
EASON
Two years later…
“And the nominees for Album of the Year are…” a man announced, but I was too busy staring at my wife to focus on the stage.
“Talk to me,” I whispered.
Bree blew out a controlled breath and gripped down on my thigh painfully tight. “Relax. The camera’s about to come to you.”
“I don’t give a shit about the camera if—”
The opening notes of my number-one hit played through the Staples Center as the presenter, who I belatedly recognized as Shawn Hill, announced my nomination, “From the Embers, Eason Maxwell.”
Straightening in my seat, I slapped on a smile that I prayed looked more genuine than it felt.
Levee turned around in her seat in front of us and shot me a beaming grin. “You got this.”
I wasn’t so sure she was right. Then again, I wasn’t sure it mattered, either.
After moving to Los Angeles, life had changed completely. And thank fuck for that. Not that I didn’t have fond memories in Atlanta. Playing with the kids in the backyard. Falling in love with Bree around the firepit. The kids giggling as Oreo climbed the curtains like a cat on crack. But none of that had to end based on our location. Every one of the people I shared those memories with were with me—crazy feline included.
It took about two weeks for us to find our dream house in California. It cost a damn mint compared to the Georgia housing market, but my advance from Downside Up more than covered things. Bree fell in love with the security gate across the driveway and cameras on every corner, and the kids fell in love with the pool—or, more accurately, the waterslide leading into the pool. I just fell in love with the fact that they had fallen in love. Win-win all the way around.
As soon as we got the keys, I hired a company to build us a bigger and better firepit—mainly because it didn’t include fire at all. Twin curved couches surrounded a brick circle, but the burn basin was the center of an inverted water fountain. It was quiet enough that I could still hear Bree’s content hums but relaxing enough that we could sit out there for hours on stressful nights, lost in our thoughts alone—together.
