From the Embers

by Aly Martinez

“Listen, listen.” Precariously balancing the phone, he started shoving his finger into the container, and in the next beat, Luna and Madison joined him for a symphony of fart sounds. “Wow!” Eason exclaimed. “I bet your mom is just loving that.” “Totally,” Asher replied. And if I was being honest, he wasn’t wrong.

LMAOOO

They didn’t understand that our love had been slow like the seasons, built on a foundation of honesty and trust. Nobody understood, yet within days, Eason and I were labeled backstabbing and taboo. It was a whole big thing and Eason had lost his mind, but I’d put my foot down when he’d tried to come home early. People would forever talk and make assumptions, but at the end of the day, the only things that mattered were that Eason and I knew who we were, how we had fallen in love, and where the future was leading us.

“I think it’s Asher you need to worry about. He’s got this girl in his class and he keeps telling me she’s so pretty it makes his stomach hurt.”

“Bree, I’m not actually there right now. But I’m here for you. If this is what you want, don’t ever go back to Prism. I can take over the bills. I kinda failed Jessica on that front, but it’s different this time. I’m not going to get dropped. I can take care of us now. All of us. I swear I can.” Oh, my sweet Eason. After everything, he still felt like he didn’t do enough.

“you have been taking care of us. Since day one. And that has not one damn thing to do with who was paying the mortgage. The kids and I would not be here, so damn happy and loved, without you. You have the biggest heart of any man I’ve ever met, and given how many times that thing has been ripped from your chest, that’s saying a lot. I don’t need you to take care of us. I’ll still have Prism. I just won’t be the one running it. But if that’s something you need to do for yourself to finally see all your hard work paying off, I’ll transfer all the bills to your name tonight. I don’t need money, Eason. I need you. That’s all I’ll ever need.”

“Cheese.” After that, it was a chorus of the most beautiful shrieks of my life. Asher’s face was priceless as he spun around, his mouth wide open, his eyes the size of saucers. Madison crashed into my arms first, screaming, “Eeeeee-sin!” My sweet baby Luna just stood there clapping and cackling, “Daddy home. Daddy home.”

“What can I say? I had a lot of spare time while separating four thousand red M&M’s.” It was a lie. I’d ordered them online, but that was one secret she didn’t need to know about.

Our bond might have been forged through tragedy, but our love flourished through patience, genuine respect, and understanding.

Then there was Asher, who swore up and down, unwaveringly, that he’d woken up to see his dead father carrying Luna down the hall.

“It was Dad!” he shouted, frantic desperation thick in his voice. “I looked right at him before he ran away. I remember what he looked like, and I know it was him.”

That kid, with a heart of gold who would forever own a piece of my own, looked me dead in the eye and then absolutely slayed me. “I’m sorry, Eason. I’m sorry I didn’t stop him. I got scared because I thought he was a ghost.”

Do you know anyone by the name S. Barton?” “Doesn’t ring a bell. Why?” “Because less than twenty-four hours before your house exploded, the man who kidnapped your daughter sent him half a million dollars.”

She stared deep into my eyes, searching for the right thing to do. I was past all that. Bree wasn’t rash or reckless. She was too evenly measured to be fueled by desperate emotion. She was, however, my soul mate, the mother of my child—DNA be damned—and the smartest woman I had ever met. Proof being: She got into the car.

“Maybe his parents live here or—” “Or maybe he bought it with the half million he got paid for lighting my house on fire and killing two people.”

His entire taut, rage-filled, adrenaline-ravaged body just… Froze. Just like my heart, as the entire world once again caught fire around us. His name slipped through my lips on a violent whisper. “Rob?”

WTF

“Do you have any idea how hard it was to find someone willing to kill you two? I spent months siphoning money from Prism. I plotted out every fucking detail, right down to how Jessica would spend her time lounging by the pool—or better yet, on her knees, treating me like a fucking king.” Even with my hands still wrapped around his throat, he managed to turn his head to look at his wife. No, fuck that. My woman. “Your life insurance policy was going to allow us the life we both deserved. Half a million fucking dollars wasted on Steven Barton, and in the end, she was the only one who died.” He let out a low growl filled with pain.

Fuck you motherfucker

“You tried to have me killed?” He grunted under the force of my punch, but his slimy grin grew. “Well, technically, it was only Bree who was supposed to die. Jessica was the one who threw you into the deal. God, she hated you.”

That bitch lucky she dead

“Sorry. Unlike Jessica, DNA doesn’t lie. And you want to hear my favorite part? Now, Bree is mine too. Your boy Asher? Mine. Madison? Mine. A life free and easy, not rotting in a prison cell?” I dropped my voice low and declared, “Mine. So tell me, Rob. Who’s the fucking winner in this situation?”

The betrayal of finding out that your husband was in love with your best friend was a dagger through the heart. The reality that they hated you so much they were willing to have you killed was more like being hit by a train.

With Rob in custody, Doug sang like a bird, throwing my ex-husband so far under the bus it hit him with every single wheel.

“Oh, right. Why don’t you just go grab one of the guys and tell them to come box up my underwear?” He let out a horrified gasp. “No way any man is touching my woman’s Hanes Her Ways.” I barked a laugh. “Hey! I have some sexy stuff too.” “Yeah, but you know what those white cotton granny panties do for me.” He bit his bottom lip and waggled his eyebrows.

🤣🤕

“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.”

“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.

“She said yes! That means they are getting married,” Asher explained to the girls.

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.”

“From the Embers, Eason Maxwell.”

Luna had reemerged as the sassy, wild child she’d always been. Madison smiled and giggled with her every step of the way. Asher’s emotional recovery was slightly more of an uphill climb. He trusted no one. Questioned everything. Just acclimating to a new school almost broke him. Watching my outgoing, lovestruck boy withdraw into himself made me hate Rob Winters that much more. And it should be noted that I’d already hated that asshole with the wrath of a rabid tiger, so that was really saying something.

However, the tears in his eyes and the relief on his face as we explained that Rob would no longer legally be his father healed wounds inside me I hadn’t even realized I was still carrying. Knowing Asher had felt that fear, had been worried he’d have to go visit the man who had kidnapped his sister and terrified that he’d somehow come back for him, shattered me in so many different ways. Though, when he looked at me and asked, “Does that mean you can finally be my real dad now?” all the pieces of my heart clicked into place. I couldn’t say yes fast enough,

Bree quickly excused herself, and a little while later, I found her sitting on the floor in the pantry, crying and separating the red M&M’s from her secret stash. “You can have every red M&M for the rest of our lives for that,” she croaked.

was more worried about our fourth child making its debut in the middle of the Grammys.

“I swear, if you go into labor and Shawn Hill gets to look up your dress while I’m forced to deliver our child, I’m never forgiving you.” She let out a quiet laugh. “Great. Well, now you’ve ruined my plan. Everybody knows there is nothing sexier than childbirth.” No less nervous, I grinned over at her. “I’ve got my eyes on you, Maxwell.”

“I guess I just want to say thank you. To my old record label, who shall remain nameless, for dropping me all those years ago. To Levee and the entire Downside Up team for taking a chance on me. To Asher, Madison, and Luna, you three are the biggest dream I’ve ever had. Thank you for letting me be your daddy. It has been a wild ride, and now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s about to get a whole lot crazier. My wonderful, supportive wife neglected to mention that she’s been having contractions all day. I should probably get her to the hospital.”

“So, thank you. Also, I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, but it’s a girl.” I grinned and shot a wink at Bree, and even though she was glaring, the smile on her lips told me I wasn’t in too much trouble.

all eyes aimed at Bree. Just as they should be. I might have been the one who created the music. But Bree would forever be the star of our show. Eight hours later, Ava Grace Maxwell was born looking just like her sisters and completing the family we had forged from the embers—the way it was always supposed to be.