Page 66 of From the Embers
As cliché as it sounded, Eason made me a better person. At the core, I was still Bree—stubborn and reserved with a spontaneity level of negative four thousand. Eason got me though. He was my total opposite—fun, lighthearted, and laid-back. But he didn’t judge me or try to change me. He accepted me for who I was, no matter how difficult that might have been at times. He laughed when I got uptight. Held me when I became overwhelmed. Made love to me like I’d been made just for him.
And as the weeks passed, a glorious calm settled over our lives and I began to believe maybe Eason had been made for me too.
“Mmm,” he hummed, wiping a drip of ketchup off the corner of his mouth. “That’s…delicious,” he lied, nodding his head at each of the kids.
Luna and Madison just sat there staring at him, their lips curled, completely unconvinced.
“It is good!” Asher agreed, food spilling from his mouth. Our boy must have been growing. He’d already plowed through half of his burger.
When the girls began to pick at their sweet potato fries, Eason leaned into my side and whispered, “Okay, what the hell is this?”
“It’s a veggie burger.”
“I got that. But I’ve grown to enjoy your veggie burgers and this is not that.” He lifted his top bun and pulled out a stalk of green, pointedly dropping it on the corner of my plate. “What did I do to you? Asparagus? In a burger? That is some seriously unnecessary violence, babe.”
I barked a laugh. “I didn’t have enough black beans. I had to get creative. Look, Asher likes it.”
“Yes, but I’ve had concerns over his taste buds for years.” Eason took another bite, adding another hum of approval for good measure.
He was right. They were terrible, and there weren’t enough mmm’s in the world that would get the girls to eat it. But running to the store had meant missing hide-and-seek with the kids, and quite honestly, I was sick of missing the good stuff.
For years, I’d been a stay-at-home mom, spending twenty-four-seven with my kids. It wasn’t glamourous, and I used to have to beg, barter, and steal to get even a single minute to myself. But I loved it. I loved my kids. I loved watching them grow. I loved being the one to teach them their 123s and ABCs. It was the hardest job I’d ever had and that included building a multimillion-dollar company from the ground up. Every blowout, tantrum, or meltdown fell on my shoulders. But so did the sweet snuggles when they got tired and the giggles when I pushed them high on the swings at the playground.
I missed those days. Asher was in first grade now, and Madison and Luna cared more about pretty dresses and hairbows than rattles and blankies. As much as I would have liked them to stay babies forever, it was all part of growing up. I just hated that it was racing right past me.
So, that night, we were having disgusting black bean-and-asparagus veggie burgers because I’d refused to miss anything else. And I felt not one ounce of guilt about it.
I took a bite of my burger, cringing and then grinning as I chewed.
Eason’s phone started ringing and he glanced down at the screen, his eyebrows drawing together. “It’s an LA number. I should probably take it. Can you hold down the fort?”
“Yep. And there will be three clean plates by the time you get back.” They would be clean because I dumped them in the trash and made peanut butter sandwiches, but he didn’t need to know that.
Bending over, he kissed the top of my head and then excused himself to the other room while answering, “Hello… This is he.”
Asher not only finished his burger, but he polished off the rest of mine too. Eason was right, I needed to schedule him an appointment with the doctor about his clear lack of taste. When the girls finished their sandwiches and Eason still wasn’t back, I treated them to pirate dessert. This was just three bowls of water filled with fruit, and I gave them little plastic drink swords to use as skewers. It was a smaller, not slobber-infested version of bobbing for apples and they adored it.
While they giggled trying to catch their dessert, I set out to find my man.
I tracked his voice down to the formal sitting room at the front of the house. “Mhm. Yeah, of course.” His eyes found mine as soon as I rounded the corner. His hair a mess as though he’d been running his fingers through it, but it was the white pallor of his face that made my heart stop.
“What’s wrong?” I mouthed to him.
Shaking his head, he lifted a finger for me to wait. “No, that’s not a problem at all.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “Yeah. No, I appreciate it. This is…” He laughed, and while it sounded genuine, it was packed with more emotion than just humor. “Thank you.” He finally smiled, huge and white. “I’m looking forward to it. Right. See you then. Goodnight.” With a tap on the screen, he hung up. Or at least I think he did. He lifted it back to his ear, saying “Hello. Hello. Anyone there?”
