EMBER
I looked up from my spot on the rug where I sat cutting tags from his new baby clothes. These were going in the washer as soon as I was done.
“Why, Mama T?”
“It was needed, and if I had to do it all over again, I would without hesitation,” I told her, and I meant every word.
She smiled; admiration filled her eyes. “You did a fantastic job raising my Rhema Baby. She’s truly the perfect mixture of you and Reason.”
“Thank you so much, Mama T. She definitely is.”
“If we had known you were pregnant, baby, we would have stayed in LA, or we would have begged you to come to Miami with us. You didn’t have to go through it alone.” She paused when Ramiro yawned and stretched his little body in her arms.
My heart melted seeing my son peacefully chillin’ in his grandmother’s arms.
“I really appreciate you saying that. I was so afraid to tell anyone. I didn’t want you and Mr. St. Pierre to be disappointed with Reason. So, I kept it a secret and told myself I would step away for good and let him follow his dreams.”
“Ember, honey. Disappointment would’ve been inevitable, but we would have gotten over it and dealt with it.”
Ramiro was finally sleeping, so Mama T put him inside his bassinet and came to sit next to me on the floor. Immediately, she began to help me cut the tags off the pile of new clothes.
She continued where she left off. “We won’t dwell on the past anymore. It’s all behind us now. You and my grandbabies will never have to worry again, that’s for sure.”
“Mama T, please don’t make me cry right now. You have no idea how happy I am that y’all are back in my life. This truly feels like a dream come true.”
“Release those tears, honey. Crying is good for the soul. I’m happy we’ve been united again too.
You’ve always been special to Reason, and one of the only people who ever made my son genuinely happy.
” She stopped cutting tags and looked into my eyes.
“I knew you and Reason would find a way back to each other. I didn’t know how, nor did I know when, but all I hoped was that it happened before I took my last breath. ”
“How did you know that?” I inquired.
“Because it’s something I never stopped praying for.”
I couldn’t control the stream of tears flowing down my cheeks.
She continued. “I’ve always known you two were made for each other. I wasn’t accepting anyone else as my daughter-in-law but you. Plus, not to put my son’s business out there, but none of those women he entertained were up to par, so they made my job easy.”
I had no idea Mama T felt this way. I found myself moving closer to her and wrapping my arm around her waist as I lay on her shoulder.
“Ember, I love you so much.”
Hearing those words from a motherly figure was foreign to me, but it felt so good and comforting.
“Mama T, I love you just as much. Thank you for always accepting me into your family.”
“You are family,” she responded.
I finally knew what it felt like to have a family of my own. I wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world.
“Ember!” I heard Reason calling from our bedroom down the hall.
I hopped up at the sound of Reason’s voice. “Mama T, I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll be right here. Hurry and go see what your man wants.” She ushered me out of the nursery room with her warm, contagious smile.
I entered our bedroom, looking around for him. There was one last place to look, and that’s exactly where I found him, on our wraparound balcony that overlooked the ocean.
We had private access to the beach, and it had become our favorite place to enjoy each other’s company. There was a remote operated elevator in our bedroom that went down and opened to the path that led to the sand. It was one of the best things on our property.
I joined Reason on the balcony as he looked out into the crashing waves. I still couldn’t believe this was now my life… our life. “Hey, baby, you called me?”
“I did, gorgeous.”
I loved hearing him call me everything but my government name.
“Everything okay?” I asked because he looked like he was deep in thought.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
I positioned myself in front of his handsome self. “I’m listening, babe.”
“You know I would do anything for you, right?”
“Yes… yes, I know.”
“I would do anything to make you smile… Anything to keep your heart overflowing with my love… Anything you want, and anything you need is my responsibility to provide.”
Today was the second time I found myself crying. I’ve always been an emotional person, but the only difference now was my tears stemmed from happiness instead of tears from trying to survive.
Reason wasn’t done yet. “When your heart aches, mine does too. And even then, I’ll still find a way to turn that ache into joy, Em Baby.” He wiped away the tears from my cheeks and under my eyes with his thumb.
“You’re one of the best things that’s ever happened to me,” I honestly admitted.
“I feel the same way about you. That’s why I went through extreme measures to do this for you…” His voice faded as he pressed a button on the elevator remote.
“Do what, babe?” I questioned, looking down at the remote in his hands. When the elevator door opened, I turned around.
“This is how I went through extreme measures,” Reason answered.
“Ahhh!” I shouted when I saw three people standing inside the elevator, staring back at me.
Sammi, Priya, and Avant, my Aunt Patty’s three kids, were here… inside our home.
I was overflowing with emotions. Too shocked to speak, I ran to each one of my cousins and hugged them tightly.
Right here, at this moment, it didn’t matter that I hadn’t seen them in years.
It didn’t matter that I once felt like they had turned their backs on me when I needed them most. The only thing that mattered was that they were here now, in the flesh, and they were crying just as much as I was.
“Ember. Oh, Ember. We’re so sorry,” Sammi, the oldest and the one who favored my aunt the most, spoke.
“Sam, it’s okay.”
“No, no, let me explain, cousin.”
I stood quietly, still in disbelief that they were in front of me.
My cousins were the only pieces of the puzzle that were missing, and now they were here.
All the people I loved were finding their way back into my life.
This had to be the rainbow after a storm, and it all started the day of the gender reveal, when I laid eyes on Reason again.
That significant moment changed everything.
Sammi cleared her throat, drawing my attention.
“We shouldn’t have left you hanging. You are our family…
our sister too. This is no excuse, but we never experienced losing someone so close to us.
Before you came around, it was just Mama and us.
And after she was gone, we didn’t know how to handle the grieving phase, so we ran.
We ran from anything and anyone who reminded us of her. ”
A few seconds of silence passed, and then she continued talking. “Mama used to tell us that you and Rhema were her kids, too, and that we should always stick together, no matter what. And we failed her, Ember.”
I couldn’t stop crying. Reason stepped forward and stood by my side, massaging the small of my back.
Avant, the youngest, and the only boy my aunt had, moved closer to me when he realized how choked up Sammi was.
“That’s why two years after Mama passed away, and we were finally able to function a little better, we realized how wrong we were to ever leave you and Rhema.
As soon as we became aware of what we’d done, we immediately called the last number we had for you, and it was out of service.
That didn’t work, so our next move was to fly to Cali, which we did, and we reached a dead end.
No one knew where you were or how to get in contact with you. ”
My cousin never took his eyes off me as he kept talking.
“We didn’t have enough money to hire a private investigator, so we returned home, feeling defeated and believing we were all out of options. But Ember, we should’ve tried harder to find you.”
Knowing that my cousins had put in effort to find me gave me a sense of relief I didn’t know I needed.
“Y’all, please don’t beat yourselves up.
We live and we learn. Yes, Rhema and I needed the three of you, but I understood that we all grieve differently.
I had to accept that. All I wanted to do was respect you guys. ”
Priya, the middle child and the most sensitive one out of the bunch, was now close to me and reaching for my hands.
Her face was drenched in tears. “Ember, you don’t know how happy we were when Reason reached out to us.
After our brief conversation, we didn’t question anything.
We packed our bags and were at the airport the next day, catching a flight to Los Angeles. ”
I looked at Reason with so much love filling my eyes, hoping he could feel every ounce of it. My appreciation for him grew, and I couldn’t wait to tell and show him how thankful I was for him and everything that he was doing in my life.
Sammi grabbed a piece of tissue from her purse and dabbed at the snot running out of her nose. “Cousin, again, we’re so sorry. We know it doesn’t make up for lost time, but please allow us to be in you and Rhema’s lives again.”
“I would love nothing more than to have my family back in our lives. And you have a new baby nephew to meet.”
We embraced for the next few minutes. By the time we were done, my brother, sisters, and I were a crying mess. Reason kissed me, asked if I needed anything, and excused himself while the rest of us spent time catching up.
Sometime later, Reason texted me, saying to take the elevator down to the beach because he had a bonfire set up for us.
My man was so thoughtful. It seemed like every day since we found our way back to each other, he was finding new ways to make me fall in love with him all over again. He had no idea he didn’t have to do too much; his pure existence was enough for me.
Damn, I loved me some Reason St. Pierre.