Waiting For Love (Wild Creek Ranch Book 2)

Chapter Twenty

"Ember, my leg is killing me, " Rex's voice brought her out of her daze.

"Yes, Rex, I'll marry you," she agreed and Rex leaped up from his position happily. Before he could take out the ring from his pockets, her hands stopped him. "Wait Rex. You have to listen to what I have to say first. If you still wish to marry me after hearing it all, then only I'll wear your ring," said Ember. 

"I'll listen to everything and I'll accept everything. First you have to wear my ring. I can't afford to lose you again," he said, pulling out a ring from his pocket and skipping it onto her finger. It was a an emerald heart shaped ring, with diamonds encrusted all around the heart which sparkled under the moonlit sky. Ember gasped at the beautiful ring.

"You were prepared to propose tonight?" She asked with a small smile playing on her lips.

"I brought this ring four years back. I've carried it with me every day with the hope that the day I found you, I'd convince you to marry me and make you mine for life," he admitted. Ember's arms went around his neck. She was touched by the raw emotional side of him that he had just portrayed to her. 

"I'm scared Rex. I don't want to lose you," she told him. She knew that if he heard about her past, he would leave her but she wasn't ready to talk about it just yet. She needed mental preparation to relive that trauma again. 

"You won't, " he comforted her. "Let's go home?" He asked gently, holding out his hand to her. She clasped his hand and he led her towards his car. Rex smiled happily and couldn't help her eyes from shining with hope, her lips from smiling at his infectious mood. 

The truth was that the whole evening, the three grannies brainwashed him till he lost it and decided to propose to her tonight, come what may. He knew Ember had a past but if she would take six months to open up, he couldn't dangle on a pole waiting for her. What if she escaped him again? His grannies were right after all. He couldn't afford that. Now that the ring was finally on her finger, he sighed with relief. He couldn't wait to announce the good news at his home. 

"Don't think much into this. We'll take baby steps forward in our relationship now that we belong to one another," he  comforted. Ember smiled at him and nodded. This was like a dream come true for her and she looked forward to their life with hope. 

He dropped her home with a kiss on her forehead. When he finally released her, she caught his cheek and kissed his mouth gently and deeply, showing the love that she felt for him. "I've always been in love with you Rex, since the day I saw you, eight years ago, " she whispered. Rex's eyes widened with disbelief. 

"You admit that  now?" He asked with an eye roll. "If you would have said it then, we would have been married with a football team by now, " he groaned. Ember giggled. 

"Bye Rex, sweet dreams," she told him, opening his car door. 

"That's all I get, dreams of you, every second, every minute," he told her and hersmile widened. 

"Bye," she said, walking to her house with a skip to her step. 

Rex drove away and Ember went inside the house. Granny noticed the sparkling emerald on her finger and smiled to herself. So Rex did listen to them after all. Ember went to her room to shower and change into her pajamas before coming down to dinner. 

Later at the dinner table, she felt that granny wanted to ask her about her ring but couldn't in case she got upset. "Rex proposed gramps, granny and I agreed to marry him. He doesn't know anything yet. I couldn't overcome my inhibitions and tell him but he said that my past didn't matter to him. He loves me, did you know that?" She asked them with a shy smile on her face.

Granny and her gramps were ecstatic with happiness. After dinner, she called her friends and updated them. Rex hadn't got any time alone with his granny so he hadn't announced yet. He wanted to announce it to his family after Rhett's wedding with Ember by his side. Ember went to bed, dreaming of a happily ever after with her Rex. Finally she could be happy with the man she loved. 

The next morning Adelaide hadn't come to work as her wedding was tomorrow and she needed to relax at the salon, getting massage and beauty treatments, getting pampered. Ember had left her ring at home since she didn't want to show off at the hospital and get all the unwanted attention. She wanted to give this time and then announce to the world. The whole day she was busy wrapping up work so that she could go home. Maybe Rex would come over to meet her. Feeling excited, she left the hospital after her duty and walked down happily towards her house, looking around for Rex's Ford F-250. It wasn't there which only meant one thing. He wasn't here. Maybe he was busy with the last minute wedding preparations. Anyway, she would meet him tomorrow after all. 

She went up to her gate but was stunned to see an old motorcycle, looking very much used, dirty and battered parked right in front of her gate. Whose motorbike could that be? Rex didn't use such a motorcycle? It seemed like she had seen that vehicle before but where exactly she couldn't pin point at. A strange feeling of dread swept over her and she went up to her door and rang the doorbell. 

After two rings, her granny opened the door with a pale face. Ember looked at her curiously. "Granny who's there?" She asked trying to peep past her granny but she was trying  to block her view, refusing to budge.

"It's me, Ember. Jamie, " breathed a male voice from behind  granny. Granny moved away slowly to reveal Jamie standing tired and haggard as if he had covered a long journey to arrive at their house. The color drained from Ember's face. Just when she was finally happy with her Rex,  Jamie had to reappear in her life. 

"What are you doing here, Jamie after four years?" She yelled at him. Granny held onto her trying to calm her but she was hysterical. 

"I was undergoing therapy, Ember. I wasn't in a position to support you and our baby. It took me four years to stand on my own feet," he said calmly.

"Why did you take advantage of me, Jamie when you knew that you wouldn't be able to commit to me?" She gritted out. 

He tried coming closer but Ember moved away. Granny left to give them a moment to talk it out. Maybe they both needed a closure.

"I like you, Ember. I was too drunk to realize what I was doing. I'm very sorry," said Jamie, coming closer to her and begging for forgiveness with his hands folded. 

"Please leave Jamie, I can't have anything to do with you. I have moved on," she said, calmly. 

Rex parked his car in front of her gate and stared at the alien motorcycle right in front of her gate. Whose could it be? He went inside the gate and up her porch to her front door. Her door wasn't locked and he peeped in to see her embracing a man in a leather jacket. 

"I've come to take you and our baby back with me Ember. Please let me take care of you both," the man said. He saw Ember breaking away from his embrace and start crying. 

"It's too late for that, Jamie. I lost our baby. It died," she sobbed brokenly and the man again hugged her. Rex's eyes widened at what he had just heard. 

Ember was with another man with whom she had a baby? He couldn't believe it. He staggered back to his car and climbed onto it in a daze. His heart shattered into a million pieces as tears misted in his eyes. He had thought that she was his. He was on top of the world when all the time she was someone else's.  She was a mother of another man's child. They had lost their child together. No wonder she was so broken. He parked his car and went straight to his room, locking himself inside. 

Now that the father of her child had returned, she would leave him and go away. Maybe he was just a rebound for her. He cried brokenly the whole night till there were no tears to be shed anymore. 

"Why did you do this to me, Ember? I loved you," he whispered to himself. The whole night, he didn't sleep. A shattered, unrequited true love was painful and caused more heart ache than anything else in the world.