Trusting Fate

Epilogue

~~~ February 2022 ~~~

Ashton's POV

"Come on, close those big eyes of yours." Ember's quiet sob reaches me from the little monitor beside our bed.

"Please, Aiden baby, mommy is so tired." Her voice cracks slightly, and for some reason it makes me get out of bed. But instead of walking to the nursery across the hall I walk into the closet, digging out the stack of photos and the small navy blue box, shoving the latter into my pocket quickly.

I tiptoe into the kitchen and pull the box of small tea lights out of the cupboard hurrying back to our room. I work quickly to set the lights up around the room, laying out the photos of Emmie and I over the last three years.

"Is he sleeping?" I whisper softly as I open the nursery door to see Ember laying our three month old son in his crib.

"Ya. Finally." She nods, looking tired as she walks towards me, wrapping her arms around my waist.

"You get to sleep in in the morning, okay? As long as you need. Pai and I can make some breakfast and play with Aiden for a few hours. There's milk in the fridge for him, right?" I chuckle.

"Ya. That sounds amazing." She laughs, "Now back to bed. Sorry we woke you up." She smiles softly, opening our bedroom door.

"ASH!" She gasps as she sees the candle lit photos around the freshly made bed.

I can't help but get nervous as she turns, her eyes dropping to mine, then to my position on one knee, and then to the small velvet box in my hand.

"I had a whole plan to do this next week, with flowers, and a whole thing on Valentine's day. But when I heard you crying in there I changed my mind. Ember Ann Ellis, you are the light of my life. I love you more than I ever knew was possible. You have brought all of my favorite parts of life to me, you make me happy every single day. And I want to make you happy for the rest of our lives. You and our two kids are my whole world and I want to make you an Irwin officially. Will you do me the honor of marrying me?" I lick my lips quickly, feeling nervous.

"Ash." She covers her mouth as she cries, "Ash. I want to." She giggles, nodding at me.

"Is that a yes?" I chuckle.

"Yes. A thousand times yes." She laughs, dropping to her knees and throwing her arms around my neck. "I love you so much, Ashton Irwin."

"I love you too, my beautiful fiancée." I grin, pulling back from the hug to slide the ring on her finger, kissing her hard on the lips before pulling back to watch her admire the new jewelry.

"Opal?" She chuckles softly, touching the main stone.

"And diamond." I nod, kissing over the ring. "Annie and Haylee helped me design it. I didn't want to get you just a diamond, you've had one of those before. This one had to be special. So I took the opal necklace I got you for your birthday a few years ago and had it set into your ring."

"So getting it professionally cleaned was a lie?" She laughs.

"Partial lie. But it was worth it."

"Yeah. Thanks for proposing at 4am, in our pajamas, in our bedroom. It was perfect." She giggles.

"Yeah it was. Now we have a few hours before the small ones wake, can we do some celebrating before we go to bed?"

"That is a must." She giggles helping me back to my feet.

"Jade is going to kill me. She has been helping me plan the big proposal for weeks." I grin, collecting the photos and lights with her quickly.

"She got her perfect proposal a few months ago, she can deal with mine being perfect for me too." Emmie laughs, setting the things in her hands to the side and wrapping her arms around my neck.