Ember In The Heart

1

Ember

“This cannot be happening.” I glowered out of our living room window at the moving van sitting on the driveway of the house next door. More specifically, I glowered at the man standing in front of the moving van. To my sister, Jade, I demanded, “Did you know about this?”

Jade raised her hands defensively. “I swear Colt never said a word.”

Colt was my elder sister’s fiancé and the business partner of the man currently moving into the house next door.

A man I couldn’t stand.

“I think we’re all being very rude and should probably go out there and welcome him to the neighborhood,” Celeste, our second youngest sister, remarked as she peered curiously at him. “His kid is cute.”

“Kid,” I huffed, rolling my eyes. “He’s a man-child. No man-child should be raising a child.”

“That can’t be helped.” Jade’s tone admonished. “His ex took a job in Paris and gave Foster full custody. Colt said they’re both having a hard time adjusting.”

Foster. Foster Darwin. Quite possibly the rudest man I’d ever met. My attention strayed to the little girl standing on the driveway, her hand held tight to Foster’s as they watched the moving team unload the truck. She wore a somber expression on her sweet little face. “How could a mother abandon her child for a job?”

“We don’t know the circumstances,” Celeste reminded us.

“True,” I murmured.

“I’m done peeping out the window.” Jade started for the front door. “Foster is Colt’s best man at the wedding. It would be weird if I didn’t say hello.”

Celeste hurried to follow Jade.

Lifting the hem of my full-skirted maxi-dress, I marched out of the house, bounced down the porch steps after my sisters, onto the lawn I took care of, hopped over my flower beds and onto Foster’s driveway.

My new neighbor.

The universe had a sick sense of humor.

“Foster!” Jade called and the man in question turned, adorable daughter in hand.

“Jade?” he frowned, coming toward us.

His little girl’s face brightened with curiosity.

“Colt didn’t tell me you bought the house next door,” Jade said after kissing his cheek. “Why wouldn’t he tell me?”

“You live next door?”

“For now. Once Colt and I are married I’ll move in with him but this is our family home. Our parents left it to us. Ember and Celeste live here too.”

At the mention of my name, Foster’s lips pressed together into a tight line.

Yeah, the feeling’s mutual, buddy.

“Hey, Georgie, do you remember me?” Jade crouched down to eye level with Foster’s daughter.

She nodded shyly.

Jade held her hand out to her. “It’s nice to see you again.”

Georgie eyed my sister’s hand, then her face, considered her, and then tentatively placed her hand in Jade’s. My big sister beamed that stunning smile of hers. “Are you excited about your new house?”

Georgie’s answer was to step behind her father’s leg and bury her face in the back of it. Foster settled a hand on her head, stroking her hair in comfort. I refused to let the sign of familial love melt my anger toward him. “She’s a little shy.”

Jade stood. “Of course, I remember. And it’s a big day.”

“Yeah.” Foster stared expressionless at our house for a second. “It is weird Colt didn’t mention you lived next door.”

“Did I hear my name?”

We turned to see Colt Baron striding up Foster’s driveway, a twinkle in his blue eyes, a mischievous smile curling his lips. “Hey, angel.” He stopped to press a kiss to my sister’s mouth, winked at her, smiled at me and Celeste and then turned his charm on Georgie. “How’s my princess doing?”

Georgie stepped out from her father’s leg and went to Colt with animation. She held out her arms and he swept her up into them with ease. Catching the look of longing on my sister’s face, I wished we were standing next to one another so I could squeeze her hand. Colt was four years younger than my thirty-eight-year old sister and he wanted kids. So did Jade but I knew she worried they’d have a hard time getting pregnant because she was a little older. I wanted to reassure her because I couldn’t imagine a universe in which my kind, beautiful, patient sister wouldn’t be a mom. Both of us had been in several relationships but being the romantics that we were, we didn’t want to settle down for less than utter certainty that we’d found the one.

It was quite by chance she met Colt. Jade was an English teacher at a local high school and one of her student’s moms was going through a bad divorce. Parent-teacher conference night came around and that mom’s younger brother decided to accompany her so she wouldn’t be alone for her first post-divorce conference. That brother was Colt. At his and Jade’s engagement party, Colt told all of his guests how he walked into Jade’s classroom and felt like he’d been hit by a thunderbolt. He’d never seen a more beautiful woman in his life. And to his amazement she turned out to have an even more beautiful soul.