Love Letters, Divorce Papers (Jared and Amber)
Chapter 682 Exclusive to Him

With a strong feeling of nostalgia and familiarity, her body was shivering and her eyes turned red.

"Didn't you tell me that yourself?" answered Jared, resting his arm on the window sill of the car.

At a loss, Amber blinked her eyes and said, "Did I ever?

"Uh-huh."

"Well...when?" asked Amber, feeling more puzzled.

She had never told him about the nickname, not to her recollection.

The name had been sealed in by her ever since her father's death six years ago.

She was to about to forget the name herself until he called her by it.

"Eleven years ago," said Jared, looking at the woman standing in a daze.

"Eleven years ago?" Her eyes were wider than ever.

"Yeah." Jared nodded.

"You mean in those text messages?" asked Amber who swallowed.

There was no way that she had told him the nickname herself, for she had not met him eleven years ago.

That left the only possibility that she mentioned it in those texts, for they had been pen pal with each other for quite a long time by then.

Seeing that she already guessed it, Jared admitted with a nod, "Yes, you told me the nickname in your text when you were bullied by Braylee back then. It irritated her that your father called you by that nickname, so she threw a hissy fit, trying to stop him from calling you that again. You were upset and told me your nickname was Little Maple in the letter. You only mentioned it once, but I've never forgotten it since."

"I see..." Amber said biting her bottom lip, in a choking voice, "it was so long ago, how can you still remember that? I could hardly remember it myself."

She wouldn't have recollected it if he had not brought it up.

But now the memory started coming back to her.

She did talk about it in her texting.

It was when she was fifteen years old. Her father returned home from a business trip abroad, bringing her and Braylee each a gift.

They were both delightful until a blaze of anger took over Braylee's face having heard the father calling her Little Maple.

Their father had long called her Little Maple, and he called Braylee "Bray", who loathed it dreadfully under the conviction that it was not special enough comparing with Little Maple, for "Bray" was only an abbreviation from her original name, too perfunctory to her.

Despite the fact that she had always had a problem with that, she had never thrown a tantrum over it, maybe just some sneering innuendo at most. But she went wild that time, demanding her father not to call her Little Maple again.

Her father didn't listen to Braylee, but she was still so saddened by the bickering that she texted a message about it to her then pen pal Zack.

Zack was a really kind and gentle friend who was always there comforting her whenever she was at a loss or feeling blue, so she trusted him deeply.

Sure enough, he replied her letter with nice comforting words and encouragements at that time.

"I've never forgotten anything about you." said Jared with a tender look.

Amber drew a breath, trying to pull herself back together after being unraveled by the nickname. "Oh, well, uh, how come you suddenly wants to call me by that?"

Staring at her, Jared said, "Since we are seeing each other, I don't want to keep calling you by your full name, it doesn't seem close enough. And I don't want to call you as Cole Lyon does. I want a name that's special and exclusive to me. So it just occurred to me."

"Well," Amber pushed her hair aside her brow. "Did you ever call Makenna that?"

It's most likely that he had done so, because Makenna had posed as her before.

If that's the case, it would definitely disgust her.

Jared, however, shook his head and said, "No, I didn't."

"Are you sure?" Amber frowned at him distrustfully.

With a nod, Jared said, "I am sure. You told me in your texting that it's given by your mother, and only called by your parents. So even when I mistook Makenna for you, I never called her that. It's always been yours."

Looking him into his eyes, Amber could see that he was not lying. She was finally relieved of her worries.

"Thank you," Amber flashed him a bewitching smile. "Thanks for keeping it unstained by Makenna."

The nick name was given by her mother, so even if it had been taken by Makenna, she would have reclaimed it anyway.

But she would no longer use it any more.

It somehow ended up well nonetheless, for he had respected what she had said in her texting by never calling Makenna by that.

It had thoroughly remained pristine as hers, as it always did.

"I am so glad that I didn't spoil it by calling anyone else that, "said Jared with his eyes on her.

"Because you are a respectful person, "said Amber, smiling softly.

A mischievously crooked smile appearing on his face, he said, "I like your compliment. Will it be OK for me to call you by that? I know it's your parents' pet name for you but they have passed away, you will no longer hear it from them, so I was wondering if it could be passed down to me. May I call you that?"

From then on, he would cosset her with his love and care about her as much as if she had been his baby.

He would treat her as well as her parents had done.

Amber wiggled her lips slightly at the sight of the appeal look of Jared's face, seemingly hesitating.

But it didn't take long for her to nod with approval, "Sure."

He was right, she had never heard anyone call her Little Maple ever since her parents' death.

It was only when she heard it from Jared that she came to realize she desired to be called like that.

If he wanted to call her that so much, then she would just let him.

She's willing to be called by something that's exclusive to him.

Thereupon the grin on Jared's face grew wider than ever as he said, "Little Maple."

Amber flushed with shyness.

She had been able to answer the name perfectly natural when it had come out of her parents' mouth.

But it was her ex-husband and present boy who was saying that name.

She would have to take a little time to get used to the idea that the name used by her parents for her as a kid would be then used by a man for her in a relationship.

It took time to adapt to this change.

At the thought of that, Amber gave her face a little rub and responded with a mumble, as a way of answering.

After that, with a light flashing across Jared's eyes, he called her again, "Little Maple."

Amber glared at him, "Are you done with that, Jared Farrell. You're really carried away, aren't you?"

He chuckled.

She waved her hand and said, "Well, enough, you should really just go now. Aren't you going to the hospital to see Mrs. Farrell? Then get there early. Say hi to her for me, I will be down there this afternoon." "I'll come back and pick you up," said Jared after a look at his watch.

Amber was about to reject him, but after a second thought, she came to realize that it's quite natural for people in a relationship to do this. She swallowed her "no" down and said instead, "OK then let me know before you come over. I will have to check if I'm busy at that time."

"All right," said Jared who nodded.

She turned around and walked towards her company's building after saying good-bye to him with a wave.

Jared fixed his eyes on her as she was walking away.

All of a sudden, Ben who was behind the wheel looked over his shoulder and asked, "Are you back and Miss Reed back together, Mr. Farrell?"

Ben had vaguely heard something about "seeing each" during their conversation.

Therefore, he was wondering if it was as what he thought it would be.

Turning his eyes away from Amber to Ben, beaming with pride, he boasted, "You are right. We are indeed back together."