He let the girls enjoy time together Thursday and Friday, not caring that they were hanging out more together than with him those evenings. He had Emma all to himself this past year, he wouldn’t deny her time with her friend. Not when he got to sleep next to her every night, and especially not when they were able to enjoy each other before they went to sleep together.
Saturday afternoon, Megan slipped into the guest room, giving them a bit of privacy as he called his dad. He was relieved not to see his mom with him, and he smiled as he heard Daphne asking him to lower the phone so she could see it.
“Hey guys,” he stated seeing the twins come into view when his dad took a seat. It was pretty quiet, so he assumed everyone else, including his mother, was outside.
“Hey. Hi Emma,” Daphne said giving her a grin and he was glad that his sister liked his girl.
“Hi Daphne, Adam…Mr. Morris,” Emma said in greet to them as he held her close.
“Well, I’m not going to beat around the bush or anything since we don’t know how much time we have before we’re interrupted,” Ben said and his dad nodded in understanding, not thrilled with his shutting his mother out, but also realizing it was his choice. “Emma and I have something we wanted to tell you all. First, we got back about a week ago from a week in Hawaii that was part work part vacation for me, while full vacation formy girl. Second, you all might see some pictures of my girl in the near future on ads for Satin Touch because she’s doing some modeling for them and in fact she spent the time we weren’t together in Hawaii with the owner of Satin Touch, who happens to be married to my boss, and Emma’s modeling for Emerson is the reason I met Lyle Cort and have the job at Cortland Finance this summer.”
“Wait…what?” Daphne half-screamed. “Your girlfriend is going to be modeling for the most popular line ever?”
“She is, I’ve seen the photos and they’re incredible, they’re my second favorite set of photos of her ever,” he said making his dad’s eyes widen a hint and Emma forced herself not to blush, certain he wasn’t thinking of possible engagement photos but something naughtier. “Which actually leads me to the third thing which is also connected to the second thing.”
“Huh?” Adam said not following.
“There’s another set of photos that Emma’s going to start posting on her personal social media pages, so if you see them, we wanted to share the news behind them first,” Ben said, hitting send on the text message with two of the ones they were going to post.
The first one Ben was kneeling with the ring box in his hand, while the second one was the one she shared with her parents as well. They could hear the ding as they came through, and Daphne’s gasp said they saw them.
“She said yes,” Ben stated as their eyes flew back up to them. He lifted her hand, showing off the ring and Emma grinned at the shock on their faces.
“You’re engaged?” Daphne cried, her voice rising as the word engaged went on.
“We are, nothing planned or even discussed as to when we might begin to start planning, we’re enjoying being engaged right this moment, and we’re going to take it from there. I’mworking most of this summer but I’m enjoying it, it’s with things I want to do as a career, so while it’s work, it’s interesting and useful. I’m definitely missing Emma while I’m at work but at least I have her once I get home, because we’ve moved in together…or I moved into the apartment with her with her parents’ approval for it, along with their blessing to the engagement,” Ben added getting it all out for his family. What they told his mother was up to them, he couldn’t control that piece of it, but he could control the contact with her he had, and especially the contact she had with Emma.
“Oh my god…I’m so totally going to be in the popular crowd next year,” Adam said making his brow lift curiously at his brother.
“No, you aren’t,” Daphne said rolling her eyes at him as well.
“Uh yeah I am when they find out our brother, Mr. Nerd Alert, is engaged to the Homecoming Queen who also is modeling for Satin Touch, because most of their ads are bras and underwear and bikinis and shit like that. The guys at school are going to be begging for an autographed photo,” Adam said, and Emma couldn’t quite stop the laugh that bubbled up, and she turned her face into Ben’s shoulder as he glared at his brother.
“You’re not using my relationship with Emma for anything, got it?” Ben warned.
“He will,” their dad said with a warning look his way. “Congratulations Ben, Emma, we’re happy for you both, truly. If you want us to keep this to ourselves…”
“I’m sure it will get out around town once Emma posts the photos so there’s no reason not to tell her, I simply am not going to listen to any negativity from her, or anyone else on it. If we decide there is anything that we don’t want shared with someone, we’ll let you know. It depends on how things go from here on how much we share when we do make plans,” he stated getting his agreement to that before they ended the call.
Emma laughed as Ben pulled her over his lap, giving her a million little kisses until Megan interrupted them.
“Okay, I’m still here you know,” she joked.
“We know or else we’d be in the bedroom already,” Emma returned, loving the new dynamic in her relationship with Ben, but also being able to share it with others she loved.
“So, when are you going to freak everyone we graduated with out by posting that I’m pretty sure you’re the first one in our class to get engaged?” Megan asked her, and she grinned further at Ben seeing his smile as that thought rushed through his mind.
“Oh yeah, you’re posting that today,” he teased her, and she pulled out her phone, opening up the draft she had save with her ‘favorite moment from our Hawaiian vacation’ and hit post.
“Done,” she told him, letting him see the spread of the pictures she’d chosen, the last one her favorite that showed off the ring but also the sweetness of his love for her.
“Beautiful, just like you baby,” he said handing her phone back as it started going off with notifications. “I think you might have broken some of them,” he teased as they checked out the comments already posted, most of them just emojis of shocked faces, several of exploding heads, and she didn’t care about any of the ones that were snarky or nasty.
She smiled seeing Annie posted a dozen hearts under it and she liked it in return, glad that the girl was doing well. She’d be a senior this fall and deserved to have a great year.
“The other group chat just sent a screenshot of your post asking if you were serious,” Megan said showing it to her and Emma rolled her eyes at their pettiness. She’d thought it completely ridiculous that the squad created a group chat that excluded her after she couldn’t finish out the competition season with them, but it honestly didn’t matter to her what any of them thought. Her real friends were the ones who mattered, and she was surprised she’d forgotten to text Ashley their news. Shedidn’t use social media at all, and she quickly texted the girl who was home for the summer. The ‘no freaking way’ in response made her grin and she sent her a little selfie showing off the ring, promising to tell her all about it when she had time.
“Oh they’re losing their shit now,” Megan said, showing her the new screen shots that showed off the comment Emerson left on the post, along with one she posted on her own page of them from their dinner that night congratulating her friend and newest model of the Satin Touch family on her engagement. She had no idea Emerson was going to do something like that, but she had to admit, it felt good to rub some of their noses in it.
