Page 30 of Ben

“Yes.” All three male voices responded to her.

She walked up to Ben, grabbing him by the hand and walking with him toward the door, hearing the heavy tread of Peter and Bryce’s feet.

She turned around feeling tired and drained. She hadn’t expected this but wasn’t surprised either. Ben was turning out to be heavy-handed, and she didn’t like it.

“Sorry, Bryce. I, we—" Diamond didn’t finish, not knowing what to say.

“It’s okay Diamond.” Bryce stared into her eyes, speaking to her without saying a word. She felt better and relieved.

They were exiting the door when Ben turned and eyed Peter. “Glad to see my brother was wrong and you didn’t get into football on your parent’s dime but became a senator on it instead.”

She groaned.

“You, Sona—”

Ben closed the door behind them and now pulled Diamond along. She tried to retrieve her hand back, but he held onto it all the way to the waiting car parked outside of Bryce’s condo.

They rode back to the airport in silence until she turned, facing him.

“How did you get here so fast?”

“I left as soon as I saw you were at the airport; I was close enough to not be far behind you.” He said, turning to give her his attention.

“You have a tracker on my phone.” She nodded, not surprised.

“All the women in our lives have one.” He pointed out.

She scowled because the Brooks, even though a very private family, seemed to have a penchant for keeping tabs on their women and knew it started after Carter had lost his fiancée to an accident. The only person that didn’t do that from the family was their half-brother, Leaf, and he should be the one to be doing it. Since his wife up and disappeared for several years, only to pop back up and bring danger with her that had gotten him shot and Zahara’s sister Selena’s ranch manager, Grayson, fighting for his life in the hospital. Now all was good, and Deana, Leaf’s wife, spent her time between Colorado and Vegas helping out Carter with the accounting of his business there.

She turned her focus back to the scenery passing by.

“When did you learn that Bryce was gay?”

She looked back at him. “Since that night we were supposed to do the deed after prom. We went to the hotel, and things began to get hot and heavy, and when it came time for us to have sex, Bryce broke down in my arms crying, finally telling me the truth that I had begun to suspect that year.” She sat forward, looking through the front window now at the traffic.

She remembered Bryce had started to become distant and less affectionate around her, and one time she came upon him and Peter having a heated discussion when she’d gone to meet him after cheerleading practice that had gotten out early.

They had been standing so close to each other, near the side of the bleachers, the team had gone in to take a shower, except them, their bodies tense, and when she’d made a sound, they separated and turned to see her standing there.

Peter had glared at her and then walked off in anger. She’d questioned Bryce about what she’d just walked into, but he explained that Peter was upset and had cornered him to say that at the practice recently, he’d felt that Bryce’s head was not in the game.

Bryce then comes out admitting that Peter was right to her, but that he was nervous and could not focus because he wanted to plan a special night with her and take their relationship to the next level; he was hoping Diamond would feel the same way and be okay with them now going to have sex.

She thought she was, and that night when they made their way there, she began to have second thoughts but thought that this was going to be her husband for the rest of her life and figured it would be a special way to become closer in their relationship.

She continued quietly. “This was supposed to be another moment for the two of us to remember as our lives were going to change, it being our last year at the private school and both now being 18. We discussed getting engaged when we were both 21, and Bryce was on his way to playing football in college and hopefully scouted for the NFL.”

Diamond gave Ben a sad smile. “That night after he finished crying, he said he wasn’t ready to come out, especially as he was trying to get into the NFL and needed me to stay as his girlfriend for a little while, and then it just became comfortable to stay that way, since I hadn’t met anyone that I wanted to change my status for and all the attention I was getting as thegirlfriend of the great quarterback Bryce Reid. It got comfortable between us, and then I got the call that he met someone, and it was getting serious, but he needed to see me and talk to me.”

She looked down at her hand that now supported a different ring on it and twisted it around while she thought about what led to Bryce proposing to her that year; she had gone to Ben’s parents place for Christmas.

When she finally got to see him, he’d asked her for another favor.“Diamond, I know this is a lot, but I have fallen for someone, and we can’t come out together just yet. He is someone important, and if this got out, it would ruin his career that just got started.”

Diamond remembered; she’d’ sat there shocked to learn that Bryce and Peter, when they were all at Logan, had been interested in each other, and that was what the tense moment was between them at the bleachers. Bryce did not want to admit his feelings for Peter and denied anything going on other than friendship. But when they met up at a charity auction that Bryce attended, he was introduced to one of the senators of Pennsylvania. All that changed when they saw each other again and admitted their feelings, but as they were both under the public eye, and they would be seen together, he needed the focus to be off him and any potential whispers that something was going on between him and Peter by them both having a fiancée or in relationships.

“He promised me it would only be for a little while and then we would call it off, going our separate ways, but they didn’t come out, and then there was another excuse: Peter was running for re-election." Diamond crossed her legs and continued.

"I stayed in the engagement to protect them, and I don’t regret helping Bryce through this. Plus, there were perks tobeing Bryce’s fiancée; it helped to open doors for me and get me invited to charity events, and that is where I discovered I wanted to work helping people out and taking money from the rich.” She gave him a weak smile and then turned to face the front.

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