Page 26 of Beauty and the Nerd
“Your parents travel a lot, don’t they?” Daphne asked, and she nodded. “Man, I bet that’s nice.”
“Daphne,” Tara said with a warning in her voice.
“A house all to yourself, no dumb boys around, no one telling you to clean your room…sounds like a dream,” Daphne said ignoring her mom.
“Once in a while it’s okay but you realize as you get older that it’s actually not that bad having them around, I usually have a dinner date with my dad once a month, just the two of us,” Emma said as Ben kissed her temple. “It’s one thing I hope to keep up with his business travel this next year. There’s nothing quite like a night out with a guy who will ensure nothing begins to hurt you.”
“Is that why you like Ben so much for?” Daphne questioned, as they moved out of the room towards the parking lot.
“It just might be part of it,” she said meeting his gaze with a smile. “I never really thought about it before.”
“Marry a man like your father, isn’t that what they tell girls?” Simon stated.
“Well in my case I certainly would not have been happy if I’d done that,” Tara said shaking her head at him. “I much prefer you to that.”
“Good to know,” Simon said letting Ben usher Emma to her car.
He held open the passenger door for her to get in, giving her a soft kiss as he took the keys from her fingers. He loved driving her around, and he hoped they could take a long drive over Spring Break next month.
Dinner went fine despite his mother’s standoffish attitude towards Emma, and he assured his parents he’d be home at a decent hour before they left, heading to a party, so Emma could find and tell Megan the news. He held onto her hand lifting it over her head to wrap her arm around her waist keeping hold of it in order to keep her closer to him. He didn’t want anyone there to try something and upset her—especially not when she was this happy.
She leaned back into him sighing as he dropped a kiss onto her neck and swayed to the music. He lifted his other hand resting it on her hip as she turned her face towards him, giving him a smile, he couldn’t resist tasting. He let it linger until he heard Megan shout her name in surprise and he let her lips go, loving the look in her eyes.
“What are you doing here? Didn’t he have some tournament thingy tonight?” Megan asked, and she nodded heading over to meet her friend.
“They won in no time flat. We had dinner with his family and then came here so I could show you this,” Emma stated, pulling the envelope out of her bag with a huge grin.
“What is that?” Megan questioned until she uncovered the logo in the corner of the envelope. “Is that…”
“My acceptance letter? Yup,” Emma said, and Megan let out a squeal of excitement. “I got in and with my scholarship and themoney my parents have in my college fund…I can actually afford to go with no worries. Even live in the dorms rather than some tiny little apartment with a dozen roommates.”
“Oh my god!” Megan gasped hugging her tightly. “That’s amazing Emma.”
“I didn’t know if they would take me, give me anything to make it feasible to actually go, until I got the scholarship notification from the group. I was so thankful they sent an electronic copy of it because that was right on the deadline for financial aid review. I doubt I would have gotten this letter if it weren’t for that scholarship.”
“You won it all on your own Em,” Ben said as she glanced at him with a smile. “You’d submitted that before we even really met. You deserved that scholarship and I’m good with my extra ten thousand from them. It will tide me over just fine with what I got offered from Columbia.”
“I still can’t believe you won the top prize, that’s incredible Emma,” Megan said hugging her again. “So, I guess this means no sabotaging your relationship, right? No need to wonder the ‘what’s going to happen when he gets to Columbia’, huh?”
“Right,” Emma agreed resting her head back against Ben’s shoulder. “Now I just need to tell my parents the news.”
“You didn’t tell your mom?”
“She went to meet Dad in DC for the weekend. They won’t be home until Tuesday,” she explained, and Megan smiled giving her a questioning look, her brow lifting telling her exactly what she meant by it. “Stop it, that’s not going to happen.”
“What’s not going to happen?” Ben asked, not seeing what she had in the look.
“We’re not going to enjoy the empty house doing something naughty,” she said turning around to face him with a smile.
“Ah, nope, no need to rush that, especially not with you in the same place as me next year,” Ben stated, letting his handgently caress her hip pulling a smile from her that said she was completely affected by it. He loved that look because it told him she felt the same as he did, she simply wasn’t ready for more, not yet at least.
“Just think though, you two could probably be sneaky, find a place to live together and have lots of fun if you tried,” Megan said, and Emma pushed her away from them laughing as she turned around to look at Ben.
“I don’t think our parents would begin to let us by with that one, now do you?” Ben said letting her lead them wherever she wanted to go. If she wanted to stay at the party, he would stay because he’d be with her but if she wanted to go somewhere quieter so they could talk, he certainly wouldn’t say no to that.
“Not a chance, the second my dad finds out that we’ll both be in New York he’s going to insist on having a chat with you,” Emma stated, saying hi to a couple other people before pulling him outside to the car. She wrapped her arms around his neck giving him a slow kiss, smiling fully when she pulled back. “That’s so much better…take me home Benny?”
“We have your car which would mean me having to either take it to my place to get home or make you drive me there and I don’t want you out driving that late.”
