Hannah
So far, dinner was going well and Matt was sticking to the ground rules I’d set on the way here; When we’re standing and talking to anyone here tonight, his hand remains at an appropriate place on my back, he kisses my cheek before he leaves me alone and calls me either ‘darling’ or ‘sweetheart’ nothing else.

Now, it was time to break the news, but I think Kim already knows, she spotted the ring as soon as we got here, but she hasn’t said anything about it. Dad and Cooper have been giving Matt death stares across the table all evening, and I’m kind of glad that they’re making him totally uncomfortable.

“So, is there a reason we’re all here having dinner or what?” Dad asked, his smile and happy tone completely believable.

“Well,” Matt started, placing his glass back down on the table and clearing his throat “Hannah and I have a little announcement to make,”

I saw Kim and Amy – Matt’s eighteen year old sister – straighten up a little bit, their eyes moving over to me as smiles spread across their faces. Gary looked at Matt like he was so proud and knew what was coming, while my dad and Cooper continued to glare at Matt, but look surprised and intrigued to everyone else.

“Hannah, you wanna do the honours?” He asked. Of course. Okay, it’s a good thing drama was my major in college.

I closed my eyes and smiled to myself while bouncing in the chair a little, fiddled with my hand under the table, feeling the ring on my finger before holding it out over the table for everyone to see.

“We’re engaged!” I squealed like an excited newly engaged woman, much like I had been when I told everyone who hadn’t been there to see Sam propose, that we were getting married.

“Oh my God!” Kim and Amy exclaimed together, both of them reaching across the table and
grabbing at my hand.

“It’s huge!” Amy gasped “I want one this big,” She told us.

“Not any time soon,” Matt warned her “So, Dad, James, Cooper, what do you think?”

The men all stayed silent, but the four of us watched the three of them and waited for something to happen.

“Congratulations, Son.” Gary smiled, standing to hug his son, Matt stood and embraced his father before turning to mine, who was waiting to shake his hand.

“If you’re making my little girl happy, then I’m happy, too.” I heard him say to Matt before he moved on to be congratulated by my brother while dad came to me and hugged me.

“I might need those tickets to Vegas soon,” I whispered to him, making sure no one else heard it.

“You got it,” He chuckled “I love you baby,”

“So, Hannah…” Gary said, sitting back at the head of the table “I didn’t even know that you were staying at the house with everyone,”

“I wasn’t,” I told him truthfully, feeling Matt tense up beside me as he wrapped his arm around me “The engagement was a complete surprise to me, I had no idea that it was even coming, but while we were dating, I wasn’t a part of the gang and I didn’t want to get in the way of things by living in the house, and I didn’t need to know the details of any danger my boyfriend was putting himself in, so I insisted on living by myself,”

“But your things are all moved into the house now,” Matt finished for me.

“How did you do it?” Kim asked, making Matt give her a confused look “Propose, Matthew.” She laughed “How did you propose?”

“Oh, I love this story,” I gasped excitedly, covering my mouth with my hand. I was goin g to love putting him in the spot like this.

“Me too,” He smiled at me before turning to everyone else “Well, it was date night, and we went out to dinner, Hannah looked gorgeous as ever, but afterwards, instead of going to the movies like we normally would, I suggested that we take a walk around the block and into central park,”
He paused to take a sip of his beer.

“Where you and the guys used to play when you were kids?” Kim asked.

“Yeah,” Matt chuckled “But, we were walking through and for the most part, the park was empty, just a couple of people walking their dogs, and then we got to the more secluded parts, where there’s more woodland, and Hannah noticed that there was some music playing softly and wondered what it was, so she stormed ahead, dragging me along with her just as I’d planned, and when she got there, under the most beautiful tree in the whole park, she froze, seeing the twinkling lights, and her favourite red, pink and white roses, and hanging between two branches of the tree, in rose petals, was ‘Marry Me?’ and when she turned around, ready to ask me what this all was, I was already down on my knee with the ring,”

Matt took my hand in his and brushed his thumb over the ring, smiling a big dimpled smile at me while I stared at him in complete awe.

“That is the most romantic thing I have ever heard,” Kim gushed, hurrying around the table and wrapping us both up in a loving hug.
~~~~
Zack
Erin had been out of town last night and this morning, but she didn’t get back to the house until after Hannah and Matt’s engagement announcement pictures had been taken, and she seemed a little off. Erin was always one to be happy and enthusiastic about almost everything, but as soon as she got home, she shut herself in our bedroom and wouldn’t let me or any of the guys in to see her, not even Jimmy, and he always cheers everyone up, no matter what’s bothering them. He got Hannah to stop crying earlier when he caught her taking a break from getting her
picture taken. She’ll tell everyone that she didn’t cry today because everything was changing, but she did, and she only let Jimmy see it, I just happened to be walking by at the time.

“Erin, baby, please open the door,” I pleaded again, this was the last time, if she didn’t unlock the door I was going to kick it down.

“I look terrible,” She called back to me through the door after a few moments of silence, making me chuckle.

“You can never look terrible,” I told her “I just want to make you feel better,”

“Do you have ice cream?” She asked.

“I text Hannah and asked her to pick some up on her way home, they should be back soon,”

“Okay, hang on,” I heard her push herself off of the floor and pad over to the door, then she moved a chair from in front of the door and unlocked it. As I let myself in, she climbed into bed.

When I saw her messy hair, her smudged eyeliner, tearstained cheeks and quivering lip, my heart broke.

“Oh, Erin…” I breathed, rushing over to the bed in the middle of the room, sitting on he bed beside her and pulling her into my arms “What’s the matter?” I asked “What happened when you went away?”

“I want to bring her home, it isn’t right that she’s all the way up there without me, she needs me, Zack.”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down, what are you taking about?” I asked “This isn’t making any sense to me,”

She didn’t say anything, just took some deep breaths to calm herself and wiped her eyes gently.

“My daughter,” She whispered “I want to bring my daughter home,”

Notes

I'm sorry this is kind of short, but I couldn't have elovebakervengeance dying with the suspense of not knowing what was going on.
We also have her to thank for the way Matt 'proposed' to Hannah.
Do you guys think Zack knows Erin has a daughter, was he just confused as to why she was upset after her not being around for so long? Or did he have no idea?

- LMV