Vanessa awoke first the next morning to the sun shining in Zac's bedroom window. He still had his arms wrapped around her, but somehow she had ended up on top of his nude body, her bare chest pressed to his, instead of spooning him as they had fallen asleep earlier that morning.

It took the eighteen year old just a moment to realize that something else was different about her fiancé at that point. Along the juncture of her hip and thigh she could feel the pressure of his length extended against her. She started to scramble off of him quickly wondering what he had done to her while they slept. But then she remembered her biology lessons. Guys tend to have erections when they are asleep, and not even know they're happening. And with the way they had gone to sleep in the wee hours of the morning she could understand how that would happen on this particular day.

So she worked gently but diligently to dislodge herself from his grasp. As she rolled to the side of the bed, she caught a glimpse of Zac's naked body under the covers. It was all she could do not to stare at him, all of him. She blushed as she looked at him fully. Then she noticed the ring on her finger again and smiled. He was promised to her, only her.

Vanessa gathered her nightshirt, Zac's t-shirt, that she had discarded along with her underwear before crawling into bed next to him last night at his request. She put them back on and grabbed Zac's sweatpants to try and cover herself as she went to the bathroom. She laughed as she realized that the sweatpants swallowed her petite body. Then she heard another bit of laughter.

She turned and looked at Zac, seeing that he was still asleep. She peeked out the window at the driveway. Starla's car was parked there. Vanessa looked at the clock. It was only 8:30. Zac's parents had come home for some reason instead of staying at his grandfather's house. Her jovial thoughts quickly dissipated as she started wondering when they had gotten home, and if they had seen her with Zac in bed.

She quickly returned to the bed ignoring Zac's lack of clothing and his current bodily situation. She gently started shaking his shoulder trying to get him to wake up. "Zac, Zac, wake up baby, your mom and dad are home." She was trying to be gentle, whispering to him. Zac just grunted at her and rolled onto his side with his back toward her. Vanessa decided on a new tactic to get his attention. "Zachary David, you're naked, I woke up on top of you and I want to know what you did to me last night!" It was still a whisper but the low growl achieved Vanessa's goal.

"Wh-What??" Zac sat straight up in the bed glancing under the covers and then his eyes raced toward Vanessa. "Oh my, oh sh--, Nessa, I, I don't know what to say, I'm sorry!! Are you okay?" He certainly wasn't whispering and Vanessa quickly covered his mouth with her hand, the engagement ring still intact.

She smirked at him just a little, his puppy-dog eyes trying to convey to her how ashamed he was feeling. "Are you trying to tell me that you did do something to me last night? I was under the impression that we simply fell asleep." Vanessa whispered to him.

Zac's eyes softened a bit until he realized his current state of arousal. He removed Vanessa's hand from his mouth and attempted to get out of bed, pulling the covers around his waist. Vanessa firmly held him down on the bed, only letting him sit up with the comforter over him. Zac still didn't fully understand what was going on. Why wasn't she yelling at him, and why wouldn't she let him leave the room. He searched her face for an answer as Vanessa simply put her index finger over her mouth, signaling for him to be quiet.

"Ness," he whispered, "I need to go to the bathroom."

"You're outta luck at the moment stud-muffin. Your parents are home."

"What? We're supposed to be meeting them at Grandpa's house." Zac's voice started to slow down as he remembered the events of the previous day.

"Well, I promise you, they're home now. Your mom's car is in the driveway and I'm pretty sure I heard them talking in their bedroom." Vanessa placed a reassuring hand on Zac's cheek before she continued. "We need to get dressed and go downstairs. Can you do anything about…that?" she glanced at the blanket wrapped around his waist.

"It's already done," Zac stated bluntly. "One mention of my parents being home did more than any of the cold showers I had to take in Hawaii." He shot Vanessa an impish grin.

Vanessa remembered him being out of bed before her the mornings after they had slept skin-to-skin during their vacation. She hadn't thought much about that until now, figuring Zac was just eager to get back to the beach or go sightseeing on the beautiful islands. Now though she realized what must've woken him up those mornings, an aching need that he didn't want to bother her with, not at that point in their relationship. It was enough that she had agreed to let him lay with her naked body sculpted against his. She had agreed to share the bed and go to sleep like that, with his arms wrapped around her. There was no way he wanted her to know just how aroused he had been throughout those nights, and especially the mornings he had woken up with her beside him.

Zac now realized that Vanessa had put the pieces of his vacation puzzle together. They were both slightly embarrassed by the realizations but neither of them said a word to discourage the other.

Zac smiled sweetly at his fiancée as he looked again at the ring on her finger and then at his clothes that she was wearing. "Do you think maybe I could have my clothes…at least my pants…to put on? If I remember correctly, we did pack clothes that will fit you."

Vanessa blushed and smiled at him as she looked at his baggy clothes hanging from her small figure. "Let me just lock the door first." She shuffled to the door and turned the button. Zac proceeded to put his boxers on and grabbed his sweats from Vanessa as she kicked them off her legs. "My shirt," she said as Zac reached his hand out to her. "I'll throw on the jeans I had yesterday until I get a shower, but the shirt I'm keeping on." Vanessa said as she smacked his hand gently. The two continued dressing quietly as they listened for other voices in the house.

Not a moment later there was a quiet knock on the door. "Zac, Vanessa, are you awake yet?" It was Zac's dad. "Yeah Dad, we're both up." Zac said. We'll be down in just a couple of minutes, ok?"

David looked at his wife and smiled. She still had a bit of a shell-shocked look on her face from the scene she had witnessed just minutes before.

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The funeral director had called Alexander Aames as soon as he got to the morgue that morning. Shortly before eight they had set up a time to meet that afternoon to make final arrangements for Amanda's services. Starla had stood by her father's side during the call but once it was finished she wanted to go home to check on her oldest son. David assured her that Zac was fine and in good hands. "I know that," Starla had sighed. "I just want to make sure they are both ok." She had looked at her husband with pleading eyes and he gave in to her request.

"Dad, we're going home to shower and change and get Zac and Vanessa." David had told Alexander before they left the house. Dylan was staying with his grandfather. Probably a good thing he's not here with us. David thought as he took his wife by the hand and led her downstairs to the kitchen.

Not an hour before, David and Starla had pulled into the driveway of their home. It didn't surprise them that the lights were still off and the house was silent. The prior day had been long for all of them, and it wasn't even 8:30 yet. David had stopped to glance at the morning paper as Starla headed directly up the stairs towards Zac's room. She had quietly turned the doorknob fully expecting to see her son and his girlfriend asleep in his small bed.

The site that greeted her eyes was more than she expected. Her son's girlfriend on top of him, her bare back exposed to the sunlight and his arms wrapped tightly around her. Starla could see Vanessa's head resting comfortably on Zac's naked chest. But she could also tell something else. It wasn't just their upper bodies that were naked. She saw the young couple's clothes lying on the floor and Zac's left leg was conspicuously lying uncovered and partially wrapped around Vanessa's lower body.

The mother wasn't disappointed in the teenagers but she was shocked at what she assumed had transpired between the two in those early morning hours when they were alone.

As she quietly worked to close the door without waking the sleeping teens, she also noticed something else. A particular sparkle was coming from Vanessa's left hand that was lying on Zac's right shoulder. The sunlight caused the diamond on her hand to glisten brightly. Starla realized in the middle of their heartache, there was also a reason to celebrate.

David had found his wife sneakily closing the door, quietly holding the knob so that the latch wouldn't click loudly. He put a hand on her shoulder. "They're still asleep?" David whispered. Starla had looked at him with eyes beaming, her hand over her mouth. She took his hand and led him down the hall to their own bedroom and closed the door. Only then did she uncover her mouth and let out a small giggle.

"Something a mother never wants to see." She started.

David's eyes grew wide as he imagined what Starla had just walked in on. "They were, ehm, uh…?" He couldn't bring himself to continue. Then he started again, "I forgot to tell Zac 'no frolicking' this time. I thought it would be a moot point, given the circumstances." His eyes dropped to the floor.

Starla lifted his chin. "I didn't catch them in the act. I'm just assuming what happened earlier. I'm also assuming that because of something else I saw." Starla sat down on their bed. She watched as David met her eyes again. "Vanessa's wearing my mom's engagement ring."

David seemed a bit stunned at this revelation. He hadn't been part of the conversations yesterday at the hospital when Alexander had given his wife's engagement ring to their oldest son. But Starla and her father had told both David and Dylan about it when they had gone home. David was a bit subdued at the time, a little sad that he didn't share this moment with his wife and son. Dylan was ecstatic though, talking about the possibilities of a wedding in his big brother's future. Right now though, David was more stunned that a proposal had come so quickly. He was anxious to hear how it came about, and so was his wife.

Both Starla and David had taken a quick shower and changed clothes before venturing back into the hallway near their son's bedroom. This time they heard voices inside the room, and David knocked to make Zac and Vanessa aware of their presence.

"Okay son, we'll see you two downstairs in a few minutes."

Neither father nor son made an attempt to open the door. Both chose to speak through the wooden structure to reach their points. It must be some male understanding. Starla thought to herself as she watched her husband. David then took her by the hand and led her downstairs to make breakfast.

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Zac reached for Vanessa as she finished tying her hair up into a messy ponytail. She leaned back against him, looking at themselves in Zac's mirror. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and let them hang down over her chest for a moment as they just stared at each others' reflections. Vanessa lifted her hands from her sides and grasped the two strong arms that were wrapped around her. Zac placed a kiss on the top of her head as he rubbed one thumb across the diamond ring that now adorned Vanessa's left ring finger.

Vanessa turned in his arms and looked up into his sparkling blue eyes. She noticed a hint of darkness in them, but didn't say a word. Zac took her left hand and rubbed her ring finger again. "Are you sure about this?" He asked, grasping the fragile diamond.

"I am," she replied. "Are you?"

"Yes, I am," he answered as he pulled her closer. "Yesterday, and last night, just don't seem real, Ness. This may sound awful of me, but I really didn't mean to propose to you last night, not like that."

Vanessa slipped from his grasp and sat down on the bed. "Then are you really sure this is what you want?" The question was a little more pointed this time.

"I am sure. But I don't want to rush you. And I don't want you to think that I asked you in the heat of the moment, at a time when I couldn't control my emotions, or my words, or any part of me, obviously." Zac sat down on the bed next to her, wanting to make certain that she knew how sure he really was.

"Zac, you and I were both vulnerable last night. You could have asked me to make love to you, and I probably would have agreed. But you didn't. Even with our emotions in overdrive, you showed some amazing control. And that just makes me love you more, and it proves to me how much you care for me…even when I'm supposed to be taking care of you." Vanessa turned her head away from him with that last confession.

Zac turned her head back toward him. "These next few days are going to be rough on all of us, I know. The feelings are just going to keep pounding away at us. So I'm not going to promise that I won't ask you to make love to me. I won't promise that I won't ask you to sleep naked with me again, right here in this bed, even if we know that mom and dad are just down the hall. All I know for sure is that I do love you, and I need you to be with me these next few days, and just keep showing me that you're already a part of my family."

Neither of them wanted to leave the comfort zone of Zac's room. They knew there were funeral plans to be made and that Starla and Grandpa and Dylan would need comforting. Zac knew that their engagement had given him added strength to become one of the comforters in the situation. He knew now, with Vanessa by his side that he could be strong for his mom, grandfather and brother. And he knew that strength would help his father see him as an adult, even more than he already did.

Vanessa twisted the ring on her finger. "Zac, should we let everyone know that we're engaged? I don't think I feel right announcing our amazing news, not when everyone is in shock and grieving for your Grandma. I could take the ring off and leave it here, in the box. We could wait until things have settled down a little."

"No!" Zac almost shouted. "No, don't take it off, please. I think it's okay if people notice it and ask about it. We don't need to announce it, per say, but I know at least a few people will definitely notice it and ask us." He paused for a moment, reliving the moment that he invited her to take the ring. "We need something happy right now. And with more family around us, I think this would actually be a great time for them to find out. Besides, Grandma made our engagement possible. What better way to thank her."

Vanessa cupped Zac's face in her hands and pressed her lips to his. "You're right. And I don't want to take it off Zac. I just wanted you to know that I'm willing to, if you think I should."

Zac smiled at her. "Now that it's on your finger, it better stay there for fifty years, just like it did on Grandma."

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