Page 122 of Family Bonds- Emma & Warren

He pulled his phone out to see over a hundred messages. He’d silenced it at one point.

The ones from his mother and sisters he answered right away and said he’d get on a call with them if they wanted. Since he sent that in a group chat, they all replied yes within minutes, so his mother set that up, and when his phone rang, he answered it there rather than on his computer.

“That is just crazy,” Stephanie said. “Did you know?”

“Yes,” he said, smiling. “Melissa told me the first time I met her.”

“You’re kidding me,” his mother said. “That was months ago. And you’d only been dating Emma a few months then.”

“I know,” he said. “I was stunned, but I understood too.”

“What did you understand?” Stephanie asked.

“That Warren was in love with Emma,” Stacy said. “Everyone can see it. And her family is so accepting of him. I saw that again on Sunday.”

Hailey had been talking to his sister about work and the possibility of interviewing at Bond Law.

His sister was all but bouncing off the wall over that and was going to consider it.

He understood Stacy’s reluctance since she’d just started her first job after passing the bar. Then there would be talk that she might have gotten the job because of the family connection with Emma’s.

His sister was going to have to figure that out on her own.

He just couldn’t micromanage everyone’s lives anymore.

He finally had what he wanted. There were only so many hours in the day and it was time to put some of them on him.

“They are,” he agreed.

“Is there anything you can share about this news with Emma’s mother?”

He laughed. “Not much to say. She’s kept her identity secret for years. I’m not sure how she managed it with enough people knowing, but it never got out. Good for her. I’m jealous of that.”

“It’s going to put more attention on you and Emma,” his mother said.

“It will. I’ve got a ton of messages and my phone is still going off. My agent and Mike are pissed I didn’t tell them. They can fuck off,” he said. “It’s not my news to share.”

“That’s the attitude to have,” Stacy said. “They can get over it. It will not affect how you play the game.”

“No,” he said. “I’ll talk to them later. There is an article releasing tomorrow with an interview Melissa did. I don’t know what it says. I’ll read it the same as everyone else.”

“We won’t keep you on the phone,” Stephanie said. “I know you’ve got other things to take care of.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Not what I want to do. I might just shut my phone off and call it a night with a book.”

“A Steve Spencer book,” his mother said. “Or have you read them all?”

“Not all,” he said. “Right now I’m going through most of Emma’s.”

“Which is a very supportive boyfriend,” Stephanie said. “Maybe I’ll find one of them someday.”

“Only if I approve of him,” he said.

His sister snorted and he knew it was time to get off the phone.

The minute he hung up, his phone was ringing again. It was Mike this time. It was the only person he was going to talk to at this point.

“Yes, Mike,” he said.