Page 33 of My Vows Are Sealed

We walked out of the stall, and I went to wash my face with some cold water. I grabbed all of my makeup out of my purse and put it on the counter, then wiped all the smeared makeup off of my face with a wet paper towel.

“Hey, are you going shopping for a dress before the dance?” she asked as she helped me re-apply my foundation.

“I think my mom’s taking me either tomorrow or Friday.”

“Why don’t you talk to her and see if you can come with me and my mom on Friday? We still need to make this dance fun. Even though it’s probably going to be slim pickings with the dresses since we’re waiting until the last possible second.”

I smiled and took the tube of mascara she handed me. “That sounds like fun. I’ll let you know tomorrow.”

I quickly unscrewed the wand from the mascara tube and applied it. This was my absoluteleastfavorite part of doing makeup. I hated sticking this thing right next to my eyeballs.

“Okay. Just throw on a little blush so it doesn’t look quite so much like your cheeks are actually red, and you’ll be perfect,” she announced.

I obeyed, then put all of my makeup back into my purse. We walked out of the bathroom together and headed back to the children’s room, where Brendan and Heather were now sitting and talking to each other.

My eyes started to sting again, but I took a deep breath, swallowed down the tears, and went to sit next to Nathan on the floor.

“Can I sit by you, bud?” I asked, trying desperately to distract myself from the new couple.

Instead of answering me, Nathan got up and wrapped his little arms around my neck.

“Why are you sad, Darla?” he asked.

It took everything I had not to burst into tears all over again. This kid was too sweet, and he was so empathetic. He could always tell if someone was having a bad day and he always did everything he could to cheer them up.

“I’m okay,” I told him. “It’s just girl stuff. I needed the hug, though.”

He tightened his arms around me, and a fresh round of tears threatened to break free as I returned the hug. After a few seconds, he let go of me and settled on my lap, resting his head against my chest. I folded my arms around him, squeezing tight.

Everything might have been about to change with his big brother, but I wasn’t going to let my relationship with Nathan change. I couldn’t. I loved him too much. He was more than just some kid at church to me. He was like the little brother I’d never had.

“He missed you like crazy,” Brendan chuckled as he sat down next to me.

I turned to look at him, and he was still looking at me like he always did. Like I was the only girl in the room.

My eyes and nose started to sting again. He couldn’t keep doing that. It wasn’t fair. Not to me, and not to Heather. But I didn’t know how to even begin to tell him that. I’d never dealt with anything like this before.

So, instead, I just responded to his statement as I looked back down at his brother. “Yeah, I can tell. The feeling was mutual.”

“Naomi said your dad’s actually letting you come to the dance,” he said.

I nodded. “Yeah. We’re going stag together.”

“I know. Do you guys want to ride with me and Heather?”

Was he actually serious? I mean…was he? Had he really just asked me to come as a third wheel on his date?

He might not have thought of me as girlfriend material, but I knew that he knewexactlyhow I felt about him. Well, maybe not exactly. He didn’t know how deep my feelings for him went, but he knew they existed.

So what in God’s holy Name was he doing? Was this some sort of backward, convoluted pity ask?

I might have been pathetic for wearing my heart on my sleeve, but I wasn’tthatpathetic. Did he honestly think I’d just take the little scraps he decided to throw me and thank him for it?

Absolutely not. He could go suck a rock.

“Nope,” I clipped out, moving Nathan off of my lap and going to set up the stuff for the crafts.

I understood that my feelings for Brendan were of the unrequited variety, but why couldn’t he have had the decency to tell me about this? Why did he have to just ask someone else out and let me find out through his mom? And why on Earth did he have to invite me along on their date, like I was the annoying kid sister his mom had made him bring along?

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