Page 50 of My Vows Are Sealed

I grinned. “You did such a good job! I love it so much. My arm’s still hurting, so I can’t color with you tonight, but do you want to color for a little bit before the lesson starts? I’ll still hang out here at the table with you.”

“Yeah!” he said excitedly.

Brendan sat down, then picked Nathan up and put him on his knee. He grabbed a box of crayons and a coloring sheet and put them in front of his brother, who started going to town coloring one of the twelve disciples bright green.

Did he even realize how hard it was to keep a straight face around him when he was sitting there being the world’s best big brother? Most guys his age would have completely ignored the little kid who idolized them and just wanted their love and attention. But not him. He absolutely adored his baby brother, and he didn’t even try to hide it. Sometimes it seemed like he was more of a parent to Nathan than their parents were. And that was one of the things I loved the most about him.

“So, you guys worked things out?” Heather asked quietly as she sat down next to me.

I nodded. “Yeah. We did.”

“I’m glad. It’s been long enough. It broke my heart, what happened at the dance. I hope you know I never wanted to hurt you. I was trying to help. Guess I’m not a very good wingman.”

“You’re a good wingman. He just didn’t let me in on the plan,” I chuckled, then took a deep breath. “Look, my parents—”

“My lips are sealed,” she promised. “If you haven’t figured it out, no one knows about me and Chris either. My parents would probably disown me if they found out.”

“You guys make a really cute couple, by the way,” I told her.

She chuckled. “So do you.”

I smiled, and I was sure my cheeks turned bright red. “Thanks.”

Naomi unceremoniously plopped into a chair across from us, and the same troubled look I’d seen the past few days at lunch was still on her face. But she wasn’t admitting that anything waswrong, even though I knew there was something going on.

“Hey, Naomi,” Heather said, flashing her a smile.

Her lips turned up a little, but she didn’t reply. Instead, she turned to Peter and Marie’s son, Dawson, and started doing a puzzle with him.

It broke my heart seeing Naomi like this. I’d known her for almost five years, and I’d never seen her this upset before. I had no idea what had changed in the past few days to make her distance herself, and that killed me because if I didn’t know what was wrong, I couldn’t help.

Just like that, a lightbulb turned on over my head, and I kicked myself for not realizing it sooner. I knew exactly what had changed in the past few days: Brendan’s relationship status. I remembered seeing her get embarrassed when he walked into this room a couple of months ago, and she was always giggly and happy around him at school. But then he’d asked me to be his girlfriend, and ever since, she’d been quiet and withdrawn around me.

I’d been so upset about thinking that Brendan had asked Heather out, and then so happy when he told me how he felt and asked me to be his girlfriend, that I hadn’t even realized Naomi was hurting too. I felt like an awful friend knowing that my happiness was making one of my best friends miserable, but I had absolutely no idea how to fix it. It wasn’t like, even if I broke up with Brendan, I could influence whether or not he saw her as girlfriend material. And maybe it was selfish and wrong, but even if breaking up with himwouldhave fixed things between me and Naomi, I wouldn’t have been able to bring myself to do it. Especially not after the emotional rollercoaster I’d been on over the past week.

Why did having a boyfriend have to be so confusing?

“Hey, are you going to the Jars of Clay concert next weekend?” I asked Naomi.

She looked back at me and smiled, a real smile this time. “Yeah. My mom’s coming too as a chaperone. I’m not sure who’s more excited: me or her. She likes them almost as much as I do.”

“I think my dad’s going to let me go,” I said.

“That’s awesome! We can sit together,” she said, sounding genuinely happy about the idea.

That made Brendan tear his gaze away from Nathan, who was now in the middle of coloring Mary Magdalene bright red. Which was sort of an appropriate color in a way, I guessed?

“Really?” he asked.

“According to Marie. He hasn’t actually talked to me about it yet,” I clarified. “But I guess Peter asked him about me going because there was still an extra ticket.”

“Sweet,” he said with a grin. “It’s going to be fun.”

Fun. I barely even remembered what that was like anymore. I really hoped my dad was going to let me go, because I needed a little fun in my life after the craziness I’d been through recently.

* * *

By the time I walked into the house with my family, I was wondering if my dad was even going to acknowledge the conversation he’d had with Peter, or if he’d just said yes to Peter just to get him to shut up. That sounded like something he’d do. Plus, if he’d told Peter I wasn’t allowed to go, then Peter would have asked why, and that would have opened up a whole other can of worms.

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