Page 57 of My Vows Are Sealed

Chapter 16

Darla

When the Rain Comes

It was after midnight when the bus finally pulled back into the church parking lot. And I wasn’t even a little bit tired. There was too much adrenaline coursing through my veins. Tonight had been absolutely amazing. On top of getting to see my favorite band perform live, I’d been able to let my guard down a little around Brendan and clear the air with Naomi. For the first time in a long time, I’d actually felt like a normal kid.

But now it was time to get back to the real world. Because when I glanced out the bus window, I saw my dad leaning against the hood of his car with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. I knew he probably wasn’t happy that we were so late getting back because he had to get up at six tomorrow morning so he could be here on time for the early service. I wondered why he’d insisted on coming himself rather than having my mom pick me up. Just because she was on disability, it didn’t mean she couldn’t drive.

Brendan reached up from behind me and grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze. I knew he hated that we couldn’t get a real goodbye. For that matter, so did I. I hated all this lying and sneaking around and acting like I was ashamed of him. I didn’t have anything to be ashamed of, and I shouldn’t have had to act like it. But I knew my dad would never understand, even if I tried to explain it to him. He saw the world as black and white, and in that black and white world, his daughter was not allowed to have anything to do with boys.

As the bus came to a stop, he got up immediately and moved to stand in the aisle, blocking my dad’s view of the window.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, baby,” he said quietly, squeezing my shoulder.

I smiled at him. “See you tomorrow.”

He walked off the bus, and I stood up, grabbing my purse and the bag containing the t-shirt Naomi had bought for me and the keychain I’d bought myself with the ten-dollar bill I’d found in my wallet. Naomi got up right behind me.

“It’s hard having to hide, huh?” she asked me as we made our way off the bus.

I nodded. “Yeah. But it’s worth it.”

“Maybe one day I’ll know what that’s like,” she sighed.

My mind flashed back to the way Alex had looked at her before we got on the bus this afternoon. Now that I thought about it, it reminded me a lot of the way Brendan had looked at me before we started dating. Like he wanted something he didn’t think he could have.

“You will,” I told her. “You’re going to meet someone amazing. And soon. I can feel it.”

“I hope so,” she chuckled as we hopped down from the step at the front of the bus. “See you tomorrow.”

I gave her a hug. “See you tomorrow. I’m going to bedragging.”

“Me too,” she giggled.

I turned and headed toward my dad’s car, and a knot twisted in my stomach when I saw his hard, angry eyes. Had he somehow found out about me spending time with Brendan at the concert? If not, what had I done? Why was he so upset with me?

“Get in the car,” he growled at me.

I nodded and cast my eyes downward as I quickly got into the front seat and buckled my seatbelt. My dad got into the driver’s seat and yanked the door shut so forcefully that it shook the whole car, then immediately turned the key in the ignition and backed out of the parking space doing at least fifteen miles an hour. The car came to an abrupt stop, jerking me forward, and I looked over at my dad just in time to see him roll down his window.

“Watch where you’re walking!” he barked, turning to look at someone.

“Sorry, sir. My bad,” came Brendan’s voice. “Have a good night.”

“Pay more attention,” my dad grumbled as he turned back around and continued to back out of the parking space and pealed out of the parking lot like a NASCAR driver.

Oh, my gosh. He’d almost hit Brendan with his car! And his only response to that was yelling and blaming the other person? What if he’dactuallyhit Brendan? What if he’d put him in the hospital or, God forbid, killed him? He could have seriously injured or even killed the most important person in my life, and he didn’t even care.

What had upset him this much? And why hadn’t he said anything to me about it? Usually, if he was upset with me, he’d start in on me the second we were alone, whether that was in his office, in the house, or in the car. But now, he was just silent, in a deadly sort of way. In the kind of way where I knew that all of his rage was bubbling just under the surface.

* * *

My dad still hadn’t said a single word by the time we pulled into our driveway. The silence was thick enough that I would have needed a machete to slice through it and bile was churning in my stomach, threatening to make an appearance.

I hated when he acted like this. If he was upset with me for something, why didn’t he just punish me and get it over with? Why did he have to give me the silent treatment and not even tell me what I’d done wrong? I would have almost preferred getting the belt to the anticipation and not knowing when he’d explode or what would set him off.

“Go to bed,” he barked as I got out of the car. “Early service tomorrow.”

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