Page 63 of My Vows Are Sealed

“What are you guys up to?” I asked.

“We just sawTitanic,” she said, looking up at me. “And now we’re going to have dinner here before Miss Hana takes, me, Kate, and Ash home.”

I was a little shocked that Darla’s dad would let her seeTitanicbecause it wasn’t a “Christian” movie, but I was glad she was getting out and doing normal kid stuff and spending time with her friends. That was a rarity for her.

“Pastor Jones doesn’t know.” Naomi answered my unspoken question. “He thought she and I were just hanging out at my house. But Mom said that what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

I snorted. That was the motto we’d been living by for pretty much this whole semester, and would continue living by as long as she lived in his house.

“She’s right,” I agreed. “How was the movie?”

“Nay wouldn’t know. She was too focused on running into Alex Gleason and Belinda Evans there,” Kate teased. “Oh, and the fact that he spent more time trying to talk to her than Belinda.”

Naomi turned bright pink. “I was not. And he was just being nice.”

“Okay, then what was the movie about?” Kate challenged.

“That’s kind of a trick question. EvenIknow it’s about the sinking of theTitanicand I haven’t seen it,” I chuckled.

“There was a love story too,” Naomi mumbled. “It was good, but the end was sad.”

“It wasn’t sad. It waslame,” Ashton groaned.

“Oh, come on, Ash!” Kate scoffed. “It was romantic.”

“Did youseeall the room on that dang door?” they countered. “They could both have fit, but she let him freeze to death. How is that romantic?”

“Because he made the ultimate sacrifice. He gave up his life so she could live,” she argued.

“But he didn’t have to die. Then they could have lived happily ever after. That would have been evenmoreromantic.”

“The point was that he loved her so much that he died to save her.”

“And I love you that much too, but if we were about to freeze to death in the ice-cold ocean after our ship just sank, you can bet your ass I’d be finding a way to fit us both on that door.”

I snickered. Their banter always cracked me up.

“I still can’t get over that scene in the car, though,” Kate chuckled. “I mean, that was justbad.”

“What are you talking about? That washot.Put your hands on me, Kate,” Ashton teased, wagging their eyebrows at her.

She broke into a fit of giggles, and they pulled her into their arms and kissed her. I laughed…until I remembered that my four-year-old brother had been listening to all of that.

Damn it. On top of answering Nathan’s questions about why our parents hated him, now I’d have to answer questions about my friends making fun of what I was assuming was a less-than-stellar love scene in a movie too. And I had absolutely no idea what to say. Since Darla and I hadn’t told him that we were a couple because he wouldn’t understand about needing to keep it a secret, he didn’t really have a whole lot of reference for romantic relationships. It wasn’t like our parents modeled one for him.

I turned to look at him, but it turned out that he hadn’t been paying attention to any of it, because he was engrossed in conversation with Darla about the Jeffersons’ new puppy. Breathing a sigh of relief, I said a silent prayer of thanks for that mini crisis being averted.

“Sorry they just ruined the whole movie for you,” Darla chuckled as she stood up and gave me a hug.

The second she had her arms around me, it was like all of my stress and frustration and confusion just melted away. If nothing else proved to me how right we were together and that what we had was built to last, this did. Because she was the only one other than Nathan who could completely turn my mood around with a simple hug.

“Eh. Seemed like a chick flick anyway from the previews,” I said, squeezing her tight and dropping a discreet kiss on her head. “I needed this today.”

She looked up at me. “Are you okay? You seem…off.”

Of course she’d picked up on my weird mood. I didn’t even know what I was feeling, but Ididknow that I was far from okay. She always said how well I knew her and just knew what she needed or when she was upset, but the truth was, we kneweach otherthat well. We just got each other in a way that I’d never experienced with any of my friends or family.

I sighed and shook my head. “No, I’m not. But this isn’t the time.”

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