Page 103 of My Vows Are Sealed

I still had no idea how Brendan and I were going to get by on just my scholarship money and his income. Thankfully, I’d already filled out the federal financial aid application before everything happened with my dad, but because I’d had to declare his income, it meant I didn’t qualify for much in the way of financial assistance, despite the fact that I was now estranged from him. Brendan kept promising that we’d figure it out because he didn’t want me to have to give up going to college, but I couldn’t see how. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t make a dollar out of fifteen cents.

“Okay, what’s with you, honey?” Ashton asked. “This is not the face of a girl who just got to spend the night with her boyfriend for the first time inweeks.”

I knew that. And it definitely wasn’t the face of someone who’d just gotten engaged last night. Yesterday had been one of the best days of my whole life. For once, I’d felt like a normal high school graduate, and then, to top it off, the man I loved had asked me to be his wife.

But then when Brendan broke the news about Ethan to me this morning, it had sort of put a damper on that. I wasn’t upset with him for waiting until this morning to talk to me about that. I understood why he’d done it. I just wasn’t sure if I really wanted to see Ethan or not, but now it was too late to back out.

“Brendan told me that Ethan Smith’s back in town,” I told them as I carried my mug of coffee back to the table and sat down next to Naomi. “He just got hired at the company Brendan’s working for, and he actually shadowed Brendan yesterday. I guess he apologized to Brendan for how he treated him while we were all in high school, and he asked Brendan to talk to me and see if I’d be willing to sit down with him so he could apologize to me too.”

“And you said yes because you can’t say no to Brendan, but now you don’t know if you really want to be anywhere near the asshole who made your life a living hell four years ago,” Kate finished for me.

I nodded. “Pretty much.”

“Darla, it’s been over three years since you last saw him. And his parents sent him tomilitary school,” she reminded me. “For some kids, that doesn’t do a damn thing about their behavioral issues, but for other kids, the structure and discipline actually end up doing them a world of good. Maybe he was one of the ones who actually benefited from it.”

“I know, but what if he wasn’t? He used to tell my dad every little thing I did just to see me squirm,” I countered. “What if this is a trick and he tells my dad where I am?”

“If this was your dad, he’d at least have sent someone youtrusted,” Ashton interjected. “He might not have known how much of a prick Ethan was to you, but he had to know you didn’t like the kid.”

That…was actually a good point. My dad would have had to be getting pretty desperate to use someone like Ethan to try to lure me out. I would have trusted literallyanyoneelse in the First Baptist Church congregation before I trusted Ethan. Except maybe Brendan’s mom.

“Damn you and your logic,” I mumbled.

“It’s not going to kill you to hear him out, sweetie,” Naomi said. “And youknowyour man’s not going to leave you alone with him, so you’ll have support.”

I groaned and buried my head in my hands. I knew they were right, and I knew hearing Ethan out was the right thing to do. But that didn’t mean I had to like it.

Suddenly, my left arm was yanked out from under me, and I almost fell face-first into my coffee mug.

“Um,excuse me!” Kate shouted, making me pick my head up and look at her. “The fuck is this on your hand? Explain! Now!”

Ashton gasped and pulled my hand out of Kate’s grasp. “Well, hello sparkly!”

“Sparkly?” Naomi asked as she took her turn grabbing at me. “Oh, my God! Darla, I thought we were friends! When did this happen?”

“Last night,” I mumbled, pulling my arm back as I flushed with embarrassment.

“And you didn’t lead with thisbecause…?” Kate stared me down like it was a contest. “We need details! How’d he do it? Why last night?”

“What do you mean, why last night?”

“We weren’t supposed to say anything, but he was planning on surprising you by coming down to Savannah with us next weekend and popping the question while we were there,” Naomi explained. “He roped all of us and a few other people into this huge, elaborate plan. It was actually really sweet how much thought he put into it.”

I chuckled. Yeah, that sounded like something he’d do. And now him saying that he couldn’t believe last night turned out to be the perfect moment made even more sense. He’d abandoned all of his elaborate plans in favor of just asking me when the time felt right.

“Honestly, I don’t even have a good story,” I admitted. “I just felt like making something special for dinner, so I got there a couple of hours before he was going to be home and put it in the oven early. And literally, he got home and went to shower, and he walked back into the kitchen while I was pulling everything out of the oven. He just told me he loved seeing me so happy and that all he wanted was to be able to make me that happy every single day. Then he said he’d been waiting for almost a year for the perfect moment and he couldn’t believe that turned out to be it, and he dropped to one knee right there in the kitchen.”

I smiled at the memory of how happy I’d been in that moment, then blushed as I remembered everything that had come after it. With the exception of eating dinner, most of our evening had been spent in the bedroom, sans clothing.

“Okay, that’s freaking adorable,” Naomi gushed.

“Leave it to Brendan to just abandonweeks’worth of planning and go, ‘Fuck it, I’m doing this right here in the middle of the kitchen,’” Ashton laughed. “Thisisthe same person who decided that a good time for your first kiss was while you were screaming bloody murder at him. Man has zero impulse control.”

I burst into a fit of giggles. They weren’t wrong. Anyone else would probably have waited until Iwasn’tmad before trying to kiss me. Nope. Not Brendan. My very first kiss ever was while I was ranting and raving at him.

“False,” Kate snickered. “Thatwasn’ttheir first kiss, remember? That waspractice.”

That didn’t help with the giggling, though at least everyone else was laughing with me now. But, no joke, that was still one of my favorite memories with Brendan. Him telling me that kiss, and the one he’d given me just a few minutes before, were just practice for our real first kiss. That day in the carpentry room was the day my whole life changed. It was the first time that I admitted I wanted something enough not to care what my father or anyone else had to say about it, and it was the beginning of our love story.

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