Page 20 of My Vows Are Sealed

“Remember how to spell ‘from’?”

“I forget,” he said sheepishly.

“That’s okay,” I told him. “Big F. Little R. Little O. Little M. Now just write your name. You remember that part, right?”

“N-A-T-H-A-N,” he spelled out loud as he scribbled it out, then handed the paper to me.

“Good job, bud,” I said as I slid it into my Bible case for safekeeping until I got back to my bedroom. “Okay, let’s go brush our teeth. Come on.”

* * *

The next morning, I left for school a little early on purpose so I could meet Darla’s bus before the bell rang. I went to the gate as soon as I got there, and it turned out to be perfect timing. Two minutes later, I saw her speed-walking in with her head down, like she didn’t want to talk to anyone. I weaved my way through a couple of people so I could get to her.

“Hey, Dar,” I said, putting a hand on her arm to catch her attention.

She gasped and flinched away from me as she raised her head, and the second she saw my face, I swore I saw her shoulders sag in relief.

“I’m sorry, Brendan. I can’t talk to you,” she muttered as she tried to walk past me.

What? What did she mean, she couldn’t talk to me?

Of course. Her father.

“Because your dad said so?” I clarified.

She nodded.

What the hell? Seriously, what was going on in that family that her father had her so scared to even talk to me at school, where he was nowhere to be found?

“How’s he going to find out?” I asked.

“He has ways. He always finds out everything I do,” she said quietly, her voice breaking. “I’m not allowed to talk to anyone at school or at church for the next two weeks. Especially not you, Kate, or Ash. And if I disobey, he’ll punish me even more.”

Nope. I wasn’t going to let this happen. I wasn’t going to let her throw away two friends as amazing as Kate and Ashton just because her father was a bigoted asshole, and I wasn’t about to let him tellmewhoIcould and couldn’t talk to.

“He only found out about Kate and Ash because Ethan’s an ass,” I told her. “It’s my fault because I tried to get him to shut up at church last night. And you told me the only class you have with him is homeroom, which only happens, what? Once a month, maybe? Your dad’s not going to find out who you’re talking to before schoolorwho you have lunch with. I promise you. And you can’t let your dad take Kate and Ash’s friendship away from you just because he’s decided that Leviticus is supposed to be taken literally.”

She snorted quietly, but didn’t say anything.

“I promise, Dar. He’s not going to find out. I’m sure as hell not going to tell him. He’s on my shit list right now anyway because he upset Nate last night,” I said without thinking.

Damn it. I shouldn’t have said that. The last thing she needed was to feel guilty that Nathan was upset that she didn’t come back to the kids’ service last night.

“He scared Nate?” she asked, barely audible.

Shit. I knew I hadn’t been imagining her fear last night. It was getting more obvious by the day that she was afraid of her father, and for her first reaction to hearing that Nathan was upset to be an assumption that he was scared just confirmed it. Because why would she assumehewas scared of her father if it wasn’t a feeling she herself was familiar with?

“Not really scared,” I clarified. “He just missed you and he didn’t understand why your dad was yelling at you. Actually…” I took my backpack off and got my math textbook out of it, retrieving the folded coloring sheet from inside it. “He asked me to give this to you.”

She unfolded the paper and covered her mouth with her hand as a couple of tears trailed down her cheeks. Taking a deep breath, she wiped them away.

“He even spelled my name right,” she finally said.

“He might have had a little help with that part,” I admitted. “He asked me to give it to you and I suggested that he write your name on it.”

“It’s adorable,” she sniffled. “Is this Smurf Jesus?”

“Apparently,” I laughed.

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