Ethan’s mom and dad had been planning this wedding for months. Picking out clothes and music and food. They’d even let him eat cake samples and choose the one he liked best. And the day of their wedding had finally arrived.
Ethan looked up at his parents. Mom and Dad. He liked the sound. He liked that they were all living together in his house. He liked just about everything. The good times had already begun.
Even the counselor he’d been seeing wasn’t too bad. She was so nice he didn’t even feel bad about telling her all that had happened. Finding his dad. And all that stuff with his grandfather, Dryden Kane.
He didn’t think about Kane as much anymore. For a while after what had happened in Uncle Bryce’s boat, he’d had nightmares. He’d wake up screaming, the sound of gunfire still ringing in his ears. But his nightmares were gone now. He could even concentrate on school again. And even though he had to go to summer school so he could pass into sixth grade, he’d deal.
A squeal echoed through the little white church. Ethan looked back at the pews. Uncle Bryce and Aunt Sylvie sat in the first row, his baby cousin, Ronnie, in Aunt Sylvie’s lap. If you asked him, Ronnie looked ridiculous in her frilly little dress and that lacy band around her head. Like some kind of commercial for dumb girly baby stuff. But no one asked him, so he didn’t say anything.
For Christmas, he’d give her a Brett Favre jersey. After all, that’s what cousins were for.
Pleased with the idea, he grinned up at Aunt Diana, who stood beside Mom. Aunt Diana was going to have a baby, too. Her tummy looked so big in her matron-of-honor dress, he was betting she’d have two. He sure hoped they would be boys. He’d be really outnumbered if he had three girl cousins.
Heck if he did, he’d buy them all Packer jerseys and teach them how to wrestle.
Uncle Reed stood up at the front of the church with them. He was wearing a tuxedo, just like Dad and Ethan, only Uncle Reed looked like James Bond in his. Ethan wondered if he had his gun, or maybe the gun was hidden in the heel of one of those shiny shoes.
“The rings?”
Even if Uncle Reed was like James Bond, no one was as cool as Dad.
“Ahem.”
All the times he’d wanted a dad, he’d imagined a lot of things. How strong his dad would be, how smart, how he would help Ethan and his mom and laugh with them and do cool stuff with them. But having Cord for his dad was more than he’d ever imagined. And someday Ethan wanted to grow up to be just as strong and smart as he was.
“Ethan?” Dad’s whispered voice cut through his thoughts.
He looked up. “Yeah?”
Dad held out his hand. “The rings. You got ’em?”
Quiet hung in the church, and Ethan suddenly realized everybody was looking at him. His cheeks got hot.
Mom smiled. “In your pocket.”
He reached into his pocket. His fingers touched nothing but a piece of lint.
He looked at Mom then Dad, his heart beating so loud the whole church must hear.
Dad put a steady hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “Your other pocket.”
Ethan shoved his hand into the other one. He touched metal bands. Smiling, he pulled them out and gave them to Dad.
That was close.
Dad gave one to Mom and they slipped them on each other’s fingers. Then together they said the words Ethan had heard them both practicing for at least the last month. “I take you to be my partner in life and my one true love. I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.”
Ethan blinked his eyes and brushed his cheeks with the back of one hand. So it was a little mushy. So what?
ISBN: 978 1 472 03519 6
VOW TO PROTECT
© 2006 by Ann Voss Peterson
First Published in Great Britain in 2006
Harlequin (UK) Limited
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