Sacred Vow (Angels Halo MC Next Gen #5) - Terri Anne Browning Page 0,69

for how uncomfortable he seemed.

“Raven is pouting,” Mom murmured, glancing around with a frown. “I wonder where Max is…” Her voice drifted off as her gaze landed on the door as it opened.

Max was just entering, but unlike at the wedding, he wasn’t alone now. At his side was a girl I’d never seen before. She was gorgeous, with a mass of dark hair and golden skin that had to be natural. Her dark eyes glanced around the room in a mixture of fear and wonder as she kept one hand in Max’s and the other fidgeted with the skirt of her dress.

The girl stopped walking after they’d come several yards into the bar, and Max looked down at her with concern. Releasing her hand, he moved his own as he spoke to her using sign language. He’d taken American Sign Language as his language elective in high school, and his mom had taught him the basics when we were all kids. I didn’t know a lot of it, but I did know the bare necessities, and it looked like he was telling her not to be scared.

A gasp to my left had my head shooting around to find Aunt Kelli staring at them as if she’d seen a ghost. Not observing any possible danger to her or anyone else, I shifted my gaze to my wife, but her eyes were on the newcomers as well. Noting her frown, I stopped dancing, needing to fix whatever was putting that look on her face.

“Mom.” Max’s deep voice reached us, and everyone in the bar was suddenly looking at where he and the girl at his side were now facing Aunt Raven. He signed the words as he spoke, “This is Delaney.” His electric-blue gaze zoomed around the room, glaring at all the guys before settling back on Delaney and softening. “And she’s mine.”

Epilogue

River

I smiled at the customer as I handed over her bag. The woman had come in an hour before to “browse.” She’d started by looking through our baby section, telling Avery that her niece was having a little girl in a few months and she wanted to check out our selections so she could report back to the girl.

But then, she’d just had to look at our more intimate selection because her son was getting married, and she wanted to maybe bring her future daughter-in-law in to shop for their honeymoon.

It wasn’t much longer before she was in our eighteen-and-over-only section, where she’d then selected a few personal items—and a few things for her husband’s pleasure as well. The poor woman had been beet red as she’d placed her purchases on the counter for me to ring up.

And only after the other customers had left.

I thought it was adorable, but unnecessary. There was no shame in coming in just for those items, but it seemed like a good percentage of our clientele was embarrassed to shop for such things. At least, the first time or two. By the third or fourth time they returned to Womanland, they had no qualms about going straight to the restricted area—or even asking one of us what products we would recommend.

In the three years since Womanland had opened, we’d gotten great support for the store not just from the locals in Creswell Springs, but from our online customers as well. Lyric’s female family members always came in to shop whenever they were in town to visit. When his cousin Arella and her husband Jordan had come in just a few months before, the actress had tweeted that she’d found the cutest outfit for her toddler daughter, and we’d gotten swarmed with people looking for the same outfit for their little ones. We’d sold out of everything in the store within two weeks, and our suppliers hadn’t been able to keep up with the demand for a while.

“I’ve also included a twenty-five-percent-off coupon for your next purchase with us,” I told her as she took the bag. “It’s good in any and all of our departments.”

If it was possible, she turned an even brighter shade of crimson as she mumbled a “thank you” and practically sprinted out of the store.

As soon as the door closed behind her, Avery burst into giggles, and I couldn’t hide my own laughter as Mila came in through the back door. She’d gone over to have lunch with Lyric an hour before, but I knew she was really going to the preschool down the block where her boys spent