Page 108 of Gracefully Yours

The man whose chest I desperately wanted to burrow my face into. Because I knew what it felt like to be comforted by him.

He’d been doing it for the last nine years.

“I do,” he murmured, smoothing down my hair. “Besides, trying is fun, right?” He chuckled.

Maybe he could see the way I’d been retreating into my head, panicking. Maybe he meant it, and this was still just sex for him. Just good sex, and no romantic strings attached. It was easy to think about it like that if I didn’t think too much about what we were doing.

Trying.

I let him wrap his arms around me, swaying me even as we stood on the tile floor.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” he murmured against my forehead, his soft lips moving against my skin.

I wanted to believe him.

Maybe it would.

Either way, I had him.

CHAPTER26

Daniel

Charlotte roughly erased something from her sketchbook, pursing her lips, before retracing the line with her pencil. She couldn’t seem to get it right and gave up in frustration, burying herself in her blankets.

I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped from my lips.

“Oh.” It startled her when she looked up and saw me there, arms crossed over my chest as I continued watching her. “Hi.”

“Hey.” I smiled at her. I couldn’t help that, either. “How are you feeling?”

“Better.” She pulled the blanket tighter over her shoulders. “Thanks.”

“I brought you something to cheer you up,” I said, pulling the pack of marshmallows and her favorite chocolates out from behind my back. “I thought you might like this better than flowers.”

She’d kept the last bouquet on the dining room table until the flowers had shriveled up, but I knew the way to her heart. And I’d watched her eat entire bags of marshmallows multiple times during college.

“Daniel…” Her eyes filled with tears, and I set the goods down on the coffee table.

“Don’t cry,” I said, kneeling in between her legs. “Please. It breaks my heart when you cry.” It made me want to do anything I could just to make her stop. Because I couldn’t stand seeing her hurting.

I knew she was disappointed and upset, but I’d do everything I could to make this happen for her. It was her reason for agreeing to all of this in the first place, wasn’t it? Why we’d gotten married. What would happen if we couldn’t have kids? Would all of this crumble around us? Would she leave me if I couldn’t give her the thing she wanted most of all?

Just the thought made me wince.

“I don’t know what’s fake or real anymore,” she whispered, looking so vulnerable that it squeezed my heart. “This thing between us, I… I don’t even know. What are we doing? Are we still pretending? Because if we are, I can’t—”

None of it is fake.

I needed her to know that. Needed her to know how real this was for me. How much it always had been.

“So let me show you.” I rubbed my arms up her sides reassuringly before squeezing her palm the way I always had. And then I took a deep breath. “Let me love you. Let me prove I can love you. Because I don’t want this to be fake anymore.”

Her eyes were watery. “You don’t?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Maybe I never have. Shit, Charlotte, it’s… It’s you. It’s always been you for me. Since the first moment I saw you, standing in the middle of that hallway. So let’s do this. For real.” I slid my hand back, cupping her neck.

“I… I don’t know what to say,” she said, frozen in place and unblinking.

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