Page 5 of Gracefully Yours

Then his lips pressed against mine and he was kissing me.

Daniel Bradford, my best friend—was kissingme.Charlotte Reynolds.Was this a dream?

I wrapped my arms around the back of his neck, intertwining my fingers in the hair at the base of his skull.

Sighing into it, he deepened the kiss, longer this time, but he didn’t go any further, and I couldn’t resist running my tongue against the entrance of his lips. Needing more. It might have meant nothing to him, just another kiss, just another girl, but I wouldn’t regret one moment of it.

Daniel pulled away as our tongues connected, and it saved me from the moan I’d been so close to letting out, but I couldn’t help but feel… disappointed?

“What, did you not like it?” I felt so small. Did he not want this? Maybe I’d coerced him into something he didn’t want to do, and I’d ruined everything between us.

That was the last thing I wanted.

“No, it’s not that…” He squeezed his eyes shut, like he couldn’t stand to look at me. “I don’t want to mess things up between us. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had.”

“I understand.” I nodded, finding it too awkward to stay in this position sitting on top of him, and went back to sitting on his bed. “It won’t happen again.”

Because I could lose a lot of things, but not him. Never him.

And later, in the darkness of my room, I’d run my fingers over my lips, wondering… What if it hadn’t?

What if he wanted me?

* * *

JUNIOR YEAR

“Marry me.”

What?I wasn’t sure I heard him right. There was no way. We were sitting on my couch, watching our favorite Netflix show on my laptop. I looked up at him, confusion written all over my face.

Noelle, Angelina and I had moved out of our dorm at the beginning of this academic year, and now it was spring semester. Which meant Daniel was graduating in just a few months. None of that explained what he just said, though.

I paused the show and moved to sit in front of him. “What? I’m sure I heard you wrong.” There was no way he was saying we should get married. Not after the epic disaster of our kiss last year.

We hadn’t brought it up again.

Maybe he wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened.

“I was just thinking. If we’re both still single when we turn thirty, we should get married.”

Yep,he definitely just said that. I bit my lip, watching as he plopped another piece of popcorn in his mouth. As if he hadn’t just dropped a giant bomb on me.

“But you’re my best friend.” That was the only thought that I could come up with. The only reason us having a marriage pact was a terrible idea. If we couldn’t even kiss and not have it awkward between us, how could we get married?

He nodded. “That’s why it would work. Come on, Char, it’s a good option. If neither of us finds someone, we should marry each other. I know I can put up with you, and I can take care of you.”

“You’re proposing we get married just because we get along?” I didn’t know how to feel, or what I wanted in life, but I knew it was more thanthat.I didn’t want to be someone’s obligation or backup plan. Marriage, to me, was loving someone so much that you didn’t want to be without them.

That was what I wanted.

“Think about it. If neither one of us finds anyone in the next eight years, we can just do it together.Life. We both want a family. It makes sense.”

I agreed, perhaps because he was graduating soon and would have less time for me, or maybe something inside of me just wanted him to be happy.

“Okay.”

“Okay, you’ll think about it?”

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