Page 49 of Gracefully Yours

By the time we opened the bathroom door, Charlotte’s cheeks were pink and her lips puffy and swollen,

“Oh my god. They’re gonna know what we were doing in there,” she mumbled as I pulled her out into the hallway, back towards our living room. “Don’t make me go back out there.”

“Charlotte.” I brushed a finger across her ear. “You talk about dirty books with your girls. But you’re embarrassed about this?”

She was so bold and brazen the night in France, when she’d pushed her tongue into my mouth and then had let me go down on her. But this? Confronting her friends after I’d kissed her?

I kissed the top of her forehead, pulling her close. “It’ll be fine, darling. I’ve got you, okay?”

And I did.

I intended to prove that to her for the rest of our lives.

* * *

“Daniel?”

The door to my bedroom opened and closed, jolting me awake. I’d always been a light sleeper, and I felt like it was even more so now that I knew only a wall separated me from her.

“Charlotte?” I mumbled as the bed creaked, her sliding underneath the covers. “Are you okay?”

I couldn’t see her face in the darkness, but the sliver of moonlight that shone in from the blinds allowed me to see her faint outline.

“I just… Can I stay with you tonight?” She sounded unsure of herself, and I hated that.

“Of course.”

She laid her head on the pillow next to mine, and I could feel her curling herself into a ball. I didn’t know where her mind was, but she felt a million miles away.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked, my voice a low whisper.

“No.” She shut her eyes tight. “I just don’t want to be alone.”

I should have kept my hands to myself, but I couldn’t resist the urge to pull her closer to me, to hold her in my arms and reassure her that everything was going to be okay. Even if I didn’t even know what was wrong, I knew I didn’t want to see her hurting, didn’t want her to be unhappy.

After a few minutes of silence, she whispered another confession. “I think I’ve been taking care of myself for so long… I think I’ve forgotten what it was like to let someone else take care of me.”

I tugged on a strand of her hair, wrapping it around my finger. It might have been a more caring gesture than was normal for best friends, and there was no one around to pretend to, but I just needed to do it. Needed to have some connection to her as I murmured out my own words. “When my parents first divorced, it was just Angelina and I. We had to learn how to take care of each other. Both of our parents fighting… it took a toll on us. It was hard to watch. But she was my best friend. I’m glad we got to go to college together.” I tilted up her chin to look at me. “But you’re not alone anymore, Charlotte. Okay? I’m here for you. I’m never going anywhere, baby.”

We fell asleep like that, her head against my chest and my arms around her, and something settled into my chest.

CHAPTER11

Charlotte

“Charlotte?” The voice dragged me from my thoughts.

Of how I’d woken up in bed next to Daniel and snuck out before he was awake.Again.The sun hadn’t even risen when I’d tiptoed from his bedroom back to mine, pulled on a pair of leggings and a sports bra, and went for a run, an audiobook playing in my ear as I ran through his neighborhood.

I hadn’t said anything. I’d just run away.

“What do you think?” Gabbi asked me, clicking through webpages on her computer as we waited for the other two in our favorite coffee shop.

I looked at her computer screen, seeing the lodging options for our group ski trip pulled up on her laptop. It was a little last minute, but we were looking at going in just a few weeks. The guys had already made sure we’d gotten our ski passes, so we just needed somewhere to stay.

And then once we got back, the wedding would be right around the corner.

“Oh, yeah. Sure.”

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