Page 76 of Gracefully Yours

And then… it was time.

We’d agreed not to do our own vows. Partially, because Angelina had teased me, saying I would probably cry my way through them. Maybe she was right. I didn’t cry often, but for my family, the ones I loved? I was a wreck. And trying to express to my best friend how much she meant to me? That was practically impossible. It was too soon, too, to lay all of my cards out on the table. Plus, it wasn’t like she was in love with me. I didn’t want our vows to be fake like this marriage was.

“Daniel, do you take Charlotte to be your wife? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish, and keep her, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad times, for richer or poorer, to have and to hold, from this day forward, as long as you both shall live?”

“I do.” I squeezed her hands, staring into her beautiful face.

The one I’d happily see every day for the rest of my life. That I’d do anything just to earn a smile from.

“Charlotte, do you take Daniel to be your husband? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish, and keep her, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad times, for richer or poorer, to have and to hold, from this day forward, as long as you both shall live?”

“I do.”

I brought one of our joined hands up to my lips and kissed her knuckles. There weren’t enough words to communicate how I was feeling at that moment. How much I wanted this to be really real. For her to be truly mine.

Maybe she could see it in my eyes. How thankful I was for her, how grateful I was for her very presence in my life. Because I needed her smiles, her laughs, her love of Christmas movies and romance novels just as much as I needed the air we breathed.

And today, as the snow fell on us in large, fluffy flakes as we said our vows of commitment to each other, I knew that there would never be anyone in my life that would compare to my Charlotte.

The officiant cleared his throat once again, bringing our attention back to him.

“Charlotte and Daniel have chosen rings to exchange with each other as a symbol of their unending love. Daniel, please take the ring you have selected for Charlotte. As you place it on her finger, repeat after me: With this ring, I thee wed.”

I repeated it back, sliding Charlotte’s wedding band down on top of her engagement ring. We’d have to get it soldered together soon, but a part of me liked that she’d kept wearing her engagement ring, not wanting to give it up even for a few days.

Coming downstairs and seeing her on the couch, unconsciously twisting the ring back and forth as she watched something on TV or the way she rubbed her finger over the stone when she was thinking—it filled me with a sense of possession I didn’t deserve.

Mine. She was mine.

And now I would be hers. And maybe that was the most important part of all of this. Being hers. I’d made a promise to her, to love and honor her, and she’d done the same.

It was all I could ask for—all I could hope for in this life.

To love her and be loved in return.

“You can finally give me mine,” I whispered into her ear, reminding her of the promise she’d made when I’d unceremoniously given her the ring. The one I’d had for longer than I wanted to admit.

“Charlotte, please take the ring you have selected for Daniel. As you place it on his finger, repeat after me: With this ring, I thee wed.”

She repeated the words as she pushed a black wedding band down my finger. I’d joked with her about it when I’d first given her the ring I’d picked out, but… I was happy to have it. To have her.

“By the power vested in me by the state of Oregon, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride.”

And because we were pretending, because this wasreal, if only for the day, I did what I wanted to more than anything. I pulled her into my arms, dipped her down, and kissed her like my life depended on it.

She wrapped her arms around my neck, kissing me back, and if it wasn’t for the cheering of our family and friends, I could have gotten lost in it. In her lips, the taste of her mouth. There was no joining of tongues, no deep desperation to join our bodies together, but maybe we were holding ourselves back. Because we knew what would happen if we gave in.

And it was good.So good.

When I was kissing Charlotte, it felt like everything was right in the world.

“Should we go, Mrs. Bradford?” I asked as I set her back on her feet, turning to go back down the aisle, still dusted in snow.

We hadn’t had a flower girl to scatter petals, or a dog to come down the aisle with our rings tied to its collar. What we had was mother nature’s beautiful display of winter, and two magnificent beasts waiting for us.

Her eyes opened wide as she took in the view of what we’d ride away in.

It might not be the perfect fairytale wedding, riding away in a carriage towards a castle, but this was our little slice of magic. And Charlotte deserved no less.

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