Page 91 of Gracefully Yours

I wrapped my arms around her, my hands cradling the small of her back. “Merry Christmas, baby.” I didn’t know whybabykept slipping out, but I couldn’t help it. I kissed the top of her head as she held on to me.

Pulling away, she cleared her throat. “I actually have something for you, too.”

I raised an eyebrow, looking around. “You do?”

Everything stashed under the tree we’d put there together. Gifts for our friends, things we’d wrapped together. I knew what every present was, and I was trying to figure out where she’d stashed an extra one when she stood up from the couch, letting her blanket fall behind.

Charlotte nodded. “Uh-huh. You stay here, though. I’ll be back.” She eyed me nervously, and then headed upstairs.

though that was something I planned to remedy soon, because I wanted all of her stuff in mine, her clothes hanging next to mine in the closet, her bathroom stuff on our bathroom counter… But what had she stashed in there?

“Close your eyes!” She shouted, and I obeyed her, if only because, well, I was curious what her surprise was. I liked that we’d both done something without discussing it beforehand. We might have been just settling into this fake marriage, but we were already in sync.

My wife. Every day the sound of that got better, and it had only been a few days since we’d tied the knot. A few very sweaty days ofjust sex.But even if the marriage was fake, even if we were only indulging in each other’s bodies, that was real.

A weight dropped into my lap, and a cold, wet thing pressed into my hand.

“You can open your eyes,” Charlotte whispered from in front of me, as a tongue licked up my face.

My hands reached out to grab the thing—thepuppy—as I opened my eyes. It had been a nose that pressed into my palm.

“Surprise,” she said, her eyes glowing with happiness.

“A dog?” I blinked. “You got us a dog?”

She scratched the top of the German Shepherd puppy’s head as it nuzzled into my hand. “I got you a dog, but yeah. He’s all yours.” Charlotte beamed. “Merry Christmas, Daniel.”

The puppy barked, demanding my attention on him instead of focusing on Charlotte’s face.

“Did you name him?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I left that for you.” Settling onto the couch next to me, she sat on her knees as I ran my fingers over his still floppy ears.

“Oh.” I studied his little brown face, the black wet nose that had pressed into my hand. His soft pink tongue that was all too happy to lick me.

“He’s so cute, right?” Charlotte murmured next to me. “When I went to pick one out, he came right over to me and curled up in my lap.” She ran her hand over the puppy’s snout before resting it on my thigh. “It was love at first sight. I got to pick him up yesterday, and I really thought I was going to spoil the surprise last night.”

Love at first sight?

“Yeah.” I looked at her and smiled, thinking of the first time I saw her. “It was.”

“What do you think, boy?” I asked our dog—because no matter what she insisted, he wasours—“What should we name you?”

“You know, I did have an idea, but it might be stupid…” Charlotte started, her eyes connecting with mine. “But if you have something better, you can go with that.” A faint pink blush danced over her flawless cheeks. Even when she had no makeup on in the mornings, just like this, she was absolutely beautiful. Stunning beyond compare.

“Pretty sure that’s impossible, darling.” Because nothing she said was stupid. Most of it was just plain adorable.

“Brownie.” She smiled shyly. “I’ve always thought food names for dogs were so cute. Marshmallow, Cookie, Oreo… At one point, I told my mom we should get a whole brood of dogs and name them all after desserts.”

No surprise that it didn’t happen, but… It fit. I looked at the puppy, and then back to her. “I like it, actually. What do you think, Brownie?” The puppy tilted his head at me before licking my hand again. And then he barked excitedly. “I think he likes it too. Then it’s settled. Brownie.”

Charlotte leaned her head on my shoulder as we watched our puppy curl up in my lap, his head resting on my leg.

“Thank you,” I said, kissing the top of her head. “This was the best gift ever.”

“I know you’ve always talked about getting a dog. And now that we’re, you know…”

“Married?”

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