The Christmas Proposal - Miley Maine

Chapter One

Serenity

It didn’t necessarily come as a surprise to me when my long-term boyfriend, Ethan, told me that he wanted to break up with me. Things hadn’t been going the best between us for a while. He was mad that I didn’t have a job yet, and we no longer had much chemistry in the bedroom. He had wanted me to move in with him but I refused, and that was when I knew that things would never be the same between us.

Still, I had assumed that the two of us would at least stay together through the holidays. Where we lived in Sonora, Northern California, the winter months were cold and icy, and the perfect time to have someone to hold. On top of that, we had already made plans with each other’s families. But yesterday, he told me that we were no longer together and I shouldn’t come crying to him about it either. So I was effectively single for the holidays, and would be spending them with my family.

I loved my family. I had an older brother, Sebastian, who I was close to and my parents were both caring. But they didn’t always understand me very well. After being rejected from Juilliard, my dream school, I had completed two agonizing years of community college and decided that I didn’t want to do anything else with my life. They kept telling me that it would pass soon and I would find a passion that could support me, but I didn’t know if I believed them.

I had no luck getting any sort of steady job. So, aside from the occasional babysitting gig that I was too old for anyways, I filled my time practicing my harp and dreaming of the day when I could join an orchestra or go on a tour. Which, based on the fact that I had been rejected from one of the best music schools in the country, was not very likely to happen.

It was the day before Thanksgiving and I was reading a book on my bed, trying to decide if another hour of practice would bother my parents too much, when there was a knock at my door.

“Come in,” I said, pushing aside my book and sitting up.

In came Sebastian, my older brother by six years. Whereas I was fair, he had inherited our father’s darker complexion. He was handsome and very nice, but tended to tease as older brothers did too often. His girlfriend had wanted him to come over to her family’s house for Thanksgiving, but he declined, telling her he needed to spend some more time with me. Of course, her response to that was he spent a lot of time with me already since I was home all the time, but I tried not to dwell on that.

“Guess what?” he said, looking a little too excited.

I edged back slightly suspicious. Was he hiding a pie somewhere? Was this another prank? “What?” I asked, trying to decide whether my book would make a good shield.

“I think I have some news that will cheer you up.”

This caught my attention and made me perk up eagerly. I really could use a pick-me-up now, so it was worth listening to whatever he had to say, pie or no pie.

“What is it?”

“Do you remember Grayson?”

“Grayson Davis?” He nodded. “Of course, I remember Grayson! How could I forget him of all people?”

Grayson had been Sebastian’s best friend for a very long time. When I was eleven, I developed a huge crush on him and would always crash in on whatever they were doing. While Sebastian usually got annoyed, Grayson was so kind and always ready to include me. This led to me confessing to him that I liked him. He was seventeen at the time, and looking back I really was a fool to think that it ever would work out. Of course he didn’t want to be with an eleven-year-old. He wouldn’t even accept the advances of the cute freshmen at his high school, much less those of a sixth grader.

Grayson did end up rejecting me, very kindly, but I was heartbroken, of course. I cried in my room for weeks, devouring all sorts of books and even composing heartbroken songs on my harp, which I had just started to learn at that point.

Then Grayson and his parents moved away suddenly, all the way to New York. I haven’t seen him since then, though I know he and Sebastian have visited each other a couple

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