It was so hard to forget letters, to not worry about how he would respond. But she prayed every day that their relationship would be what God wanted it to be. This time the letter came more quickly.

Dear Elaine,

College is good. I'm playing rugby. The other guys here are cool, especially my roommate, Charlie.

I admit that I did realize that you liked me at least a little during high school. But we both told each other that we did not want to enter a relationship to college. I didn't want to hurt you. And you were always talking about other guys around me. Yes, if you had told me that you liked me straight out to my face then I would've been turned off. I liked having you as a friend, and I was afraid of loosing that.

So, I see that you don't want to propose the next step in our relationship. Just so you know there are a lot of pretty girls here.

I'm going to think about it and pray about it for a month, and send you another letter with my answer. I hope that you are praying about it too. It'll take a while to get used to not being like your big brother.

Tell me news of everything going on in your life.

Forever Your Friend,

Daniel

Elaine wanted to cry and laugh at the same time when she read the letter. He would give her a chance! He hadn't said whether he liked her or not. She would wait for him. She had waited for six years already, and prayer was a good thing. God would tell them what to do.

Dear Daniel,

You are a part of my prayers every day. I will trust that God will care for our relationship and whatever road it takes.

My Jr. year is going well. I dislike algebra 2 and chemistry, but I always have hated math and science. I am taking a writing class online and German 1 at college. I'm taking German 2 at home.

My job is going very well, and I'm slowly making some headway toward college. I should've been like you and begun to save a long time ago.

When is your break? Christmas? I can't wait for Christmas to come. I love our family traditions of getting the tree the second Saturday of December, baking cookies and playing a certain cd while we decorate it and seeing the snow outside. It wouldn't feel like Christmas without traditions. Did I ever tell you that we read the Christmas story in the barn? My dad likes to joke that we 'read the story to the pigs and chickens'.

I hope you are having a good time in school.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Your Forever Friend and Hopeful Lover,

Elaine Bennet

P.S. I like being like a little sister to you also.

The next letter she received was not from Daniel, but from the same address.

Dear Elaine,

I am Daniel's roommate, Charlie. I know that he hasn't told you a lot about how he feels about you and that whole deal about praying for a month. I also know what girls are like because I am brother to five of them. They like to know how we're feeling. I think Daniel is being slightly unfair to you, and never tell him this because he'd kill me (he is a very tough wrestler).

What I wrote to tell you is that Daniel cares a whole lot more about you than he's been letting on. You probably know about that one relationship he had when he was 16 where he and the girl were 'hopelessly in love' only to break up. Well he's afraid of that happening again, so he's guarding his heart and thinks that he's guarding yours too.

Here is the honest truth: Daniel has about 5 pictures of you that he says he took from you and his sister tacked above his desk. Two of them are of you at the prom. One of them is of you and him together supposedly taken at a wedding. He talks about you constantly. He has a journal with you name on it that he writes in every night, and who knows what he put in it. When we pray together, you are the first thing he prays about and the longest. The guy is hopelessly in love with you, so don't give up on him, and don't act like you know any of this.

Hope that this helps you.

Daniel's Roommate,

Charlie