Page 66 of The Match

I cut off the water and turn around to face her bed. She’s sitting up, and her hair is all draped across one shoulder. Her eyes are heavy, and she looks more beautiful than ever. I lean back against the sink and cross my arms, smiling. “Did you think I wouldn’t be?”

She looks down to pet Charlie and shrugs. “I didn’t know.”

Something about those words tears me up.

I uncross my arms and make my way back to Evie’s bed. She watches me approach with worried eyes, and she pulls her covers up a little higher like she’s naked under there. Which she’s not. She’s still fully clothed in her yellow sundress just like I found her. But I realize as I get closer that she does feel naked. I’ve seen her seizure, and that’s making her feel vulnerable.

I climb onto the bed beside her, and it’s hilarious how unsteady this little thing is. It sags heavily under my weight, and Evie notices with a grin. I lean my back against the headboard and pull her to my chest. “I’m not going anywhere,” I say into her hair, and then I kiss her forehead.

We stay like that for a minute, and I can feel her quickened breathing against my chest. It’s good to know that I have the same effect on her that she has on me. “How are you feeling?” I ask.

She tilts her chin up to me and wrinkles her nose. “I’ve been better.” She then looks down to her hand resting on my chest, and she moves her index finger in a small circle. “I’ve also been worse.”

I wonder if she can feel how hard my heart is beating.

Her smile grows, and her eyes peek back up at me, and yep, she can feel it and it’s going right to her ego. She then lays her head right on my chest where her ear is perfectly centered with my hammering heart. It’s a pointed move. One where she’s saying, Yeah, I know how you feel about me, and I like it.

“I think you should know that I’ve not always been treated kindly for my seizures. Part of me expected you to bolt after one look at me on the floor.”

My hand stills in her hair. “Who was unkind to you?”

“Too many to name. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of people are sweet. Unfortunately, it’s the hurtful comments that stick the most. And . . . I don’t really feel up to talking it all through right now. But it means a lot to me that you stayed.”

I hold her a little closer. “It’s an honor to stay.”

We spend the entire rest of the day like this until I force myself to go pick us up some dinner. When her stomach settles and her migraine subsides a little, we eat on the couch and watch reruns of Friends with her legs draped over my lap and my arm around her shoulders. It feels so right. So natural. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this content in my entire life.

I think what we’ve shared together today has probably tied us together more than anything physical would have. Although, the night isn’t completely physical-less. We definitely spend an entire episode of Friends making out on her tiny couch. It is sweet and appropriate (at least that’s going to be my answer when June asks me about it later), and we both cut it off before anything more serious happens.

Sometime about midnight, Evie falls asleep beside me on the couch. I pick her up and carry her to bed and climb in behind her. Charlie is once again on one side of Evie, and I’m on the other. It’s not the most comfortable thing to sleep in jeans and a shirt, and the bed is so small that my ass hangs off the edge. But I couldn’t care less. Evie is here with me. I can smell the coconut scent lingering in her hair and hear her taking deep breaths as she sleeps. This feels right, and I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to keep convincing myself that we’re just two people casually dating.

This feels a lot like falling in love.

CHAPTER 30

Evie

I can’t stop smiling, and Jo notices. “Is it my imagination or are you glowing today?”

“I’m afraid I’m going to be glowing red if you aren’t more careful with that curling wand.” I inch myself away from the burning-hot hair tool hovering beside my face.

It’s Wednesday and Jake will be here soon to pick me up to go to my parents’ house for dinner. I told Jo about it, and she suggested she come over and help me get ready. But what I really think happened was she called me while I was still wrapped up in Jake’s arms in my bed the other morning. My phone was going to buzz off my bedside table if I didn’t answer it, so I did. That was mistake number one. Mistake number two was trying to whisper to Joanna so I didn’t wake up the sleeping man beside me. But you guessed it, he woke up and leaned closer to huskily ask who I was talking to.

Want to take a wild guess what Joanna did before peppering me with one hundred and one questions? She squealed. Squealed like a little teenybopper at a Justin Bieber concert. “He’s there with you, isn’t he?! Oh my heavens, he’s in your bed! It’s only seven in the morning, so I know you aren’t out of bed yet. Don’t lie to me, missy!” She always calls me missy when she thinks her age will suddenly work as a rank card. Like she has the power to ground me or take away my phone.

“Oh, would you pipe down over there. I’ll call you later,” I said in a useless whisper because Jake was right there in my bed.

“You better!” she singsonged back to me before I abruptly ended the call, pleased to finally get to hang up before she had the chance.

It was so strange waking up with Jake beside me. I thought I was surfacing from the most wonderful dream where a strong, attractive man spent the entire day taking care of me and then snuggled me while we slept. And then when I opened my eyes, I realized a tan, muscular forearm was draped over my shoulder, and I nearly screamed.

Suddenly, the curling wand appears an inch from my face again. “Tell me everything that happened.” Wow. Jo has a real interrogation-officer thing going on right now, and I’m a little terrified of her.

“Nothing!” I crane my neck as far back as I can without falling off the stool.

Joanna lifts a brow. “You’re not holding out on me, are you? I know he was in your bed the morning I called. And no sense lying to me about it, because I already smelled your pillow, and it smells like Old Spice!”

“You smelled my pillow?!”

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