Page 80 of The Match

“Right. This way. Okay, so I’ll just be right back.”

CHAPTER 37

Jake

Evie and I got home about twenty minutes ago. We both raced up the stairs together to get to Sam’s room. She was still on the floor when I got there, with her head resting on Daisy. This was the first seizure my mom has been around for, and she wasn’t sure whether it was safe to move Sam to her bed or not.

Sam is in the postictal period of her seizure, and I know that, like Evie’s seizure the other day, she won’t feel or respond like herself for a while yet. Her episode progressed normally and didn’t last too long (Mom was able to time it, thanks to Daisy coming to get her when it began), so I felt good about letting her just rest here at home and not taking her into the hospital. I drop down to my knees, though, and brush her hair away from her face to plant a kiss on her forehead. She smiles and mumbles a “Hi, Dad” that feels like an instant balm to my heart.

“Hi, kiddo. We’re here now, and you’re safe.”

She hears me say we, and Sam’s eyes peek open and instantly find Evie. Her little hand reaches up and Evie takes it, coming to kneel down on Sam’s other side. In short, Sam is surrounded head to toe by people who love her.

Evie adjusts so that her legs are curled up beside her, her fancy evening gown draped around her, and she leans in closer to Sam to continually brush her fingers across my daughter’s hairline in such a motherly way. It’s a sight that will likely stick with me until the day I die.

“Do you want some water, darlin’?” Evie asks, and Sam nods.

I go downstairs and try to catch my breath while I fill a glass with water for my daughter. It’s been a heck of a day, and the minimal amount of sleep I got last night is catching up to me. Once the water glass is filled, I set it on the counter and unbutton my cuffs to roll up my sleeves.

My mom walks into the kitchen and comes around the island with a look that tells me to brace for a good old-fashioned southern-mom bear hug. That’s exactly what she gives me. I squeeze her small frame back, kiss the top of her head, and thank her for taking care of Sam tonight.

Finally, she pulls away and smiles up at me, patting my cheek like she’s a hundred-year-old senior citizen in a nursing home rather than the spunky fifty-seven-year-old mother that she is. “I’m gonna get going.”

“Are you sure? I can make you some tea or something. . . .” I’m not even sure if my mom drinks hot tea (or if I have any in my pantry), but it seems like a comforting thing to offer after the evening she’s just gone through with Sam.

She looks at me with that same smile that I’m just now realizing is heavy with hidden meaning and shakes her head. “I’ll make some tea at home with your dad. I love you, Jakey. Go be with your family.”

Ah. My family. So, that’s what was with the secret smile.

“You know we haven’t even had the let’s-be-a-couple talk yet, right?”

She shrugs, slings her leather purse over her shoulder, and heads for the door. “Doesn’t matter. My eyesight is twenty-twenty and I know what I see. And what I saw up there was a family.” With those parting words, she leaves the house.

I can just picture the self-satisfied smirk she’ll be wearing during her whole drive home. She loves leaving a house on a monumental final thought.

I should be rushing back upstairs to get to Sam, but the truth is I just need a minute to myself to breathe and soak up everything that’s happened today, and I know that she’s safe with Evie. For the first time this year, I don’t feel alone in this parenting job. Someone who I can trust is upstairs right now, taking beautiful care of my daughter. And apparently, thanks to Natalie, I almost lost Evie.

After allowing myself five full breaths and a moment to run my hands through my hair, I head up the stairs with Sam’s water. I crack open her door and pause in the doorframe, letting the picture before me steal the last bits of my heart. Evie has moved Sam up onto her bed and tucked her in. Daisy is on one side of Sam, and lying on Sam’s other side is Evie, with Charlie at her feet. Her black silk gown is a sharp contrast to Sam’s unicorn bedding.

She looks like a movie star home from receiving an Oscar, skipping the after-party in favor of tucking her daughter into bed. She’s singing a quiet, sweet version of “Over the Rainbow,” and I have to try very hard not to drop down onto one knee here and now.

My mom is right. This feels like a family.

That thought would have scared me last week, but now it fills me with hope.

Evie must feel me watching her, because suddenly she looks over her shoulder and finds me. A slow smile blooms on her face. I cross the room and set Sam’s water glass on her bedside table. It looks like Evie has already put Sam to sleep, so I nod toward the door. Evie carefully extracts her arm out from under Sam, looking like she’s been doing it every day for the past ten years of my daughter’s life, and tiptoes with me out of the room.

I leave Sam’s door open so I can hear her if she calls for me and take Evie’s hand to silently pull her back down the stairs to the couch.

CHAPTER 38

Evie

Jake’s house at night is my favorite place in the world. He has the kind of lighting that can be dimmed in every room of the house, so right now the house is blanketed in a soft, warm glow. A candle is lit on his coffee table, filling the air with my favorite vanilla and teakwood scent, and everything is peaceful and still.

Jake tugs me toward his couch and then, without dropping my hand, dives onto it, landing on his back and pulling me down on top of him. We both laugh as we settle into a comfortable position, where our feet are intertwined and I’m lying half on the couch, half on Jake. He has one hand cradling mine and is kissing every single one of my fingers, as his other hand lightly brushes circles on my back.

It’s so romantic, I’m aching.

---