Page 82 of The Match

He looks down at me, and his gaze pins me in place. “Evie. Let me be perfectly clear with you now. I don’t want something casual anymore and I’m done with going slow.” He adjusts himself to face me, and his big hand raises to cradle my face, making my hand drop to his shoulder. “I want Jake and Evie. Stupid kissing profile pictures. Cute nicknames for each other. I want serious. Exclusive. Us. I don’t want anything less than planning months out for a vacation and obnoxious Christmas cards that have you, me, Sam, and the dogs on the front. Can you handle that?”

My skin is tingling, and my heart is racing. It’s trying to leap out of my chest and jump into Jake’s lap. In fact, yeah, it turns out it wasn’t my heart doing that—it was my body. I scoot up onto Jake’s lap and wrap my arms around his neck, smiling down into his face.

I hover an inch from his mouth and then narrow my eyes. “Do we have to wear matching robes?”

A rumbling laugh breaks from his chest, and his head tilts back as he squeezes me a little tighter. He doesn’t answer my question, because with his head tilted back like that, it gives me a perfect shot at his neck. His skin is warm against my lips as I place kiss after kiss along the long column of his throat.

I make it up to his mouth, and his gaze is sultry, and passionate, and full of . . . “I think I love you, Evie. Is that okay?”

There’s no way to keep from smiling wide as I touch the corner of his mouth with my thumb. “More than okay. Because I think I love you too, Jake.” I dip my head, and his lips caress mine for a luxurious, top-of-the-line, special-edition kiss.

Just as it’s heating up again, we both hear a soft little voice on the stairs. “Ew. Are you guys kissing?”

Jake and I break apart and both wipe at our mouths in case my lipstick is everywhere it shouldn’t be. “No . . . We were just . . . just . . .” He looks at me, but what in the heck is he thinking I’m going to do to help this? He’s been a parent for ten years, and I’ve only been a mom to a golden retriever.

“Just looking for something in my eye!” Nice one, Evie.

“Through your mouth?” Okay, maybe not so great after all.

I can see Jake trying so hard to contain his laughter. He rubs his hand firmly across his face and mouth and looks back up at Sam. “We’ll stop kissing. Are you feeling better, kiddo?”

I scoot off his lap, and Jake stands and walks to Sam.

“A little,” she says, coming down the stairs with Jake’s help. Daisy is right behind her.

Jake brings her over to the couch, and without hesitating even a second, Sam sits down beside me and curls her little body up next to mine. I wrap my arms around her and hug her close. I don’t know who is benefiting from this connection the most in this moment. I feel like my heart is physically expanding. It’s making room to accommodate all of this new love.

Jake disappears into the kitchen for a minute and then comes back out with a bowl of popcorn. He sits beside me, sets the bowl in my lap, and drapes his arm behind me to rest over my shoulders and let his fingers dangle over Sam’s, effectively snuggling both of us at the same time. Charlie and Daisy both come over to hunker down at the foot of the couch, draping over our feet. Jake turns on a movie, and we spend the rest of the night just like that. Snuggling, laughing, stealing kisses when Sam isn’t watching, and eating popcorn.

I hope with all my heart that this is what every day of the rest of my life will look like. And later, after Sam falls asleep and Jake carries her back up to bed, I wait for him by the door.

As he walks down the stairs, the sight of him with his rolled-up shirtsleeves and suit pants honestly takes my breath away. He has stepped right out of GQ magazine to stop just in front of me. He takes my hand. “Are you leaving?”

CHAPTER 39

Evie

“I was—until I remembered I don’t have a car. Or a license.”

His grin slants. “I guess you’ll just have to stay, then.” He pauses. “If you want.”

“Hmm.” I pretend to mull it over while simultaneously inching closer and putting my hand on his chest. “Is this a formal invitation?”

He brushes my hair back from my face as I angle it up at him. “It is. Stay the night with me, Evie.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Are you going to repeat everything I say?” I ask, recalling our afternoon in the hallway when he first asked me on a date.

“No, I’m going to take you to my room now and wow you with those incredible basics I told you about at your place.”

“Don’t set my expectations so high,” I say as he slides his hand slowly around my lower back and guides me down the hallway toward his room. His room.

It takes us ages to make it there because we stop every foot or so to kiss. He presses me against the wall and circles his tongue on the base of my neck. I push him to the adjacent wall and unbutton his shirt, pulling it out from the waistband of his pants. He drops the strap of my dress off my shoulder and kisses the skin it was hiding. And then he repeats the process all over again after walking another foot.

I run my fingers down his bare abs and then count them with my lips.

---