Page 58 of The Match

I agree, but not before leaning down to kiss her once, softly on the mouth. “We’re good?”

She smiles and brushes her wavy hair behind her ear, and I swear she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. “We’re great. But we’re going to have a whole different problem soon if you don’t get out of here and let me steal one of these tampons.”

“If you’re lucky . . . I’ll even let you take home a whole box.”

She pretends to shiver. “I thought you didn’t want to be my sugar daddy?”

“I’ll be whatever you want me to be, Evie Jones,” I say in a serious tone, because I am dead serious. In that moment where I thought she was going to walk out my door and out of my life, I was ready to take out a billboard and announce our relationship to the world if that’s what she wanted.

“Jake.” She catches me before I leave. “I really am happy to take things slow for you. We don’t have to label it yet. But I’m probably not going to go out with anyone else while we’re seeing each other because that’s just how I work.”

I release a breath. “That’s actually how I work too. But I didn’t want to scare you off.”

She smiles. “How about we just agree from here on out to say what we’re thinking? Truthful from the start about what we need?”

“That sounds . . . incredible.”

CHAPTER 26

Evie

It’s 9:30 and Jake and I have moved outside to swing on his porch. The night is warm, and the stars are bright against the black backdrop of the sky. We leave the porch lights off and decide to swing with the moon as our only light. It’s romantic and quiet and still.

When we sit down on the swing, Jake reaches over and pulls me closer, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. I’ve learned that he’s an affectionate man, and I still can’t believe I get to know that about him. I also like his deodorant. I briefly wonder if I could get away with using some before I leave without him noticing. That’s creepy, right? I might do it anyway.

Jake picks up his phone again and checks the screen. He’s had that thing glued to him all night, and if I didn’t know the real reason he was checking it so much, I’d be worried he was waiting for a better offer to come along from someone else. But I don’t say anything about it because I know that he’s just worried about Sam.

It strikes me how different this first date is from all the others I’ve been on. Not only have we already made out in the kitchen and discussed my menstrual cycle, but usually on a first date I would maybe be holding his hand with about twelve inches still neatly placed between the sides of our thighs. I’d be very hesitant to show any real part of myself to him because I don’t do that until I think someone’s worthy of that honesty. But as it is, Jake has me tucked in so close to his side that I’m pretty much sitting on his lap, and I’d be willing to tell him my deepest, darkest secrets if he asked.

I feel like a little bunny rabbit as I nestle closer to his absurdly defined obliques and sigh with contentment inside my burrow.

“Sam’s going to be just fine,” I say when I catch him checking his phone again.

“I know.”

“Do you?”

“No. I’m lying. If you weren’t here to tether me to this porch swing, I’d probably already be in my truck, halfway to Jenna’s house to get her back.”

I reach across him and lace my fingers with his. His hands are calloused and warm. “Just say the word and I’ll handcuff you to this swing.”

He looks down at me with a big fat smirk. “Oh really? So, now I know you’re a butt girl and a little kinky.”

I poke him hard in the side, and he laughs. “You wish.”

How is it so easy with him? It’s not supposed to feel like this. We’re supposed to be awkward and uncomfortable, and I’m due my usual SOS text to Jo where she’ll then call and say my house is on fire and I need to come put it out. But I don’t feel like sending that text this time.

Instead, I’m rubbing my thumb across the back of Jake’s knuckles and wondering if he’d be scared if I asked to go ahead and move in. Truth is, I’m falling head over heels for this man, and it’s scaring me to death. He wants to go slow. And I want to punch the gas. I feel safe with Jake, and the sensation is entirely new for me.

But I’ve watched enough movies and dated enough jerks to know that something is probably waiting around the corner to jump out and bite me. Maybe I don’t have to take a turn at all, though. No corners. No dark hallways. And I definitely don’t have to walk through any creepy doors that would have the audience yelling, Don’t go in there, you ding-dong!

I straighten a little and pull my knees up on the swing to be more eye level with Jake. “Let’s play a game to distract you from worrying about Sam.”

He picks up my legs and drapes them over his lap. “What sort of game?” His blue eyes are sparkling, and my whole body flushes. I can see his mind working, and it’s not fair. These mixed signals are torture. We’re playing tug-of-war between fast and slow, but I can’t keep up with who’s tugging for which end. What happens if we both give up?

Chills race along my arms, and I dust them off with my hands.

“It’s called the honesty game.”

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