The Match (It Happened in Charleston 1)

want :)

Dang it. I was really hoping she would ban any thoughts of making out with Jacob Broaden. It would be easier to swallow his rejection if I knew I couldn’t have him even if he did like me.

Chapter Ten

EVIE

I sling my purse over my shoulder and gather Charlie’s leash. It’s been a long day of training at Sam’s house, and she’s honestly done amazing. She’s picked up the techniques so quickly that I’m considering asking her to drop out of elementary school and come to work for me as a trainer.

Sam approaches me slowly as I gather my things, her bare toes scuffing the plush rug. She’s after something. She glances toward the kitchen where Jacob disappeared a moment ago and then back to me.

“Spill it,” I tell her when she works up the nerve to meet my eyes.

She smiles—something she’s started doing more and more over the past two days—and asks, “Do you think…well…there’s this birthday slumber party at one of my friend’s house coming up…”

“Mmhmm,” I say, setting my purse down and giving Sam my full attention. “Go on.”

“Do you think Daisy will be ready by then to go with me…you know…if I can convince my daddy?”

“I don’t see why not. I think you and Daisy are bonding quickly.” And that’s the truth. I’ve been impressed with how attentive Daisy has been to Sam. Anytime Sam simulates a seizure, Daisy has snapped into action immediately, rolling Sam onto her side and going to alert Jacob before returning to Sam’s side and licking her face until the “seizure” subsides.

“Oh, great.” Sam doesn’t look relieved, though. This conversation wasn’t really about asking if Daisy will be ready or not.

“Are you sure that’s all you wanted to talk about?”

“No.” Sam gives me a crooked grin that has seriously started to melt my heart.

I learned this morning when I asked if Sam’s mama could come around sometime during the next week to get acclimated with Daisy that the woman left a year ago and there is no chance of her coming back into their life. Jacob is single—a fact that doesn’t affect me whatsoever—and Sam is essentially motherless. I don’t know where this incredibly stupid woman has gone, or why she left, but I know that she left this fragile family devastated.

“Actually, I was kind of hoping that maybe you could talk to my dad about the slumber party for me. He doesn’t think it would be safe for me to go, but since you have epilepsy and live on your own with Charlie, you could convince him that I would be fine, and he would listen to you.”

Ha! Listen to me? I think I’m the last person in the world that Jacob Broaden wants to listen to. It’s clear as day that the man is only tolerating my presence because of Daisy. He doesn’t meet my eye when he’s in the same room as me. He goes through ridiculous feats to stand as far away from me as possible and only responds to me in one-word answers.

I have no idea what I did to make this man not like me so quickly, but I wish I knew, because then I could bottle it up and spray it all over myself before I go to the grocery store. Maybe then it would keep all of those weirdos from hitting on me. Why can’t the normal ones ever hit on me? You better believe that if a man is talking to me in a grocery store, he smells like body odor and Funyuns and is advising me on which foods to buy that will “enhance my hourglass figure.” True story.

“I don’t know, Sam.” I look down at Charlie, and his eyes say it all. Bad idea. Do not engage. Set down gently and walk away. He’s so smart.

Sam, however, does the dirtiest, meanest trick in the book. She reaches out and grabs my hand with big ol’ Bambi eyes. The little terrorist. “Please, Evie. You’re my only hope. I’ve tried, but he won’t listen to me. I really want to go to this party. Everyone is going to be there, and I really miss my friends.”

So, this is what it feels like to have your heartstrings tugged like a puppet?

Charlie whispers for me to stand firm. I tell him I never stood a chance. “All right,” I say with a sigh. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Really? Great!” Her eyes light up, and you’d think I just told her she could eat ice cream every single meal for the rest of her life. But then I realize how badly I’ve been played when she starts pushing me toward the kitchen where Jacob has been banging pots and pans around for the past ten minutes.

“Sam, no, not right now!” I say, digging my feet into the rug, but this little girl must be freaking Superwoman, because I’m no match for her. Suddenly, I’m being tossed into the kitchen, and I stumble forward as if I’ve just been shoved into battle.

Even better, Jacob saw the whole thing. The whole entire thing. My cheeks turn red under his blue gaze, and I consider doing a spin move around Sam and dashing out of the house. Screw the Bambi eyes; I’m not falling for her rotten tricks again.

But like every masterful con artist, she continues to hold the upper hand. “Hey, Daddy! Evie wants to ask you something!”

I thought we were friends, Sam!

His brows sink low, and he crosses his arms. I know, without a doubt, that if I were to ask him if Sam can go to a slumber party right now, he would take me by the shoulders and shove me right out of his lovely house. I’m pretty sure that he’d also tell me just where I can stick my advice.

I can’t do that to Sam. I can’t just sabotage her chances like that. So instead, I’m Katniss Everdeen. I volunteer as tribute.

“Yeahhh. Actually, I was hoping that maybe I could invite myself to stay for dinner.” And also hoping that a sinkhole could magically appear and swallow me up. “I’m…running low on food”—oh gosh, make it stop—“and since training went a little late today, I’ll miss dinner if I have to go all the way to the store.”