The Match (It Happened in Charleston 1)

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 tell her and try to inch myself away from the burning hot hair tool hovering beside my face.

Jake went home this morning but will be here soon to pick me up to go to my parents’ house for dinner. I told Jo about the dinner, 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 this 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 toward my ear (aka CLOSER to the phone) to huskily ask who I was talking to.

Want to take a wild guess what Joanna did before peppering me with 101 questions? She squealed. Squealed like a little teeny bopper at a Justin Bieber concert. “He’s there with you, isn’t he?! Oh my heavens, he’s in your bed! It’s only 7:00 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 sing-songed back to me before I abruptly ended the call—pleased to finally get to end a call before she had the chance.

It was so strange waking up with Jake beside me. I thought I was waking up 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.

I would say nothing

happened, but that wouldn’t be true. Oh, it would be true in the physical sense. We didn’t do anything that Pastor Mike wouldn’t have approved of…well, I mean a Southern Baptist mama might not have cared for the interlude during that one Friends re-run, but I’m getting away from myself. What I meant was, something happened in the form of my heart.

When I woke up with Jake’s arms around me and felt his breath tickling my neck, I realized I wanted to wake up like that every morning for the rest of my life. Now, don’t get me wrong. I realize that we are still so new that it would be insane to say something like that out loud. Those are the kinds of thoughts that you are allowed to have but must keep locked away in a secret compartment until somewhere around the six-month-relationship mark when you let them out in the form of a three-word phrase.

But I feel them. And I think Jake does too. He’s just still too scared to admit it to himself.

He and Sam have been through hell and back this past year, which is why I’m perfectly fine waiting on him to adjust to the idea of another serious relationship. If he wants to go on pretending that this is something “casual”, fine by me. But I know it’s not…and I think that, deep down, he does too.

I don’t know of a single man in the entire world that would drop everything, tend to an epileptic woman for a whole day, AND spend the night with her without having sex, and still have casual feelings. Not even a best guy-friend would do that. Well, he might share her bed if his best girl-friend’s couch was as small as mine, but he wouldn’t press soft kisses to her temple when she was sleeping. No. Jake is all romance, and it honestly takes my breath away.

Suddenly, the curling wand appears an inch from my face again, jolting me back into reality. “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 say, craning 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 this morning when 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?!”

If someone was just tuning in, they might think that Joanna was about to scold me for having a man spend the night. Ha! I wish.

“Come on, Evie, didn’t anyone ever teach you how to kiss and tell?”

I shake my head at her in mock reprimand. “Someone needs to teach you some manners.”

She grins and picks up another section of my hair to wrap it around the iron. My hair is officially too long for me to curl myself, but I want it to be in pristine condition when I go to my parents’ house later tonight. That way, Mama can’t say anything about how I should really try putting an effort into my appearance before I go out.

“Fine. You don’t have to go into detail. But just tell me this…are you happy?”

I meet my own eyes in the mirror and take a long look. And yep, right there, reflected in my green eyes, is a spark of happiness I haven’t felt in a long time. I feel cherished by Jake, and I’m starting to trust that feeling. “I am happy. I feel like things are finally starting to come together in my life. Plans for the fundraiser are lining up nicely, and I really feel hopeful that we’re going to make enough to achieve our goal for the year. I’m seeing an amazing guy that truly understands me and my lifestyle, and I get to spend time with his adorable daughter who makes me feel…”

“Whole?”

I meet Jo’s eyes in the mirror and nod. “Yeah. How’d you know that?”

She smiles and then turns her attention back on my hair and gently wraps it around the iron. “Because that’s what happened to me three years ago when I met you.” My heart swells, and all of a sudden, tears are pricking my eyes. I sit very, very still because I despise crying in front of people.

Joanna unwraps a curl from the iron and sets it down, resting her hip against the counter and folding her arms in front of her. “Did I ever tell you that Gary and I couldn’t have children?”

My heart tears in half. “No, you didn’t.”