The Match

by Sarah Adams

  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 in such a motherly way across my daughter’s hairline. 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 yes.

  I go downstairs, trying to catch my breath while I fill up a glass of 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-mama-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 57-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 behind it 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. I’ve got eyes, 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. Her black silk gown is a sharp contrast to Sam’s unicorn bedding.

  She looks like a movie star, home from receiving an Oscar and skipping the after-party in favor of coming home to tuck her daughter into bed. She’s singing a quiet, sweet version of “Somewhere 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.

  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, and so, right now, the house is blanketed in a soft warm glow. A candle is lit on his coffee table, letting my favorite vanilla scent fill the air, and everything feels peaceful and still.

  Jake tugs me toward his couch and then, without dropping my hand, dives onto the couch, landing on his back and pulling me down on top of him. We both laugh as we settle into a comfortable position on the couch 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, and his other hand is lightly brushing circles on my back.

  It’s so romantic it makes my chest ache.

  “Jake,” I say somewhere between breathlessness and a reprimand. “We need to talk…” I say, trying not to smile as he pulls me up a little closer so that I’m level with his mouth. He tucks his hand into my hair, and his gaze lands on my mouth. He gives me a half smirk and mumbles against my lips, “I don’t want to talk.”

  I know that look. He looks half drugged, and I know that if I have any hope of figuring out what’s happening in our relationship, I need to drop a tray of ice cubes down his shirt. Or maybe a different article of clothing…

  He leans up just enough to take my bottom lip between his. Okay, so I guess I need some ice cubes too. “Jake!” I say, giving the worst protest anyone has ever heard, and half-heartedly pull away. He tugs me back, and his grin nearly undoes me.

  “All right, let’s talk,” he says as he’s kissing the spot right under my ear. “What do you want to talk about?” He’s lacing kisses down my jaw, and…huh, turns out I don’t have anything I want to talk about anymore. I give in and press my hand to his chest to give me better leverage.

  I make eye contact with Jake long enough to say, Fine, you want to kiss, then let’s kiss. Fire lights his eyes, and I dip my head down and slant my mouth over his. Our mouths dance, and fire crackles somewhere in the distance even though there’s not even a fire lit in the grate. I feel tiny pressed up next to Jake and his muscular body, and I love every second of it. Images of him defending me outside of the venue flash in my mind, and it shifts the kiss into something deeper. Buckle up, folks, because this train is leaving the station—or at least I thought it was.

  But in the next moment, Jake breaks the kiss and sits up abruptly and slides all the way to the opposite end of his couch. He doesn’t look at me for a solid minute…just stares wide-eyed at the black TV. And then slowly, he blinks, and his face turns to me.

  I grin, and he grins.

  “Maybe we should talk,” he says, and I can’t help but laugh.

  “Can I sit by you?” I ask, because seriously, we are six feet apart right now, and I don’t want to have to have a serious conversation over walkie-talkies.

  “Are you going to behave, Miss Jones?”

  My mouth falls open, and I bet my eyes are sparkling. “Me?! You were the one trying to put the moves on me.”

  “I’m completely innocent. I thought we would just kiss a little. But you…” He breaks off and puffs out a big breath.

  “I, what?” I say with flirty, narrowed eyes.

  He smiles and lifts a brow. “You had other ideas.” I feel my cheeks flame because, yep, he’s totally right. “Don’t get me wrong… I have other ideas too. But, yeah, we need to talk because…” His demeanor softens, and he scoots back over near me. “Because you’re important to me, and I want to make sure we are on the same page.” He reaches up and brushes his fingers over my ear.

  My heart starts racing again, and I shoot him a look of warning. “Okay, well, if we’re going to talk, you need to stop doing things like that!”

  He laughs and pulls his hand away to cross his arms. I do the same. We look ridiculous. Like two teenagers that can’t be trusted to keep their hands to themselves. “Who was th
e woman I found at your door this morning?” I ask because I’ve decided we’re just going to cannonball right on in.

  He nods firmly. Down to business. “Right. That was Natalie.”

  My arms drop. “Natalie! As in, Sam’s mama and your ex-wife, Natalie?!” Images of that woman’s perfect body assault my memory, and without really thinking, my gaze drops to my own tiny boobs.

  Jake notices. “Stop that. I know what you’re thinking, and you need to stop it. You’re perfect, Evie.”

  “But…she’s so—”

  “That woman you saw this morning is not at all a reflection of my personal taste. And she wasn’t even the woman I married. The Natalie you saw this morning was the woman who left me, not the woman I stood next to at the altar.”

  I still feel a little self-conscious, but I say, “Go on.”

  “Over the last year of our marriage, she majorly changed. She became obsessed with seeking ways to try to improve her physical self. And yesterday, I was just as shocked as you when I saw her.”

  “Shocked in a good way?” I ask, not wanting to ask this question but knowing that if we are going to be a constant part of each other’s lives, I’m going to need him to answer it so when I have to see Natalie again, I won’t be a crazy jealous girlfriend.

  Jake smiles and shakes his head. “Not in a good way.” He squints one eye and suddenly looks a little shy. “Evie…I—” His gaze falls to scan my body for a millisecond before it bounces back up to my face. “You’re perfect. You don’t ever need to doubt that.”

  I smile and resist throwing a blanket over my head for the remainder of the conversation. But I’m an adult. I can do this. “Okay. So Natalie came back?” I’m putting the conversation back on the rails.

  “Yeah. When I got home last night, she was on my porch. I didn’t know she was coming or else I would have told you. But we talked for a few minutes, and she said she wanted to be a family again. She tried to get me to sleep with her, so I went to my parents’ place for the night. The end.”

  His eyes meet mine, and I can feel my mouth hanging open. I’m speechless. I have no words.

  Jake laughs and scoots closer to put his arms around me, completely wrapping me up. “Evie, Natalie and I are over. I don’t have any affection for her anymore. I would like for her to step up and be a mom for Sam, but I don’t have high hopes of that happening. In fact, I told her that before she could see Sam again, she had to stay in town for one week and call Sam every day. This evening, she texted, saying she was sorry, but she heard back about a job in LA and would be flying out tonight. What that really meant was she was in between boyfriends, hoped I would fill the position for a minute, but when I turned her down, she went seeking someone else.”

  “I’m sorry, Jake. For Sam’s sake, that really does break my heart.”

  “I know. Me too.” He kisses my head. “Hopefully, one day Natalie will get her act together, but until then, I’m not going to let her hurt Sam any more than she already has.”

  I touch his cheek and feel his five o’clock shadow beneath my palm. “You’re such a good daddy.”

  He looks down at me, and his gaze pins me in place. “Evie. Let me be perfectly clear with you. I don’t want something casual anymore.” 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 ringtones for the other person. 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 (again, sorry, Grandmama) 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, squeezing me a little tighter. He doesn’t answer my question, because with his head tilted back like that, it gives me a perfect shot of his neck. His skin is warm against my lips as I place kiss after kiss up his neck.

  I make it up to his mouth, and his gaze is sultry, and passionate, and full of… “I love you, Evie Jones.” Love. His gaze is full of love.

  “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. “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 been in this role for all of five minutes.

  “Just looking for something in my eye!” I say.

  “Through your mouth?” Busted.

  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 the help of Jake. 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 the new love I have.

  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 of my heart that this is what every day for the rest of my life will look like.

  Epilogue

  1 Year Later

  I wake up to the feel of Jake’s mouth against mine. Turns out, I love being kissed first thing in the morning. This is the way Jake has woken me up every morning since we married nine months ago. “Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty,” he murmurs in my ear.

  I peek one eye open and take one long look at his muscled, tan chest beside me and then to the clock on my phone. I groan because I know that I have no time to spend in bed with Jake this morning. “You let me oversleep.”

  “Mmhmm. You need all the sleep you can get.” His hand lands on my swollen stomach as he kisses my cheek.

  “I also need to get to the venue to unlock it in time for the vendors to get set up.” Last year’s fundraiser was such a success that we’ve decided to make it an annual thing. Thanks to all of the vendors who donated their services and items last year, we exceeded our fundraising goal.

  Jake’s voice turns husky, and he starts nibbling at my earlobe. “Let Joanna do it.” Joanna technically retired a few months ago, but the poor thing was bored to death and driving Gary crazy. Unsurprisingly, one week after she retired, she signed up as a volunteer for Southern Service Paws. I think she’s putting in more hours now than she was before, but since I’ll be going on maternity leave in two months when our baby boy is born, I don’t mind. In fact, I’m downright grateful.

  “I know, but I want to be there. I like my job, remember?”

  “I know something else you like,” he says, undeterred.

  But I won’t be deterred today. So, I roll my eyes and push him away. He laughs and reaches out to drag my body up close to him again, and I lay my head on his chest
. Jake and I both feel our baby boy kick him in the side, and I laugh.

  Jake looks down at my round stomach and shakes his head. “You’re not even in the world yet, and you’re already taking your mama’s side? I thought I would have at least one of my kids on my team.”

  In that exact moment, Sam busts into the room, and I’m OH SO GLAD that I had put a stop to Jake’s advances.

  “Morning!” she says with a cheery smile and a bouquet the size of her head in her hand. She approaches the bed and sets them on the bedside table. “These are for you, Mama.”

  Yep, you heard her right. Sam calls me Mama, and it still melts my heart every time. This girl and I have bonded like we were always meant to be mother and daughter. Her biological mom still hasn’t been in the picture much, and I know it hurts Sam more than she lets on, but I’ve been trying my best to always make sure that Sam knows she has a mama that loves her more than life. And also, I’m going to have to have a talk with her about opening the door to flower-delivery strangers first thing in the morning.

  But for now, I smile and sit up, sending a questioning glance to Jake. He sits up too, and the sheets fall off his chest, and WHEN am I going to be immune to this man’s incredible body? I’m betting never. “Don’t look at me,” he says. “I was saving my flowers to give to you after the benefit tonight.”

  I frown and pluck the little white card from the bouquet and tear into it.

  Evelyn Grace,

  We’re proud of you. See you tonight.

  - Mama and Daddy

  “What stupid man am I going to have to go murder for sending my wife flowers?” asks Jake, leaning over to grab the card.

  Sam jumps on the end of the bed to pet Charlie. Charlie adores Sam. But turns out, his love is pretty cheap. She devotes five minutes a day to throw a tennis ball with him in the yard, and he is putty in her little hands. I’m not mad about it.

  “Wow. What’s it feel like to read those words from your parents?” asks Jake after his eyes scan the card.