The Match

by Sarah Adams

Until this moment, I’ve been completely unaware of how important it is to me that a man have hands so large they completely engulf mine. My hand looks like a tiny baby hand inside his, and I love it.

“I think she would have liked to come.” I flip my turn signal and move into traffic, pretending not to be overly curious about Sam’s statement. “Oh yeah? Why do you think that?” “Because she peeks at you as much as you peek at her.”

“It’s a nice evening. Do you want to go sit on the porch until your ride gets here?” Evie’s body freezes. She looks uncomfortable. “Do you mean you want me to wait for my Uber outside and not in your house?” “What? God no. I meant…do you want to sit on the porch with me? You know, talk together. With words.” I’m ten years old, and she’s the cutest girl in class. I’m begging her to accept my Valentine heart, and she’s staring at it like it’s poison.

“Turns out, I’m…not good at having female friends since my divorce. Especially beautiful and single ones.”

JAKE: Last day of training today. EVIE: Yep. JAKE: Sam’s going to miss you. EVIE: Sam can come see me anytime she wants. JAKE: Good to know. Come hungry today. I’m going to feed you pancakes before you guys start your session. EVIE: Do you talk this dirty to all your female friends? JAKE: Just you.

“Does it freak you out to know I’ve been dreaming of kissing you since I met you?”

JAKE: So, you’re a gif girl, huh? EVIE: I prefer them over words. JAKE: *GIF of a person walking across the street* EVIE: What in the world was that???? JAKE: I thought you preferred them over words. That was me saying I’m leaving to come get you soon. EVIE: Wait, why?! I can call an Uber. JAKE: I know. But I want to come get you. EVIE: Stop being so nice to me all the time. JAKE: Just making up for calling you a car salesman.

Jacob Broaden likes me. He’s told his family all about me. He’s standing proudly beside me and not letting me go.

The sudden skin-to-skin contact is electric, and it short-circuits my brain. I’ve been dead for the past year, and she just put two paddles to my chest. I’m alive now.

What time should I call you tonight? EVIE: I’ll be home by 7. JAKE: I’ll call you at 7:01. I mean…I’ll call you at some vague time after that so you don’t realize how much I like you.

I let my gaze travel the length of her, and when my eyes meet hers again, I drop my voice low. “You should definitely be proud of your body.” She shoves my chest with a guttural laugh. “If anyone but you said that to me, it would immediately give me the ick.” “So, what you’re saying is, I can deliver a line better than any other man in the world?”

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.

“Which reminds me, I grilled an extra steak for you to take home.” He just keeps getting better. “Careful. I’m like a stray cat. If you feed me, I might keep coming back.” “That’s what I’m hoping for.”

Your house is a safe place, and you love being there, and that’s something to be proud of, not embarrassed about.”

Evie connects with Sam in a way that I will never be able to. This should upset me, but for some reason it relieves me. Maybe I won’t have to do everything on my own after all. Maybe Sam will get to have a mother who cares for her like she deserves. And dammit. Those thoughts do not sound casual. They sound a lot like commitment.

Evie is asleep in my arms, and I never want to let her go. I got here at the tail end of her seizure and in enough time to see her body jolting with movement. My heart broke for her. Charlie did his job perfectly, but now that it’s over, I’m stepping in and holding her as close as she’ll let me for as long as she’ll let me.

Charlie hears the groan and comes to stand beside the bed on Evie’s side. He rests his head on the mattress and slices those big brown eyes up at me. I’m pretty sure he’s telling me, You’re in my spot. I get it. I’d be possessive too if I got to share Evie’s bed on a daily basis. It’s way too small, though. My feet are hanging off the bottom. She needs a king-sized bed like mine. Or maybe just mine… What if I just packed up all her stuff and moved her into my house? Good morning, love. Did you sleep well? Yeah, I changed my mind on the whole no-serious-relationship thing, and we’re married now, and you have to live with me forever. A tad too much of the Beauty and the Beast vibe.

I can smell the coconut scent lingering in her hair and hear her taking deep breaths as she sleeps. This feels right, and I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to keep convincing myself that we’re just two people casually dating. This feels a lot like falling in love.

“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?”