Page 73 of An Overdue Match
Tai nudged her playfully with his elbow and winked. “You should try it on. A little roleplaying could be fun.”
She blushed even as she tipped her chin in challenge. “You think you could handle a woman like Roxanne?”
Tai’s tongue thickened in his mouth. The way Evangeline was looking at him—bold, head-on, no hiding or relegating herself to the sidelines—made the blood heat in his veins. No words formed. Evangeline flirting back with him seemed to have a misfiring effect on his brain, so he put his mouth to better use. Gripping her chin, he brought her face toward his and seared her lips with a kiss.
Hayley cleared her throat. Loudly.
Tai groaned but pulled away, pinning a glare on his cousin. “Don’t you have somewhere else you have to be?”
She smiled brightly. “Nope.” She reached out and pulled on Evangeline’s hand. “Come on. I want to see how they look.” Evangeline let herself get dragged toward her bedroom, throwing a smile over her shoulder toward Tai.
Tai smiled back unconsciously, a reflex when it came to his Angel. Whenever she was around, he just ... reacted. She created responses in him that he hadn’t even known were possible. Made him feel things he’d never felt before.
He took a deep breath and tried to slow his erratic heartbeat. It wouldn’t do to get too far ahead of himself. Too far ahead of Evangeline, even though he knew he was already there. But he’d been steps ahead of her ever since they’d met, feeling before she felt and now knowing before she knew.
He loved her. Loved her when she believed no one ever could. He was in the deep end of these feelings while she was still just dipping her toes in and testing the waters.
But he’d wait. He’d wait, and he’d be there beside her and coax her into the deep end with him.
“Fashion show!” Hayley shouted with glee from behind the closed bedroom door. Tai grinned as he took a seat in the livingroom. This was not his first Hayley Holt fashion show. She’d often put on performances like this when they were growing up. At least this time he was just a spectator instead of one of her models.
All of a sudden, Evangeline’s cat streaked out from under the couch and pounced on his shoelaces, batting them between her paws.
“Well, hello there.” Tai reached down and picked up Kitty Purry. “Seems like there’s going to be some runway models on the catwalk in a minute. Want to watch?”
The cat sniffed, then bounded out of his arms. She walked away from him, swinging her hips and swishing her tail. About halfway across the room, she stopped and turned back as if striking a pose. She sauntered toward him, jumped on the couch, then lifted a paw and licked it daintily.
Evangeline’s bedroom door opened a crack. “Tai, I left my phone in my car. Be a good sport and put on some runway music,” Hayley instructed.
Tai pulled out his phone. “What exactly is runway music?”
“I don’t know. Do I look like I’ve been to Paris or Milan?”
“Sorry I asked,” he mumbled. He clicked on the search engine app, typed infashion show music, then tapped on the first video option that came up. Percussion beat out of the handheld device’s speakers.
“That works!” Hayley shouted her approval. “Okay, here we come.”
Tai sat beside Kitty Purry, who continued her grooming.
“First down the runway is Hayley Holt wearing an Evangeline Kelly original.” Hayley strutted out the door, lips in an exaggerated pout and hands on hips that were in danger of needing to be put back in their sockets if she swung them any wider.
Hayley was wearing one of Evangeline’s pencil skirts and graphic tees. An Evangeline Kelly original indeed. She flippedbrown hair over her shoulder, and Tai realized she was also wearing Evangeline’s wig, the one she’d had on before the two had jolted off to her room.
“What do you think? Do I look like Evangeline?” Hayley struck a pose.
“Thankfully not even a little.”
She stuck out her tongue, then pivoted and walked back to the bedroom.
“Next up is Astrid, uh, Johanson. She’s traveled from Sweden to be with us today.”
The door opened again and Evangeline stumbled out, no doubt helped by a shove from Hayley. Cheeks pink, she adjusted a flowy summer dress that put Tai in mind of a Scandinavian meadow. Unlike his cousin’s flamboyant movements, Evangeline tiptoed forward, keeping her eyes down.
“Oh, is Astrid Johanson a shy country girl leaving her village for the first time? Maybe a handsome man can sweep in and show her a bit of the wonderful wide world?” Was he putting it on a bit thick? Absolutely. But the smile that topped her lips and the look of suppressed laughter in her eyes was worth it.
“Askersund beckvam alang ektorp.” She fluttered her eyelashes at him.
Tai couldn’t help the laughter that spilled out of his mouth. “Did you just speak IKEA to me, sweet Astrid?”
