Page 9 of An Overdue Match
He’d just stared at her.
She’d poked one of his four sad, empty white walls and issued her first challenge. “I dare you to paint a picture right here.”
Tai knew he’d get in trouble. That his mom would be furious. But he didn’t care. He was mad at her anyway. Turned out, that was the start of his and Hayley’s challenges to each other as well as the beginning of his love for art.
Hmm ... Maybe he should thank Hayley for more than one dare after all.
Tai climbed out of his Dodge Challenger that took the corners of the country roads in the Cherokee National Forest likea dream—or a nightmare, if anyone asked his mom, Missy Davis. Or listened to her scold him at family dinners. Which he didn’t. If she had her way, he’d be living his life in a bubble. He’d taken a needle to that balloon a long time ago, and he wasn’t about to let her shove him back inside a safe little box ever again.
He opened the door to the library, the biography he’d checked out earlier that week tucked under his arm. A grin spread across his face as he imagined what Evangeline’s reaction would be. No doubt she’d immediately retrieve the book from the return receptacle and inspect each page to make sure he hadn’t ruined the book in some way.
At first, he hadn’t understood Hayley’s dare. Returning a book she’d checked out under his account with a bunch of dog-eared pages didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Until he’d done it and then noticed he was being followed around the library by the world’s least stealthy librarian. That was when Tai realized Hayley had only used him to poke at Evangeline.
His cousin had been talking about her newest coworker ever since Evangeline had arrived in Little Creek, which happened to be only a few months after his own reappearance in his hometown. He’d heard whispers that his being back was like the prodigal son returning, but he’d yet to see any fatted calf killed on his behalf in celebration. More like a small uproar that his presence and his newly opened business were going to bring riffraff to their peaceful corner of the world. He figured time would prove them wrong, so he didn’t plan to waste his energy trying to change anyone’s opinion.
He chuckled to himself, remembering the way Evangeline had tried to hide behind a large tome on the life of Sir Isaac Newton. The only thing she’d managed to conceal had been her pert little nose and her rosebud-shaped lips. Her wide expressive eyes, however, had been impossible to miss. Even if he hadn’t seen her, he’d have been alerted to her presenceby the steady weight of her gaze, which he felt on his skin as keenly as if she’d touched him.
Hayley might’ve orchestrated his encounter with Evangeline because of the dare, but now that he’d met her, he found himself thinking about her more than Hayley might have intended. Or maybe not. A part of him wondered if her dare had been twofold—mess with Evangeline while also attempting to set Tai up with her. If that were the case, Hayley could be two for two.
There was something about Evangeline that intrigued him. Something different about her that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He’d noticed immediately she was a list of walking contradictions. Perfectly poised and tightly controlled on the outside but a current of live wires just waiting to spark underneath. Her mouth said one thing while her eyes spoke something entirely different. But it wasn’t the juxtaposition of her that he couldn’t pinpoint. While she was like two sides of a color wheel, opposite and yet alluringly attractive, there was also something...
Something.
Like he’d said, he couldn’t put his finger on what that was. He just knew it was there and that he couldn’t stop thinking about the anomaly. About her. He needed to study her more. Figure out the mystery or the hidden piece of the picture that she presented. It was just an added bonus that she was easy on the eyes and that getting her decorum to slip a bit, letting what she tried to hide on the inside shine through, was the most fun he’d had in ages.
Hayley stood behind the information desk, pecking away at the keyboard. She looked up with a smile of greeting on her lips as the front door slid shut behind Tai. When she registered it was him, she tilted her chin in a signal for him to come over.
“I thought you were loyal to your Kindle,” she said as he approached, an undertone to her voice that made him wonderif she suspected he had ulterior motives in showing up at the library.
He held up the book in his hand. “I have to return this.”
“Oh.” A hint of disappointment in her tone made him feel like his suspicions weren’t off base.
“Why? Did you think I stopped by for a different reason?”
She plucked the biography from his hand. “Of course not.” She scanned the barcode and returned the title to the system. “There. I’ll see you Friday night for dinner at your parents’ house.”
He hooked his thumbs through the belt loops of his jeans and leaned a hip on the desk. “Any particular reason you’re trying to get rid of me?”
She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes. “I thought you said you only needed to return the book. Well, it’s returned.” She paused, her gaze turning calculating. “Why? Is there some other reason you might need to linger?”
The way she watched him was telling. He wasn’t mad at her meddling, but he also didn’t mind messing with her either. “Yes, actually, there is.”
Hayley straightened, almost surprised but certainly delighted. “Really?”
Tai nodded.
Hayley’s grin spread across her face like a river after a rainstorm. “I knew it.” She began to throw a fist in the air in victory.
“I need another book.”
Her hand made a sudden detour to smoothing her hair. She cleared her throat, trying to look with all her might like his response was the one she’d expected. “I knew it. I mean, what other reason is there to come to the library, right?”
Tai pointed to the pods of computers to the left, smashing his lips together to keep from grinning. “I could have needed to print something.”
Hayley scowled but waved her arm toward a mural of kidsreading under an oak tree. “Or wanted to get a head start on making Lorax trees from pipe cleaners and pom-poms? You’re a few hours early for crafternoon.”
“Pity.”
