He laughed. “Hey, don’t blame me. I’m not the one who drew what looked like an avocado when the prompt was a pregnant woman.”
“For the last time, that wasn’t—You know what? Never mind.” She grinned in a way that was truly frightening. “Why don’t we do a battle of the sexes? Boys versus girls.”
“Three librarians against three guys whose jobs don’t revolve around words?” Tai scoffed.
“You’d have Julien.”
Tai looked at Julien skeptically.
“If you hadn’t gathered, those two like to give each other a hard time,” Martha whispered beside him.
“I see that,” he whispered back.
“Why don’t we do couples?” Evangeline asked magnanimously.
“Yes!” Tai jumped on the suggestion.
“Fine,” Hayley capitulated. “But Levi and I go first.” She pulled a card out of the box, quickly reading it to herself. When she raised her eyes to Levi’s, her gaze was as focused as an Olympian about to compete for a gold medal. “Ready, babe?”
Levi dipped his chin.
Tai reached out and flipped the timer. “Go.”
“Delicious. Fuji. Honeycrisp.”
“Apple.”
“Correct.” Hayley picked another card. “Salmon, trout, bass.”
“Fish.”
“Right.” By the time their round was finished, they had six cards in front of them. “Ha! Beat that!” She gloated at Tai.
Tai cracked his knuckles, then made a show of cracking his neck like he was preparing to go a few rounds in a boxing ring. Hayley rolled her eyes at him, but everyone else was laughing.
“Okay, I’m ready.”
Hayley flipped the timer.
Instead of barking out words like Hayley had, Tai looked at his card and then settled his soft gaze on Evangeline. “You have a pair of these that I dream about every night. They’re sweet and soft and drive me insane. I’ve memorized the shape of them but want to keep coming back to discover them over and over and make sure my memory is correct.”
“Can we please keep this PG, Casanova?” Hayley snarked.
Evangeline leaned toward Tai and kissed his mouth. “Lips?”
“Most definitely,” he said before kissing her again.
“Time!” Hayley yelled. “You only got one.”
“I still think I won that round.” Tai smiled as he gave Evangeline one more kiss before leaning back into the sofa.
Julien picked up the box of cards and held them between himself and Martha. “Do you want to go or should I?”
“I’ll go.” She took the box and pulled out a card.
“Ready?” Hayley asked.
Martha nodded.