One Lucky Deal (27 page)

The smell of paint was acrid in the air, and there was noisy drilling and banging around coming from the ceiling. The dogs were whining from having to be shut out in the backyard until the paint was dry. Candace was just going to close her eyes for a minute. With everything that was going on around her she was bound to sleep light.

She was so exhausted that she didn’t wake up until Tad was laying her in bed, tucking the covers around her. Rudy was whining because Tad was sitting in his spot. “Tad.” Candace tried to sit up, but Tad kept his hand to her chest.

“Sleep.”

“I want to talk,” she mumbled—even her voice was tired.

“We will. Tomorrow.” He brushed his lips across hers, and the last thing Candace remembered before slipping back into the sleep was the soft little moan that his lips elicited.

In the morning, though, she woke up to find Tad had already gone to work. She was sick of this hit-and-miss nonsense. She wanted some good quality time with Tad. It had been days—days since she’d been with him.

The day dragged on and she found little to do even though Tad seemed to be finding lots to do, but since they hadn’t talked she didn’t know what the game plan was. She would have loved to get lost in something, but all the obvious repairs had already been taken care of.

She went for a walk but it seemed to go quicker than usual. The day was dragging on and on, and so when Reagan called her she was relieved just to have something to do.

“Hey!” Candace answered the phone.

“Hey, want to come over? The guys are closing up shop early since they have no more appointments today and Reed’s invited Tad over for a barbecue. They’re stopping to get stuff on the way here.”

“Tad said yes?” Candace was a little hurt that he wouldn’t just come home so they could finally have it out, and for the love of God, hopefully, there would, at the very least, be some necking involved.

“Well, I’m actually thinking that Reed didn’t give him much of a choice.” Reagan laughed.

“Oh.”

“What? Are you mad? Did you guys have plans?” Reagan sounded hurt.

“No, no, I guess not. We were just going to talk.” Candace tried to keep her voice light. “I’ll be over in a little bit.”

“Okay. Are you sure? I can turn him away at the door.” Reagan’s smile was back because she could hear it in her voice and Candace smiled in return.

“No. I’ll be right there.” Candace hung up and gathered her things. She made sure the dogs were fed and watered and then headed out of the house. She decided to just walk the three blocks down to Reed and Reagan’s.

Candace neared their yard the same time Reed and Tad pulled up in their respective trucks. There was even something sexy about the distinctive rumble of Tad’s engine. Every time she heard it, she knew it was him. Hearing him coming gave her an adrenaline shot and caused her heart to race.

“Hey.” Tad jumped down and handed her a package of hamburger buns to carry in.

“Hey. Nice buns.” Candace had to shade the sun from her eyes just to get a good look up at his face.

Tad laughed. “Thanks.”

“What happened to our talk?” Candace wanted to hold his hand but she had to remember that just because she’d told her sisters it didn’t mean that Tad was as big of a blabbermouth as she was.

“Reed bullied me into it. I told him I needed to go home, but when he asked why I couldn’t think quickly enough. You know I suck at that. It’s not like I could have told him the truth. ‘Candace wants to have a talk with me.’ His nose would have been all over that, and then our business would have been everyone else’s.”

He had a point, and she felt just a slight twinge of guilt for already having told her chatterbox sisters. She could only hope that when they told their husbands, which she was nearly certain they both did, that Joe and Reed had them on ignore.

“I’m sorry, Candace, but I’m also not in any big hurry to actually have this conversation.” They had hung back for as long as they could without looking obviously suspicious. They started walking up the walkway.

“Why?” Candace’s heart caught. “Do you think it’s going to be a bad conversation?”

“Yeah. I do.”

“Why do you think that?” Candace’s heart was hammering a mile a minute. She kept praying for the right answers and it didn’t work. He kept saying the exact opposite of what she wanted to hear. It was breaking her heart.

“Because if it was going to go well there probably wouldn’t be anything to actually discuss.” Tad’s response made strange sense to her. She now wasn’t so anxious to get him alone to talk.

She followed him into the house and tried to paste on a pleasant smile even though there were hornets, mean, angry, stinging hornets flying around inside her stomach and chest. A giant cloud of doom had settled over her heart.

The guys had gone outside to the grill, and the women had stayed in the kitchen making salads and fixing drinks. Candace didn’t say anything to them because she didn’t want to talk about it. Although, if she’d learned anything from yesterday it was that telling things to her sisters felt really, really good.

She felt that sexy, pinprickly feeling race up her spine. She looked out the door over her shoulder and found Tad’s gaze on her. Her heart kicked at the sight of him. She wanted him. She didn’t want to lose him. She looked away before he could see the misery that she felt.

Once they had all taken a seat on the picnic table on the porch, Candace and Tad’s thighs were pressed together. Candace felt a little better. It didn’t make sense. He was what was bothering her, or rather, the situation that they found themselves in was. Yet just being next to him, feeling his arm brush hers every time he lifted his fork or his beer was the most reassuring feeling in the whole world.

She felt her stress start to dwindle with this false sense of security. She stared across the table at her sisters. They had said they wanted to help but she hadn’t heard exactly what their game plan was. If they didn’t hurry up and act, though, she was afraid that her window was going to close—if it hadn’t already.

Tad sighed. “I can’t wait until you take my weekends. I’m so sick of working Sundays.” Tad tilted his head back and finished the last little drizzle of his beer.

“Take your weekends?” Reed asked around a cheek full of burger.

“Their challenge,” Chloe reminded him as she doctored up her veggie burger.

“Oh, but that’s not over.” Ronnie chimed in. “We put it on hold, remember?” Her belly was rubbing right up against the table. The poor woman looked to be smuggling a watermelon.

“That’s still going on?” Reagan grinned, and then Candace caught her and Ronnie sharing something conspiratorial with their wordless twin-speak.

“Sure is.” Ronnie grinned and shot Candace an encouraging smile, but it didn’t make her feel any less nervous.

Tad didn’t say anything and neither did Candace. She didn’t want to argue with them because she wanted a relationship with Tad, and even playing at one was at least something.

“So, what? Like one final challenge?” Joe asked, tipping back his beer, and Candace could have sworn that she saw him wink at her. God—telling her sisters was a horrible, very, very bad idea.

“Sounds reasonable.” Reed stole a chip and a scoop of dip from Chloe’s plate.

“Sound fair to you two?” Reagan asked from across the table.

Tad shot a small look at Candace, far too quick for her to get a read on him. “Yeah.” Candace just nodded.

“All right, so what are you thinking?” Reagan asked Ronnie. The group passed back and forth whispers, and at some point Candace was pretty sure that their whispers weren’t even real. She crossed her arms over her chest and prayed that her sisters weren’t going to make her look like a fool.

“Your last mini-challenge should you choose to accept it…” Reagan lowered her eyes at them, and Tad and Candace both nodded. Candace was holding her breath waiting for this. “You have to sleep together.”

Chloe’s faux burger stopped halfway to her mouth. “Um … no.” She shook her head. “I’m pretty sure that should be against the rules.”

Reagan held her hand up. “Not have sex with each other but actually sleep. We’re talking all night, cuddle, talk, not have sex, just sleep.”

Candace felt her face turn about a hundred shades of gray as Joe got up to take a phone call. Her heart pounded in her ears, sounding like a rushing, booming waterfall. Candace didn’t dare sneak a look at Tad. She was hoping he wouldn’t take one look at her and sniff out how guilty she was. She’d die if he found out she’d told her sisters about his move to the couch and his inability to spend an entire night with a woman.

“Think you can handle it?” Ronnie asked.

“Sounds pretty easy.” Reed shrugged and hopped up to get another beer.

“Yeah.” Tad nodded.

“Yeah what?” Reagan grinned.

“Yeah, challenge accepted.” Tad sounded so cool. She felt hot. She felt out of breath.

“Well, I hate to do this,” Joe said, coming back to the table. “But I’ve got to cut out.” He bent and kissed Ronnie on the forehead.

Candace knew it used to drive Ronnie nuts that Joe was constantly on call and running out the door at anytime, day or night. Candace silently commended her on the fact that she seemed pretty relaxed about it now. Candace silently commended Joe on finding the end of Ronnie’s thread and helping her to unwind a little.

“Where are you off to?” Chloe asked, munching on a barbecue chip.

“Stella’s.” Stella was Joe’s aunt, who was actually not his aunt at all but his and Keith’s foster mom. “And if I could steal you two guys too, I’d appreciate it.”

“Sure. What’s up?” Reed tossed his wadded paper napkin down on his plate. Tad shot Candace an apology with just his eyes. Truthfully, Candace didn’t even mind the road block. The conversation was inevitable. She was just now silently kicking herself that she had to bring it up so soon.

“She told me her basement flooded. She claimed all the way up to her knees. So I’m going to go see if I can borrow the pump from the boys at the fire station and pump the water out of there. We’ll probably have to haul a bunch of wet junk out to the road as well.” Joe looked apologetically at everyone. “I hate to drag you guys into this, but—”

Reagan cut him off. “Don’t be silly. Let me make you up a plate of food to take over to her.”

“You don’t mind if I go?” Tad leaned in and whispered.

“No, you should go.” Candace savored the sound of his voice so close to her ear, the way his ever-present five o’clock shadow scratched against her skin, and the trail of his fingers against her bare arm.

“I’ll see you at home.” Tad hauled himself up off the bench and took their plates to the garbage can. “Candy?”

“Yeah.” She looked up at him. “Keys are in the truck. I’ll ride with Reed.”

“Oh, okay, thanks.”

Candace held her breath and when the guys had left, she shot daggers at her sisters.

“What?” Ronnie asked, feigning innocence.

“You guys just about threw me under the bus.” She stood and began clearing the table.

“But we didn’t,” Reagan pointed out.

“And you both told your husbands,” Candace said bitterly.

“I couldn’t help it. We’ve been rooting for this to happen since that day you two re-met up at Lucky’s and you tossed your drink in his face. Ugh, God, that was hot!” Reagan grinned fondly at the memory.

“Hot?”

“She means you two were so passionate. This was bound to happen, Candace. I don’t know why you guys fought it so hard. As for telling our husbands, it’s the married code. You can’t tell me not to tell anybody and expect me not to tell my husband.” Ronnie waddled to the fridge to put the ketchup and mustard back in the door.

“Actually, Ronnie, don’t tell anybody means
don’t tell anybody
.” Candace rolled her eyes.

“You’ll thank us when this works.” Reagan shot her a wink.

“It’s not going to work. He can’t do it. Especially when I feel like we’re just doomed anyway. All week something has gotten in our way. I haven’t spent a second alone with him in an entire week and we live together. I’m going out of my mind.” Candace threw her long hair up into a high ponytail.

“Well, it sure isn’t going to work with that attitude,” Reagan pointed out.

“If klutz over here can get lucky enough to land herself the man she wanted, I think you can probably swing it too.” Ronnie joked, but Reagan just seriously nodded.

Chapter 21

Candace went home that night and took the dogs for a walk. Then she waited up for a while, but she had work in the morning so she took herself to bed. It was hard to get to sleep. She cuddled up extra close to Rudy and did her best not to cry.

In the morning, Candace woke up half hoping to find big, strong arms wrapped around her, but she woke up to Rudy’s horrible doggy breath instead. Her room was hot, humid, and one of the dogs let out one long, windy fart that Candace knew was going to stink. She pushed her way out of bed.

She walked into the kitchen and found coffee in the coffeepot, and from looking out the window over the sink she could see that Tad’s truck was not in the driveway. She looked at the fridge hoping to see some kind of message. She’d take anything, but the letters still just spelled out: BLUE.

She sighed and went on with her day.

It dragged on and on, even with Jeannie to talk to. The day was so hot and Candace was moving so slow with all of her paperwork that she ended up having to stay late just to get caught up for the next day. All she had wanted to do was get home.

The night was just as muggy and humid as the day had been. Her clothes were sticking to her while tiny little flyaway strands of her hair were curling around her face. Her cheeks were pink with heat. She needed a good cooldown and she just wanted to be home with Tad.

Once she was home, she found Tad had just finished priming the kitchen. She’d shut her phone off so that it wasn’t going to ring. All week, all she’d wanted to do was talk. She realized all of a sudden that having this particular talk was not at all on her priority list.

She bit her lip and looked at him. He looked as hot as she felt. Her skin was damp and sticky, but his had beaded perspiration. She watched as it ran in rivulets down his temple, or fell down the strong tight tendons of his neck. He peeled his shirt away from his skin and moved it around, trying to force air to brush against his damp flesh to cool him off.