One Lucky Deal (2 page)

“I think she was honestly talking about her pipes, like her sink.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Candace was being facetious, and Tad threw the dish towel at her before heading out of the kitchen to put his boots on.

“Don’t wait up.”

“What! What are you doing? You promised me a foot rub, and you were going to pay for the pizza … and—and the dishes aren’t finished.”

“Fine, all right.” Tad slipped back inside his work boots and grabbed his hat from one of the coat pegs by the door. He came up to Candace, who had followed him to the door, mad as hell now with her arms crossed over her chest. “Candy, you know you’re my best friend, right?”

“Ugh.” She groaned. “Don’t call me that! And don’t even try and Dundee me right now. Your scruffy good looks and your strangely effective charm do not work on me.”

Tad gave her his signature half smirk, which she admitted only to herself to be kind of sexy … really sexy.

“No, Tad. This is not okay. I would never ditch you for a booty call. Stick you with the tab for a dinner I promised you, and bail out on making up to you on something.”

“All right, I owe you—big.” He grabbed up his keys.

“You always owe me.” She leveled her eyes at him. “Big.”

He sighed and fished in his wallet and pulled out a twenty. “That’s the best I’m willing to do tonight.”

“I hate you.” But Candace grabbed up the money.

“Ah, but what is it you’re always telling me? Oh right. You need me.”

“No.” Candace shook her head and followed him out the door. “See, you’ve got that backward.
You
need
me
.”

“Sure, uh-huh.” Tad waved to her before sliding into his truck and pulling out of the driveway.

“What do we need you for anyway?” Sasha, who had sneaked up beside her, let out one loud yap. “All right. Fine.” Candace scratched behind Sasha’s ear. “
Besides
a place to stay,” Candace conceded, “what do we need him for?”

* * * *

Candace left the dishes half done in the sink and ate as much of the pizza she could. Just because she was feeling prickly and wanted to be the tiniest bit mean to Tad, the leftovers got fed to the dogs. She rarely allowed that to happen because human food was bad for them. Also it gave them all horribly stinky gas. Then she went to bed and shut her phone off. She was not going to be bailing him out tonight.

In the morning she awoke early to take all five of the dogs for a walk before work. When she finally found her way out of bed and into the kitchen, the dishes were done. Not only that, but the living room had been tidied and she spotted a six-pack of her favorite locally brewed beer. It was called Cobalt Ice. It came in beautiful blue glass bottles and they were situated on the counter next to her car keys. Some of the magnetic alphabet letters on their fridge were arranged to spell out SORRY.

Candace smiled to herself. He was good—really good when he wanted to be—at making things up to her. All of her residual anger disintegrated. She even caught herself whistling a pop tune on her morning walk, although it was more like being kidnapped and bound than a walk. She and the dogs had been doing at least one walk a day for years now and they still somehow managed to twist, wind, and tie themselves together.

Tad and Candace ended up spending that night, along with the next three, at the bar. Their nights were pretty generic. They pretty much all sort of went the same. Sometimes her sisters and his friends would be there; sometimes they wouldn’t be. Sometimes they drank a little too much, and sometimes they barely took the edge off. But more or less they all involved Candace saying something along the lines, “Hey, I saw you talking to Tad Dundee.”

The short, stacked blonde would always respond with, “Yeah, so?”

It was Candace’s perfect lead into: “Ugh, I dated him awhile ago.”

“Is something wrong with him?”

“Well, he’s a terrible lover.”

“He is?” This was where they would look shockingly heartbroken.

“Yes. He lasts forever. He insists on going down on you for—like hours, and won’t ever let you have just one orgasm. Can you believe that?” Candace didn’t usually have to say much else. Girls flocked to him like moths to a flame.

Meanwhile, Candace would nod to a guy she thought was hot, and Tad would work his magic for her. “Do you see that girl over there?”

“Which one?” the hot guy would say.

“The smoking hot brunette with the legs, the dimple, the blue eyes…” Tad would bite his lip and make a show of slowly appreciating her body. “Hot, right?” At this point, some would agree, some would shrug, but Tad would push on. “I got with her last summer, and she was like a freakin’ gymnast. She’s not easy though, probably wouldn’t even give you the time of day.” They usually didn’t buy that. They’d boast about how much easier they could get her than he thought they could. To prove their point they would go use their best lines and their best moves on her. His job was done.

This night was pretty much just like every other night at the bar. Candace had scored Tad two numbers already, but she hadn’t pointed out any guys to him yet. She’d become much choosier over the last several months.

“You guys are pathetic,” Ronnie, Candace’s pregnant older sister told them.

“Why’s that?” Candace slid Tad the numbers she’d collected.

“Because you guys should try your hand at a real relationship.” Reagan, Candace’s other older sister and Ronnie’s twin, spoke up. She was cuddled under her fiancé Reed’s arm.

“Why?” Tad asked. “We’ve had real relationships … this is working for us.”

“Guys, leave them alone,” Ronnie’s husband Joe said.

“Thank you, Joe.” Candace grinned up at him.

“I don’t think they could handle a relationship.”

Candace laughed to herself. Joe was only saying that because he was with Ronnie, who gave high maintenance a whole other meaning.

“We could. We have,” Tad agreed.

“Oh yeah?” Reed chuckled. “I think Tad’s last relationship was Candace, and that blew up in his face.”

Heat crept up her neck. “Shut up.” Candace kicked Reed under the table. “We decided we weren’t ever going to talk about that.

“Ow.” Reagan winced when Candace missed and kicked her own sister in the shin instead.

“It wasn’t
that
long ago, and it was Molly Anderson.”

Candace had never heard of Molly Anderson. “Who’s Molly Anderson?”

“She was two girlfriends after you, which was a long, long-ass time ago.” Reed took a big bite of burger.

“I seriously don’t think they know how to be in a relationship.” Joe finished his beer and stood. “Who needs?” A couple of them raised their hands.

“We know how to be in a relationship.” Candace stuck up for both her and Tad.

“Prove it,” Ronnie dared to say.

“What?” Tad laughed.

“How?” Candace folded her arms.

“No, no, she’s right. All right, this is the deal.” Reagan smiled. “We are issuing both of you a challenge.” This was their combined weakness as Tad and Candace were competitive to a fault. “Over the course of this summer we will issue the two of you
couple
challenges to complete. If you survive the summer still dating someone—challenge accomplished.”

“You’re an evil mastermind.” Reed laughed and kissed his future wife on her head of platinum curls.

“So how does it work?” Candace hadn’t yet accepted the challenge and neither had Tad, but it was pretty obvious that neither of them could turn it down.

“First things first.” Reagan dusted her hands off. “Find someone in this bar tonight who you can see yourselves dating. This person will be your partner, so to speak, over the course of the challenge.”

Tad and Candace both looked at each other for a long moment. Candace’s heart was racing, and judging by the tic in Tad’s firm, stubbly, square jaw he was just as determined.

“I’ll even up the ante.” Joe smirked. “I’ll buy the first one back a pitcher and a basket of wings.”

“Challenge accepted,” Tad and Candace said in unison before racing out of their seats away from the group to the bustling bar.

*

“How are we going to do this?” Tad leaned over and asked Candace. The familiar smell of her shampoo hit him as he got close enough to whisper. He began thinking about how he could work that into a conversation with a guy to send her way.

“Just like we always do?” Candace shrugged her slim shoulders.

“Okay. Break.” Tad clapped his hands together and the two of them went their separate ways. Candace headed to the side of the bar near the bathrooms, and Tad headed over in front of the big-screen TVs.

Tad began thinking about how to go about getting an upper hand in this competition. A lightbulb flashed in his mind as his stomach rumbled. He really wanted those wings.

“Hey, don’t look now, dude, but that girl over there, in the red-and-black striped Henley?” The tall, dark man casually looked over and gave Tad a nod that said he was following him. “She’s batshit crazy.”

“Really?” The guy sounded genuinely disappointed, and for half a second Tad felt guilty for ruining any possibility at happiness Candace could have had with this guy.

“Yeah, dated her a long time ago. I’m talking like ten years ago.” Which wasn’t a lie. “I just finally got her to get over me by lying and telling her I had an incurable infectious disease. I spotted you looking and I just wanted to give you a heads-up. You hit that and it’s hell trying to quit it.”

“Yeah, but…” The guy looked over and bit his lip and did that slow appreciate appraisal of her body that had Tad’s stomach tightening in fear. He needed to win and not just because he was hungry, but because he
loved
winning. “That tail looks worth a little bit of crazy.”

“No,” Tad said maybe a little too animatedly. “It was good; don’t get me wrong. It was really good, but then it was bad, really bad. I’m talking boiled bunnies bad, some
Fatal Attraction
shit.”

“Damn.” The guy cursed. “All the really hot ones are damaged.”

Tad felt just a twinge of guilt. “Yeah, I hear ya on that one.”

Chapter 2

Candace leaned over to the blonde. She was taller than Tad liked them and thicker than he usually went for, but she was the only blonde in the whole place tonight. Tad liked them, above everything else, blonde. “Hey.” Candace smiled apologetically.

“What are you doing?” the woman drawled in a southern accent that Candace hadn’t seen coming. Tad
really
liked accents, especially sweet southern ones.

Candace moved her so she was shielded from Tad’s view. “That guy over there. The really good-looking one with the white shirt, dark hair, and the tattoo on his upper arm … yeah, he’s my ex. I don’t want him to see me. He was … abusive.” Okay, so maybe she was crossing a line to get what she wanted, but she knew that if Tad had thought of it he would have been trying to sabotage her too.

“Oh, honey.” The blonde girl frowned.

“Don’t worry about me. I just, I’ve seen him looking at you and I just wanted to warn you about him. Woman to woman.”

“Thank you, but don’t worry about me.”

Candace sat back and watched as the southern blonde walked past Tad. He said something to her and she spun around and tossed his drink in his face. Candace choked on a laugh and watched the woman walk out the door.

Tad shot Candace a look that could kill. Candace gave him a helpless smile as if to say she didn’t know what the woman’s problem was. He walked over to her with a tight, determined stare. His no-nonsense stride sent chills racing up her spine.

“Okay. We obviously had the same tactic.”

Candace didn’t know whether to smile about it or be offended that he was also trying to scare off prospective partners.

“So here’s what I suggest…” He grabbed a napkin from the bar and wiped his face off, but his white shirt was wet and was sculpting itself quite happily to his defined chest. “Let’s just pretend to date each other for the duration of this challenge.” Tad sighed as he tried and failed to wring the moisture out of his shirt.

“Date each other?” Candace looked at him. He’d gone and lost his mind.

“Yeah. God—what? Am I a leper?” He tossed down the damp napkins onto the bar top. “All I’m saying is that it’ll be easier. We won’t have to deal with clingers, or make someone pass the dog test.”

“The dog test is not that hard.” Candace rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

“Candace, all five—count them—five of your dogs has to okay a guy before you even give any serious thought to actually dating them and not just sleeping with him. For the record, winning over all the dogs is not an easy task because Satan hates everyone.”

“Her name is Sara and she’s sweet and you know it. You’re holding a grudge because of that one time she got ahold of your—”

“Signed Cecil Fielder baseball. Annihilated the entire thing. Ate it. Laces and all. Yeah. I don’t know why I’d be upset about that.” Tad lifted his shoulder in a cynical shrug.

“Whatever. Why don’t we just tell them we forfeit?” God, she hated that idea.

“And let them know that they’re right? That we suck at relationships? That we’re not capable of having ones that last longer than our last shower? If that’s what you want to do, march over there and tell them they were right and we were wrong.” Tad motioned to the table where her sisters sat with his two best friends.

“I hate that idea more than the idea of dating you … again.” Candace shivered and hugged herself tighter.

“Was it really so bad?”

Candace leveled her gaze at him. “You took my V-card, made me all kinds of promises, ignored me, and then in front of everyone called me Candy Hill. You used the nickname that all the other kids at camp came up with. It was their idea of a never-ending fat joke. Nah, it wasn’t so bad.” Candace rolled her eyes facetiously.

“I was an idiot.” Tad smirked.

“You’re still an idiot,” Candace remarked with a playful shoulder nudge. With a deep, labored sigh Candace relented. “We don’t know how long this is going to last, though, and you know they’re not going to let you have one-night stands and cougar booty calls while we, quote unquote, date each other.”