One Lucky Deal (29 page)

They just stared at each other for awhile, neither of them speaking, neither of them really breathing.

“Want to go out tonight and grab a beer?” He dug out a quarter from his pocket. “We can go to Lucky’s or we can head to that new place in Glenn Hill. Dickmann’s Sports Grille; it supposedly has volleyball nets.”

Candace’s heart dropped to the soles of her shoes. She couldn’t do this. Oh God. She’d ruined everything. She couldn’t. There was no way she could go back to being his wingman. She placed a hand over her heart and she knew without a doubt that she couldn’t avoid this anymore.

She closed her eyes to the tears that had started to come in. How could he be so unfeeling? How could he flip the switch so quickly? It felt like her heart was being ripped from her chest. Her phone started ringing, but since it only ever rang at the most inconvenient times she was going to ignore it.

“Heads Lucky’s. tails Dickmann’s.” Tad flicked the coin up into the air.

“I don’t want to pick up women for you anymore,” Candace blurted out.

Tad caught the coin in his hand. “Your phone is ringing.”

She kept ignoring it. “I’m sorry.” What Candace knew she was about to say was shredding her up. “I just … can’t do it anymore.”

Tad wasn’t looking at her but he nodded as his phone started to ring too. “Yeah.” He pulled it from his pocket and looked at the screen.

She didn’t know what was going through his mind. She had no idea if he knew now or if he didn’t, but it didn’t matter because she needed to get the rest of it out before it could burn a hole right through her heart. “I know I shouldn’t do this. You are my best friend, but things are different for me now.”

Tad nodded, his brow furrowing.

“Don’t hate me,” Candace winced through her whisper, “for what I’m about to say.”

“I couldn’t.” Tad met her gaze. When Tad didn’t answer his phone, her phone started to ring again.

“Somewhere between the endless teasing, you calling me Candy, crawling out my window to rescue you at all hours of the night—the painted Twister and the mediocre sex and—”

“Ah, come on.” Tad gave her an unsure grin that urged the truth from her lips.

Candace painstakingly corrected herself. If she was going to go up in flames she might as well see how hot it would burn. “Okay,” she relented, “the hottest sex of my life. Somewhere in the midst of all of that … I fell in love with you.” She looked at him, and he stared back at her looking more than shocked at her confession. The tension of the moment heightened only by the insistent ringing of her phone. “I’m sorry if that messes up our friendship.” She pulled her phone open. With deep sorrow and regret she said to him, “Maybe I just need time?”

She gave him an apologetic smile before she spun around to answer her phone.

*

She loved him. He was sideswiped—blown the fuck away. He couldn’t wrap his head around it. There was a part of him, a small residual tic that was balking at that word. He’d never felt so scared and amazed at the same time. So alive.

Candace became overwhelmed with emotion. Tears were cascading down her cheeks. “There’s a baby,” she said, turning to him and hanging up the phone. “Joe just called. Ronnie’s pushing and has been for the last twenty minutes. I’m sorry, I know we were in the middle of something, but—”

“No. Yeah.” Tad jumped out of his befuddled daze. “Let’s—let’s go.”

* * * *

Candace’s eyes were red-rimmed by the time she entered that maternity room where her family tree had grown its next branch. She spotted the little blue blanket. She was doing something that she wasn’t sure was a laugh or a cry—it could have been either.

She heard Tad shaking Joe’s hand and congratulating him. Her mother and father were slipping out of the room to go get some coffee and so the space just next to Ronnie freed up. She looked beautiful for just having delivered that watermelon that was now looking surprisingly small for how large her belly had been.

“Aunt Candace is here,” Ronnie said to the little swaddled thing. Ronnie lifted him to Candace. Candace felt unsure and she looked to Ronnie for her nod of encouragement. She swallowed and glanced at Tad from across the room.

She slipped her hands around the little guy and cradled him in her arms. “Hi,” she said in an astonished whisper. “Hi.” He reached out and wrapped his little hand around her finger. She had to fight back the tears again.

Reagan was across the room but she, too, was smiling broadly with little tears in her eyes. “Do you have a name in mind?”

Candace watched as Joe and Ronnie shared a warm smile, and in it contained all kinds of love and secrets. “His name is Cruz,” Joe announced to the room.

“Cruz Gregory Aarons,” Ronnie added. There was a story there, Candace could tell by the way they looked at each other when they announced it. “The Gregory is obviously from Dad.”

“What about the Cruz?” Reagan asked, and Joe and Ronnie just shared a wink and a smile.

“Hi, Cruz,” Candace whispered to the beautiful blond-haired baby in her arms. He yawned. Something so simple but so amazing that it took her breath away. “Come meet him,” she said to Tad. He stood across the room with his hands stuffed in his pockets, looking awfully uncomfortable.

Tad slowly came over, and Candace lifted the baby in her arms and handed him to Tad, who cradled him like he was a football. “Hey, little dude.” Tad smiled down at this little baby in a blue blanket.

Candace watched him and her entire world shifted. She started having fantasies that she had no business having, like forever, for example. She’d spilled her guts to him and he’d literally said nothing in return. It didn’t stop her heart from wanting. It wanted so much—too much.

“So you guys completed the challenge?” Reed asked nonchalantly.

“Yeah,” Tad said, looking up from the baby in his arms. He was such a natural he was swaying with him already and Candace was sure he didn’t even realize it.

Everyone in the room shot her an eager glance that Tad thankfully had missed. His eyes were glued to the baby in his strong, capable arms. Candace gave them a smile that was painful to manufacture and then a shake of the head.

Everyone exhaled sadly at the same time and that caught Tad’s attention. His gaze came up and silently questioned his friends individually. Just to change the subject and to cut the silence, Joe shot a look at Reed and said, “Makes you want to have another one, doesn’t it?”

“We already have one,” Reagan answered.

At the same time Reed said, “Yeah. It does.” When he heard what Reagan was saying it quickly turned to, “Maybe.”

Reagan’s gaze snapped to her husband’s. “What? What about Chloe? I thought she was all you wanted. If we had a baby, you’d be starting all over.”

“Yeah, but I’d be starting all over with you. I kind of want you to have my baby.” Reed shrugged. “I mean, if that’s something you’d want.”

“Yes,” Reagan said quickly with the widest smile Candace was sure she’d ever seen her sister sport. Probably because they were having this very private conversation in a room full of all their friends Reagan toned it down a notch. “I mean, it is definitely something we should discuss again.” She moved over to Tad. “All right, quit hogging the baby.” Reagan wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and scooped Cruz from Tad’s arms.

* * * *

They had spent the majority of the day at the hospital with their family and friends cooing over baby Cruz. When they got home that night Candace felt drained, but Tad wanted to do a little more work on the house before bed. Candace took a shower while Tad took the pantry doors outside and began to sand them down.

After her shower, Candace stood in their sparse living room and with five sets of eyeballs looking up at her she wondered what she was supposed to do now. She’d spilled her guts to him. She’d told him everything. She’d said the L-word to him and he was just going on about things as usual, and here she was with it eating her up inside.

Candace nibbled her lip for awhile and thought that telling him would have felt like a load off, but standing here now, though, she still didn’t know where she stood with him. That sucked. That really sucked.

They were friends—great friends, the best of friends. Somehow they managed to be even greater lovers. It all came to light because of some crazy harebrained scheme her sisters had come up with. Tad and Candace had been too stubborn and competitive to throw in the towel—and because of that she’d been awarded something really, truly, once in a lifetime kind of great. She’d been Tad’s, exclusively his, and even if in the grand scheme of things that only lasted for one breath in time, it was the greatest breath of her life.

Candace, with a long sigh, headed off to her own room, puppies in tow. She lay awake for awhile listening to the strangely soothing sound of Tad’s electric sander. Eventually it lulled her to sleep. She awoke to her phone vibrating against her chest. She squinted to read the text. It was from Tad. It simply read:
Help.
Candace begrudgingly clambered out of bed. She was barely able to open her eyes, so she stumbled over Zeke on her way to the window.

She was halfway there when she thought,
What the hell am I doing? Better yet, what in the hell is he doing?
Candace was wide awake now. She stormed out of her room, flinging open her door noisily and marching across the freshly uncovered wood floor to Tad’s room.

How dare he go find some floozy and bring her home after hearing her tell him that she couldn’t help him pick up women any longer? She was hurt. She was mad. She was going to kick his ass—and then undoubtedly call up Reagan and drown herself in a vat of ice cream.

“Tad Michael Dundee—” she said sternly and flung open his door. She couldn’t say that all her anger left her but it was certainly put on hold when she found him—naked, under the sheet with an enormous grin on his face. Candace looked around the room. She turned around and found the doorknob to be clean and clear of ladies’ panties. Nothing.

“Where is she?” Candace ducked and looked under the bed.

“Who?” Tad looked far too amused with this. “Nobody’s here.”

“I know she’s here,” Candace said, obviously still being driven by sheer fear, jealousy, and a sudden hatred for every other woman in Whisper Hollow and all surrounding counties.

“Who are you looking for?” Tad only moved to reach out for her wrist and draw her near. “Nobody’s here.”

“No girls?” Candace scrubbed the sleep from her eyes just to avoid that all-knowing look from Tad.

“No girls.”

“Then what did you need help with, if not to scare off some—some …
blonde
?” Candace tried not to make it sound like a curse word, but it couldn’t be helped.

“The bed is too big.” Tad tugged her on top of him.

“I thought it was too small before.” Candace sat up, squinted, and leveled her eyes at him.

“Things change,” Tad said simply, brushing her long brown hair from her eyes and face. “I want you beside me.”

Her heart somersaulted. Then her mind took over. “For what? An hour or two? Just tonight? The weekend—”

“Candace.” Tad lowered and softened his voice. “Candy.” He pulled her to a straddle. “Baby,” he murmured as he pressed his lips to hers, and she thought about fighting this—him—herself, but it was useless. She was putty in his hands.

She ached for him and it was day in and day out. It wasn’t just about the sex. It wasn’t just his mouth, his hands, and his body that she yearned for. She needed him to make her laugh; she counted on him to listen and understand her—and to occasionally wipe her tears. She’d spent hours hoping the next time she’d see him he’d be looking at her the way he was tonight.

Her heart clutched. She couldn’t just be sex to him. She couldn’t be some weird hybrid slut-best friend of his without the love she felt for him reflected back at her. She couldn’t do it. It would undoubtedly kill her in the long run.

“Tad, I don’t know if I can do this anymore.” She pressed her forehead against his to steady her breathing. She closed her eyes when his work-roughened hands inched up under his shirt that she was now habitually using as pajamas.

The sound of his groan coursed deliciously through her when his palms slid over the naked spheres of her ass. She felt it and him clear to her soul. He wanted her, at least for now, and she wanted him too badly to turn that down. She sighed in response.

“Oh God, baby,” Tad murmured and kissed her lips. “Try, try for me.”

Try
.

The word echoed in her brain while he slanted his mouth over hers. He teased, tasted, and eventually urged her lips to kiss him back.

Try—it whirled around in her ears.

Maybe she could try one last time, one last night to make him love her back; and if not, if he just couldn’t do it, then at least she’d had him that one last time. This time she would imprint it to memory. She would save every move he made, every noise he uttered, every look, every moan, every smell, and keep those memories close to her heart for the rest of her life.

She threw herself into his kiss. She crushed her breasts to his chest and opened herself to every possibility, including the looming black cloud of pain. She could get hurt, was probably going to get hurt, but it was all or nothing, and she was all chips in.

*

She felt amazing in his hands. The intensity with which she kissed him and was moving against him drove him crazy. Especially when the only thing separating them was a washed-smooth sheet. He pulled away from her mouth to hoist her hips up enough to rip the sheet free and realized she’d been kissing him with her eyes open.

Even now her gaze never left his face, not even to look down and admire his body. Her hands were doing a fine job of that. She caressed his skin wherever she could touch him. It was her that reached down and ripped her shirt off over her head.

She bared her beautiful tan, fit, sexy little body to his eyes. He loved it, but he’d loved it when it had been soft, curvy, and sweet as well. Thinking back, she’d always been desirable to him. Even when she was tossing drinks in his face and slapping him upside the head.

He wanted to tell her so but fear choked the words off in his throat. He didn’t know what his problem was. She’d said it to him, but he knew that he couldn’t just say it back. Instead, he focused on her skin, on running his hands up her body to her breasts. Her nipples were hard before he touched them but he felt them tighten further under his caress.