Free The Spring of Candy Apples (A Sweet Seasons Novel) by Debbie Viguié Page B

muscle tensed, and for a moment Candace thought Lisa was going to hit her.
    “Ladies, violence is never the answer,” Josh said, interposing himself smoothly between them.
    “What are you, her keeper?” Lisa asked.
    It was uncanny how many times Josh seemed to come to her rescue. Candace wondered if he had somehow managed to tag her with a GPS sensor.
    “Technically no, I’m my brother’s keeper. And let me tell you, that’s a job,” Josh joked.
    For one terrible moment Candace thought Lisa was going to hit Josh instead. Her own fists curled at her side. Turn the other cheek, she urged herself, even as she realized that if Lisa laid a hand on Josh she would drop kick her into the next Zone.
    “This isn’t over,” Lisa hissed.
    “But it should be,” Candace said, doing her best to keep her voice even. “Seriously, the only one standing in your way is you.”
    Lisa turned bright red and then turned and stalked away.
    “Thanks, Josh.”
    “It’s okay. Try not to let her bug you. I know she’s a pain and she makes you miserable, but imagine how she must make herself feel.”
    “You’re right. I wouldn’t want to be in her twisted, angry shoes.”
    Josh chuckled. “I’m sorry, I like that. Angry shoes. Quite an image.”
    Candace smiled. “Thought you’d like that.”
    Candace went inside the Candy Counter and was soon up to her elbows in green candies and pastries. A pastry bag filled with green icing exploded in her hands, and she was still covered in it when a group of leprechauns entered the store.
    “Top of the morning to you,” one of the leprechauns said.
    “But it’s afternoon,” Candace said.
    “Top of the afternoon doesn’t sound as good,” another leprechaun pointed out.
    “We could try top of the evening,” a third said.
    The whole thing would have been hysterically funny if Candace hadn’t had a pounding headache.
    “Sorry guys, I’m having a bad day,” she said.
    “We can make it brighter,” the first one assured her.
    “You know the history of leprechauns, right?” the second asked.
    “I can’t say that I do,” Candace answered.
    “Ah, leprechauns are tricksters.”
    “Really. And we have a wonderful trick for you.”
    “What?” Candace asked, taking a step back.
    The third leprechaun handed her a small cylindrical bit of metal. “We promised Lisa that we would deliver this to you, a gift from her to you.”
    “What is it?” Candace asked as she took it from them.
    The first two shrugged, tipped their hats, and left the store. The third one hesitated. “I don’t know for sure,” he admitted, dropping the Irish accent. “But it looks to me like a stem cap for the air tube on a tire.”
    Candace felt sick in the pit of her stomach. She looked at it more closely. It did look like that.
    “She better not have hurt my parents’ car,” Candace whispered through clenched teeth.
    “Do you want to send a message back?”
    Did she ever. She was pretty sure if she did, though, she would get fired. “No message,” she said.
    As soon as her break arrived Candace headed for the parking lot. Sure enough, the left front tire was completely flat and missing its stem cap. She heard someone walking nearby and she turned to ask for help.
    Her heart sank when she realized it was Kurt. He looked at her in surprise.
    “Do you need help?” he asked, eyes moving from her to the tire.
    “Yes, please.”
    “I’ve got a compressor in my car, I’ll get it,” Kurt said.
    Candace nodded.
    He was back in a minute, and soon the tire was filling with air.
    “Did you run over anything?” he asked.
    “No, but I have a pretty good idea what happened,” Candace said grimly as she handed him the stem cap.
    “Do I want to know?”
    “Probably not, but you deserve to know. Lisa did it.”
    “Lisa. Why?”
    “She blames me for the fact that the two of you aren’t a couple.”
    “But that has nothing to do with you.”
    “So I’ve tried telling her. Somehow, though, even though