Free Taste of Candy by Shoshanna Evers

Chapter One
     
    Candy Bryce sat at her laptop, staring at the logo she’d been designing for the past two hours. Something wasn’t quite right with it—but she’d been looking at it so closely she’d lost the ability to see the logo objectively. Either way she couldn’t hand it in to the client like this.
    Coffee time.
    She picked up her cordless phone as she waited for the mug of water to heat up in the microwave and speed dialed Hot Rocks 104.3, her favorite FM radio station. They were probably getting sick of her calling in, but she had to hear one of the songs that she considered especially inspirational. Candy was still debating which song to request when the DJ himself answered, and she knew she was on live radio.
    “Congratulations lucky seventh caller! Who’s this?” the DJ asked.
    “What?” Candy said, confused. “I won something? I mean, this is Candace Bryce. Candy for short.”
    “Well , Miss Candy for short, you’ll be enjoying a romantic dinner for two this weekend with none other than Dave Roads, the lead singer of TopShelf, courtesy of The Harbor Restaurant.”
    Candy nearly dropped the phone . She was going to have dinner with the lead singer from one of the hottest new rock bands? This was insane! “Th—thank you.”
    “What’s your favorite radio station, Candy?”
    “Hot Rocks 104.3. Wow. Thank you—” She realized he had already transferred her to one of the staff, who quickly took her information and gave her the details.
    She placed the phone back on its charger and sat down at her kitchen table, before jumping up and getting the mug of hot water out of the microwave and spooning some instant coffee and sugar into it . This weekend? She’d never have time to lose twenty pounds before then. Not that it mattered. It wasn’t like Dave Roads would actually be interested in her. She’d just go and hope she didn’t bore him to death. What on earth would she talk to a rock star about?
    She didn’t think of herself as a groupie per se, since she’d never actually gone to any of his concerts, but she’d certainly fantasized about him enough. How could she not? His gorgeous face decorated the covers of all the magazines she flipped though when she had to wait in line at the grocery store.
    An image of Dave Roads’s rock-hard body covered in tats immediately came to mind. His rocker-slash-dangerous vibe turned her on, even though she wasn’t exactly a rocker herself. At all. No way Dave Roads would be into a plain Jane like her.
    Right?
    Candy brought her mug back to the laptop so she could search for some fresh images to feed her imagination, when it hit her what was wrong with her logo. The kerning was off. With a few clicks of her mouse, she rearranged some of the spacing of the words and saved it before typing ‘TopShelf’ into the search bar.
    Images of the band playing to sold-out crowds popped up, along with a couple of their music videos . She watched a few, her foot tapping in time to the beat. Good stuff. And the lead singer was even hotter on video than he was in the magazines. Like, really hot. And single.
    Not that it mattered …
    But she couldn’t stop grinning . Saturday night couldn’t come soon enough.
    ***
    Candy tugged at her clingy black dress and took a deep breath for courage as she opened the heavy wood door to enter The Harbor Restaurant. The hostess brought her to a table for two by the window overlooking the water, assuring her that she’d send Dave Roads her way when he arrived.
    If he arrived at all .
    Candy ordered a glass of red wine and sighed when she was carded, as always, even though she was most definitely legal. She stared out the large picture window, watching the sailboats in the distance. The sun was already setting. She tried not to glance at her watch, but she found her eyes drifting to her wrist every few minutes. To be fair, she was early, and it was only a few minutes after eight.
    “Sorry I’m late,” a low, sexy voice said