Free One Lucky Deal by Kelli Evans

numb.
    “Yeah.” Tad leaned back against the doorjamb. The door was still wide open as they filled the space between the house and the deck. Tad reached out and took the bottle and the shot glasses from her. He sat them on the table just inside the door. “And If I could go back and give myself a pep talk, I’d tell the seventeen-year-old me to be better—especially to you.”
    This was the apology she’d been looking for ever since it happened. The sincerity in his eyes and the sweet regret in his voice broke down a little piece of the fight inside of her. It was the tequila—definitely the tequila, but Tad looked good. He smelled even better.
    Before she could think about what the hell she was doing, Candace leaned up on her tiptoes and brushed her lips across Tad’s. Her heart was beating like her veins were full of syrup, and she wanted to let go and allow that squeak in the back of her throat to escape. She wanted to collapse against his chest and fall into his arms. But those arms never reached out to grab her.
    The kiss was quick and his lips were soft. It wasn’t what she had hoped it would be. He didn’t pull her in and devour her. Disappointed, freaked out, and more than a little bit embarrassed, Candace pulled away quickly. “I shouldn’t have done that. Let’s pretend I didn’t.” Candace walked away.
    Tad grabbed her wrist. “Candace…”
    Humiliated and hurt beyond repair for the night, she shook off his hand and slid into her bedroom. She shut the door behind her—not even waiting for the dogs to file in with her.

Chapter 6
    “What…” Tad stared at the empty air in front of him. He pulled the heating pad out of his pants and threw it unceremoniously onto their couch. Their couch . God, this was messy.
    He’d just had her lips on his mind. If it hadn’t just come out of nowhere, maybe if he’d thought for a second he’d had a snowball’s chance in hell that she was ever going to kiss him again, he wouldn’t have been so freaking stunned.
    If he was granted one “do over,” he wouldn’t know what to do with it. He screwed up around every single corner when it came to her. He rubbed a hand over his mouth as he racked his brain about what to do. He felt clueless.
    If Candace were any other woman, he wouldn’t be in this weird position. He wouldn’t be living with her if she were any other woman. He wouldn’t have stood there and done absolutely nothing if she were any other woman. If she was anyone other than who she was, he would have been on the other side of that door right now, with his head between her thighs.
    He scrubbed a hand down his face and finally got around to closing the door to the outside. He walked to her door. His fist was raised to knock. He shook that thought from his mind and placed his hand on her doorknob instead.
    He didn’t turn it.
    He pulled his hand away and braced himself against the trim—head bent, trying to figure out what in the hell he was supposed to do now. If she thought he didn’t want to, she was crazy. He couldn’t remember the last time he was so consumed with any idea as he was about the idea of putting his hands all over her.
    But she still scared him.
    He turned away only to walk back and pace back and forth in front of her door. Rudy sat in front of him with his head cocked to the side. Tad stopped and looked at the dog and thought to himself, what had he done?
    Tad looked back at Candace’s door and realized he’d been pacing and debating with himself for a good twenty minutes now. It was too late. He’d missed his window. He hated that he hadn’t reacted faster. He hated that, with her, he second-guessed himself.
    When he headed to his bed for the night he’d convinced himself it was better this way. As hard as he was trying to prove otherwise with this challenge, he was not the relationship kind of guy. He wasn’t built for it, and Candace deserved more than he could give her.
    She was right. They needed to forget that it