Free One Lucky Deal by Kelli Evans Page A

had ever happened.
    The only problem was Tad couldn’t forget.
    He lay there all night, wide-eyed. Every time he closed his eyes he felt her lips and it was perfect for five seconds until he remembered the way she’d looked when she’d pulled away.
    *
    Candace had waited until the pacing had stopped and she’d heard Tad’s door squeak shut before she’d opened hers and let all the dogs come inside and cuddle her. It was the only way she was going to get any rest.
    In the morning, Tad hadn’t left for work by the time Candace needed to start getting her things around if she wanted to take the dogs for a walk and get back in time for a shower before heading off to work. She sighed and told herself she couldn’t avoid him forever. They lived together and he was her best friend. If she couldn’t laugh this off with him, then they weren’t as good of friends as she thought they were.
    Candace came out of her room in a tank top and shorts. “Oh, man.” She pasted on a smile as she walked into the kitchen where she found Tad looking worse for wear than she did. “Must have been a good night.” She leaned back against the counter. “Because I don’t remember a thing.”
    Tad gave her a look, and she knew that he knew she remembered every single second of it. She just hoped he would play along. She was granting him this gift, his one-way ticket out of one hell of an awkward conversation.
    She wished she could give herself a ticket out of the awkward, stern talking-to she was going to give herself. Her chest should not ache. She was drunk. Their friends had set them up for this. All this forced intimacy and no sex. It was a recipe for disaster, and disaster just happened to strike last night.
    Tad handed her a cup of steaming hot coffee. He checked his watch. He looked at her for a long time, and Candace wished he’d just leave already. “I’ve got to go. Reed’s called five times.”
    “Okay.” Candace smiled and lifted a shoulder like it was no big deal. To help her feel more nonchalant she moved to the sink to rinse out a few dishes. “Have a good day.”
    Tad moved to the refrigerator and moved the letters around. Candace didn’t look until she heard the door close and she was sure he was gone.
    It was one word and it made her feel both dread and as if her limbs had been set on fire with tingles.
    TALK?
    Things didn’t get any better after that, either. Candace had the day from hell. Everything that could have gone wrong did. Equipment broke, files had been misplaced, her computer was acting up, and it must have been a full moon because they had a serious number of emergency calls. To top it all off, she still had to face Tad and the music when her workday eventually ended.
    * * * *
    Tad’s day wasn’t much better. He was changing the oil on a Ford F150 when he noticed antifreeze in the oil. This was a big problem; he’d hoped that all he’d have to do was change a head gasket. That alone took him all day to do. When he’d finally got the whole thing torn apart he’d found that the heads were cracked and he’d have to replace them.
    On the drive home his stomach was knotting. He wasn’t looking forward to the tense air or the awkward, unsure place they’d been in when he’d left. Walking into the house, though, seemed to ease some of the weariness of his soul.
    The windows were all open and a beautiful breeze blew through the house. The music was cranked up to ear-bleed, and it didn’t help that half of their dogs were trying their damnedest to howl along.
    He found Candace in the kitchen, dancing along to some country song as she pulled baked cod out of the oven. Tad’s stomach growled but he just stood back and watched her for a moment. She was a horrible singer, but she was loud, so he gave her points for that. If Tad didn’t know better he would have thought she sang off-key on purpose. She wiggled to the beat in a way that forced him to bite his lip and fight back a groan.
    She stirred some