One Lucky Deal by Kelli Evans Read Free Book Online Page B

the sun became tucked away behind a gray cloud. The heavens opened up and drenched them all.
    “Alma, Rory, Clay!” a pregnant woman near the pier yelled.
    “See ya,” the oldest boy said, taking off with his brother and sister in tow.
    Tad and Candace abandoned the best sand castle ever for their cooler, shoes, and blanket. It was all left sitting where they’d left it a good fifty feet back toward the water.
    Tad grabbed the cooler and their shoes. Candace threw the blanket over her head, trying to stay dry, but it didn’t help much. She offered a corner to Tad but he just shook his head. He reached out and grabbed her hand, making sure she stayed right behind him as they headed for cover.
    Thunder boomed overhead. They were just another two people scurrying around trying to get out of the rain. They passed a man selling umbrellas standing under a tiny vendor awning. They’d passed him to get to the beach as well. On the way, he’d been selling them for a dollar apiece, and now he had added another zero to his sign.
    “Get your umbrellas. Only ten dollars—a great deal!” he hollered out, his round cheeks ruddy from the sun. To her surprise, people were stopping to buy one. Candace was tempted. She was cold and her clothes were soaked clear through.
    “Come on,” Tad hollered over the noise of the crowds, the pounding rain, and thunder. “It’s highway robbery.”
    He pulled her along. At some point Candace had given up the ruse of using the blanket for coverage. Heavy and waterlogged, it was a giant, sopping mess. She couldn’t hold it above her head anymore.
    Tad ripped it from her grasp. “Lose it.” He tossed it into the trash before pulling her through the wet parking lot. It was nearly all one big puddle. Tad rushed to his side of the truck, leaving Candace on the other. He unlocked the doors as quickly as possible.
    They both jumped in at the same time, closing the door and muffling the rain. It came down in sheets against his windshield. It fell down like a waterfall over their doors. Steam rolled off their bodies.
    *
    Candace glistened with rain. Her hair was weighted down but had begun to curl around her face, and her dress was plastered to her like a second skin. Tad couldn’t help but notice. It made him wonder what she looked like not wearing anything at all. It was unsettling, but he was only human. Her dress was suctioned to her breasts so tightly that just enough was left to the imagination to keep him wondering.
    Tad reached behind the seat and pulled out a sweatshirt. It was old but clean for having been riding around in his dusty old truck for weeks. He handed it to Candace.
    “Thanks.” She shivered, but he wasn’t doing it for her. She slipped into his hoodie and pulled it tightly around her.
    *
    Candace looked over at Tad. His eyes were just as stormy as the sky. She didn’t know what he was thinking, and with that seriously stern brow of his, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. She buried her wet, cold nose into the neckline of his shirt. It was warm, dry, and smelled good—familiar—like home.
    Baring her face again, she looked up at Tad, who had started the ignition and turned the heat on full blast. “How did you know?”
    Tad lifted a shoulder, and she watched as a corner of his mouth turned up in a slow half smirk. “I’ve got some Chippewa in me.”
    “Oh yeah?” Candace laughed at this.
    “Yeah, somewhere … way back … I think.”
    “Yeah,” Candace agreed, but it was obvious that he hadn’t a clue to his genealogy.
    “Haven’t you wondered why I never burn but always tan?”
    “It’s been my life’s mystery.” Candace fiddled with the sleeve of Tad’s hoodie. The moment fell silent between them. When the need to fill it became too much to bear, Candace looked over at Tad, who was looking out the window up at the sky, as if he was trying to gauge how long they had to wait before it was safe to drive in. “Let’s hope your date is better than