Authors: Kelli Evans
He pulled his phone out and sent her a text asking what their plan was for the night. He found out that her plans and his plans could both be pulled off since whatever she had planned for them came earlier in the evening, and what he’d had planned came later … hopefully it would go all night long.
*
Wear white
, Candace typed into the text box on the screen of her phone and she then hit Send.
Apparently white that you don’t mind never being white again,
she texted directly after her first message.
The text she got back read:
What? Why?
She laughed and sent a text saying she didn’t know.
He texted back, asking if she was dragging him to some kind of cult gathering.
She laughed again and told him no.
“What’s so funny?” Jeannie asked.
“Oh nothing, just—Tad.” Candace felt her cheeks get warm and her smile spread just from, ridiculously, saying his name.
“You like him,” Jeannie said with a surprised smile.
“I mean, yeah, I like him. He’s my best friend. We live together. I kind of have to like him.” Candace rolled her eyes and went back to organizing next week’s appointment schedule.
“But you don’t have to like him in that giggle-giggle-give-me-more kind of way.” Jeannie laughed and crunched into her Granny Smith apple. She was on break.
“True.” Candace nodded. “But I’m not even sure I know what that means.”
“I guess I’ll get to see what level of like you two are at exactly for myself tonight at my party. Right?” Jeannie took another big, crunching bite.
“Yes. We’ll be there. In our white clothes. You going to tell me why yet?”
Jeannie zipped her lips but then proceeded to talk anyway. “Nope. It’ll be fun. So much fun. Especially if you’re actually at an elevated level of like with this guy.”
Candace’s imagination took off like a greyhound. She had so many ideas, but she was sure none of them were even close to what was going to actually go down. She eyed Jeannie speculatively before turning her chair back to her computer. But now Tad was on her mind and erasing him from it was damn near impossible. So she succumbed to the temptation of daydreaming about the possibilities of the night ahead of them.
Chapter 11
“This is it?” Tad looked at the little scrap piece of paper in his hand
“I guess so.” Candace shrugged. She’d never been to Jeannie’s house before. The road was high compared to her yard. She lived down in a valley. Tad and Candace got out of the truck at the road and slinked down the hillside into her backyard, which was where the party was taking place.
It was loud, the music was great, and laughter was prevalent. People were walking around drinking lemonade out of Mason jars, and a few were running around with sparklers. When they slipped deeper into the chaos they finally discovered what kind of party they’d been invited to.
A whole line of plastic Twister sheets had been lined up in a row. Not just regular Twister, either. It was painted Twister. On every sheet in every circle there was a giant glob of paint in a corresponding color.
“All right, who’s up?” Jeannie hollered from the other side of the sheets. “Oh!” She jumped. “Oh, I’m so glad you could come!” she shouted across the way to Candace. “You two, over there.” She pointed them to the far mat.
“No, I don’t think—” Candace immediately took a step back, landing against Tad’s chest.
He pushed her forward to the mat as he leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Chicken?”
“No.” Candace straightened her spine. She walked to the mat and they placed their shoes in the four corners after someone had come and hosed down the mat and reapplied the paint from the last round.
Candace and Tad came from opposite sides of the sheet to place one foot on blue and one foot on yellow just like everyone else was doing. Candace looked across the paint-covered square of plastic at him. He’d worn a pair of jeans, not white, but he had managed a white shirt.
Candace didn’t have any white bottoms, either, so she’d also worn jeans and a white lace cami tank top under a canary yellow cardigan. Candace tied her hair back and shook the sweater off, tossing it somewhere in the grass.
“Ready?” Jeannie called excitedly. Most of the guests responded with an enthusiastic reply. Candace put a hand over her nervous belly.
When the play started Candace and Tad had to get down on all fours. It was fine at first. It was just slick with paint and really messy as their hands moved from color to color. Candace tried to stay on the same side of the board, but Tad had other plans. It looked like he was after her.
*
Tad tried to get as tangled up in her as he possibly could, because after last night he was starting to think that Candace was at least half as interested in a repeat performance as he was. There came a point where, in order not to lose, Candace had to straddle Tad, and Tad might have been enjoying it a little more than he should have.
She bit her lip, and Tad thought for a second that she was going to forfeit, but he should have known better. Candace never forfeited. She was just as competitive as he was, sometimes more so. When her leg and arms came over him, he was perfectly fine.
“Tad.” Candace shook her head, and he could tell that she was uncomfortable with the level of intimacy that his positioned entailed. Her hair had fallen out of her ponytail in a curtain around his face and he could see her heartbeat flickering in her neck.
The next position was called and Tad had nowhere to move now that Candace was on top of him. For him to reach the yellow with his left hand he was going to have to flip over. He tried and he’d almost managed it, but Candace and Tad both fell onto their sides in the mess of paint.
Candace looked shocked when they hit the ground hard but Tad wasn’t. He was laughing before she seemed to even realize what had happened. She looked at him covered in paint and looked down at herself with his handprints running up her thighs and her chest and stomach. There were brushes of fingerprints across her arms, and Tad could feel the paint on his own face. He was strangely turned on with the visible reminders of his touch all over her.
Tad helped himself up and then reached down and pulled Candace to her feet as well. They had been the second to last couple to make it. They used the hose to wash down their arms and feet. Tad reached down with relatively clean hands and grabbed her cardigan from the grass for her.
“Do you want to get some food?” Candace asked.
“Yeah.” Tad smirked at her and was struck again with how incredibly erotic it was to see his handprints all over her.
“Hey!” Jeannie came running over with her hair exploding around a vibrant green headband.
“Hi.” Jeannie hugged Candace, transferring a little more paint through their hug.
“So this is him, huh?” Because of the way Jeannie grinned then winked at Candace, and the way Candace’s cheeks flushed bright pink, Tad eyed her and wondered what exactly had been said about him.
“Tad Dundee.” Tad held his hand out.
“I’m Jeannie Bookout.” She shook his hand. “It’s good to finally meet you. I mean, I’ve seen you a few times. Like when you come and bring Candace lunch and stuff.” She gave him a knowing grin. Tad looked at Candace and wondered what she’d told her friend. Candace, though, refused to look at him.
“Nice to meet you too. I’ve heard a lot about you.” Tad smiled.
“Oh and I’ve heard
so
much about you too. All Candace talks about is you.” Jeannie laughed. “Isn’t that right, Candace?”
Tad didn’t miss the death ray Candace shot at her friend, nor the shake of her head. “Not at all.” Candace shrugged with forced nonchalance. Tad stood back and looked at her. Had he been missing this all along?
“Okay, maybe not
all
she talks about.” But Jeannie shot Candace a discreet wink that Tad totally caught. Candace looked away, obviously embarrassed. “Are you guys hungry?” Jeannie asked. “There’s so much food. C’mon let’s go eat.” She flagged them to follow her up to her back porch.
Tad stayed close behind Candace. “Been talking about me?” he whispered in her ear.
Candace threw him an eye roll over her shoulder. “Get over yourself.”
Tad ran a finger down her arm as they stood in the line for food. “Do you have a crush on me, Candy?” Tad whispered. This time his lips brushed against her ear.
“Why? Do you have one on me?” Candace asked over her shoulder. “And don’t call me that.”
Tad grinned, leaned back on the heels of his feet, and said without a whisper this time, “Pretty much.”
* * * *
Candace didn’t know whether she believed him or not. Even if that was the truth it was just purely physical. They were friends, obviously, but Tad didn’t do relationships. So she wasn’t expecting much, but that didn’t keep her heart from leaping every time she replayed that conversation in her head.
“Where are we going?” Candace asked, back in the cab of his truck. The paint was dry and she was back in her canary cardigan, which complemented the smear of drying yellow paint on her face and in her hair quite nicely.
“To meet
my
friends now.” Tad grinned over at her. He brushed her hair over her shoulder, and for some reason that made her want to close her eyes and sigh in contentment.
The two of them had enjoyed their time at Jeannie’s. They’d eaten their hot dogs with her, and she regaled Tad with all kinds of adorable, funny, and enlightening work stories about Candace. Candace sat back and rebuffed most of them, but that just seemed to make Tad more certain that Jeannie was telling the truth.
When the sky had gotten dark, the music had turned slow and the twinkle lights were turned on, it was time for Candace and Tad to head out. Candace now had no idea where they were going, but she found she was just glad to be with Tad.
Tad turned off onto another dirt road as she watched out her window, seeing houses turned into farmland and farmland turned into woods. The trees canopied over the road and the night shining through the branches and leaves left the road dappled in shimmery moonlight.
“I know what you’re thinking, but I have a feeling you’ll have a good time,” Tad assured her as he turned off the large dirt road onto a much thinner one that curved through the trees. She could see a large bonfire burning so brilliantly and brightly that the whole world around it was lit up.
“You’re taking me to a bonfire?” Candace grinned.
“Yeah.”
“That’s awesome.” Candace playfully shoved him as he pulled off to the shoulder of the trail and parked.
“Yeah, except they’re not really like our friends,” he warned her.
“What, are you nervous?” Candace reeled back and gave him a good long look. “You are!” She gasped. “Of what? Little ol’ me?” She batted her eyelashes innocently.
“You can be a little bit intimidating.” He smiled and then climbed out of the truck. Candace followed suit.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Candace asked even as Tad slung his arm companionably around her neck.
“You’re hard to impress is all I meant. So just take it easy on them. Give them a chance?” He was serious and she didn’t know what to make of that.
“
You’re
my best friend,” Candace said straight-faced. “How hard can I be to impress?” She pinched the tickle-sensitive spot on his side.
He pulled away from her. “Don’t do that.” He let out half of a strangled laugh as they approached the group.
“What?” She eyed him sweetly.
“You know what.”
“This?” She pinched at his hip again.
“Candace.” His voice lit up with laughter. “Stop it.” Sternness crept back into his tone.
“I promise I’ll stop.” Candace sent him as serious of a look as she could muster and then she did it just one more time.
“You are so getting it,” he promised her. “
So
getting it.”
“What exactly am I going to be getting?” Candace raised her eyebrows.
*
Tad’s brain went dizzy with wicked answers. His eyes heated—he knew they did because Candace’s smile faded and was replaced with another look entirely. A look that pulled low in his stomach and lower still in his groin. A look that left him breathless and on the verge of going insane if he didn’t taste her again soon.
“Tad!” someone shouted from the other side of the fire, and Tad grudgingly tore his gaze from Candace.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Tad slapped his short, blond, curly-haired friend’s hand.
“Not much. Not much.” Max pulled Tad into a tight, back-patting hug. “Been a long time.”
“Hasn’t been that long.” Tad reached for her. With a hand on her back he brought Candace to the front and center of the conversation. “Max, this is Candace Hilt.” Max wiped his hand on the back of his jeans and stuck it out for her to shake. “Candy, this is my old friend Max Wiggins.”
“Hi.” Candace shook his hand.
“Wow.” Max moved his head to the side to slide some of his unruly blond curls from his eyes. “I could tell you some stories about this guy. We go way back.”
*
Candace looked up at Tad and felt a sudden spike of possessiveness. She’d never even heard of Max and now she was under the impression that he apparently thought he knew Tad better than she did. She couldn’t help herself. “I’m sure I could tell you a few stories myself.”
Max raised his eyebrows and looked up at Tad. Tad laughed. “We go way back too.” He pointed to Candace.
“Tattlin’ Tad Dundee! Get out of here!” Tad turned around and caught a short, perky blonde in his arms. Candace was having second thoughts about being out with him tonight and they were coming at her a mile a minute.
“Good to see you.” He pulled back to look at her. “Melissa, I want you to meet Candace Hilt. Candy, this is Melissa—Max’s baby sister—I guess she’s not much of a baby anymore, though.” Tad laughed and Candace assumed he meant that innocently but it still chapped her a little.
“Hi, Candy. It’s so nice to meet you.” Melissa stuck out her hand in greeting.
“It’s Candace, actually.”
“Tad used to come over and squeal on me every time I tried to sneak out of the house.” Melissa laughed. “He was such a little brat.” She hid the next part behind her hand but didn’t bother to quiet her voice any. “But he was just so good-looking that I simply stopped trying to go anywhere else when he was coming around.”