Sweet as Candy (Close to Home Book 3)

by Karla Doyle

  “She’s worth it. But I have no experience relating to small kids. Especially little girls.”

  “Binge-watch a bunch of princess movies.” Curtis’s smirk grew. “If you haven’t seen them all already.”

  “Asshole,” he said, grinning along with his buddy. The suggestion had merit though. Familiarizing himself with the current kid trends couldn’t hurt. He snapped his fingers as the solution struck. “I’ll ask my sister. Megan teaches kindergarten, she’ll know what little girls are interested in these days.”

  “Good call,” Curtis said. “Just don’t overthink it. Apologize your ass off for not showing up this morning and ask for another opportunity. If you get one, follow Candace’s lead and go from there.”

  “I’ll do that.” Barring another chance encounter, Jake wouldn’t see her until next week, at Lucky’s. Minimum thirty-eight hours away, possibly a hell of a lot more, depending how his Monday shift went. The price he had to pay for screwing up this morning, but too damn long to wait.

  Candace

  The front door’s bell alerted everyone present to an incoming customer. It was Ginger’s panicked, “Oh, shit,” and the appearance of a handsome man in dark blue that brought them all to their feet.

  Oh, shit, indeed. Thank God Candace was in the lounge right now, not busy with a customer. High heels clicking across the floor, she hustled to the arched entryway where Jake stood—wearing his police uniform.

  “Come with me,” she said, grabbing his arm. “You can tell me what the hell this is about once we’re in a private room.”

  “Can’t. Not while I’m on duty.”

  “Because you might get fired?” At his nod, she yanked harder on his arm, fruitlessly, of course. “Same goes for me if you continue to stand here dressed like that.”

  “I need to talk to you about Saturday,” he said, clearly indifferent that his uniformed presence could cost her her livelihood.

  “There’s nothing to talk about, Jake. It didn’t work out, end of story.”

  “Not the end of our story.”

  “We don’t have a story. We never did, and we certainly don’t now.” She gave up pulling and tried pushing instead. No use, she couldn’t budge him. “You have to go.”

  “I’m not leaving until we talk.”

  “For God’s sake, Candy, take him out back or something,” Paris said, from across the room. “If anybody walks through the front door and sees a cop standing there, we’re fucked. Not in a profitable way. The word of mouth will kill us.”

  Candace’s feelings about Jake’s behavior on Saturday would have to take a backseat. All that mattered right now was getting Officer Campbell out of the Lucky’s reception area.

  She released his arm and pointed toward the hall where the massage rooms were located. “Rear parking lot. Go.”

  Unmoving, he nodded in the same direction. “Ladies first.”

  “You don’t trust me to follow? I’ll be right behind you. Count on it.”

  The straight line of his mouth indicated she’d struck a nerve by mimicking his words, and the promise he’d made but failed to keep. Well, boohoo. He’d earned her sarcasm.

  He strode through the lounge and down the hall. The gear on his belt rustled as he walked. His biceps filled out the short sleeves of his shirt and his legs seemed even longer in the dark-blue pants than they had in his jeans. She’d never been a uniform chaser, but whoa. He personified the “hot cop” thing.

  The cop portion of that label should scare her silly. Wearing that uniform, he held the power to unravel her life. Destroy it, even.

  Panic should be to blame for her racing heart and the heat licking its way through her body. If not panic, anger. Not only for standing her up at the park, but for his continued disregard for her job. She ought to be focused on banishing his uniformed ass, not mentally removing the uniform from his hard, muscled body. She had let things go much too far.

  “This one?” Jake asked, pushing the rear door open when she nodded.

  The alarm triggered, as it always did. “It’ll shut off in thirty seconds,” she said, as the door clicked closed behind them.

  Plenty of cars filled the rear parking lot, but no people. The alarm’s buzzing ended, leaving only indistinct traffic noise from the nearby streets to break the silence between them.

  The sun beat down on them, its golden haze highlighting Jake’s short hair and handsome, tanned face. During his visits to Lucky’s, she’d committed his features to memory. The exact color of his eyes. The shape and thickness of his eyebrows. The dimples that appeared when he smiled, which he tended to do a lot.

  Initially, she’d felt the need to accurately identify him to protect herself, should things get ugly. At some point her cataloging mission had turned personal. Too personal.

  She planted her hands on her hips and stared up at six-plus feet of insanely sexy, incredibly infuriating alpha male. “Say what you came to say, then leave. I have a job to do, assuming your stunt in there doesn’t get me fired.”

  “After what I saw at the park, I think getting fired would be a good thing.” There it was—his admission. At least he wasn’t going to lie about his absence on Saturday morning.

  “Your opinion means about as much as your word at this point.”

  No lame excuses flowed from Jake’s mouth. Nothing did. Apparently, she’d rendered his smooth-talking mouth speechless.

  “If we’re done here…”

  “We’re not,” he said, catching her hand when she turned to go. “Look, I wasn’t expecting to see you with a kid. It threw me and I didn’t know how to react, so I left before you saw me.”

  “But I did see you, Jake.” Only a blind woman wouldn’t have noticed him. A well-built, good-looking guy walking a big, black dog was kind of hard to miss. “I spotted you before you noticed me. Then I got to watch you scurry away from me like a rat from a five-alarm fire.”

  “I regret my actions, Candace. I would’ve apologized later that day if I’d had a way to contact you. If I’d known where you live, I would’ve come to your door, flowers in one hand and heart in the other, asking you for another shot.”

  “And if I were nothing more than a single woman, I’d probably be a little weak in the knees from that speech. But as you saw at the park, I’m not just a single woman, I’m also a single mother. My knees aren’t allowed to get that jelly feeling. They’re too busy holding up a family.” She twisted her arm, freeing it from his hold. “Thanks for the apology, but I don’t want to see you again unless you’re out of uniform and here as a customer.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Think what you want, I’m just telling you how it’s going to be.” Again, she tried turning to leave.

  Once again, he stopped her, this time grasping her by the shoulders. He turned her until she faced him, his palms inciting a wave of heat that quickly spread down her chest and arms. “Why’d you tell Curtis about your daughter, but not tell me?”

  “Because he was safe.”

  “And I’m not? We’re both cops. Both good guys.”

  “But not the same.”

  “Got it.” He released her and crossed his forearms over his chest. “Tattooed, dark, and silent is your type.”

  “You think I’m that superficial?”

  He shrugged. “You won’t let me know you well enough to make that judgment call.”

  She should’ve walked away right then, while he was too busy nursing his bruised ego to stop her. Instead of moving her legs, she engaged her mouth. Good thing he had his protective gear on because she was about to give him both barrels.

  “I gave you a chance to know me, Jake, and you ran from it.”

  “Candace—”

  She stopped him with one hand and a hard stare. “I’m not finished.”

  “Sorry,” he said, before making the zipper motion across his lips. Next, he crossed his heart. Then he smiled. One of the sweet ones, damn him. With one sincere word and a few simple gestures, he’d disarmed her temper
.

  With her anger waning, she’d lost her edge, leaving her with a choice. Give him a reason to continue coming around or make sure he didn’t want to see her anymore.

  She sighed. “Curtis isn’t my type because I don’t have a type. I haven’t had time for any man since my ex-boyfriend decided he wasn’t ready for parenthood and split, leaving me with a newborn, an overdue rent notice, and no physical or financial support. After I started working at Lucky’s, men rarely registered on my personal radar. But even if I had a type and Curtis was a match, that still wouldn’t be why I told him about my daughter but didn’t tell you.” This was it, the moment of disclosure. Confession time, if her stomach would quit trying to climb up her throat.

  Jake didn’t push, didn’t demand she divulge the reason, didn’t motion for her to get on with it. He waited patiently, his gaze never straying from her face.

  She exhaled slowly, readying for the next part. The words that would change their relationship. “I told Curtis because it didn’t matter what he thought. Curtis wasn’t safe because he’s a good guy or a cop, he was safe because he meant nothing to me. Because he belonged to Sara, not to me.”

  Blue eyes that’d been cool and narrow a few minutes ago widened as the meaning behind her words soaked into his jealous, alpha-male brain.

  “I chose to tell you about my daughter in a way that gave you an easy out if you couldn’t handle it—and you told me yourself that you couldn’t. It was a test, Jake, and unfortunately, you failed.”

  “So give me a retake.” He flashed her one of his endearing smiles. “You know you want to.” Endearing with a dash of cockiness. Signature Jake charm.

  “I’ll think about it,” she said.

  “For how long?”

  “As long as it takes me to decide.”

  “Fair enough. Until then, there’s something I want to make very clear…” He trailed his fingers along the line of her shoulders. Threaded them through the hair at her nape and held her in place while lowering his mouth to hers.

  “No kissing,” she said, as his breath tickled her lips.

  “That’s a rule for your customers. I’m never going to be a customer, Candace.” He didn’t wait for acknowledgment or permission. Just went ahead and brushed his lips against hers. Softly at first, almost a tease of a kiss. A gentle coaxing that had her leaning into him for more. And more he gave. Firm pressure, parted lips, a sweep of tongue.

  She gasped as he wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her tight against his body. “Jake, your equipment,” she whispered, in the brief seconds their mouths separated between kisses.

  “Yeah. Can’t help it, sweets, that’s what you do to me.” He pressed his lips to hers again, drawing back when she sputter-laughed against his mouth instead of resuming the kiss.

  “Not that equipment. Your police stuff. It’s digging into my skin.”

  He stepped backward, lowering his gaze to her breasts and stomach. His brow furrowed as he traced the red imprints created by his various gear. “Not the kind of lasting impression I was going for.” This alpha male wasn’t afraid to let his softer side show—a trait as sexy as his muscled physique or irresistible smile.

  She moved closer, framing his handsome face between her palms. “It’s a first kiss I’ll never forget.”

  His eyebrows rose, along with the clouds that’d descended on his mood. “First implies there’ll be more.”

  “There might be. But only if you stop trying to get me fired.” She slid her hands from his face and crossed her arms over her chest. Fun and flirty were finished, it was time to get serious. “Like it or not, Jake,” she gestured at the building, “this is my job. That’s not going to change, even if we were to start seeing each other.”

  “I was an ass for saying it would be a good thing if you got fired. Like it or not, Candace, I’m an ass sometimes, and that’s probably not going to change if we start seeing each other.” He winked. Gently, he captured her hands, one in each of his, and gave them a squeeze. “Causing trouble for you at work was never my intention, and asking you to quit honestly didn’t cross my mind. You be you, and I’ll be me. No changes required or expected, just seeing how we fit together as-is.”

  Could she do that, would it work? Only one way to find out.

  Chapter 7

  Candace

  The kiss. Jake’s words. They’d been all Candace could think about since he left four hours ago. Since he kissed her goodbye, dating style.

  Thank goodness she’d had a slow afternoon. Pushing Jake out of her thoughts had taken conscious effort, but she sure as heck didn’t want him in her head while handling customers. Something she’d honestly never expected to be an issue. And now it was. Or might be, if reality lived up to Jake’s proposition.

  No getting her hopes up. His willingness to accept her occupation was only one part of the equation. The physical attraction that existed inside Lucky’s might fizzle once the forbidden-fruit aspect disappeared. They led very different lives—they might not connect, intellectually. Then there was Macy, the most important consideration of all. If her little girl didn’t like Jake, that would be the end of it. Period.

  She was getting way ahead of herself. In fact, no more thinking about Jake this afternoon. She barely knew him, had only kissed him once—okay, twice, technically speaking. Still. Putting him out of her mind shouldn’t be that difficult.

  The shrill sound of a siren pierced her silent musings. Red and blue lights flashed in her car’s rearview mirror. Instinctively, she indicated and changed lanes, stopping as tight to the curb as possible, along with the other motorists.

  A police cruiser sped past, the dark streak disappearing from the view ahead as quickly as it had appeared from behind. Rushing to an emergency call, obviously. On the way to help somebody in need, or to deal with illegal activity? Or something more dangerous, such as the active-shooter situation at the university campus recently.

  Her curiosity usually ended there. Now that she knew a cop, had a personal interest in his wellbeing, a dozen dangerous scenarios filled her head. Jake might be driving that car, on his way to confront a criminal. Or criminals, plural. The frightening possibilities were endless. The protective vest she’d pressed her chest against this morning only covered a small percentage of his body.

  She’d planned to wait a couple days before calling him. Give her thoughts and emotions time to settle, rather than act impulsively. But she had to know.

  At the Montessori school, she found the first available space and parked. She pulled her cell and Jake’s card from the side pocket of her bag. She didn’t need the card—she’d memorized his number after taping the original card he’d given her back together. That copy was tucked away in her jewelry box.

  She tapped his number on the keypad and held her breath. The call connected, filling her ear with enough unanswered rings to initiate a fresh round of panic in her chest.

  “Hang on a sec,” he said, by way of answering.

  Muffled noises told her he’d either pocketed the phone or set it down. Now that she’d heard his voice, knew he was alive and safe, she could hang up, before he resumed the call. He hadn’t addressed her by name, maybe he didn’t have caller ID. She might be able to get away with it.

  “Sorry to keep you waiting,” he said, a full minute later—because she hadn’t disconnected.

  “It’s okay. I’m sure you’re very busy.”

  “Not too busy for you.”

  She could practically hear him smiling. “I guess you know who this is?”

  “Oh yeah. Best call my phone has ever gotten.”

  “Must be a new phone. When’d you get it, this morning?”

  His deep chuckle warmed her all the way to her toes. “Had it over a year.” In the background, his radio rasped out beeps and garbled speech. “Shit. I’ve got to answer that.”

  “No problem, I’ll let you go.”

  “Don’t hang up.”

  “Okay,” she said, though odds were, he
hadn’t heard her reply.

  He’d already begun to speak, his next words directed at the dispatcher. Police lingo, mostly, all of it spoken in a deep, authoritative voice.

  They could be talking about some heinous crime for all Candace knew. Whatever it was, his tone inspired a pleasant tingle that had her crossing her legs to get some pressure.

  “Hey. I’m back,” he said, after issuing a final 10-4 to the radio call. “You still there?”

  “Of course. You commanded me to stay on the line.”

  “That’s the secret to getting what I want from you? Instead of being patient and gentleman-like, I should order you around?”

  “Don’t get any ideas.”

  “Too late,” he said, his two words laced with unspoken, sexy promises. “Unfortunately, I do have to go. I’ll call you back soon as I get a chance.”

  “No rush.”

  “You couldn’t be more wrong, sweets. Talk to you soon.” Then he was gone, taking another little piece of her heart with him.

  Jake

  Final score, seven to six. Another exciting game, ending in a ninth-inning win for the Jays, yet Jake had barely focused on the edge-of-your-seat plays. He’d been too busy checking his phone, making sure he hadn’t accidentally muted the ringer or missed a notification. He hadn’t.

  Seeing Candace’s name on his phone’s screen this afternoon had come as a surprise. A great one. Much sooner than he’d expected to hear from her. Then he’d had to cut it crazy-short to respond to a domestic. That’d eaten the next forty-five minutes of his shift. He’d been on his way to taking a break so he could call her back when an SUV had drifted into his lane, a hair’s width away from sideswiping his cruiser. Idiot driver had sped away, tried losing Jake in the flow of traffic. Tried and failed.

  The driver turned out to be an asshole with an expired license and no insurance. Jake had been correct about the idiot part too. The guy had had his cell phone face up on his lap, turned on and chiming away as texts rolled in while the moron lowered his window. Hadn’t even tried to hide it. That’d been one ticket Jake had enjoyed the fuck out of issuing.