Salt Water Taffie (Boardwalk Brides Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

pausing as she noted the playful glimmer that came into his eyes. “What?”
    “Oh, nothing.” His gaze shifted and he quickly added, “I, um, I’m. . .stuck in my ways, I guess.”
    “It’s just hard for me to believe you’re not willing to branch out. Try something new.” Taffie quirked a brow and before long, a smile lit his face.
    “Tell you what. . . .” He looked inside the taffy jars. “I’m taking my brother’s seven-year-old daughter to the movies tonight and she loves taffy in every flavor. Give me a little bit of everything.” As the words “a little bit of everything” slipped from his lips, he glanced up at her with a smile, and for a second. . .a mere second. . . she nearly misunderstood his words.
    Feeling the heat rising to her cheeks, she reached for a metal scoop and went to work filling the bag.
    ***
    Ryan watched Taffie fill the plastic bag with candies. Her question, “So, you’re telling me there’s not one other thing in this place that appeals to you more than vanilla?” had almost caused him to fold like a deck of cards. He’d wanted to respond, “Yes, and she’s standing right in front of me,” but he’d somehow managed to bite his tongue.
    Snap out of it, man.
    He wasn’t usually the sort to fall for a complete stranger. In fact, he wasn’t the sort to fall easily, at all. Women—the ones he’d dated, anyway—had turned out to be more complicated than the machinery he repaired.
    Taffie handed him the bag of candy and he took it with a grateful, “Thanks.”
    “Hope your niece likes it.” Taffie reached up with the back of her hand to sweep a loose hair behind her ear.
    “I’m sure she will.”
    “I think it’s nice that you’re taking her to the movies. You must be quite a bit younger than your brother if he’s got a seven-year-old.”
    “Yeah. I’m the youngest of three boys. Vic’s the oldest. Then Luke. Then me. Vic runs his own Web design business and Luke. . .well, he usually works with Pop and me.”
    “That’s funny. I’m the oldest of three girls. My sister Candy is twenty-two. She’s in flight school in Tucson. And Tangie’s only twenty. She’s studying theater in New York.”
    “Wow.” He gave her another look as he reached for a piece of vanilla taffy. “Tangie. Interesting name.”
    “Well, we have rather interesting parents, in case you haven’t already noticed. And you probably picked up on the fact that they’re older than most parents of twenty-somethings. They weren’t able to have children for a long time. Mom was in her early forties when I was born.”
    “Ah.” That answered one question.
    “And as for our names. . .I guess when you’ve waited as long as they did for children, you can name them whatever you like. Tangie is short for tangerine, which happened to be the flavor of the month when my sister was born.”
    “I’ll bet she takes a lot of grief over that.” He paused to think about just how embarrassing it might be. Still, the quirky parents part he understood. . .firsthand.
    “Um, yeah.” Taffie gave him a winning smile.
    Better come up with something clever to say. “Vic is the only one in our bunch who’s married. So far, anyway. But, um. . .” How much should he divulge? After all, this girl didn’t even know his brother. Didn’t know that Vic and his wife had just separated. “Anyway, his marriage isn’t the strongest,” Ryan explained. “And Casey—their daughter—is caught in the middle.”
    Taffie’s brow wrinkled as she responded. “That’s sad. I’ve been blessed with parents who have the best marriage in the world.”
    He laughed. “I thought I held that claim to fame.”
    “Nope. It’s mine.” Again with the coy smile. The girl didn’t realize what she was doing to his heart.
    After a moment’s pause, he remembered the reason for being here in the first place. “I’ll call Luke now. Hopefully he can advise me on the repair.” Ryan stepped outside the shop to get better