The Spring of Candy Apples (A Sweet Seasons Novel) Read Online Free Page B

he seemed too lost in his own thoughts to notice that she had been lost in hers.
    What should I do? she wondered. Kurt was her first boyfriend, and she still hadn’t really gotten good at being a girlfriend. How on earth was she supposed to break up with him? Tamara would know. She thought about running to the bathroom and calling her, but remembered Tamara was on her date with James.
    Tamara and James. In a way, watching the two of them had really helped Candace see that she and Kurt just didn’t seem to fit together.
    “What are you going to eat?” Kurt asked loudly enough to startle her.
    “Ummm . . . I don’t know,” Candace said, flipping open the menu and trying to scan it with eyes that weren’t even registering the words.
    When the waitress came, Candace ordered pancakes with strawberries, not because she wanted it, but because it was the only thing she could remember having had there before.
    “Are you okay?” Candace asked Kurt after the waitress had left. She was busy with her own freak-out, but at least she could tell that something was troubling him.
    “Yeah. It’s just hard to think of my sister as being old enough to get married.”
    “I get that,” Candace said. “My mom was my age when my parents got married. Can you imagine?”
    She was babbling, and she knew it. She screeched to a halt, hoping he wouldn’t have any response.
    “Yeah,” he said instead.
    She panicked. She and Kurt were discussing marriage. Well, not marriage between them, but marriage in general and it was scaring her. What if he thought everything was fine with them? What if he really loved her and was thinking their relationship was long-term?
    Candace stood up suddenly.
    “What is it?” he asked.
    For one dizzying moment she thought about telling him the truth. He deserved better than to be dumped in the middle of an IHOP, though. “I have to go to the bathroom,” she said and then rushed off.
    In the restroom, she splashed some cold water on her face with hands that shook. What on earth was she doing? She wanted nothing more than to be home in bed curled up with Mr. Huggles, her stuffed bear. Instead she was in a coffee-shop restroom, her heart was pounding, and she felt like she was going to be sick.
    Date or no date, she needed to talk to Tamara. She pulled out her cell phone and called, but it went straight to voicemail. “What am I going to do?” she asked her reflection.
    She called Josh.
    “Hey, Candy, what’s up?”
    “Josh, I’m in the bathroom at IHOP. Kurt’s at the table, and I don’t want to go out there because I think I need to break up with him, and I don’t know what to do and I’m freaking out.”
    “Whoa, slow down. First off, are you okay?”
    “Except for the freaked-out part, yeah.”
    “What did he do?”
    “Nothing. I don’t know. His sister’s getting married, and I don’t want to marry him and I wish that we were like James and Tamara, but we’re just not, you know?”
    “Hold on. Did he ask you to marry him?” Josh asked, his usual mellow voice sounding shocked.
    “No.”
    “Okay, so you just came to the conclusion that you don’t want to marry him and you don’t think your relationship has what James and Tamara’s does.”
    “Yes.”
    “Okay, here’s what I think you should do.”
    “I’m listening.”
    “Nothing.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Don’t do anything. Have dinner, go home, and then call me. You’re obviously upset. Don’t do anything until we can figure out what’s going on and what you really want to do about it.”
    “You’re probably right,” she said.
    “And if I’m not, we’ll deal with that too,” he said.
    She closed her eyes and felt herself calming down. “Thanks, Josh, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
    “You’ll never have to find out.”
    After she hung up with Josh, she dried her face, put on a fake smile, and walked back to the table. The food had already arrived and Kurt was eating.
    “You okay?”
    “Fine,”