Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek) (30 page)

When he let her come up for air, she slowly opened her eyes. Then she shook her head to clear it of lovey-dovey cobwebs. “Wait, stop. Luke...I have to tell you something.”

He gave her a suspicious once-over. “You have that look like you want to talk business.”

She winced. “I do...sort of.”

“Then I don’t want to hear it. No business talks today.”

“But—”

He kissed her again. Still holding her in his arms, he nibbled distracting kisses along her jaw. “Stop focusing on work. If you haven’t noticed, I did a pretty romantic thing tonight.”

She ducked her head down and smiled. “I noticed.”

He sighed. “But you’re still stuck on this my voting for you, throwdown concession thing aren’t you?”

She hesitated, but couldn’t stop herself. “I don’t want any of this to affect your shop in a bad way,” she exclaimed, concerned. The man was certifiable. Romantic, but crazy. This couldn’t possibly be good for his business. “Luke”—she placed both hands on his chest to keep him at least an arm’s length away—“you basically undermined your entire Valentine’s Day and White Chocolate Day campaign by admitting you prefer the original solo day Valentine traditions. Because of
me
.”

“I know,” he said with pride.

Dani was seriously torn between frowning and swooning. “I love what you did and what you’re planning for me...” She forged past the flipping of her heart at the reminder. “But shouldn’t we be thinking damage control? A backup plan to save White Chocolate Day at least?” Her eyebrows stitched together. “Would you stop with that panty-melting smile?! I’m being serious.”

“God, you’re incredible.” His eyes searched hers tenderly, his expression almost disbelieving. “Damage control is to fix
mistakes
. This wasn’t a mistake.” His tone was firm, unyielding. “I meant everything I wrote, consequences for my life’s work be damned.”

If it were possible, she just fell in love with him even more.

He stroked her cheek gently. “Everything will be fine, sweetheart.”

Dani looked away, hidden guilt an arrow through her heart. “What if you’re wrong?”

He chuckled at her lack of minced words, his eyes crinkling in mock offense. “I wonder if I should be offended that the two women closest to me
both
think I’m wrong here.”

She frowned, puzzled.

“Fear not, my dear. Quinn’s already on it. She’s doing this whole ‘since Luke fell in love with the enemy, we’re changing White Chocolate Day to Red and White Day’ spiel. No, don’t go look it up—you can check her blog later.
Hello,
romantic man sweeping you off your feet here.”

Dani nodded in false complacency...before breaking free to run back to her computer.

His unsurprised laughter followed her as she jumped on her laptop to see what genius Quinn managed to spin this time.

Whoa.
“This is even better than the original White Chocolate Day idea.” Dani was in awe.

“I know. It’s the only reason why Quinn hasn’t killed me, I think.”

“Red and White, as in roses right?” Her eyes narrowed in mild offense at his confounded expression. “Even
I
know red and white roses symbolize love and unity, or some other metaphor to that extent.” She held her hand up to keep him from speaking further while she read through Quinn’s new pitch. “I get it. I like it. So you’re encouraging folks to give everyone special to them—significant others, relatives, friends, whoever—something red and white to celebrate the different kinds of love that unites them on March 14th, in contrast to February 14th, which is only for romantic love.” She smiled. “That’s sweet.”

“Yup, and I’m not just making it just about chocolate this time either. The whole month, while we’re promoting Red and White Chocolate Day, I’m going to give shout-outs to florists, bakeries, card makers,
brewpubs
, and pretty much every industry that helps bring people together.”

Dani sighed in relief. So he hadn’t ruined all he’d been working toward in one insanely romantic gesture. This new campaign was going to be a huge success, she had no doubt.

Now to deal with the matter of the man and his mission... She turned and saw Luke giving her the look that made her skin tingle. Clearing her throat, she stalled for another few seconds to get her bearings. “So, uh, does this mean you’re ending your campaign against beer?”

“Sadly, yes.” His eyes took on that competitively teasing glint that totally turned Dani on. “Too bad, too.” He gave a masculine pout. “The video for White Chocolate Day was all ready to go.”

“Yeah? What were you planning?” she asked, slowly feeling her nerves slip away.

“Basically, it would’ve had a lonely guy, a cold twin bed, a fridge empty except for beer, and a logo that gets slapped across the screen:
Shoulda Voted Chocolate
.” He grinned wide.

Dani burst out laughing.

Luke tugged her in close. “Dani,” he said soberly, framing her face with his hands, “I meant everything I wrote. I want to give you the Valentine memories you deserve.” He put a flat, rattling box in her hands. “Starting now.”

Dani unwrapped the gift and stared at it in disbelief. “Sweetheart candy?” She clutched the $2 box of message-inscribed heart-shaped candies and flew her eyes up to meet his.

“You’d mentioned once that no one ever gave you these when you were younger. So, I thought I’d start there.” He gazed into her eyes. “Happy first Valentine’s, Dani.”

Her pulse tripped. Boy, was she in trouble. The overwhelmed, watery-eyed ‘thank-you’ she managed to spill out seemed enormously inadequate, but that’s all she had for him.

“You’re welcome, sweetheart.” He hugged her tight. “Now, while I do have a proper corresponding Valentine date for tomorrow that’s age appropriate for the year you were eleven, for tonight, how about we do something that’s a little more,
ahem,
our age first?”

Smiling through her tears, she leaned in to give him a kiss in agreement when suddenly she was struck by what he just said. Pulling back, she pulled her smartphone out of her jeans.

Luke glanced at it. “What are you doing?” he asked idly as he moved to nuzzle her neck.

“Here, hold the candy instead of my butt,” she directed while thumb-typing on her phone.

He didn’t seem at all thrilled about the trade, but he complied, his dimples making a flash appearance when she caught him off guard with a sweet, smiling kiss on the cheek.

Her camera shutter went off.

Startled, he asked her again, “What are you doing?”

“Sharing a memory,” she answered as she tapped a few buttons to upload the photo.

Luke peered down at her smartphone screen and read the Twitter photo tag she’d typed in:
My very first Valentine...the candy and the man. Totally worth waiting seventeen years.

Eyes warm, he smoothly placed her atop her desk and bent down to collect a kiss.

She knew she should’ve cleared the slate between them first, told him all about what she’d almost done to his shop, about how she’d neglected to make things right even after she got to know him. But she couldn’t. She wanted to cherish her first—and maybe last—Valentine’s Day with Luke. So she let herself forget everything else for just a little while longer.

With a doting grin, he gripped her hips and swung her around, planting his butt against the desk before raising his hands in surrender. “A deal’s a deal. Since a forfeit is technically still a loss, you get to be
on top
and lord it over me.”

“No,” she said softly, pulling him to his feet. “Nothing can top what you’ve already given me, what I’ve already won just by having you look at me the way you do every day, not just today.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked into his eyes. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Luke. Thank you for helping me see this day the way you do.”

Hours later, after taking their Valentine celebration back to her apartment, Dani was up at four a.m.—voluntarily—kissing Luke at the door and wishing him a good day as he left for work. It was all very domestic, and strangely, she wasn’t feeling the normal quicksand of unease that was her normal allergic reaction to anything resembling 1950s marital bliss.

Gliding back into her apartment, she noticed her blinking answering machine. Yikes,
ten
messages—a bigger than usual pile-up this week. She quickly hit play and chuckled as she at last heard Derek’s airport pick-up reminder. They both knew he shouldn’t have put money on her remembering, but per usual, he didn’t bet against her. That’s just the kind of big brother he was.

Her smile vanished, however, as she heard the message in its entirety:

“...I got a voicemail from Noah the other day. Something about a winery...”

Oh god.

CHAPTER TWELVE

“
YOU’RE ACTUALLY
considering my winery idea?!”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re not screeching in my ear out of joy, Dani?”

“Because I’m not!” Dani all but yelled into the phone. Noah remained silent while she tried to calm down. “When I didn’t hear from you, I thought you’d dismissed my idea as financially unsound. You didn’t even contact Connor about it.”

“On the contrary, it’s a very good idea, Dani. One that will be very lucrative for Cactus Creek. And the reason I didn’t bother Connor with it was because the man was barely getting any sleep at home with the newborn. I wasn’t going to ask him to do things I could very easily do on my own. And the more research I did, the more I saw the extreme potential in your proposal.”

Strange how the words she’d been hoping to hear out of Noah’s mouth at one point now made her sick to her stomach. “But I pitched it to you months ago. Why now?”

“You do realize this is an entire business we’re talking about here right? Two businesses, if you include Luke’s. I needed time to research, study the investment potential, weigh the pros and cons. And that was around the actual work I do on a daily basis. You didn’t think my response to your proposal would happen overnight, did you?”

Actually, she had. Sheepish now, she sounded almost childlike when she asked, “Okay, but why did you contact Derek about it before talking to me?”

His patient sigh sounded anything but. “Because I’d yet to hear from your brother at all about this even though he
is
the proposed vintner. His wines are good, yes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s cut out to run his own winery. I wasn’t going to proceed one step further without talking to all the players involved in this proposed deal.”

Damn, his logic was taking the wind out of her sails.

“Noah, I’m sorry, but I’ve wasted your time. I just don’t want to go through with it.”

She swore he was silently counting to ten.

“I’m disappointed you feel that way. It’s a solid plan. Is there anything I can do or say for you to reconsider? I’d like very much to help you make your brother’s dream a reality.”

The man fought dirty. “You’d back this plan at the expense of one of your tenants who’s done nothing wrong?”

“Yes.”

This time, she was the one counting in her head…the number of synonyms for bastard.

“Look, Dani, I know you and half the town think I’m an ass, but really, I’m the one who’s been keeping things from changing all these years. I own seventy-five percent of the town commercial real estate even though they’re downright lousy investments. Of all my business dealings, my properties in Cactus Creek are by far the most money draining.” His voice softened a bit. “Still, I’ve been steadily buying up the lots to try and keep things how it’s always been, the Cactus Creek we all grew up in.” He cleared his throat abruptly. “But I can’t do that forever.”

Dani was stunned. “Noah, I had no idea.”

“Clearly.” Though she knew it wasn’t possible, Noah sounded almost…wounded. “By following through with your winery idea, yes, Luke would lose out on the space, but based on my research, the presence of a winery would bring in a new customer base that could attract more traffic to the town as a whole. Further, if you and Derek take over the lease for the amount you said you were willing to pay in your voicemail, I could keep from increasing the monthly lease of three older businesses who desperately need the help—Gavin’s breakfast diner, Dan and Barb’s grocery store, and Libby’s ice cream shoppe. All three of those businesses were there from when we were kids, Dani. Do you really want to see them have to close their doors?”

No. She didn’t. Still. “Noah, I can’t do this to Luke. I won’t.”

“Fine.” His voice hardened over the phone line. “Then I’ll bring in another winery that will. After your little tirade in my father’s office, I called a few friends in the wine business. They took one look at my building blueprints and told me how ideal it is for a winery because of the layout and the cellar. Location was another big selling feature. Ironically, even if it isn’t tied to Ocotillos directly, any winery sitting next to a successful brewpub like yours would apparently do well. And thanks to your little throwdown with Luke, Cactus Creek has sparked a lot of interest. I now have two wineries interested in purchasing the building outright and a third who wants to lease, but is willing to pay far more than what Luke is currently paying monthly.” He paused for a beat before adding coolly, “Just like you were willing to.”