Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek) (38 page)

Adorable woman.

As he rounded the car, Luke saw her look at her phone at the ‘
10:01 a.m.
’ time he knew was flashing at her. He hid his smile when she stared intently at the phone screen as if she could turn back time with a glare. When he reached down to hold her free hand, she whacked him in the stomach with the one holding her phone. “I still can’t believe you let us be this late!”

“Let us? Honey, I wasn’t the one who instigated the morning b—
oomph
!”

She gave him a murderous glare and he ducked before she could sock him a third time for laughing.

“Wow, you’re really anxious.” He kissed her forehead comfortingly. “They’re just my parents. Relax.”

“I’ve never met a boyfriend’s parents before, okay?”

“Oh, so
now
I’m your boyfriend? But I told my parents we’re just casually—” Luke had the good sense to make a run for it then.

Dani chased him all the way up the dirt walkway he’d ridden his bike on everyday as a kid. He wasn’t at all surprised to hear the twin hyena laughs coming from the porch.

“Don’t stop on our account, dear,” called out Claire. “Whatever he did, I’m sure he deserves the beating you’re about to give him.”

“Gee, thanks, mom!” he hollered back at her, not missing a beat. “She’ll do it, too, you know! She has a right hook like a wrecking ball.”

“And that’s why we like her so much,” cheered Dean, continuing to drink his coffee as he passed a small plate to his wife. “Try the gooseberry scone, Claire-dear. It’s delicious.”

“It’s a wonder why I ever come back to visit you two.” Luke leaned down to kiss his mom on the cheek and hug his dad. “You’d think my getting my butt kicked by a girl was like a breakfast show for you two.”

“Yes, well, we were getting a little bored out here for the last hour,” replied Claire with a smile only he could see. She was teasing of course. He’d texted that they were running late.

“Oh yeah, sorry about that, mom. You see, Dani—”

Dani shoved him off the top step with a hard bump and stepped forward to greet his parents formally. “We forgot to set the alarm,” she lied politely before her eyes shot wide open at the way that sounded...to his parents. “Our own alarms...I mean separately...that is...”

Luke snorted in quiet laughter.

Dean lightly smacked him upside the head. “Did I raise you to laugh at your woman?”

He shot his dad an incredulous look. “If not, you did a
really
good imitation of it.”

Dean pondered that. “Okay, I’ll give you that. But your mom just makes it so hard
not
to laugh at her when she says some of the things she does. When you think about it, the fact that I hold my tongue as much as I do is a real testament to how much I love her,” he ribbed.

“Like you’re not a walking punchline,” retorted Claire with a sniff, turning to Dani and holding a conspiratorial hand up in a stage whisper. “The tales I could tell you about this man...”

Eyes dancing with delight, Dani looked at the three of them like they were the nuttiest comedy act she’d ever met, for which, she was all ready to buy tickets to the next show.

Luke was ready to give her a lifetime membership.

His heart ballooned to crazy proportions again; it was starting to become quite the affliction. He cleared his throat and directed Dani toward the house. “While the cackling comedians here are finishing their coffee, which they only just started a few minutes ago,
not
an hour ago”—he gave his mom a mock-stern look—“I’ll show you inside.”

Though she looked disappointed to leave the laughter his parents were still sharing through digs and zingers, Dani happily followed him into the house. Seeing an old bookshelf filled with family photos, she rushed right past him, leaving him in the doorway. With the squeaky screen door slapping him on the ass, Luke just stood there and watched Dani pore over all the various mementos of his childhood like the youth soccer team photos that memorialized his chubby years and his many hockey ‘participation’ trophies. She touched them all with fingers that could’ve been stroking fine china.

Then he heard her breath hitch when she discovered the black and white photograph of him when he was just a baby, being held by a man he’d only had a few precious years with.

“You look just like your father,” she whispered, her voice cracking with emotion.

“Lucky for him,” said his dad from the doorway, sounding as reverent as he always did when he talked about Neal Bradford. “All the Bradfords were always more handsome than the Hennesseys,” he joked, his eyes sad as he looked at the photo of his childhood friend.

Dani spun around to look for the source of the fatherly teasing, seeking its warmth like someone coming in freezing out of the cold. Her eyes looked wistful when she found his dad. Then her expression became confused. “Wait a sec. Dean, did you know Luke’s father?”

“I actually knew Neal even before he met Luke’s mom. We were great buddies all through high school. He was my only childhood friend who still kept in touch with me after I’d joined the military. The only one who’d make a fuss whenever I’d come back to town for a visit.”

Dani smiled. “Oh, so that’s how you met Claire.”

“Actually, no,” said Claire as she slid into her husband’s arms. “Dean and I didn’t meet until a few months after Neal passed away.”

Dean took another sad look at the photo of Neal Bradford. “After getting stationed out in Virginia, I did two tours back-to-back. Got married too. But we ended up divorcing after eight years—it came as more of a surprise to me than her. With both my marriage and my time in the army finished all at once, I just packed myself up and headed back to Arizona to start fresh. Since Phoenix was expanding pretty rapidly at the time, it was easy to get a job, though it took me a little longer to get settled. When I finally did, I went to go look Neal up...only to discover I’d missed saying goodbye to my old friend by just under a few months.”

Claire patted his hand comfortingly. “I actually don’t even remember meeting him then. The first few months after Neal passed were so hard; I’d been living life on autopilot.”

“But as luck would have it,” smiled Dean, “fate let me meet her all over again at the little grocery store she used to manage just a little ways from here. I’d been getting concrete-restless in the city so I’d decided to come out here for a little country air. In the produce section of that grocery store, a mountain of pumpkins decided to avalanche and attack me.” He grinned at the memory. “Just goes to show Cupid doesn’t always use an arrow. Claire came running over, all sweet and beautiful, apologizing for the accident. And I swear to you, I took one look at her and felt like a whole new pile of pumpkins had just fallen on top of me, this time on my head.”

Dani took in a girlish breath and put her clasped hands up to her heart.

“He guilted me into dinner,” declared Claire, chuckling.

“It was warranted. I was a man suffering from a pumpkin injuries and a bad case of love at second sight,” he grumbled back.

“And two short years later, he eventually wore me down,” she finished, leaning over to smack a kiss on Dean’s cheek.

Though he’d heard the story a hundred times, Luke’s mouth still tugged up at the corners when he heard the happy ending. Suddenly wanting to have Dani all to himself for a bit, he glanced over at his mom. “Is there time before brunch for me to show Dani around outside?”

Claire looked over at them and smiled motheringly. “Brunch won’t be for awhile. Go on, take your time. And Luke honey, don’t forget to show Dani which rocks are the best to scare away those thieving birds that keep attacking my crops, alright?”

The corners of Dani’s mouth curved up and she shook her head in silent laughter.

“And don’t go hogging her all morning. Your dad and I still want to get a chance to interrogate...I mean, get to know her.”

Luke rolled his eyes. “You did plenty during that non-sanctioned ambush at Ocotillos.”

“I like to be thorough, dear,” replied Claire, deadpan.

By now, giggles were attacking Dani’s midsection.

Luke laced his fingers with hers and pulled her out back.

Once outside, she stopped and tugged him gently back to her. He folded her into the hug she was wanting as she looked out at the lines of crops all around them. “It’s amazing here.”

“Yeah.” He kissed the top of her head. “You ready for the tour?”

“Can we stay like this for just a little while longer?”

He tucked her closer. “Take all the time you need.”

DANI SAT DOWN
next to Claire Hennessey on the porch bench and the two of them watched Luke and Dean head around the corner of the farm to see a dog about a bird. “Thank you again for inviting me to brunch in your home.”

“It was our pleasure. I just hope you enjoyed our food as much as we enjoyed the food in your restaurant. Oh, and that beer. My goodness, Dean can’t stop talking about your porter.”

Dani wrinkled her nose in regret. “These are the times I wish I bottled my beer.” Her mouth twisted to the side in thought. “I could send you two a keg if you’d like.”

Surprised laughter split the air. “Oh my, we’d be the most popular farm in town. We’d never get rid of the neighbors.” She patted Dani’s knee. “That’s alright, dear. Going into Cactus Creek to eat and drink at Ocotillos will give us a nice second reason to get out there.”

Settling back into the old, faded wooden seat, Dani felt the surreal country scene wash over her. Claire was like the mom Dani had always wished for, and their sipping tea on the porch was a page from a dream she’d stopped allowing herself to have back when she’d written her own mother off...which was much later in her life than anyone would’ve guessed.

“Something on your mind, Dani? You look sad.” Claire tilted her head, concerned.

Dani hesitated, but something in Claire’s eyes made her feel safe. “Do you think true love can happen more than once?” she whispered, surprising herself with her candidness.

Claire glanced at her for a moment before answering thoughtfully. “You know, I didn’t used to. But I do now. Or rather, I understand better the definition of true love.”

With another look around, Dani murmured, “I can see why. Your life is perfect.”

“I was twice blessed in that way, I guess.” Claire smiled wistfully, explaining, “I had the perfect life with Neal as well.”

“But how can that be?” frowned Dani. “Doesn’t the whole idea of ‘the one’ mean one person forever, even if that person is taken from you?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have the all answers you’re looking for, Dani.” Claire peered over at her sympathetically. “All I know is how life happened for me. I didn’t see Dean when I’d stopped believing in love. But when he started helping me believe again, there he was.”

Dani frowned. “That never happened for my dad.” Her gaze dropped down to her left hand, wondering if she’d be following in her dad’s footsteps there as well.

“Did he believe?” asked Claire gently.

She thought about that for a long second. “I think he did,” she said sadly, lowering her head as she felt a tear roll down her cheek. “But I just don’t think he had any of his heart left to give.”

Another father-daughter Dobson curse.

“Oh, my dear,” soothed Claire, patting her on the hand, “you and my son are so much more alike than you two seem to think. Love is hard; it isn’t perfect. And it certainly can’t be outmaneuvered. Searching for it like my son does won’t make it come, and avoiding it like you do won’t make it stop existing. When it comes to love, you don’t know if you’ll land on your feet or splatter on the pavement...but either way, fall you must. To be
in
love, you and only you need to know whether or not you want to take that step, regardless of the outcome.”

Dani took a deep breath and admitted quietly, “My…reservations when it comes to love and my trust issues aren’t just about my mom.”

“I know, dear. Broken hearts tend to be worn on our sleeves without our consent.” Claire sighed, looking out in the field, over at her son and her husband, who were now running after a dog who was stalking the cat they’d wanted to keep around to chase away the birds. “Like me, Luke stopped believing for a while too, after his wedding that never happened. Oh, we watched him go through the motions of life—dating, throwing himself into his work, being there for his friends. But, he no longer seemed himself. The Luke that had always believed in the type of love he wanted so desperately to have and keep, not just always give...
that
Luke disappeared. We truly thought he’d become broken at that point.”

“How did he recover?” Dani asked softly, wanting, needing to know how a person could overcome the thing she feared most—a heart not just shattered, but ripped completely out from a loss so severe, a hole remained in your chest where all your hope and trust once was.

“He met you.”

Dani blinked in surprise.

“Sometimes when you’re ready to believe, love appears, but sometimes, life gets it backward. It doesn’t matter. The result is still the same.”