A Little Combustible Chemistry (Cactus Creek 0.5)(16)

Including the space currently being leased out by Desert Confections.

When she’d first barged into Harold’s office in the town center, she hadn’t even noticed the tall, dark, and foreboding Noah sitting off to the side throughout her entire just-to-be-heard tirade. But by the end of her rant, the small-town-boy turned big-shot Phoenix tycoon she’d known since grade school definitely made his presence known.

Mostly because the latter half of her complaints to Harold had ended up morphing into a heatedly pieced-together suggestion for booting out the building’s not-right-for-this-town chocolate shop owner.

“Do you have a replacement business in mind? Or should the town just take a retail hit because the owner insulted you?” Noah’s voice had boomed from the corner, startling the wits right out of her. Surprised at the sight of him, and thrown off-balance by this valid question regarding much-needed town revenue, she spoke the first words that had come to mind.

“We could open a new country-chic winery there.”

That her brother Derek could run.

Since the tasty products of Derek’s winemaking hobby had made its way to a number of town functions and local celebrations over the years, the winery idea hadn’t exactly come as a surprise to Harold or Noah; both knew Derek’s dream had always been to open a winery. But Harold clearly wasn’t pleased with the turn the conversation had taken.

Noah, meanwhile, looked very interested.

“And would you partner in on this project with your brother?” he had asked curiously.

After acknowledging she would, Noah practically hijacked the meeting from there, explaining his hunch that a craft winery sister business next door to a craft brewery would be a solid investment idea. He went on to shower more praise at Dani’s next spontaneously-rambling idea of adding a few wine-based dishes made with the proposed house-vinted wines to Ocotillos’ unique food menu, already well known for its entirely beer-based rustic fusion cuisine made with their own brewed beers.

Culinary gold, Noah called her idea. A newly expanded menu to match the newly expanded business—the potential for success, he said, was vastly exciting. She’d practically preened at the assessment. Coming from Noah, that was high praise indeed.

Why had she never thought of this before? Honestly, before today, a brewpub-winery partnership had never occurred to her, let alone a mutually beneficial real estate merger bridging her commercial property with the one next door. It truly was the perfect idea.

For everyone but Desert Confections, that is.

Desert Confections. Strange how hearing the name of her neighbor’s business was now filling her with guilt instead of the blinding anger she’d felt an hour ago.

And the guilt was warranted.

She could’ve stopped at the persuasive brewpub/winery details. She should’ve stopped after the part about how her proposed brother-sister team—a human-interest angle in itself—would never do the lowdown things Desert Confections had done today. But no, like a possessed woman, Dani simply hadn’t been able to resist ending her spiel with one final parting shot...

“Derek and I will even lease out the space for more than what you’re currently getting.”

That had earned her a very disappointed look from Harold.

And Noah’s business card.

Dani leaned back in her chair and covered her face with unsteady hands. Whether it was to stifle a gasp of hope for Derek or a self-flogging condemnation for actually having suggested a means to shut down a fellow business, she wasn’t sure.

Both probably.

The dreadful churning in her stomach was undoubtedly due to the latter though.

Don’t get ahead of yourself, Dobson. That wasn’t even a real sit-down. It’s not as if she’d presented a formal plan of action that would actually get acted on. No, that meeting had just been a hoop-dreamy little ‘what if’ talk.

…With her dad’s old buddy and a friend she’d practically grown-up with.

Damn, there was that churning again.

Shaking her head, Dani tossed the business card on her desk—she really was getting worked up over nothing. The chocolate shop had just barely started their preliminary half-year contract last month. And if her hunch was correct, they were going to do well for themselves here. She did not just lay the groundwork for ending their business dreams to pave the way for her brother’s.

Had she?

It would take one phone call to clear everything up.

Unsure yet if she was pushing or pulling, she picked up the card again and started dialing...





CHAPTER FOUR


LUKE GOT UP around two pm, a few hours earlier than he usually did, mainly because the missed message alert on his cell phone was beeping the sanity right out of his head. He went into his text inbox and blinked as the words on the screen wiggled into his sleep groggy brain.

Before slapping him fully awake.

Dani had sexted him.

The quick, flirty sentence was exactly like Dani, sweet at first glance, but enticingly suggestive below the surface. He shot up off the bed and quickly sexted her back a red-hot reply.

Then he waited...and waited...and waited some more. He finally understood why people sexted. It was wickedly hot. The entire time he waited for her to respond, his mind ran through scenarios of Dani seeing his sext message and blushing, right in the middle of bartending at Ocotillos. Or right in the middle of her bed as she thought of an even hotter reply to send him. He could just picture her biting her lip while she...