Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(101)

She should have trusted him enough to tell him the truth. Trusted that he’d continue to love her. Trusted their relationship enough to stop hiding from him.

This whole time, he thought he’d been making progress, building a foundation for the future. But tonight, it was obvious—she still didn’t trust him.

His phone chirped just then.

An incoming text.

He couldn’t get himself to open it.

Two more chirps about five minutes apart, and then a chime. A voice mail.

That was odd. Dani never left him voicemails. Pulling out his phone, he scrolled through the messages and felt his heart stop.

The texts weren’t from Dani. They were from Derek.

>> GET TO THE HOSPITAL JUST OFF THE NORTH EXIT. MY SISTER NEEDS YOU.

>> LOOK, I KNOW YOU TWO HAD A FIGHT BUT YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO FORGIVE YOURSELF IF YOU’RE NOT HERE.

>> SWALLOW YOUR DAMN PRIDE AND GET DOWN HERE YOU STUBBORN ASS!

Holy shit. What the hell was going on? Luke grabbed his keys and ran.

The fastest, and slowest, ten minutes of his life later, he was rushing into the emergency room to find Derek and Dani talking to a doctor at the far end.

Seeing Dani standing there, and not lying in some gurney on the way to surgery, hit him with a wave of relief so strong, he felt sucker-punched.

When he got near enough to hear their exchange with the doctor, however, the next sucker-punch he felt was one of sheer shock.

“We managed to stabilize your father for now,” explained the doctor, “but you two will need to make a decision shortly. We can transport him back to the care home but really, we don’t advise it given the circumstances. I know this isn’t an easy one to make but you really do need to consider all I’ve told you about his quality of life from this point on.”

Luke had never been more confused in his life.

Dani and Derek’s father was still alive?

Not wanting to barge in, he held back and watched Dani follow the doctor through the double doors that led to the ICU.

Derek turned and looked up, relief blending with the concern etched in his expression. He headed over to sit next to Luke in the deserted waiting area.

“Thanks for coming, man. I just really thought you needed to be here. You and Dani are both so stubborn—?

“Derek, what in the world is going on? I thought your dad passed away from a heart attack a few years ago.”

“He did have a heart attack, which resulted in a massive stroke that sent him into a coma shortly after. Dani would never have told you our dad died. Most folks just assume he did. And you wouldn’t have heard otherwise from any of us that know differently because frankly, none of us will ever talk about it.” Luke saw the stark pain streak across his face. “Dani blames herself for our dad’s heart attack.” His voice was rough with long-held sympathy for his sister. “Every spare dime she has goes right into his life support and the care home he’s been in for the past three years. And every spare moment she has, she spends there at his side. Apologizing. Praying for him to come back. Begging him to forgive her for failing him so badly.”

Luke felt icy dread prick across his skin as each memory of her little personal jabs about how she’s failed in the past came rushing back.

“Dani has been blatantly ignoring the doctors who’ve been telling her for years that our father is almost assuredly never going to wake up, definitely never as more than a vegetable even if he did. Still, she simply won’t let him go. And I have no doubt that she’d sooner bury herself in debt then be the one to pull the plug on him. So she just tortures herself by keeping him alive at the Cactus Creek care home and going through her weekly rituals of apologizing for being the one that put him in there all because of her misguided trust.”

Trust.

Shit. He should’ve known there was something more to it. He should have forced her to talk about it. The mere thought of Dani going through this maimed him. He couldn’t possibly imagine being the one experiencing it.

“Why does she blame herself?” he asked finally.

“Because it was all my fault,” she said simply as she came up behind them.

Turning, Luke was struck mute by how devastated she looked. Broken.

Her dull voice turned hollow as she continued through gritted teeth, “Because I made the stupid mistake of trusting a man who stole my father’s most prized accomplishments, who nearly destroyed our family business, and who I was foolish enough to believe loved me as much as I loved him.”

Instantly, Luke’s hands fisted with rage. Not in jealousy. In pure, deadly fury over the man who would have done this to her—betray her to such a vicious degree. He destroyed her. Her heart, her ability to trust, her faith in love.

This was what Derek had been talking about on Valentine’s Day. Luke had thought it was a bad break-up, akin to his being left at the altar by his ex. But nothing, nothing had prepared Luke for the magnitude of how badly she’d been hurt.

Dani walked over the rest of the way and stood just out of arm’s reach. “Starting about six years ago, my dad began finally making a name for himself in the craft beer world, taking home trophies and creating brews that distributors were offering small fortunes to bottle. But like I told you before, bottling was never his thing. He turned all the offers down. And there were many. One more persistent than the rest.” The last glimmer of life in her eyes dimmed then. “After his first heart attack four years ago, I took full control of the brewpub. Dad stayed on to brew occasionally but all decision-making became mine alone. That’s when it all began tumbling downhill. The day our dad decided to choose me as his successor instead of Derek.”