Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(111)

Xoey glared at her something fierce. “Evil!”

Dani raised a shocked eyebrow when she saw it was Isaac holding her back from charging the hospital bed. Wait a minute. Are they holding hands? A quick blinking eye-rub confirmed that no, she hadn’t been blinded by the blast, and yes, that really was Xoey holding Isaac’s hand.

Amazing. She’d never known Xoey to actually do that. Sleep with a guy? Sure. Contemplate a long, extravagant life together? Of course—if he was worthy. Hold hands with him for no reason? Hiss, boo, holy cross.

Aw, she really liked him. And not in the whirlwind Xoey-in-love-within-the-first-minute way. But in the sweet, hopeful, will-you-just-hold-my-hand-like-in-middle-school way.

Remembering a middle school story Xoey had once told her, Dani tilted her head and mouthed a silent question, “Romantic CD?”

Xoey flushed bright pink before replying with a quiet, “iPod playlist.”

Dani beamed.

Xoey rolled her eyes and spun on her heel to make a quick exit, practically dragging Isaac out the door. Once outside though, she stopped and stuck her head back in. “I’ll be back tomorrow. You better be walking by then!” With that, her stilettos clacked away.

After seeing the time, Javier and Sam hopped up to head on out as well, handing Dani some contraband Ocotillos food along with the many get-well cards that had begun pouring in from customers. “Business in the pub half hasn’t been affected at all, and the brew boys are working around the clock to get things functional on the brewery end,” reassured Javier.

Rylan spoke up from where he was decorating Dani’s arm cast. “Yup, and Quinn is already planning a grand re-opening hoopla.” He winked and put his arm around Quinn. “She’s really going that extra mile to convince me to sing at the concert she has planned.”

Eyes boggling with embarrassment, Quinn whacked him for that overshare.

“You guys are incredible.” Dani felt the waterworks coming on again. Seriously, what was in this hospital medication? Choked up, she gave them each a huge bear hug in thanks.

Surprisingly, she had one more visitor waiting in the hall.

Noah astonished them both by stepping in while the others were filing out. He walked right up to them with two envelopes in hand, one addressed to Luke and one to Dani. He gave Luke his first. Peering over Luke’s shoulder, she saw Luke pull out a triplicate document labeled ADDENDUM from the envelope.

“Luke, given your new business partnership with Derek, I’ve found your financial standing now to be solid enough not to require your patent collateral for the loan I gave you. We can revert it to a standard business loan. You can come by my office this week to sign those.”

He handed Dani her envelope next, a much thicker one. She slid open the seal, already knowing what she would find.

“And Dani, given Luke and Derek’s new business partnership, I’ve found our agreement for you to sign over a percent partnership of Ocotillos to be completely unnecessary. And frankly, just as foolish as I told you it was to begin with.”

Her envelope contained the contract it had killed her to sign last week.

Ripped in half.

Noah shook his head at them. “I honestly don’t know how you two are so successful at your businesses.” His lips twitched to the side. “But I can see why you two are so perfect for each other.”

Funny, though that statement came out as both compliment and criticism, when she looked up at his face, Dani saw a flash of…envy that made her wonder if it was more the former than the latter. But the peek into the mysterious inner workings of Noah was gone a second later as he turned to leave the room without another word, leaving them stunned silent in his wake.

“Okay, so maybe I don’t hate that guy anymore,” muttered Luke.

Chuckling lightly through the shards of pain across her body, Dani just dropped the envelope and pulled him down next to her in the hospital bed.



*



HE COULD’VE LOST HER.

Every day since the explosion, that’s all Luke kept thinking about. How he’d been so close to losing her. It ate at Luke’s gut to see her like this. His breathing was ragged as he stroked her non-broken arm, needing to keep touching her to know she was okay—banged up, but alive.

“Dani,” he began slowly, turning carefully in the hospital bed so he didn’t aggravate any of her injuries, “I know I said I wouldn’t push, and I’m not going to, but I’m worried about you. I want you to live with me at my place until we know for sure your apartment is safe. And whether you like it or not, I’m taking care of you until you’re fully recovered. Don’t freak out, alright, sweetie? It’s just for a few weeks.”

Dani’s fingers covered his lips lightly. “Luke, do you want to move in together?”

He stared at her in disbelief.

She let out a slow, beautiful grin that devastated his heart, made it spin in his chest as a tattered breath deflated his lungs. “You drive me insane, you know that?”

“Is that a no?”

He looked at her as if she’d lost her marbles in the blast. “Like I’d actually say no.” Then his eyes softened. “But you don’t have to do this now, honey. I’m not going anywhere. We can discuss this again when you’re fully recovered.” He sighed. The universe could be so cruel—scaring a commitment-phobe enough to start planning for the future, and scaring him enough to almost, almost accept. Gripping her hand, he gave her a reassuring smile. “Besides, I don’t want our relationship to move forward because of an explosion I’d just as soon forget.”