Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(23)

“THE CAVE WHERE romance goes into hibernation!”

Dani Dobson practically spewed the water she’d been sipping on all over her computer screen as she repeated the insulting description of her brewpub—or ‘beer joint’ as it had been so asininely referenced in the article. “Holy shit, now the man is deliberately trying to piss me off,” she muttered to herself as she quickly scanned the rest of the feature piece about tomorrow’s grand opening of the town’s new chocolate shop.

Written by the aggravating shop owner himself.

“Is that the article on Desert Confections?” came a gum-snapping voice from the open doorway.

“Yes,” grumbled Dani, glancing up at her best bartender, surprised—and peeved—to find amusement on her friend’s face. “Why the heck are you smiling? Xoey, he’s skewering us in this article.” The fact that he’d somehow managed to sweet-talk his way into not just answering interview questions for the town paper, but rather, writing the short editorial piece as this month’s ‘welcome-the-newest-member-to-our-town guest writer’ grated on her nerves even more. Mostly because it was pretty damn good. And because the town paper didn’t allow guest writers.

Xoey planted herself in the comfy corner chair and propped her feet up on Dani’s bookshelf, immediately leaning back to tip the chair onto its hind legs as she replied with a shrug, “Actually, I thought it was pretty tame, considering.”

“Considering what?” Dani saw nothing tame about anything she’d just read. What on earth happened to the truce they’d reached the other day regarding his continuing to take direct aim at her brewpub? Not that she, and the whole town for that matter, wasn’t enjoying the way she kept lobbying those missiles right back at him.

“Well,” Xoey broke into her thoughts, “considering the intense, still clearly unfulfilled jump-your-bones chemistry you two have going, I think Luke kept it in check.”

Dani blushed. Not just because the name Luke Bradford had the ability to make her blush like a teenager hearing her first decadently dirty word, but because Xoey had hit the nail on the head in her assessment of Dani and Luke’s bizarre, completely unboxable relationship status. Intense chemistry? Yep. Unfulfilled in the bone-jumping area? Most definitely.

And that’s how it was going to stay.

The chair fell back onto all four legs. “It’s been what, three weeks since you two started dating?”

“We’re not dating,” she corrected quickly with a frown.

“Riiight. You’re just sext-flirting acquaintances without any benefits.” Another gum pop. “I don’t get you two. As far as blind set-ups go, this one seemed like a slam dunk. I mean you guys clearly hit it off—that first night, you were practically floating around on a bubble afterward. After one measly kiss.”

It was a heck of a kiss.

Dani sighed. “But then that bubble popped when I found out he was the one who’d taken over the shop space next door. We’ve gone over this, Xo. I can’t date a fellow town business owner. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

“Says who?”

The universe’s history books as far as her life was concerned. She flinched at the reminder.

Xoey’s follow-up groan was exasperated. “You’re over-thinking this. The man can’t even pick up his lunch orders here without the two of you exchanging those stolen glances and burying those double entendres not nearly as deep as you both seem to think.”

It was a weird Freaky Friday moment, being on the receiving end of that particular lecture for once. Oddly, it was a little refreshing.

Her silence earned her a semi-patient eye roll and headshake. “Like I said, the guy held back a lot…considering. Which begs the all-important question. Is this about—”

Before Dani was forced to face the interrogation she could already see poised for fire in Xoey’s mind, she was rescued by the saving grace of the fourth ringing peal of the telephone.

“I’ll get it,” she called out in a rush to whoever was in earshot outside of her office.

“Ocotillos,” she answered on the fifth ring.

“So did you like the article?”

Luke.

A goaded huff expanded in her chest at the teasing tone of his voice. It seemed to be her auto-reply to the man. And while she’d never admit this unless sworn under oath by the government, only about seventy-five percent of her impending growl in response to his chuckle was out of irritation…albeit mildly entertained irritation. The remaining twenty-five percent was more a singing chorus of all the female cells in her body exalting in feral stereo to that low, perpetually grinning timbre in his voice.

He was a troublemaking temptation.

Had been from the moment he’d introduced himself weeks ago, really. And the most disconcerting part about him was how much fun he made everything. How much more fun he made her, according to the town gossip. She’d be the first to admit that she hadn’t done that in a while—just have fun with a guy. Her life hadn’t exactly allowed for it the past couple of years.

Now, she knew exactly what she’d been missing.

Which made her all the more wary.

“The cave where romance goes into hibernation?” she quoted his line from the article belatedly, trying to throw herself back into the phone call, and out of her head. Luckily, the mere repeat of that sentence was enough to get her hackles rising. The pleased laugh she could hear muffled through the receiver helped a ton as well. “You said you were going to keep it civil.”