Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(26)

“Aw, Dani. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sure he’s interested in you. You’re beautiful and smart, and…” His tone turned incredulous. “Wait a minute. You went to a winery with Noah? Dani, tell me you didn’t already sleep with him—?

“What?!” Dani looked around to see if there were any hidden prank cameras around. “What in God’s name would make you think that?” Not that Noah wasn’t handsome as sin. He was. But he was also like a brother to her. An overly intense, domineering, and grouchy as hell one at that.

Now, Connor just sounded confused. “So you’re not calling me to ask if Noah’s been ‘talking’ about you?”

“Good lord, Connor. What do you think I am? Twelve? No, I’m not calling to see if Noah likes-me-likes-me. I was talking strictly in the business-sense.”

A relieved chuckle rang out over the phone line. “Do me a favor and lead with that next time. Noah’s a great guy and all, but I would have hosted an intervention if you were actually sleeping with him.” Sounding like his usual self again, Connor questioned curiously, “Okay, so what’s this business talk you were asking about? Noah never mentioned anything about a winery.”

“Nothing,” she replied quickly. Well, there was her answer. Noah hadn’t even brought her idea up to Connor, who he always ran everything past. He wasn’t pursuing it, and he hadn’t even bothered to start looking into it. “Never mind, Connor. Forget I asked. It wasn’t a big deal.”

Connor’s voice sobered again. “I’m sorry I misunderstood, sweetie. Go on and ask your question. Were you looking into some investments or something? Because I can have—?

“No,” she interrupted, just wanting to get this phone call over with ASAP. The winery idea is dead. Move on. “I was just checking into something for a friend. But I think we have enough info. Thanks though.”

“You sure?” he asked, clearly unconvinced.

“Yep. Listen, I have to get going. The lunch rush is starting. Come by and bring that beautiful new baby in with you sometime, you hear?”

That brought forth a proud-papa smile she could hear crystal clear over the phone line as they exchanged their goodbyes. She kept it light, hoping he’d forget about the conversation as soon as they hung up. The last thing she wanted was him to mention her call to Noah and have another human being hear about her fanciful business proposal.

As she pocketed her cell phone, she pushed back the embarrassment over the situation, thinking Noah merciful now for choosing not to call her instead of making her feel even more foolish by ‘letting her down gently.’

At least now she knew. Her idea was pretty risky as far as investments go.

She put a hand to her belly to keep it from bottoming out as she exhaled slowly, dividing her focus between telling herself there would be other chances for Derek’s winery, and trying to convince her guilty conscience that forgetting about this whole mess was the best for everyone involved.

What Luke and Derek didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them, right?

When the finality of it all sank in, however, disappointment for her brother began blending confusingly with relief for Luke. Which made zero sense. She’d only known Luke for all of what, a few weeks? The realization that she cared enough about Luke to weigh his thoughts and feelings on the same scale with her brother’s was unsettling. She tried convincing her brain that the guilt over what she’d almost done to Luke’s business was the only reason for her split loyalties.

But she’d never really been good at fooling herself.





CHAPTER TWO


DANI WAS STILL doing her best to forget about the whole winery idea and all her mixed feelings about it when Xoey returned to the office later that afternoon and fell into the corner chair, flip-topping her head back with a tired thud. Xoey coming back to hang out here on her day-off wasn’t all that unusual; her being this exhausted, however, was.

Sympathetically, Dani sighed and suggested the unthinkable, “Xoey, you know you’re more valuable than gold here but I’d understand if you want to take more time off to focus on your pilates and dance classes.”

That made Xoey drag her head up with a start. “Why would I go and do a thing like that? My students are ninety-nine percent female while my bar customers are seventy-five percent male.” Her expression said there was no competition. “Like I tell my accountant, it’s really all about the numbers.”

Dani shook her head and chuckled. “Ah yes, I failed to do the math on that one.”

“Besides, that’s not why I’m beat. Like a crazy lady, I stayed up till dawn designing those T-shirts and tank-tops I told you I’d make for this throwdown.” She tiger-yawned again. “I was going to finish up on my next day off, but after I saw Desert Confection’s little twitter contest this morning, I figured I’d better power through the silk-screening today.”

Twitter? That was the second reference today. Wait, didn’t Luke mention something...

Dani shot over to her computer and opened up her twitter feed immediately. Lo and behold, there had been a series of tweets from Luke this morning. Mentioning her. “Why that little—”

He’d called her out.

On Twitter. He’d actually gone and made the first public strike. Up until now, it was just town talk and playful answers to get the buzz building. This was a thrown gauntlet if ever there was one. He began with a twitter link to his shop blog that first gave a quick summary of how the throwdown came to be, explaining how Dani had called his ideas about Valentine’s Day “a load of fairytale bull born from antiquated views on romance, and parented by clichés.”