Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(34)

Her eyes widen and a grateful smile emerges. “YES!”

They blow out the little candles and the room fades to black.



Dani was thoroughly pleased as the first half of the video ended, and not at all surprised that Aidan had decided to follow Quinn’s lead of using the band’s music in the video. But he took it a step further by laying a great remixed track with a few of their most popular songs, edited to fit the vibe of the commercial and each of its scenes perfectly.

Turning around, Dani located the reallive Evan and Rissa standing off to the side of the dance floor on the roof deck of Ocotillos amongst customers who, since this was a closed shoot, were really just every spare friend Dani could wrangle at the last minute. Rylan was already belting out their newest song from the stage, and on Aidan’s cue, everyone began dancing as the cameras started rolling.

Then the live recording continued where the video had left off:



Hands entwined, Evan and Rissa walk through the crowd to grab an open pub table up front near the band just as a friendly server comes by to get their drink orders.

Not hesitating in the least, Rissa orders an Irish Car Bomb and a dark lager.

Evan looks smitten. “Nice. I’ll have the same.”

As they wait for their drinks, the couple launches into an animated discussion filled with nonstop laughter. Their fun conversation flows easily as the music pulses around them and starts building to a sultry, fevered pitch.

Rissa shoots Evan a shy smile. “Do you want to dance?”

Grinning, he removes his stuffy tie completely. “Since the moment I laid eyes on you.”

Out on the dance floor, Rylan’s deep, heady alternative rock music is the soundtrack to their flirting, as their dancing turns into a fast, seductive ride. With her back against his chest, their bodies fluidly aligned, Evan lays his chin against her shoulder and murmurs something in her ear that makes her elbow him playfully in the gut. He chuckles and wraps his arms snugly around her waist as the velvety rich tune on stage strums to an end.

While everyone else is making their way off the dance floor, Rissa drops her head back against his chest, and this time it’s her mouth at his ear. Her words were brief, but it’s enough to inspire him to spin her around and draw her in close.

Their eyes lock.

“We’re not going to discuss the weather again, are we?” whispers Rissa against his lips.

Evan smiles and leans in.

For their first kiss.



“That’s a wrap!” called out Aidan. “Thanks, guys. We got it. You all did great.”

Dani beamed from ear to ear. Not just because the video was a slam dunk, but because from the looks of it, neither Evan nor Rissa wanted to finish their kissing scene. So cute. She’d seen their interest in each other grow throughout the shoot. They’d been inseparable all afternoon, flirting like no one else around them existed.

That’s why, along with their paycheck for doing the video, Dani also included a rather generous Ocotillos gift certificate for them to use together. On a real first date.

Okay, so she enjoyed moonlighting as cupid from time to time. It wasn’t a big deal.

It certainly did not mean she was a fairytale romantic like Luke.





CHAPTER FOUR


LUKE COULDN’T stop staring at her.

While some might pass off Dani’s girl-next-door looks as just ‘sweet’ at first glance, she exuded a simple, feisty grace that made her his specific brand of gorgeous. And in her faded Dobson’s softball shirt and wash-worn capri jeans tonight, both tumble-dried to its current body-hugging fit, she was just the sexiest little thing to boot. All combined with that quick wit and room-stopping smile, she was easily the most appealingly wholesome, tempting woman he’d ever met—a whole-package-deal that had every bit as much to do with how attractive she was on the inside. Caring to a fault and so infectiously lovable. He simply couldn’t get enough of her. Even when she was driving him crazy.

Speaking of crazy… After weeks of attempting to sneak past the defenses of the most stubbornly guarded, obsessively self-reliant woman he’d ever met, during which, he’d given her a truckload of assurances that he didn’t in fact have any grand expectations for some epic love story, he and Dani were finally out on their first meal outside of the brewpub—dinner at a Mediterranean café followed by a walk through town for dessert.

Their first official ‘non-date.’

Which was what the sanity-stealing woman was insisting on calling it.

Ridiculous name for the perfect evening aside, he was having a great time. The best part was that even though they’d been getting to know each other for over a month now, it took this non-date for him to discover that his adamantly non-mushy brewmaster was an unconscious hand-holder. Squeezing said hand, he smiled. “Alright, I give. What’s with the impish grin?”

Dani blinked innocently. “What do you mean? This is just what my face does when I’m having fun. It’s a smile. Look it up.”

“You know, I’d buy that if I didn’t already recognize that as your special little Dani grin that makes me crazy.”

“Xoey calls it my evil grin. Figures it’d make you all hot and bothered.” She smothered a cute nose-scrunching smile.

Yet another adorable turn-on for him. Then again, nothing about Dani seemed to turn him off. He smoothed a thumb along her knuckles affectionately. “Okay, so if you weren’t flashing that insidious grin to raise my blood pressure, could it simply be that you’ve been thinking about the video you just launched?”