Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(42)

The longer the idea settled, however, the better it sat with him. Just imagining his shop with legitimate chocolate display cases was enough of a motivating factor.

“Is the dopey smile going to become a permanent thing?” inquired Quinn, as she went to go sit at her desk. “I swear, you weren’t ever this annoyingly happy with any of your exes.”

No, he hadn’t been.

“I wasn’t thinking about Dani.” He was now. The resulting smile came without warning.

She flicked him a look. “My mistake. That’s the goofy look I’ve been talking about. You’re right. This one’s far worse.”

He chuckled. Knowing Quinn well enough to know she was in one of her witchier moods today, he should have backed away slowly. Instead, he decided to poke the lioness with a stick. “Hey, I talked to your sister today.”

“Yeah?” replied Quinn, clearly only half-listening.

“Yep. She mentioned she was going to be watching Coop tomorrow since Coop’s district has a teacher workday.”

“Mmm-hmmm.”

He was losing her fast. Time to reel it in.

“I asked her to just watch him until nighttime as well to free up your night.”

She glanced up finally from her laptop. “Why? Did you need me to do something here?”

“Nope. I was thinking you should have a night off.”

Her grudgingly appreciative, almost tickled look told him she was already picturing a super fun night of laundry, ice cream, and DVR catch-ups. The wild woman. “And since Dani has a group night out planned, I told her you’d be able to make it.”

When she snapped him a narrowed look, he gave her a one-dimple smile that immediately had her rolling out every excuse in the book.

He cut her off at the pass. “So, your sister is going to take Coop and the twins up north to see your mom all day. Everyone is thrilled. Especially Coop. And your date for the night.”

“Why you sneaky—?

“Best friend,” he interjected a substitute for the more colorful name poised on her lips. He patted her head with an utter lack of sympathy. “No excuses, babe.”

“But—”

His teeth glinted in a seriously fiendish grin. “Don’t worry, I didn’t make it a sleepover babysitting gig or anything. Don’t want you psyching yourself out. I’ve instructed your sister to bring Coop home around midnight, since that’s how late you let Coop stay up sometimes.”

“Midnight? But that’s only on holidays!”

“Believe me, Quinn, you going out on a date is a bigger holiday than the Fourth of July.”

The venomous look she shot him was loaded with shrapnel.

His humor deflected the detonation. “Dani’s actually planning the whole thing so I have no idea what we’re doing. But, she told me we’ll be done by eleven-ish. That’ll give you a full hour to...say goodnight to your date.”

Quinn looked ready to hyperventilate—and kill him. A long second later she asked finally, “Who’s my date?”

The evil big brother expression he gave her said loud and clear that she already knew the answer to that one. He handed her a paper bag to breathe into as he left the office. “You should wear a skirt,” he added from the hall. “Your date apparently thinks you have killer legs.”

A balled-up paper wad nailed him in the back, and his laughter echoed throughout the shop.



*



ABOUT THIRTY-SIX HOURS and two more unsuccessful attempts by Quinn to bail later, Luke was pulling in to Dani’s secret destination. To one of his two passengers’ delight.

Quinn got out of the back of his car and gaped in disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” She spun around to face Luke with a flash of actual anxiety in her eyes.

He almost took out his camera phone to capture the unprecedented moment.

Dani, oblivious to Quinn’s distress, hopped out from the front seat and flung her arms out in flourish. “Isn’t it great? It’s the biggest indoor rock climbing arena around! Oh look, the guys are already here!” Smiling wide, she scampered across the lot to collect Isaac and Rylan.

“You told me to wear a skirt!” growled Quinn. “How am I supposed to climb like this?!”

“I didn’t think you were actually going to listen to me. You never do. Plus, how was I supposed to know that Dani was going to pick something so off-the-wall for this date?”

“Because it’s Dani!” she hissed.

Dani’s laughter chimed out from behind them. “She has you there, Luke.”

Luke glanced back and saw her in tow with Rylan, who was doing a horrible job of trying not to stare at Quinn’s legs, and Isaac, who looked even more nervous than Quinn at the moment.

He sighed. His friends really needed to get out more.

“Dude, seriously, you’ve got to chill the hell out.” Luke could’ve been talking to all three of them, but mostly, his advice had been directed at Isaac, who was busy checking first his watch then his phone for the time. Oh yeah, the guy had it bad. When Dani first suggested they all gather some friends together for a group date, Isaac had practically offered her business shares in his gym if she’d bring Xoey and let him be her date. Dani, diabolically okay with pimping out one friend for the benefit of another, of course negotiated until she brokered a deal wherein Xoey would be Isaac’s date if and only if Quinn agreed to be Rylan’s.