Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(45)

Plus, after another week of overloaded things-to-do lists on both their parts, thanks largely to the growing hype of the battle between their businesses, he was missing her something fierce. What could he say? He was addicted to the woman. And the once rare phenomenon of being able to at least be in the same place at the same time had grown to a near impossibility.

At least they had their nightly phone ritual though.

Every night, for the one hour a day the stars in their chaotic schedules aligned after Dani finished her night shift and before Luke went into the shop at four a.m., they’d lie in the dark in their respective beds and talk about anything and everything on the phone until his work alarm went off. Luke had started the ritual simply because it was the best imaginable way to start his day; Dani said she loved having his voice be the last thing she heard before she fell asleep.

But as great as these phone talks were, actually being in the same room with Dani was on the top of his agenda, preferably for a meal, ideally at a socially acceptable time for that meal. So, he’d suggested a quick power lunch and Dani had been all for it. They’d even agreed not to count it as a pre-date to make it even more low-key—just two friends hanging out between chocolate deliveries and beer-boiling schedules. Still, it was a reunion for them in their quasi long distance relationship, so far built on phone calls, sexts, and jibing twitter fun.

“Pop quiz time, Mikey,” he heard Dani’s voice call out cheerfully as she descended the brew vessel ladder and waved over the newest addition to the crew, the ASU student who’d started coming in once a week to train since the start of the semester. Luke knew Dani’s love for outreach brew education had roots with her father. He’d been a strong advocate for home and craft brew training, a pioneer in his time. Growing up, she’d actually helped him start up the daily brewery tours for customers interested in the brewing process as well as the internships they now had for anyone, young or old, wanting to learn more about the business.

She was a damn good teacher, too, from the looks of it. Mikey hung on Dani’s every word, barely blinking while she imparted some brew basics wisdom. Luke stayed out of Dani’s sightline the whole time so as not to interrupt the lesson as she led Mikey over to the small brew system he’d been standing next to unnoticed for the past ten minutes now. If he remembered correctly from the tour, this was the ‘Baby D’ system, the one used for recipe experimentation.

“Tell me, which malts did we use for this batch and why?” she asked the bright-eyed kid.

“The caramel and roasted ones,” answered Mikey quickly and confidently. “For the richer flavor and redder color.”

“You didn’t even break a sweat on that one!” she praised. Tapping a thoughtful finger on her chin, she smiled and fired out, “Okay, here’s a tougher one. During the mashing of the beer in this recipe—no looking—what temperature did we heat the water in the mash tun and why?”

He took longer with this one. “Um, 152. To...get the most out of the malt in the wort?”

“It’s also for balance. This one was between 152–154 degrees, so good job. Hmmm, oh, I know—you’re on kettle duty for my newest brew today, so what’s the hop schedule?”

Mikey’s eyes floated to the ceiling to jog his memory. “I do the smaller first batch of hops in the beginning for bitterness, and then later add whole leaf hops for aroma and flavor.”

“When later? Be specific.”

“After the whirlpool. I run it through the hopback so it can percolate after the boil.”

“Nice. Okay, last question. What’s dryhopping?” She’d just taught it to him last week.

“Dry hopping...uhhhh.” His forehead wrinkled. “Oh! That’s when we pour the pellet hops into the fermenter after about ten days to bring out the flavors even more.” He beamed.

She nodded proudly and stuck her fist out for him to bump. “Nicely done, Mikey. There’s hope for you yet. Alright, you have my notes and brew log. When Jim gets back, I’m afraid it’s more cleaning duty for you. The trub in the last batch of lager made it a bit cloudy; we don’t want our customers complaining of hangovers. After that, however, you can ask him to show you how to adjust the temperature and pressure on the serving tanks for the front tap. That’s what’ll prevent it from over-carbonating with CO2 and dispensing foamy.” She tapped his baseball cap bill sternly. “And eat an actual meal today, will you? Chips and soda don’t count.”

“Yes, mom.”

Luke grinned. He’d used that same tone on his own mother many a time during his teen years. When he looked over to see Dani’s reaction, he saw that her eyes had gone soft, mothering and doting over the six-foot-tall ‘kid’ even as she continued to bust his chops.

That single expression right there sent an arrow of hope through his heart that maybe, just maybe she wasn’t totally closed to the idea of at least an off-white picket fence in her future.

Suddenly, he could picture that fence so clearly—and the cute house on the other side of that fence with Dani in the kitchen wearing the same smile she had on now while spying on an adorable kid with her honey-colored eyes surreptitiously hiding his green beans under a napkin.

And he saw himself in that picture too. Standing right there beside her.

Luke blinked in surprise, scattering the wishful thinking into a thousand pieces in his mind. Well, this was a first. While admittedly he’d pictured all his serious girlfriends as his someday bride —women didn’t hold the exclusive on wedding daydreams—never had he found himself imagining one as the mother of his children as well. Until now.