Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(53)

Hence, his little late-in-the-game play.

When he’d first come up with the idea, he’d gotten a little high off the holiday spirit as if it were Christmas, wanting eagerly to spread the holiday cheer of punch-drunk romance far and wide. This intoxicated buzz of his was what had led to the decision that February 13th would see not just this challenge, but every customer getting two free chocolates of their choosing to share with someone special in the spirit of random romance.

A Valentine’s Day fluffer, if you will.

He called it the Random Act of Romance challenge. Today, on the day before all the teddy bears, roses, and lace-scalloped gifts, he was challenging folks to take some time to do a simple, random act of romance from the heart. No purchases necessary.

Further, he was encouraging folks to post their stories on the Desert Confections blog in hopes that one random act would inspire another. Of all who posted, five random posters would get a certificate for a couple’s massage at a popular Scottsdale spa that specialized in gender-perfect pampering. That they’d already gotten a few dozen posts overnight was great news.

Feeling like a postman at the North Pole, Luke grinned as he clicked open the first entry.

Interestingly, it was from a woman who’d written in not to enter the contest but rather, to praise it and share why she believed random acts of romance deserved all the recognition in the world. She described how just last week, her stoic, very non-mushy husband of ten years had surprised her by reprogramming all her favorite shows into the blank queue of the DVR box they’d just replaced and taking the extra time to also add a few new shows he thought she might enjoy. Better than the occasional diamond or pearls, his doing this tedious task for her was just one of the many unthinkingly thoughtful ways he always made her feel more loved than any store-bought gift ever had and ever could. That to her was romance in its truest form.

Luke was moved. He immediately posted a reply to thank her for her story and arrange for a box of chocolates to be mailed to them for being such an inspiration.

The stories that followed after it were all just as adorably inspiring, ranging from surprise lunch-hour walks, to cuddled-on-the-couch talks, and carefully laid-out plans of text messages on the hour every hour declaring one special thing about the other person.

Then there was the one that really got Luke choked up. A man posted a photo of his young wife who was on her second year of deployment. For his act of romance, the man emailed friends from his wife’s unit last night to help him set-up an online serenade for her to view out in the desert today. In a real-time video of him standing in the living room in his PJs, with a disclaimer apologizing for his well-known inability to carry a tune, the man began belting out the lyrics to her favorite song by Rascal Flatts with the accompaniment of thirty of her fellow service men and women singing behind her. The performance, along with her teary-eyed reaction to it all was all captured on YouTube so she could replay it whenever she got lonely out there.

That right there was what this was all about. Over the next hour, dozens of other stories got posted, each one as great as the last. Soon, Luke found he couldn’t hold off any longer; he’d been bursting to do a random act of romance for Dani all day. A glance at the clock told him she’d be setting up for tonight’s big concert by now so he reached for his cell phone...and then paused. No sweeping declarations of love, he reminded himself. Keep it casual. Light and flirty worked for them. He thought hard about what casually romantic message he could send the woman he was falling madly in love with. Did such an oxymoronic thing really exist?

A lot of mulling around later, he finally decided on texting her:

>> I MISS YOU...WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?

Perfect. Honest emotion combined with shameless flirting. Right up their alley.

Not a minute later, Dani texted back:

>> A T-SHIRT THAT READS: CHOCOLATE=GOOD…BEER=BAD WHICH DO YOU WANT ME TO BE?

Chuckling, he had an answer for her right away, but before he could send it, his phone beeped again. A second message from Dani:

>> P.S. I MISS YOU TOO. BE READY FOR A ‘RANDOM’ VISIT LATER TODAY. WE’LL TEST OUT ONE OF YOUR STORAGE CLOSETS THIS TIME.

In chorus with his laughter, his heart rate was rapidly thrumming a deep tattoo against his lungs, past the overflowing of dense emotion. His skin was humming, his mind swaying—yep, he knew the symptoms well. But never this well.

It was clear, he was blatantly, irretrievably head over heels.

More so than he’d ever been with any woman in his entire life.



*



DANI RE-READ the text she’d just sent Luke, wondering if right this instant was too soon to make good on her text…

Nope, she decided a second later.

Grinning, she shut her office door and headed out.

Was a part of her wanting to butter him up? Admittedly, yes. Come hell or high water, tonight was the night she was going to tell Luke about the I-tried-to-sabotage-your-shop situation. He deserved to know. She was positive they’d get through this. It was in the past and nothing terrible had come of it. True, he might be upset that she hadn’t told him earlier but no matter. Even if they ended up getting into an argument, she didn’t want this cloud hovering over their relationship anymore. His trust was too important to her.

He was too important to her.

Yup. Though she’d fought it, she’d gone and gotten attached to Luke, that much was clear.