Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(66)

“Yes, well, the honeymoon is over now,” teased Derek.

“Why do you think I’m noticing they’re gorgeous?” taunted Jonathan right back.

Luke chuckled good and loud. These two were characters.

And then it began.

The inevitable machine gun interrogation the pair then launched on him, while mildly invasive, did manage to earn him their avid support in his long-term goals with Dani.

“This was fun.” Luke got up to leave at their eventual cease-fire. “Now if you think of any more questions for me, you can find me next door daydreaming about your sister. Or you can also get my number from Xoey,” he informed them dryly, well aware who was supplying their grilling ammo. Their resulting burst of laughter made for a pretty grand exit for Luke.

As he made his way out of the dining area, he found it impossible not to look back and smile at the couple one more time. They were so in love. They looked like one of those quintessential images usually accompanying a caption of ‘ah, true love’ in the Valentine insert of the local paper.

That got Luke thinking.

If it hadn’t been for Xoey’s paparazzi moment, the candid snapshot of him and Dani together wouldn’t be sitting beside his parents’ anniversary photo in his office at this very moment. Grinning, he took out his smartphone and got his camera booted up just as Jonathan and Derek started exchanging gifts. The shutter click caught both men in hysterics over what truly was the oddest pair of Valentine gifts he’d ever seen.

But the resulting photo...wow. It was the very picture of love.

Luke was humbled.

Suddenly, he was hyperaware of all the couples around him, some doing Valentine’s Day the traditional way, others embracing the ‘new’ traditions he’d introduced. And of course the token few dancing to their own beat completely. The one thing they all shared in common was that they were blissfully, irretrievably in the moment, that moment Valentine’s Day brought about.

Right then, Luke tossed the rulebook out in his mind and made a game-changing decision. He immediately went over to show Derek and Jonathan their inspiring photo and ask if they’d allow him to put it up on the Desert Confections blog amongst others in a gallery of images he’d be dedicating to the celebration of Valentine’s Day—new, old, and everything in between.

It would be fittingly romantic.

It would quite possibly unravel everything he and Quinn had done for his shop.

But how could he not? Where once he’d thought he was the unlucky bastard who just couldn’t catch a train ride to the altar even with a ticket, he knew now he simply hadn’t been heading in the right direction. The diehard romantic he’d always prided himself to be had not even begun to reach the depths of which he was capable. Because every feeling of love he’d felt in every past relationship paled in comparison to what he was feeling now.

Everything was different now. He was different now.

And the reason for that change was the very person running around the brewpub doing what she did best.





CHAPTER ELEVEN


LUKE SPENT that afternoon wandering through Cactus Creek with Evan in tow as his official photographer for the day, photographing a broad spectrum of special moments around town to capture Valentine’s Day in all its multifaceted glory. Surprisingly, when he went up to introduce himself to his photo subjects after each shot, every single one of them knew of him and the throwdown. And over half of them, he discovered amusedly, weren’t the least bit shy to admit their allegiance to beer. When Luke would then go on to ask their permission to upload the photo for a Valentine gallery on the Desert Confections blog, the response each time was the same. Every couple asked to see the photo first. From there, the okay was inevitable because they’d see the same thing anyone viewing the photos would—love, pure and simple.

What more could you ask for on Valentine’s Day?

That’s exactly the conclusion Luke had come to before he’d begun collecting photos for the blog, before he’d even made the big decision that would affect all the Valentine’s Day and White Chocolate Day plans he and Quinn had worked so hard on for the past month and a half. The same month and a half he’d spent placing the entire focus of Valentine’s Day on his and Dani’s businesses, rather than their relationship where it should’ve been from the start.

All that was about to change as well.

As Luke began sharing these new plans with the random strangers he met throughout the day, not only did they provide enthusiastic support of his changes, they gifted him with priceless romantic advice as well. Each couple, in their own way, helped him remember how much he loved Valentine’s Day. Looking back on his life, he could recall most every Valentine card he’d ever written, every gift he’d fussed over, and each person he’d celebrated the day with. Valentine’s had always been a privileged time for him to lay all his emotions out in plain sight for one special person to see, and have that person show him the same.

But Dani never had any of that.

Yet she was still the most naturally romantic person he knew.

With that fresh in his mind, Luke uploaded all the photos onto the Desert Confections blog site, putting the starting gate spotlight on the photo of a pair of teens wordlessly cuddling at a bus stop like there was no tomorrow. Below their picture, he typed the advice they’d had for him, just as they’d said it: “Remember to hold hands as much as you can, for no reason, even.”