Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(75)

Opening up the album giddily, Xoey kicked her feet up and began quietly editorializing each photo. “Ohhh,” she sighed over the earlier pages chronicling the third Valentine, “he made you a mix CD?” She shook her head in envy. “A boy in middle school made me a romantic CD once. I loved it. I kid you not, I still have it somewhere.” Her face sobered then as she flipped through more album pages with a soft, “No one has ever been this romantic for me.”

Startled, Dani just stared at the brief flash of sadness in Xoey’s eyes. She quickly sat beside her. “Hey, what’s going on? Anything you want to talk about?”

Xoey quickly put on a falsely bright smile. “Nah, just getting a little green-eyed here.” She picked up the album again. “Luke’s right, you know; you really are a closet romantic that needs to hurry up and come out already.” Looking up, she added, “I’m happy for you.”

Suddenly, the tiniest hint of a glow crept into her eyes.

Dani suppressed a grin as she waited. This ought to be good.

Xoey flipped to a specific page in the album and poked an innocent finger at the photo from the fourth Valentine, the one of Dani’s hand holding—and covering—a handwritten poem from Luke. “You know what would make me really happy right now?”

Dani rolled her eyes. “Neeever going to happen.”

“Oh, c’mon.”

“Nope.” The poem in question was under lock and key in Dani’s bedroom safe. Though she generally told Xoey everything, some things had to stay private...like a poem so crazy adorable that goofy stars lit Dani’s eyes whenever she thought about it. Since Luke wanted each Valentine to be consistent with the one she’d missed in the year she’d missed it, his Valentine gifts had started first with youthful candy hearts and worked up from there. For her fourth Valentine, Luke had channeled his old adolescent self to write a love poem for her. As such, not only was it as unfiltered as a teen’s thoughts, it was romantically candid and hella funny. Dani eventually committed every word to memory after rereading it dozens of times.

More than anything, what Dani loved was feeling like she was living actual Valentine moments with him across the gamut. She finally understood what people meant about those odd butterflies from being in a too quiet, swanky restaurant for an overpriced, albeit delicious, meal. Absolutely nothing beat reliving the helpless laughter over the date where a freak cold front had rolled in and frozen them solid during their picnic at the desert botanical garden. And she’d never forget the heart-melting night he’d projected a movie on the Ocotillos parking lot wall so she could sit in his car with him and watch it like they were teens at a drive-in, something she’d secretly always wanted to do. The way he’d carry on in full Valentine mode—as if the entire world were still celebrating February 14th along with him—made every experience priceless.

“Hey,” Xoey broke into her musings accusingly. “You’re missing a few photos here.”

Dani’s color ripened to crimson. “We, errr, have to edit a few of the photos first.”

Xoey was tickled and particularly graphic in her guesses of what needed editing.

Dani neither confirmed nor denied the accuracy of at least one of Xoey’s guesses.

With another envious groan, Xoey fell back onto the couch. “Tell me the guy has some sort of flaw. Bad habits, strange fetishes...anything?”

Smiling, Dani shook her head.

Xoey shot her a meaningful look and said quietly, “He’s it for you, Dani. And I know deep down you know that, too. I also know you well enough to know something’s been up with you lately. Something big. Whatever it is, just talk to him. That’s the only way to fix it.”

Stunned into silence, Dani simply nodded.

Looked like Xoey was the sane person to help her through this after all.




“SORRY I MADE YOU miss lunch again, Sam.”

Dani rushed into her office and put a plate of food in front of her assistant manager on duty just as he was finishing up some paperwork for her. “I just can’t get the lautering right on this new brew recipe. It’s driving me nuts.”

Sam tugged her ponytail sympathetically. “No worries. It was slow today. And I loaded up on energy bars when I saw not all the steam in the brewery today was from the kettles.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. The guys loved teasing her that the extra soundproofing they’d sprung for in the expansion was partly to block her loud and ‘colorful’ brewing lingo.

He chuckled and grabbed the plate of food she’d brought for him. “I’m going to take my lunch and break together since I only have two hours left in my shift. Holler if you need me.”

Dani glanced at the clock—yikes, it was later than she’d thought. “Damn, I’m sorry you worked straight through. You know what? Go on home already. You earned it.”

He slammed a finger up to his lips. “Shhh! You know Elle has ears like a bat!” Wary, he stuck his head out the door and cased the hallway to see which waitresses were nearby. “Last thing I want is for Elle to call Terri and tell her I’ll actually be able to make it home in time for Jenna’s ballet recital. Thanks, but no thanks—my ass is working my full shift to make sure I miss it. It’s Terri’s turn to sit through the thing and videotape Jenna’s three minutes on stage.”