Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(79)

Her whole body was shaking in hilarity by the time he was done.

“So no, honey, I don’t think you’re ever going to go diva on me.” He grinned, perhaps even more in love with her now after the Dani highlight reel. “That doesn’t mean I won’t treat you like one though. I don’t think I’m going to be able to stop spoiling you even after the seventeen Valentine’s Days. It’s too much fun. You may very well have to suffer through more foolishly romantic gifts,” he said, completely serious. “Like last-minute drives to San Diego during red tide season.”

The reminder made her smile softly. “I still can’t believe you did that for me. Seeing that red water turn electric blue at night was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.”

His eyes warmed as he studied her face. “You’re the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”

Rolling her eyes, she snuggled against his chest. “You’re good for my ego. I think I’ll keep you around to tell me things like that when I’m old and wrinkled.”

He felt a sharp tug in his rib cage. Lately, Dani had been letting long-term talk like that slip out more and more, giving him hope that he knew was premature.

It wasn’t as if Dani ever got excessively tense or even skittish with the topic. No, she would usually just laugh as if she were on a different page—or more like a totally different book. Take her giving him a spare key to her apartment yesterday for example—a milestone for most couples. Not so for Dani. She’d matter-of-factly told him that with her extra late work hours, the key was so he could let himself in on the nights he wanted to come over when she wouldn’t get home until after he went to bed. She’d meant it exactly like that, too. Practical and simple.

Meanwhile, Luke had wanted it to be more of a big relationship moment. This thing they had was unlike any relationship he’d ever been in, so simple that it looped back around to being complex. On the surface, Dani had all the makings of a classic casual girlfriend, never planning or overanalyzing things between them. Paradoxically, she also seemed made to be the perfect wife and mother. She was kind of like a sexy girl-next-door buddy and Suzy homemaker rolled into one with her heart on her sleeve and a mild case of commitment A.D.D.

Fascinating yet unnerving at the same time.

Nevertheless, he could see himself with her for the long haul. The way she was handling his whole lease predicament was yet another solid check in the potential-wife column. Ever since he’d told her about his lease predicament, she’d been his rock, going above and beyond the call of girlfriend duty. Beyond just being there for him for moral support, he found out that she’d also begun sending customers his way via food specials for anyone who brings in a Desert Confections receipt. Instead of running in the opposite direction at the prospect of him being broke in a few months, she just threw herself into helping him make his business succeed. It was nice. She was the exact antithesis of the short-haul girlfriend.

And therein lay the root of their relationship complexities.

With their growing fame as Cactus Creek’s favorite couple, he was seeing those roots grow into thorny stems—the most recent being when an overzealous neighbor teasingly asked her if she thought he’d be ‘popping the big question’ for his seventeenth valentine.

That’s when he saw it. The discomfort bordering on fear. No, Dani wasn’t close to being ready for him to pop any sort of question.

But he was.

Seeing her settle in on ‘her side’ of the bed—because they had designated sides of the bed now—he felt a sudden, deep need to know for sure.

So he eased into his interrogation. “I always meant to ask, how come you don’t bottle your beers? You’d make a killing if you did.”

“I swear, I get asked that every day.” Her eyes twinkled. “Call me sentimental but I inherited my dad’s views on bottling. He always said beer should be fresh from the tap, foaming in a glass at a table with friends,” she reminisced with a smile. “I’ve always thought so too.”

“So you don’t have grand visions of turning your beer into the next big Sam Evans?”

She shrugged. “Nah. I like how things are now. Luckily, we’ve been successful just from in-house sales without distributing.” She gave him a thoughtful sidelong glance. “What about you? Are you aiming to give Godiva or See’s a run for their money?”

“Honestly? No. The financial security would be nice, and it’d be great to give Quinn her own location to run. But really, I’ve always dreamed of having a crop farm like my folks have.”

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “A farm?”

“Why, can’t you see me as a farmer?”

She thought about it for a bit before her lips tilted to one side. “You know, I actually can. You’d make a sexy farmer. Count me in to help during harvest season.”

His pulse sped up a bit. “Your turn. If you weren’t a brewmaster, what would you do?”

“I’d cook,” she said definitively. “Maybe a dive restaurant, something tiny with a grill.”

“Yeah?”

“But I don’t think I’d ever be able to get rid of the brew bug. I’d have to at least have a small craft brew set-up with it too.”

He leaned her back against the bed and began kissing the spot behind her ear that always seemed to muddle her mind. “You know, there are a lot of farmers who have home brewing systems. I also know of some family crop farms that have restaurants on site too.”