Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(97)

“HAVE I MENTIONED that my folks can’t stop asking when I’m bringing you back to the farm again?” Luke tugged Dani down into bed with him. “I think they kind of love you.”

“I love them too,” she replied, propping against his chest. “They’re great.”

“You’re great.”

She leaned back to study his expression, chuckling. “You are drunk, mister. You drank more beer than I did tonight. You’ve been drinking a lot all week, in fact. What’s going on? Nervous about something?” she teased.

His eyebrows dropped down a telltale notch and her face sobered. “What is it?”

“Nothing bad; it’s something good, actually. A start to new beginnings, I think,” he said cryptically, feeling the multiple meanings in that statement as he reached over to open the nightstand drawer. He might be losing his shop, but with Dani at his side... “I owe you one more Valentine gift.” His heart gave a little thump at the smile lines crinkling around her eyes; they’d appeared when he’d said the word Valentine—such a contrast to how she would’ve reacted just a few short months ago.

All the worry left her voice. “You’re a chronic romantic. You know very well you gave me all seventeen already.”

“Those were to make up for the past,” he reasoned. “This year would’ve been your eighteenth Valentine’s Day. Remember? The gift I gave you on February 14th was the first of your seventeen Valentines. I didn’t actually give you a gift for this year’s Valentine’s Day yet.”

“Yes you did,” she said, her voice a loving timbre as she held his face in her hands. “Everything you’ve done, every moment together since that day has been a gift.”

His eyelids lowered tenderly at that. “Well then consider this a supplementary eighteenth Valentine gift then.” He turned his hand over to reveal a very distinct little gift box.

Dani gazed at the velvet cube. “What is it?” she asked in a voice he hardly recognized.

“Open it and find out.”

Unable to meet his eyes, slowly, she shook her head in a silent no.

Pain. He’d never known that, until this point, pain wasn’t something he’d even remotely experienced. Not this pain. What he was feeling now robbed him of breath, of strength.

It was worse than the sickening feeling he’d felt injected into his veins when he’d made the call on Monday to tell Noah that he was opting to give up his give best recipes to close out the loan. At least that pain was resulting in a $50,000 check he could give Quinn to save Cooper.

This pain just bred more pain that gouged at his soul and hollowed out his heart.

A hot tear fell on his hand. He opened his eyes and looked at it. “Don’t cry, sweetheart.”

Her tears came anyway, words powerless to stop them.

“The gift isn’t what you’re thinking,” he said gently. “It’s not the ring you’re so deathly afraid of.” He took the thin red ribbon off the box and flipped it open. There was a tiny chocolate inside with gold message stamped on the bottom.

She read it slowly, hands shaking, eyes welling up more. “You said you never make promises.”

“No, I don’t make guarantees. This is a vow.”

“That you’ll always love me?”

“Yes.”

Her voice shrank. “How can you possibly know that?”

“How do you know that you’ll always love Xoey, or Rylan, or your brother?”

“I just do,” she shrugged, unable to put it into words.

“Exactly. Try not to think about it; it makes it easier.” He arched an eyebrow wisely.

She let a reluctant half grin appear. “Simple as that?”

“Simple as that.” He gathered her into his arms. “And it is. That simple, I mean. I just know without a doubt I’ll always love you. No matter what.”

“Even if I say I don’t want us to live together?” she asked quietly.

His jaw clenched back the stab of hurt. “Of course.”

She focused her eyes on the center of his sternum. “You’ve been hinting at it.”

“Yes I have. Because I want us to live together.”

“Why?”

Dozens of reasons swam in his head, but knowing Dani, he picked the most logical. “I sleep here all the time as it is. Hell, my pile of belongings is getting big enough that I only go back to my apartment once a week, if that.” It was true. For the last month, he’d been staying at Dani’s almost the entire time. With their hectic, often clashing schedules, this way, at least they were able to spend a few hours together on the days one of them was sleeping while the other was working. “It’s practical, and it works for us.”

“Try again,” she whispered, leaving out the ‘bullshit answer’ part that was his usual line.

He took a while to regroup. “I love you. I love how things are with us. Don’t you?”

“You know I do.”

“It’s not like I’m asking you to marry me. I want to keep things exactly how they are...just more officially.” He tried adding more rational reasoning. “Besides, it doesn’t make sense for us to both have apartments. If I move here, I can help pay the rent for your apartment.”