Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(99)

“But you’re right, Dani.” He gently wiped the last of her heartbreaking tears away. “I can’t live just looking for and waiting for the future. I’ve done that in the past and I don’t have much to look back on. It wasn’t a life. Not really. But being with you is, and it’s the life I want.” His speech might have begun as a means to comfort her, but as the words tumbled out, he knew he spoke the naked truth. “Honestly, all I need—all I want—is to have you by my side and to be by yours. For as long as fate—or you—will have it.” Sliding his hand down her cheek, he warned, “Even so, that doesn’t mean I can just make myself stop dreaming of something a heck of a lot more permanent than a chocolate vow in that box you’re holding.”

She placed her head on his chest. “I know, and I love that,” she admitted softly.

“I am a hundred percent invested in this relationship—long or short, I want to see what the future holds for us. Question is, do you?”

“I do,” she said without any hesitation.

His heart soared. He hoped to hell and back he’d be hearing those words from her lips again one day. To a far more important question.

His arms tightened around her. “Then dream with me,” he rumbled softly in her ear.

Feeling her stiffen, he brushed a kiss against her lips. “No plans or promises, just dreams,” he reassured gently. “No stressing about the future. No torturing ourselves with our pasts. We do it your way and just live day to day. But each day, we agree to dream my way...big and endless.”

Closing his eyes, he forced himself not to push too hard. “We can stay together as long as our dreams still have the other in it—no more commitment than that. What do you say?”

Breath held, he stroked the tense muscles of her back for agonizingly long seconds.

She looked up into his eyes. And then shot her gaze away.

His stomach plummeted.

Thankfully, the sound of Dani’s landline ringing in the living room saved him from having to come up with a casual response to that train wreck.

They each pretended like their sole purpose in life was to stand there like statues and listen to the phone ring. Ditto when the answering machine switched on.

But hearing Dani’s cheerful voice say. “I’ll get back to you when I can,” on the recorded greeting just served to put a serious chink in his composure.

…Shortly before the message following took a wrecking ball to it.

“Dani, this is Noah. Sorry to call so late but we need to get this finalized ASAP. To clarify, the paperwork my assistant drew up was just a draft of the terms you provided; you didn’t need to sign it. I still think you should talk to Luke about your plans first. Not telling him your connection to his lease increase was one thing, but this—“

Dani ran and slammed her hand down on the answering machine.

He didn’t trust his own voice as he asked, “What the hell was he talking about, Dani?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you for weeks now, actually, months really if you count the beginning,” she whispered, keeping her head down, avoiding his eyes.

Months?

He tipped her face back up and studied her tortured expression, saying in a voice that sounded clipped and foreign to his own ears, “So tell me now.”

“I asked Noah not to renew your lease contract.”

Ice filled his veins. “You did what?”

“Before! I asked him before we met, right after Quinn had done all those interview attacks outside of the brewpub.” The words rushed out of her so fast he had a hard time keeping up. “I was just so angry; I went to see Harold to vent about it. And that’s when I ran into Noah. You have to believe that, in the beginning, I was just complaining about what you all did that day. But somehow—you know how my brain and mouth can be—that turned into my saying business owners who purposely slander other businesses in town have no place here in Cactus Creek, which led to my blurting out that maybe Derek and I could lease out the building instead and turn it into a winery that would partner with Ocotillos...”

His eyes hardened. “Winery.” Unbelievable. “So you’ve been working with that Noah this whole time behind my back.”

He couldn’t even look at her.




DANI GRABBED his wrists. “Please, don’t shut me out.”

He shot her a look so frustrated, so hurt, she released her hold on him immediately.

“Luke, I swear I didn’t plan for that to happen. I didn’t go searching for Harold with the intent to oust your shop. It just sort of…happened. I’d never even thought of leasing your building before, nor had it even occurred to me to turn Ocotillos into a brewpub and winery. It all gushed out of my mouth faster than my brain could process, really. I mean, I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t get caught up in it at the time. This is Derek’s dream after all, and I really wanted it for him—”

“So you threw my dream under the bus to get it.”

“NO! I never wanted that. In fact, after I hung up the phone, I felt sick to my stomach about it. And that was before I even knew you were the owner.”

“But we had our formal intros the next day, didn’t we? What happened after that?” His voice was brittle. Cold. “Doesn’t sound like you jumped on the phone to undo everything. In fact, it sounds like you and Noah got mighty cozy making back table deals at my expense!”