by Violet Duke
“Considering what?” Dani saw nothing tame about anything she’d just read. What on earth happened to the truce they’d reached the other day regarding his continuing to take direct aim at her brewpub? Not that she, and the whole town for that matter, wasn’t enjoying the way she kept lobbying those missiles right back at him.
“Well,” Xoey broke into her thoughts, “considering the intense, still clearly unfulfilled jump-your-bones chemistry you two have going, I think Luke kept it in check.”
Dani blushed. Not just because the name Luke Bradford had the ability to make her blush like a teenager hearing her first decadently dirty word, but because Xoey had hit the nail on the head in her assessment of Dani and Luke’s bizarre, completely unboxable relationship status. Intense chemistry? Yep. Unfulfilled in the bone-jumping area? Most definitely.
And that’s how it was going to stay.
The chair fell back onto all four legs. “It’s been what, three weeks since you two started dating?”
“We’re not dating,” she corrected quickly with a frown.
“Riiight. You’re just sext-flirting acquaintances without any benefits.” Another gum pop. “I don’t get you two. As far as blind set-ups go, this one seemed like a slam dunk. I mean you guys clearly hit it off—that first night, you were practically floating around on a bubble afterward. After one measly kiss.”
It was a heck of a kiss.
Dani sighed. “But then that bubble popped when I found out he was the one who’d taken over the shop space next door. We’ve gone over this, Xo. I can’t date a fellow town business owner. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.”
“Says who?”
The universe’s history books as far as her life was concerned. She flinched at the reminder.
Xoey’s follow-up groan was exasperated. “You’re over-thinking this. The man can’t even pick up his lunch orders here without the two of you exchanging those stolen glances and burying those double entendres not nearly as deep as you both seem to think.”
It was a weird Freaky Friday moment, being on the receiving end of that particular lecture for once. Oddly, it was a little refreshing.
Her silence earned her a semi-patient eye roll and headshake. “Like I said, the guy held back a lot…considering. Which begs the all-important question. Is this about—”
Before Dani was forced to face the interrogation she could already see poised for fire in Xoey’s mind, she was rescued by the saving grace of the fourth ringing peal of the telephone.
“I’ll get it,” she called out in a rush to whoever was in earshot outside of her office.
“Ocotillos,” she answered on the fifth ring.
“So did you like the article?”
Luke.
A goaded huff expanded in her chest at the teasing tone of his voice. It seemed to be her auto-reply to the man. And while she’d never admit this unless sworn under oath by the government, only about seventy-five percent of her impending growl in response to his chuckle was out of irritation…albeit mildly entertained irritation. The remaining twenty-five percent was more a singing chorus of all the female cells in her body exalting in feral stereo to that low, perpetually grinning timbre in his voice.
He was a troublemaking temptation.
Had been from the moment he’d introduced himself weeks ago, really. And the most disconcerting part about him was how much fun he made everything. How much more fun he made her, according to the town gossip. She’d be the first to admit that she hadn’t done that in a while—just have fun with a guy. Her life hadn’t exactly allowed for it the past couple of years.
Now, she knew exactly what she’d been missing.
Which made her all the more wary.
“The cave where romance goes into hibernation?” she quoted his line from the article belatedly, trying to throw herself back into the phone call, and out of her head. Luckily, the mere repeat of that sentence was enough to get her hackles rising. The pleased laugh she could hear muffled through the receiver helped a ton as well. “You said you were going to keep it civil.”
“I did,” he threw back matter-of-factly. “I was originally going to say ‘where romance goes to die.’ Hibernation is a totally different thing. It’s temporary. Restful, even. A cuddly cave for teddy bears.” The grin coming from his end of the phone line was thoroughly audible.
It was like the man had a map of all her buttons.
As that twenty-five percent she’d been thinking about earlier was swiftly subtracting all the way down to zero, she heard the ding of his shop doorbell and a quick muted exchange in the background before he returned with, “Sorry, gorgeous. The delivery guys are finally here with the last of our delayed display cases so I have to run. Do me a favor and save some of those sexy growls for when I’m there in person for lunch. I kind of miss them when I don’t hear them at least twice a day.”
And with that, he hung up, leaving Dani to sit there with a glaring half smile on her face and a now even fifty-fifty annoyance-to-attraction percent ratio.
The man was an unapologetic troublemaker.
Who was starting to grow on her.
The sound of a gum-snap popped her reflective bubble like a pin-prick. “If you keep distracting him with all this innocent ‘non-dating,’ Luke’s going to have to push back his grand opening another week again,” Xoey teased as she checked her watch and headed out the door. No doubt because her internal alarm had just told her it was time to go bat her lashes and harass a few early bites of today’s lunch specials from the guys in the kitchen—a thoroughly unnecessary exercise seeing as how all brewpub workers ate for free, but one Xoey did daily anyway, even on her days off like today. To the cooks’ enjoyment, of course.
Meanwhile, Dani was still attempting to breathe through the uncomfortable stab in the pit of her stomach over what Xoey had just said. Nothing more than a joke of course, but it rang way too close to home, brought back the unwelcome reminder of the very thing eating her alive for the past few weeks. Gnawing guilt of the worst kind—one that was getting worse with each day she wasn’t granted an 80s-movie-style do-over for the voice mail she’d found herself leaving a few weeks back.
The voice mail before Luke had come over to apologize for his overzealous shop partner’s misguided marketing tactic that had turned more into a direct attack on Ocotillos than the playful comparison between neighboring businesses it was supposed to be. Before his apology had combusted into an all-out debate that somehow instigated this chocolate vs. beer town throwdown they were both locked in now. Before she’d even thought to put a face to the person who owned that chocolate shop at all.
Hell, Luke’s business or not, what she’d done was just wrong and she knew it. She’d been upset at their attack, yes, but that was no excuse. She never should have suggested that Ocotillos was willing to outbid the current tenant of the neighboring building space the second their start-up contract went up for long-term renewal this summer.
Via a voicemail to the business mogul who owned most of Cactus Creek.
Otherwise known as her friend Noah Jameson.
However, the fact that Noah had done nothing more than send her a cursory ‘Still intrigued; I’ll be in touch’ email in reply to the voice mail she’d left him three weeks ago, was only serving to give her the start of an ulcer.
Logically, she knew Noah’s lack of follow-up all these weeks was very likely a sign that she needed to toss her neighboring Dobson winery idea in the trash. But wrong though it most certainly was, a sliver of her heart still held out hope.
Because that would mean she could finally help her brother achieve his dreams of opening up a winery, which he’d shelved years ago so that she could live out her dreams and live down her failures.
The latter being far bigger than the former.
Even though she truly would never deem it okay to throw Luke or any of the town folks’ businesses under the bus, if one goal could cloud her vision on the matter, being able to do this for Derek would be the
one.
No matter the cost.
Three weeks ago, there had been little cost to factor in. Three weeks ago, the owner of the business next door had been an unnamed stranger who’d royally pissed her off.
And now? With every day she got to know every aggravating, but still mostly sweet and charming thing about Luke, there was most definitely a steep cost to consider. In fact, she’d steadily begun convincing herself it was a good thing that Noah had probably found some gaping hole in her winery suggestion.
But then there was the part of her—the part with two horns and a tail, for sure—which reasoned that while a Dobson winery tied to her Dobson brewpub would only work in that exact building next door, Luke could easily move his shop out and be successful anywhere. If by some far-fetched chance Noah did call her back about her proposal, she would of course insist it wasn’t her intent to get Luke booted out of town. Just…relocated elsewhere in town. Or maybe someplace better even. A bustling boutique area in Scottsdale, perhaps. It could be a win-win all around and Luke could—
Who’re you trying to kid, Dobson?
She sucked. Plain and simple. Luke was a genuinely nice guy who deserved far better than Dani Dobson. In more ways than one. Her inner vacillations on the degree to which she sucked were interrupted, however, when Mr. Nice Guy himself approached with a knee-weakening grin. All niceness aside, the man was devastating to look at. Period. Handsome was too weak a word to even pair into the description.
He was ruggedly approachable, if that was even a thing. The strong, chiseled jaw and deep, dark eyes would drag you under his spell, but his gentle, laughing smile was what would make it impossible for you to escape. And his body. Good lord. He had one of those hard bodies that suits had to be custom tailored for, the kind that a loosened tie would look ‘drop-your-panties-for-me’ on. Combine it all with his soft, sun-browned hair and the rugged five o’clock shadow of a hard-earned day, and he was Dani’s very definition of sexy.
Cowboy in the city sexy.
And he was looking at her like she’d just brought the first sunrise he’d seen in ages.
“Hey, beautiful. Quinn is manning the rest of the delivery so I thought I’d stop by a little early to get my Dani-fix with a side of lunch.” His eyes crinkled at the corners affectionately. “I swear, getting to see you and eat your food every day are my two favorite added perks for moving my shop here.”
There was that gnawing guilt again.
Dani contemplated running back to get his and Quinn’s order herself. Coward. She sent a waiter instead.
“I don’t suppose you’ve checked the brewpub’s twitter feed yet?” he asked with a teasing glint that normally would’ve had her racing off on a Scooby search for answers. But not today. All her mind could focus on right now was the corrosive pit in her stomach, growing bigger the more the man kept giving her those sexy, eye-twinkling smiles.
“I usually check it at lunch,” she replied absently, studying the cash register extra-closely to add the two lunch orders to his tab. Clicking on random buttons to avoid making eye-contact, she probably could have kept at it all day long if Luke hadn’t leaned his elbows onto the counter.
She jumped back away from the counter.
A purely olfactory response.
Her mood now spinning in a complete one-eighty, she stifled a laugh, mostly to keep from breathing in the heavy perfume smell that was clinging to him. “Let me guess, you signed up for a Farmer’s Market booth today didn’t you.”
His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Either you’re psychic or very weird things get circulated as gossip around this town. I just signed up for a booth an hour ago.”
She backed up another step. As did the sympathetic bartender standing next to her. “I take it no one warned you about the Carradine sisters before today?” Though long-retired, the two nearly identical women still ran the town center activities office as volunteers. Notorious flirts who weren’t shy about broadcasting their fifty plus years of practice in competitive dating and professional marrying, they never missed an opportunity to hug it out with any of the town men who made the mistake of getting within arm’s reach.
Understanding lit his eyes. “The two old biddies at the town center.” He shook his head and lifted his shirt to sniff it. “I took off my jacket and stuffed it in a plastic bag as soon as they finally let me leave. Is the perfume smell really that strong? I thought I was the only one suffering through it.”
Dani’s bartender reached under the back counter for an Ocotillos shirt. “On the house, man. We’ve all been there. And trust us on this, laundry won’t exorcise the smell. You need to take it to the dry cleaner. They’ll give you a Carradine sister special.”
She chuckled sympathetically. “On the plus side, this means you’re now officially one of us.”
His lips tugged up on one side. “Then it was worth it.”
And just like that, the guilt she’d been feeling multiplied tenfold. His open pleasure over being part of the town just about gutting her.
Lordy, was it possible for a person to drown in guilt?
Flicking his wrist over to check his watch, Luke quickly gathered the bags of food off the bar counter. “I’d love to stay and talk more but I have Quinn’s order in here too. Hard as it is to believe, she is actually capable of getting even, ahem, ‘witchier’ when she’s hungry.”
Dani tried to keep the tension from showing in her off-kilter smile as he gave her another warm grin on his way out. Calm down. You’re getting worked up over nothing.
Trademark Dani. She couldn’t just let it go. She had to know.
Pulling out her phone, she called her good friend Connor, who handled all of Noah’s legal paperwork and corporate research. If any information gathering or proposal vetting was going on in relation to her winery idea, the private investigator that Connor had taken with him to his new firm would be the one handling it. He was the best.
“Dani?” came Connor’s voice over the phone line, promptly after the first ring. The surprise in his tone was obvious, the concern as well. For good reason. She never usually called his cell phone. “Everything okay? You haven’t gotten yourself thrown in jail have you, young lady?”
She almost laughed then. Connor was only about seven or eight years older than she was but because he’d been friends with her father and most of the other brewpub workers from back when she’d still been in college, he always treated her like a niece.
“Hey Connor. No, no. Nothing like that. I just had a quick question for you.”
“Sure. What’s up?”
She tried to think of how best to phrase her question without breaching Connor and Noah’s attorney-client privilege. “Has, err, Noah mentioned me at all in the past few weeks? Like, say, after the holidays?”
Yeah…a covert CIA recon specialist, she was not.
The brief pause that followed had her holding her breath.
“Dani, tell me you’re kidding about this.”
Oh, crap. Was her plan really that bad? “I put a lot of thought into it, Connor. I thought it was a good idea at the time…”
“You know I’m not one to butt into other people’s choices but sweetie, trust me, this isn’t a good idea.”
Her heart plummeted to her feet. “But he sounded so interested in the winery.”
“Aw, Dani. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sure he’s interested in you. You’re beautiful and smart, and…” His tone turned incredulous. “Wait a minute. You went to a winery with Noah? Dani, tell me you didn’t already sleep with him—ˮ
“What?!” Dani looked around to see if there were any hidden prank cameras around. “What in God’s name would make you think that?” Not that Noah wasn’t handsome as sin. He was. But he was also like a brother to her. An overly intense, domineering, and grouchy as hell one at that.
Now, Connor just sounded confused. “So you’re not calling me to ask if Noah’s been ‘talking’ about you?”
“Good lord, Connor. What do you th
ink I am? Twelve? No, I’m not calling to see if Noah likes-me-likes-me. I was talking strictly in the business-sense.”
A relieved chuckle rang out over the phone line. “Do me a favor and lead with that next time. Noah’s a great guy and all, but I would have hosted an intervention if you were actually sleeping with him.” Sounding like his usual self again, Connor questioned curiously, “Okay, so what’s this business talk you were asking about? Noah never mentioned anything about a winery.”
“Nothing,” she replied quickly. Well, there was her answer. Noah hadn’t even brought her idea up to Connor, who he always ran everything past. He wasn’t pursuing it, and he hadn’t even bothered to start looking into it. “Never mind, Connor. Forget I asked. It wasn’t a big deal.”
Connor’s voice sobered again. “I’m sorry I misunderstood, sweetie. Go on and ask your question. Were you looking into some investments or something? Because I can have—ˮ
“No,” she interrupted, just wanting to get this phone call over with ASAP. The winery idea is dead. Move on. “I was just checking into something for a friend. But I think we have enough info. Thanks though.”
“You sure?” he asked, clearly unconvinced.
“Yep. Listen, I have to get going. The lunch rush is starting. Come by and bring that beautiful new baby in with you sometime, you hear?”
That brought forth a proud-papa smile she could hear crystal clear over the phone line as they exchanged their goodbyes. She kept it light, hoping he’d forget about the conversation as soon as they hung up. The last thing she wanted was him to mention her call to Noah and have another human being hear about her fanciful business proposal.
As she pocketed her cell phone, she pushed back the embarrassment over the situation, thinking Noah merciful now for choosing not to call her instead of making her feel even more foolish by ‘letting her down gently.’
At least now she knew. Her idea was pretty risky as far as investments go.
She put a hand to her belly to keep it from bottoming out as she exhaled slowly, dividing her focus between telling herself there would be other chances for Derek’s winery, and trying to convince her guilty conscience that forgetting about this whole mess was the best for everyone involved.