by Violet Duke
Figures it was a song by him.
The musician who’d had the audacity to wink at her from across the rooftop deck of Ocotillos an hour ago, knowing full well she’d been trying to pretend he didn’t exist.
But of course she knew he existed. She’d seen him around town exactly twice, and treated both events like a passing sunset—something breathtaking to look at for a short while, but nothing to write home about.
Alright, so maybe she finally understood why folks took photos of sunsets.
He was disturbingly attractive. Too tough-looking to be called handsome exactly, but all the more appealing for it. Gruffly sexy was a better description—damningly so—in the rawest, grittiest way possible. He had one of those bodies, the kind built like a tank with muscles for days that molded to tshirts, making plain old cotton look ridiculously good.
And don’t even get her started on his face.
He was…intense, to say the least. His rugged jawline inspired visions of him cracking walnuts with his molars for fun, and the entire distractingly male effect was roughened even more by not a beard per-se, more like a five o’clock shadow he’d clearly let grow for an extra day or two while he was out chopping wood and wrestling with bears.
The man was positively primal.
If not for his laughing golden eyes and soft brown rumpled-from-my-sleeping-bag hair, he’d look unapproachably intimidating. Not that she had any intention whatsoever of approaching him—
“So is the truce off?” Luke leaned against the doorway to their joint office, grinning. “Can I begin teasing you mercilessly again?”
She glowered at him. Luke catching her looking at the singing lumberjack earlier was now disrupting the balance of who got to tease who in their nearly decade-long friendship, and it was not sitting well with her. “If you do, I’ll make you deal with the vendors for all those precious ingredients you’re always wanting, AND make you do your own inventory for the next month.”
She didn’t dare threaten longer than a month; she didn’t want their entire business to go under just to return to their status quo.
He blanched. “Fine. I won’t reference the fact that you were eye-humping a perfect stranger today.”
Rylan. Dani had mentioned the guy’s name was Rylan, and Quinn was really hoping Luke wouldn’t remember it because for some reason, even his name was having a strange effect on her insides.
Luke quietly went to his desk to get some work done.
Yeah…that was probably going to only last 3, 2…
“So Rylan? Really?”
There were those name-induced flutters in her stomach.
Luke shook his head in amazement. “That guy is the polar opposite of the guys you usually date.”
Aw, that was sweet—him saying ‘usually’ like the small handful of times she’d dated in the last six years constituted anything short of spinsterhood. Avoiding Luke’s probing gaze, she shrugged carelessly. “So he’s easy on the eyes, what of it? He’s also a gigantic player, which by female law, makes it okay for me to ogle him and not feel bad about it in the least.”
And that’s all it had been. Ogling, not interest. God knows she’d exhausted her need of a guy like that long ago. Regardless of how every female cell in her body was arguing the point.
“How do you know he’s a player?”
She kept her tone light and uninterested. “I saw him through the shop window before our meeting, out in the front of the brewpub. One minute, he has what looked like a college girl in his arms, treating her like his princess, and maybe a half hour later, I see him over in the side alley, up against a wall making out with a waitress like she was being paid to excavate his mouth to prevent gingivitis.”
But of course it got worse. “Then, while we were downstairs in the brewpub waiting for them to find Dani, he was at the top of the stairwell flirting with all those band bunnies like a hound dog, even signing one of the girl’s hips like he was freaking branding her.” Gross. “And not even five minutes after that, he was up on stage getting handsy with Dani, just seconds after he’d been staring at me like…” She trailed off. It didn’t really matter how he’d been staring at her. “The guy is a walking cliché.”
Luke waited until she was done with her tirade to gently say, “Sweetie, just because he had women throwing themselves at him doesn’t mean he’s taking what they’re offering. He’s not your ex.”
She knew that. She’d never been one to compare guys to her ex before—that’d be setting her bar for basic human decency way too low. Somewhere around subterranean. Still, what was wrong with giving a wide berth to something that smelled suspiciously like a skunk? “Why are you defending him? You always take my side.”
Luke shrugged. “That’s because you’ve always been right. Until now. I saw the way he was looking at you.”
Oh, so he saw it too. “How…how was he looking at me?”
“Like you were the only woman in the room.”
Dammit. She felt a silly school girl flash of hope over that one statement…which she ruthlessly expunged. “But I wasn’t. That’s my point. He was flocked with women throughout the day. Even if I hadn’t already seen him with two different women in the span of thirty minutes, all his little groupies are enough for me to not want to touch him with a ten-foot pole…even if the pole was double-wrapped in a long-ass condom.” For one very, very brief and fleeting second, she allowed her memories of her ex to tarnish her brain. “One day, the temptation of all those women will be too much. Look at Brody. He cheated on me with his groupies while I was pregnant.”
“Brody was a brainless, heartless dick with no balls,” snarled Luke. “That jackass’s lack of restraint had nothing to do with him being a musician and everything to do with him being an unredeemable lowlife already booked on a first class ticket to hell.”
He didn’t know the half of it.
All the memories she’d worked hard to forget seeped back in for a beat before she shut that flood gate down again. “But it wasn’t just Brody. His band mates, the other musicians he partied with. They were all the same way. Some fought it pretty valiantly. Others at least looked guilty while going off with some random skank. But they all did it, in some awful way, shape or form. And I sat and watched it day in and day out.” A tired sigh dislodged from her throat. “I’m not saying that all musicians are douches. I’m not that narrow-minded. Just…why take the chance, you know? Why set myself up to get my heart stomped on again?”
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I get it.”
Sadly, he really did. She knew exactly how many times Luke had gotten his heart banged up in the name of love.
But at least he’d had a chance to fall in love…
The jangling bell on the shop door put an end to their little joint pity fest, seconds before an adorable little human came flying at her. “Mommy!”
She grinned down at her son, the one and only good thing to come out of her relationship with Brody. The one tiny little miracle that kept her heart full every day. “Hey sweetie, how was your day?” Waving at her sister through the storefront window as she drove off, Quinn picked Cooper up and squeezed him tight. “How crazy did you and your cousins drive Aunt Penny today?”
“Super crazy!” announced Cooper proudly.
She didn’t doubt it. When Penny’s twins and Coop got together, chaos and Godzilla-like mayhem were a given. Though to be fair, sometimes Penny was the trio’s official ring leader in creating crazy pandemonium.
They still couldn’t show their faces at that toy store in Mesa.
“Aunt Penny said we could come over tomorrow to make Christmas cookies. And to tell you to please bring mac and cheese.” Cooper hopped over to Luke. “Wanna come too? Aunt Penny said you don’t have to bring anything but your dimples!”
Quinn rolled her eyes. Penny adored Luke to no end. He was the baby brother she’d have exchanged Quinn for if she could’ve. And Luke ate up the adoration with a spoon.
“Wouldn’t miss it, buddy
.” Luke ruffled Cooper’s hair. “If fact, why don’t we walk over to the store today and get some extra cookie decorations. Your aunt and the girls probably forgot to get the car and dinosaur shaped sprinkles.”
Coop’s eyes grew to the size of saucers. “They always only have the pink hearts and rainbow star sprinkles.”
“Women,” Luke mock-sighed. “Let’s go get some manly sprinkles for our cookies.”
Quinn chuckled. Luke was so great with kids. Cooper really needed a good male figure to look up to, and Luke had been their rock from the day Coop was born.
“Mommy?” Cooper turned to her with all the seriousness of a preschooler. “What are wiles?”
Oh, joy. Her sister had taught Cooper something new today. “What was Aunt Penny saying when she used that word, honey?”
“She said she was going to use her somethin’ wiles on Uncle Peter to get a bigger van.”
Luke chimed in then so very helpfully, “Your aunt was talking about this secret power girls use on us boys all the time.”
Shaking her head, she admonished, “You’re worse than my sister. I won’t be surprised if I get another note from his teacher on Monday about the ‘interesting’ things Cooper tells his friends during snack time.”
Luke just looked even more pleased. Meanwhile, Cooper was studying her with a scientific, highly skeptical brow furrow. “Does mommy have these super powers too?”
She was a teeny bit affronted at how incredulous he sounded, but still answered in complete honesty, “Nope, sorry bud. I’ve lost all my wiles, I’m afraid.”
“Not true,” countered Luke, “your mommy’s still got ‘em.”
Aw, sometimes the man could be surprisingly sweet.
“She just completely forgot how to use them,” he added. “Since it’s been so long since she’s used them last.”
Aaand, that was more like him.
Cooper nodded disappointedly, visibly unsurprised. “Yeah, mommy’s been forgetting lots of stuff lately. She even lost the ear phones you let her borrow before. Oops, I wasn’t s’pposed to tell you that.”
Traitor. Quinn whistled innocently.
Luke shot her a look. Probably because she’d convinced him the other day that he’d lost those very earphones himself—he fell for it every time. To be fair, he lost way more of her stuff than she did his.
“You know what, though,” continued Luke, with an evil gleam in his eye, “I’m pretty sure I saw mommy using her wiles on a new friend she made today. I think she might actually be using her powers all the time in secret, and just not telling us about it.”
While Quinn was busy giving Luke a dirty look, Cooper wandered over to one of the college-looking kids who was leveling the concrete subfloor. “Has my mommy used her super powers on you?”
The guy turned red and started coughing.
She was certain this was sexual harassment on some horrifyingly weird level.
Despite herself, she felt a smile stretch across her face when, undaunted, Cooper next went straight over to the biggest guy in the room, a mammoth granite counter guy with trunk-like forearms, who promptly proceeded to duck away.
That was a Christiansen trait right there—intimidating giant men who had no business being afraid of them. Like mother like son. She was so proud.
When said granite guy then stopped and stared at her, transfixed, she grew annoyed.
Yes, yes, Quinn had heard that a smile transforms her face. But c’mon. Geez, it wasn’t like she didn’t ever smile. A scowl flitted across her face, and that seemed to break the spell. Big Granite Guy reached over for some tools to start working again, seemingly relieved that he recognized her frowning face again.
Okay, so maybe she could smile a little bit more.
But a few seconds later, she was reminded again just why she didn’t.
The silence that usually filled the shop, suddenly shattered as eight men began talking at once.
“Well, your mom is pretty cute when she takes off her shoes and she thinks no one can see that her feet are dancing barefoot under the desk when she’s working…”
“Hey, what about when she crosses and uncrosses her legs when she’s yelling at someone on the phone? That’s pretty dang—”
“You numb nuts, not in front of the kid!”
More private discussions on her different feminine wiles broke out all around and Luke lifted a fist up to his mouth to cover a cough…which sounded suspiciously like a laugh. When the coughing fit passed, he put his hands over Cooper’s ears and quickly steered him to the door.
“Don’t you dare leave,” hissed Quinn.
It was possible her warning never reached Luke’s ears because it happened at the exact moment when one of the guys asked, in utter reverence, “Holy crap, do you guys remember when she first tasted that new white chocolate Luke came in with the day before yesterday? Lord, I almost dropped my sander over that one…”
Half the room murmured wholeheartedly in agreement, while the other half sounded put out that they’d missed it. The descriptions that resounded to fill in that latter half had Luke’s coughs turning into tear-filled choking spasms.
He could very well keel over for all she cared. She wouldn’t even give him CPR if he did.
And for good reason. Because the insufferable man proceeded to then do the unthinkable.
Eyes alit with mischief, Luke waggled his brows and tsked—loud enough for the entire room to hear, “Sounds to me like you and Rylan might be a good fit after all, you seductress, you.”
She gasped. Hands on her hips, she put the full weight of her artic glare on him, attempting to vaporize him on the spot. It would’ve worked too, she was sure of it, if a whistle from one of the carpenters didn’t make her falter.
“Yep,” the guy muttered to his buddy. “That one’s distracting as hell too. When she does that whole hot scolding kindergarten teacher thing.”
The resulting debate about the hotness of kindergarten teachers and librarians had her jaw dropping open in shock. What was happening to her carefully frozen ice queendom? Where were the averted eyes? The hushed air of fear that always surrounded her like an awesome little bubble wherever she went?
It was like the men were no longer scared of her.
A pair of young lackeys came up to her a few seconds later. “Hey, did he say Rylan? Rylan Grey? We know him. He’s a really great guy. Want us to put in a good word for you?”
That made the entire room start talking, and oh so helpfully, offering the same. Apparently, they all knew Rylan. Fabulous.
Luke, wisely using Cooper as a human shield, made a run for it down the sidewalk then, not even bothering to cover up his laughter at all at this point.
Ignoring all the advice the still-chattering men were giving her about how to ‘land’ Rylan, she spun around on her heel and headed back to the office.
…To dump a huge pile of vendor and inventory paperwork on her now ex best friend’s desk.
CHAPTER THREE
Three Weeks Later
“THIS COMPETITION was inspired.”
Glancing up at the sound of Luke’s awed statement from across the Ocotillos rooftop deck, Rylan was surprised to find that he was in complete agreement with the man’s assessment.
This crazy little throwdown between Dani and Luke was going to go down in the history books for sure.
To say the town was excited for it was an understatement. They’d been buzzing about it all through the holidays, eagerly waiting for another heated battle between the pair like the one that had taken place atop the rooftop a few weeks back before Christmas. And they’d all gotten their wish when Luke had officially thrown down the gauntlet publicly yesterday in the first town newsletter of the year, which had welcomed both Desert Confections and the official start of the two-and-a-half month showdown between Desert Confections and Ocotillos.
Chocolate vs Beer…for romance supremacy on Valentine’s Day.
He shook his head. Only in Cactus Creek.
&nb
sp; At first, Rylan had thought the whole crazy competition between Dani and Luke was going to be a recipe for disaster. Not that he didn’t have all the faith in the world in Dani—the woman was actually a pretty hardcore romantic, even if she didn’t realize it. But he’d been more worried that this whole gladiator-level battle brewing between the pair was going to kill her chances with the guy…who she was so clearly into.
But then Luke had come up with this whole chocolate commercial filmed in the brewpub idea…that apparently, the suicidal man had somehow managed to get Dani to agree to. Right then and there, Rylan knew that Luke was in it to win it.
Not the throwdown, but rather, the fight for Dani’s heart.
That had been the only reason he’d agreed to sing in the commercial for Luke—well, the hilarity factor of the whole thing was part of it too, of course. But mostly, it was to support the man in his quest to win Dani over.
Now that the filming of the commercial was over, however, Rylan had to admit, it had turned out pretty damn good.
“Tell me that didn’t go as well as it sounded,” sighed Dani dramatically, as she planted herself next to him with a forlorn sigh and a peeved scowl aimed at the back of Luke’s head.
Right. He forgot Dani had been ‘forced’ to stay downstairs during the entire filming.
Seriously, that Luke was a freakin’ hoot.
“You know where our loyalties lie, sweetie. If you want, I can go over to Aidan right now and have him mess with the video editing. Just say the word.” He was lying, of course, but it got him the small smile he’d been looking for.
“No,” she replied grudgingly, just as he knew she would. “I can beat Luke without resorting to cheating.” Her furrowed brows lifted with inspiration. “Doesn’t mean I can’t fight a little dirty though.”
With her eyes still trained on Luke, Dani yanked out her phone and started tapping out a quick text, a rather devious grin on her face the whole time.