Love, Chocolate, and Beer
Page 1
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright © 2014 Violet Duke
Book Description
Other Titles by the Author
Dedication
Note to Readers
A LITTLE COMBUSTIBLE CHEMISTRY
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
LOVE, CHOCOLATE, AND BEER
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Coming Soon
About the Author
LOVE, CHOCOLATE, AND BEER
A CACTUS CREEK NOVEL
-- PLUS --
A LITTLE COMBUSTIBLE CHEMISTRY
(Bonus Prequel Novella)
BY
VIOLET DUKE
COPYRIGHT © 2014 VIOLET DUKE
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, this book and any portion thereof may not be reproduced, scanned, transferred, or distributed in any print or electronic form without the express written permission of the author. Participation in any aspect of piracy of copyrighted materials, inclusive of the obtainment of this book through non-retail or other unauthorized means, is in actionable violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, media, brands, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and registered trademark owners of all branded names referenced without TM, SM, or (R) symbols due to formatting constraints, and is not claiming ownership of or collaboration with said trademark brands. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is purely coincidental.
Copyedits by Mickey Reed Editing and Danielle Romero Editing Services
Cover design by Violet Duke
Ebook ISBN: 1941198996
Ebook ISBN-13: 978-1-941198-99-5
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Romance has met its most unlikely match-up…
Luke Bradford is a chocolatier on a mission. After moving his chocolate shop, and newly single life, to the quirky town of Cactus Creek, Luke wants nothing more than to devote all his energy into making his business a success—by taking the romance market by storm. But his grand plans get thrown for a loop when he locks horns with the feisty beer-brewing beauty next door who calls his ‘romantic idealism’ a load of fairytale bull. Soon, driving the woman sparking nuts becomes another wickedly fun priority he simply can’t get enough of.
In his defense, she’s addictively easy to incite…and plain impossible to resist.
Beloved local brewmaster Dani Dobson is beyond riled up. It’s bad enough the new shop owner in town comes locked and loaded with both a distractingly rugged charm and sexy flashing dimples, but the whole only-in-the-movies variety of romance he’s selling—the kind her world has been crushed by before—is really doing a number on her allergy to unrealistic clichés. What’s worse, he’s created an annoyingly clever ad campaign that dubs ‘beer joints’ like hers as the “cave where romance goes to hibernate.” The nerve of that man.
Combustible chemistry or not, damn it, this means war. The stakes…very likely, her heart.
OTHER TITLES BY THE AUTHOR
NICE GIRL TO LOVE (Serial Romance) Series
RESISTING THE BAD BOY, Book #1
FALLING FOR THE GOOD GUY, Book #2
CHOOSING THE RIGHT MAN, Book #3
NICE GIRL TO LOVE
(The Complete Three-Book Collection)
FINDING THE RIGHT GIRL
(A Nice GUY to Love spin-off novel)
CACTUS CREEK Series
A LITTLE COMBUSTIBLE CHEMISTRY
-- Available Now --
LOVE, CHOCOLATE, AND BEER
-- Available Now --
LOVE, SIDEARMS, AND ARMBARS
Coming May 2014
A LITTLE FUTILE RESISTANCE
Coming July 2014
LOVE, ENDZONES, AND SIDELINES
Coming September 2014
A LITTLE HOLIDAY MEDDLING
Coming November 2014
DEDICATION
To my Facebook fans.
I absolutely adore hanging out with you all every day.
Stay awesome.
NOTE TO READERS
Since this novel’s short prequel novella, A LITTLE COMBUSTIBLE CHEMISTRY, is not free at all the eretailers yet, I’ve included it at the start of the novel in this special combined edition. Note that it is recommended you read the prequel before the novel.
The prequel is a short, fun precursor to LOVE, CHOCOLATE, AND BEER that I wrote as a free gift to all of you for being such wonderful fans. Enjoy!
A LITTLE COMBUSTIBLE CHEMISTRY
(Prequel Novella to Love, Chocolate, and Beer)
CHAPTER ONE
“DANI! We’re running low on top shelf tequila; I’ve been promising the cooks indecent favors so they’ll run back to keep my red ale line on tap; and seriously, what does a girl need to do to get more ice? Where’s that new barback and why the hell isn’t he doing his job?!”
Rushing back from the brewery, Dani Dobson swooped under a waiter's tray of food and hustled over to keep her brewpub’s best bartender from indulging in a little frustration-releasing attack on a now petrified barback and his apparently twice-forewarned bro-globes.
Not that she could fire the nutty hothead either way.
Aside from being her best friend, Xoey was a veritable bartending rockstar in these parts, a wild, glorious fun-magnet adored by all, replaceable by none.
Good lord, she could sell warm beer on a hot day. Seeing Xoey dial up the flirt-tending and begin basically grifting customers into switching up to pricier liquors, Dani knew the excess of empty liquor bottles on the shelves was the reason why. Cringing, she quickly sent a waiter to assist the new barback with his restocking duties before she jumped in to help catch them up on drink orders. “Give the poor guy a break, Xo. It’s been a busy week.”
“Oh please.” Xoey snorted. “You hired me during Mardi Gras. I handled it just fine.”
“Ha! Only because the tightly bound twins on your chest were mesmerizing the men into sucking up all the drink orders you botched.”
“Slander!” she cried back with an indignant smile dipped. “It wasn’t just the men.”
Amidst the resulting four-guy pile up that crashed into the bar at that declaration, it was the droll PSA one of them made on the dangers of driving with a stick near Xoey that caused a riot of laughter all around. Amplified further when another went down on drunken knee to ask for Xoey’s hand in marriage.
Dani chuckled. She loved this new crowd that had started coming into Ocotillos lately. They were a tad younger and rowdier than she was used to but the whole brewpub seemed to feed off their energy. That was reward enough for all the social media plugging she’d been doing the past few months, a collective undertaking by the area’s entire motley crew business community to draw more folks to their little town of Cactus Creek.
Her custom-made heaven on earth.
While not without its addictive charms, Cactus Creek was...well, unique. Water-strewn desert bac
kdrops and equally atypical residents made the town a far cry from the quaint tourist spots touted on Arizona billboards. Fancy lattes with warm slices of Americana they were not; hell, the only antiques they sold were antique arms. Instead, they boasted funky craft beers, oddball novelty shops, and down-home fusion eateries where culinary references to ‘the south’ were usually of a country between Mexico and Chile. More fun than sleepy, and comfy without being colonial, the only reason the town was often mislabeled ‘eclectically historic’ was because its stubborn-ass residents had kept all their favorite parts while still growing up with the times.
Over the years, most of Dani’s time and money had gone to nurturing the same process of selective evolution for her brewpub as well. Sure, Ocotillos was now drastically cooler than the simple tavern with a simple name her dad had run it as, but its beer remained constant. Just as Dobson as the blood in her veins, born and bred exactly as her dad had taught her to brew.
Speaking of… Dani finished tying on one of the new bartending half-aprons Xoey had designed for them, all the while sending a belated apology over to the photo of her father on the wall for not having thought to put a leash on Xoey’s creativity.
The girl was quite the dirty slogan savant.
Then again, it probably would’ve made him laugh his ass off, she mused, a wry grin tweaking her lips at the thought. As if in confirmation, his jolly photo smiled back at her, mirroring the image she held onto of him in her mind.
It had been over three years now. Three years, but a part of her still expected to see him striding in that brewery door with the unconditionally doting smile he’d always had on reserve just for her.
She missed having someone love her like that.
The sudden burst of applause trickling down from the terrace had Dani silently cursing and ducking out from the bar—and her memories. She raced up the stairs to the rooftop deck she’d built a few summers ago, bobbing and weaving through the cram-packed sea of weekend Romeos on the prowl, trendy nine-to-fivers partying their hard week away, and co-ed clusters blithely kicking off the start of their winter break with a bang.
Thankfully, the musicians had thrown in an adlib bit to give her time to hop on stage and snag the mic. “Let’s hear it again for Rylan Grey and his band, everyone!” she hollered, drawing forth a fresh wave of raucous hoots from the crowd. “Okay, it’s time for me to feed these guys, so until they start their next set, the band break power hour starts right now: half price on tonight’s food specials and BOGO on all your beers!”
Another round of merriment echoed into the night just as Rylan swallowed her up in his customary post-set bear hug. She planted a laughing kiss on his cheek and high-fived the rest of his guys, Vanna-Whiting her smartphone screen proudly for the single ones. “Tweets from girls wanting to jump you all right here on my deck? I’d say your fan base is evolving very nicely.”
Rylan’s drummer put his drumsticks up to his heart. “God bless higher education.”
With a chuckling headshake, Dani waited for Aidan to tuck his never-leaves-his-sight drumsticks in his back pocket before walking the group over to the table she kept blocked off for them each week, already piled high with a hodgepodge of their usual dinner favorites.
Rylan pulled a chair out for her and flipped the one beside it around for himself before taking a swig from the mug of rye ale she’d eagerly slid before him.
And then she waited.
His brows shot up midway through his first gulp, before drifting back slowly as his eyelids slid down to an appreciative half-mast. Nearly half the beer was gone before he finally set the mug back down with a satisfied whistle. “Wow. That’s one hell of a beer, sweets. You making this the official winter brew?”
Dani beamed. “Thanks to you. After what you said about the last trial batch, I added ginger to enhance the malty milk sugar and honey.” She kissed her fingertips. “Voila, the Rylan Red was born. I’m the only one who calls it that but still, feel free to be completely honored.”
“Well call me Rumplestiltskin; I done taught you to spin straw into gold.” He kissed her hand with a drizzle of country charm. “Now that you’ve named one of your babies after me, what say you change your last name to Grey as well, love? Make an honest man outta me.”
“Goofball.” She swatted his hand away. “And risk the wrath of your rabid female fans?”
A teasing voice called out, “I’d be more worried about the male ones. Shoot, they’ll yank your hair right out at the roots.” When Xoey popped her head around the corner, the guys cheered and fist-bumped her in welcome while Aidan quickly snaked her onto his lap.
Cartoon waves of steam were sizzling off the pair within seconds, Aidan’s drumsticks no longer the attention-gathering focal point where his rocker jeans were concerned.
“Aaand, that’s our cue to go.” Dani promptly hopped up to drag Xoey over to the safe end of the table by her belt loops, editorializing on behalf of them all drily. “You know, Xo, if you’d just seal the deal with the guy already, the rest of us wouldn’t need a cold shower just from seeing you two say hello.”
A chorus of ‘amen’ sounded from the entire band.
Aidan’s sounding the most reverent of them all.
“Tempting.” Xoey hummed over the suggestion—or intervention rather—before sighing, “But I wouldn’t want to corrupt the poor man.” She tossed a positively carnal wink Aidan’s way. “Yet.”
The guys roared and elbowed their theatrically smitten drummer.
Dani joined the laughs for a bit before ruffling Rylan’s hair and making her exit, giving a green light for the small group of band bunnies hovering nearby to swoop in. Despite the guys’ hard rule of never getting cozy with groupies, she still liked giving them space to enjoy the bunny attention.
Zigzagging down the crowded stairwell back to the bar, Dani greeted a few regulars before heading over to her usual tending area behind the bar and sliding a sideways glance over at Xoey. “So…looks like hell freezing over hasn’t changed the temperature between you and Aidan one bit.” She snickered at Xoey’s petulant glower. “Told you that mistletoe make-out session you two had last month was just going to make everything worse.”
“And I told you I’m not taking love life advice from a woman who doesn’t have a life outside of this brewpub,” hissed Xoey, flicking off Dani’s teasing—literally—before coming to an abrupt halt.
Whatever riveting thing she’d just spotted made her thorny expression suddenly slow-melt away to…amusement. Highly suspicious. Dani’s eyes narrowed as Xoey began chastising her with the same ole lecture, with seemingly new objectives, “The amount you’ve been working this year is obscene, Dani. Far worse than your usual recreational workaholism. You are simply too hot to be going through an eleven-month dryspell.”
Dani felt color flood her cheeks as she shot a look around at everyone within earshot before sending Xoey a keep-talking-and-I’ll-kill-you look.
Ignoring it, Xoey steamrolled on, eyes alit with best friend mischief. “As the foremost objector to your recent unhealthy lifestyle choices, I’m duty-bound to point out that—” she stabbed her finger, ever so indiscreetly, at the criminally good-looking man a few tables down from them— “panty-melting chiseled goodness over there is back again. And he definitely wants you all kinds of naked right now.”
* * * * *
LUKE BRADFORD didn’t know why the almost irrationally sexy bartender in the too-tight top was pointing at him and frankly, he didn’t much care. It was the one with the killer smile beside her, the brunette he’d caught fleeting glimpses of the last few weeks—even chatted with once or twice in passing—that gripped his attention yet again. She was tucking her sleek, dark chocolate hair behind an ear in seemingly shy reflex and he just sat there with the round he’d just bought the guys, unable to take his eyes off her.
“Holy shit,” breathed Isaac, jabbing him in the gut. “I think that goddess at the bar is pointing at you. Do you know her?”
Luk
e could barely hear him. Or much of anything for that matter. The echoed statement from their other friends at the table that the woman was way too much for Isaac to handle? Practically white noise. The rest of the sounds all around him? Becoming more muted by the second.
His sole focus remained on the other bartender—the hardest working one there by his estimation. Even as her friend was telling her something that obviously involved him, the woman hardly paused long enough to spare a quick glance in his direction.
Just as well. He wasn’t sure he would’ve survived a lengthier look than that. Though she’d doused it quickly, a sizzling, ultra feminine awareness had flared in her eyes in the brief moment they’d met his, and now a sweet, honest-to-god farm-girl blush was pinking her cheeks.
Man, oh man, was he in trouble.
If the girl next door had an unpredictable, feisty twin sister, this woman would be her. With her adorably stubborn frown and quiet, kitten gaze still mulishly refusing to look directly at him again, she was drawing him in—hook, line, and sinker.
Luke stopped trying to hide his interest then. He was doing a lousy job at it anyhow. He decided instead to up the blatancy level of his gaze considerably. Dare her to play. When she eventually, reluctantly, briefly succumbed—to politely glare him off mostly—he let his triumphant grin deploy his dimples, somehow knowing that would rile her enough to make her drop her defenses just a little bit more.
It did.
To his competitive delight, she instantly went on the offense, covertly returning his stare head-on and dropping the checkered flag for the silent game of Chicken that followed.
Hot damn.
One scorching, hard-fought minute later, victory was his.