by Violet Duke
“You gave up on us,” he whispered, his voice bleak.
Dani stared at the chocolate in his hands and started crying again.
Luke stepped in quickly and shut the door behind him. “Please don’t, Dani. I swear, what you saw was nothing like what you’re imagining. She’s just—”
“Your ex. The one who left you at the altar.”
“A day before the altar,” he corrected before blinking, confused. “How did you know?”
“You always have the same look on your face when you talk about her.” She took in a shattered breath and shrugged with forced nonchalance. “You two clearly share something special. I’m happy for you. You don’t owe me anything; we were just fooling around, right?”
“I damn well wasn’t,” he practically shouted through gritted teeth. “And if you expect me to believe you’ve been ‘just fooling around’ with me this whole time, you must think I’m even dumber than you thought I was two minutes ago.”
“I-I never thought you were dumb!” she gasped, shocked. “If my dad had wanted a second go with my mom after she left him, I would’ve supported him.” She tried her best to put on a brave smile. “I think it’s great. Love deserves as many chances as—”
He yanked her to him and placed a searing kiss on her lips. “I meant two minutes ago when you thought I’d let you run out of my life. Dani, you should know me better than that.”
She clung to him for a hopeful second before pushing him away. “No! You can’t do this. You can’t still be in love with another woman and be in love with...” She broke off, eyes wide. “That is, if you’re still even...” Her gaze dropped to the floor. “I know I’m not the most romantic person in the world, but I have a heart. You’ll end up breaking it. So please...just go.”
“You,” said Luke quietly, stroking her cheek tenderly, “are such a gigantic fraud.”
“What?”
“You. A fraud. You’re an even bigger romantic than I am.” He gently put the chocolate down and slid the curtain of hair she was hiding behind away from her eyes. “Deep down, you believe in finding the person of your dreams just like I do. Dani, you’re that woman for me. The one of my dreams. In all my dreams.”
With unyielding doubt, she shook her head. “I saw you and your ex together. It’s clear you two loved each other deeply.” Her voice cracked. “And that you still do.”
“Of course I still love her. I always will.” His eyes searched her face. “But that love absolutely pales in comparison to what I feel for you.”
“It can’t possibly! You spent years with her.”
He cradled her face, forced her to meet his gaze. “It’s not about time. It’s just about us.”
“What about us?!” She laughed bitterly. “We’re just...God, what are we? Neighbors with benefits? You two were ready to say ‘I do’. A day from getting married. How can you say you want a future with me when you were ready to spend that same future with her? You can’t have forever with more than one person!” Her agony raged with frustration.
“My mother did,” he reasoned quietly.
“And so did mine,” she countered bitterly. Her voice was so small, he almost didn’t hear her whisper, “But my father didn’t.” She gripped her fingers into his shirt. “What if you’re destined to have your mother’s future, and I’m destined to have my father’s?”
He covered her pounding heart with his hand. “Sweetie, I don’t think you realize your heart got broken long before your relationship with that unnamed asshole you still can’t bring yourself to tell me about. You heart broke when your mom left you all and it never truly got fixed. How could it? You watched your dad continue to love your mom his entire life, even though that love never came back to him. Your heart was already vulnerable before your ex all but destroyed it.” Then he put her hand on his heart. “My heart’s been broken too—a lot. But being with you... Dani, I just love you so much. Every day, in every way, you’ve helped heal my heart.”
Gathering her close, he whispered, “So let me do the same for you. Let me love you.”
Fresh tears glittered her eyes.
“I know it’s a risk. For you and me, Dani. Look at my life; I’m a realist about how things never work out the way we expect. And even though loving you may end up crushing my heart, I’m not going to stop believing in forever love or the possibility that you’ll be the one sharing it with me.” He drew in a slow breath and stroked a hand through her hair. “Loving you is something I can’t not do in the same way I can’t just stop needing oxygen. Not knowing how long I’m going to keep breathing isn’t going to stop me from taking my next breath.”
She hid her face against his chest, her tears soaking his shirt.
“So maybe I’m not that guy from the movies who knows without a shadow of a doubt that he’ll get the girl and they’ll end up happily ever after. I’m just a guy who loves you so much that, even without the guarantee of the happily ever after, I’ll love you uncontrollably anyway.” He wrapped her up in his arms. “I just hope that one day, even if you still don’t believe in forever, you’ll at least find yourself loving me beyond today or tomorrow too.”
Her heart just about burst out of her rib cage at his words. She responded immediately. Though it came out as a rumbled purr against his skin that paused his hand mid-stroke in her hair.
“What?” he asked.
More inaudible words went into hiding in his shirt.
“Woman, the very least you could do after I declare my hopeless, undying devotion to you is speak loud enough for me to hear your response.”
She jerked her head up and mock-glared at him. “You’re so pushy! And unbelievably moronic if you think you’re not even more impossibly, ridiculously romantic than any guy in any stupid movie.” She tried to maintain her composure as a sexy, happy grin transformed his face from handsome to gut-punchingly magnificent. “And those aren’t even your worst qualities! You’re sneaky, old-fashioned, and…insatiable! I have no clue why I already love you beyond just today or tomorrow, but I do.” At the elation she saw lighting his eyes, a small, irrepressible smile snuck past her lips. “I clearly need to have my head examined!” she quipped dryly.
“Well,” he sighed, “not the most romantic declaration of love, but then again, you are Dani Dobson.”
She stomped on his foot and blocked his efforts at a kiss.
Laughing and nursing his now bruised foot, he fell backward onto her sofa, pulling her down with him. “And that’s why I love you so much,” he finished.
Smiling, she curled up against him and finally gave him the kiss he’d been seeking.
“Again,” he urged, moving on to nuzzle her ear. “I want to hear the words once more.”
“You’re pushy and unbelievably moronic—” Dani halted with a laugh when his teeth nipped her earlobe in warning. “And I love you. Beyond just today or tomorrow.”
A happy male sigh hummed out of him. He gathered her in close and tipped her head back. “So that chocolate you made for me was your way of telling me that?”
Shrugging, she answered truthfully. “Honestly, I just wanted to make it for you; I didn’t really think about why.”
“You hopeless romantic.”
She rolled her eyes then grinned mischievously as she reached for the piece of chocolate in question. When she turned back to him, she put on the best puppy-dog expression she could muster without giggling. “You’re not going to deprive me of seeing you taste it, are you Luke? I worked so hard on it.” Blinking, she held up the dirt-covered chocolate to him expectantly.
He looked from the chocolate to her devil-angel expression and then snapped the chocolate up in his mouth, her fingers and all.
“Stop!” she yelped, not letting go of the chocolate. “Spit it out! It has dirt and who knows what else all over it from the ground. Stop! I was kidding!”
He held on stubbornly with lips and teeth, eyes dancing in that I-called-your-bluff way.
“Fine, fine! I’ll make you a new one!”
His eyebrows lowered, silently demanding she up the ante.
She narrowed her eyes and harrumphed. When his tongue licked at her fingers to rush her along, she groused. “I. Am. Sorry.” Her voice melted. “I shouldn’t have just thrown this chocolate away. I will make you a hundred more.” She settled against him much more snugly, enjoyment chiming in her voice when he lit like a fuse. “And I will serve them to you naked, each one after a marathon sex session where I satisfy your every carnal fantasy and then fan you with a palm leaf while whispering the glories of your astounding—”
His mouth let go of the dirt-coated chocolate and sought her lips instead.
After a few hungry kisses, he sighed. “You always manage to turn my win into your own.” He tried to sound put-out, but failed, his smile caressing her ear amusedly.
“Lock that door and I could be persuaded to let you win one for a change.”
He almost knocked her down as he lunged for the door lock.
She screeched out in laughter and pounced on his back to stop him. But he was quicker, stronger, and clearly hornier.
The loud click of the lock echoed in the room, and with one arm, he reached back and flipped her around in a wide arc until he caught her against his chest and held her against him. He lowered his lips to start collecting his just rewards right away.
Dani closed her eyes to bask in the kiss, in the feel of Luke gently loving her.
Beyond just today or tomorrow.
* * * * *
“QUINN, HOLD ON. Slow down. What’s wrong?” Luke gripped his phone as he listened to Quinn’s devastated voice on the line. “You’re freaking me out. Please. Stop crying, and tell me what’s the matter. Where are you?”
Cooper’s doctor’s office.
Luke felt angry, terrified frustration when he heard the news.
Another surgery.
Little Coop needed another surgery.
Luke listened to the details with growing anger at the injustice of it all. Various areas of scar tissue from the respiratory complications and resulting half dozen surgeries Cooper had endured as a newborn were now blocking a large portion of his airway and hindering his ability to breathe even in normal day-to-day function. Luke almost crushed his cell phone in his hand when he heard that part. Quinn cried even harder as she explained how Cooper now needed an entire airway reconstruction surgery—a complex procedure that would be multiply invasive, require months of difficult recovery, and of course, cost thousands even after insurance.
Damn it, hadn’t the universe been hard enough on that boy? On Quinn? Luke tried desperately to console Quinn even though he himself was silently raging inside.
There was no doubt in his mind anymore. Quinn and Cooper were more important to him than his shop. He wouldn’t draw out this decision any longer.
He knew what he had to do.
One by one, he began slowly cutting every emotional tie he had to everything he’s worked for over the years as he searched for Noah’s phone number.
Simply giving up the shop wasn’t going to be enough.
He had to give up his five best chocolate recipes too.
* * * * *
“JAMESON.”
“Hi, Noah. It’s Dani. Please just keep an open mind over what I’m about to propose.”
Aside from a small tired sigh, an acquiescing silence echoed back at her.
“I know you said you need to go through with either the lease increase or the sale of the building to one of those big wineries, but what if you had a third option?” Noah hadn’t interrupted or hung up on her. So far so good. “Derek and I share equal ownership of Ocotillos; I’m willing to sign over half of my half in exchange for fifty-one percent of the Desert Confections building. Just the building.”
“Dani—”
“It’s more than fair and you know it.” She couldn’t bear to hear him say no. “The twenty-five percent of Ocotillos I’d be giving you would be of the brewpub and the brewery buildings, as well as my apartment, and the lot itself, which is easily five times the size of yours, and worth ten times as much. And all that is on top of the twenty-five percent share of the active business itself.”
“But what you’re asking for is controlling percentage of my building. Presumably to keep Luke’s monthly rent down, correct? Why would I agree to that to only have a quarter ownership of yours?”
“Because the profit sharing you’d get as twenty-five percent owner of Ocotillos combined with the portion you’d still make off Luke’s monthlies would be more than you make off Luke’s lease alone. True, it’s not as much you would get by doubling his lease, but look at what you’re getting in the process. If, heaven forbid, you decided to sell your twenty-five percent you know you would get an astronomically greater return than you would for fifty-one percent of your building. You and I both know that what I’m offering is a far more valuable business holding.”
“There’s still the matter of the flailing businesses in town—”
“I’ve thought about that too. I haven’t worked out the details yet but I think I can help them with their revenue. I’ve drafted vendor contracts to present Dan and Barb for produce and Libby for ice cream. Truthfully, I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought to do that before this but no matter. It’ll be mutually beneficial. As for Kim, I can work in a distribution deal for her novelty products—discreetly behind the bar of course. That should do well with the college crowd that comes in. And I’ve already talked to Rylan for his music expertise on how to help Jilly.” She gulped in a breath to slow down her racing monologue. “For Gavin, to be perfectly honest, I have no idea how to help his diner yet but I’ll come up with something, I’m sure of it.”
“Now you’re starting to sound like the businesswoman responsible for making Ocotillos what it is today,” Noah replied gruffly, sounding noticeably impressed.
“So do we have a deal?” She held her breath.
Sitting through his long contemplative pause was an exercise of patience. Not really her strong suit.
“Dani, your ideas sound all well and good, but to be honest with you, it doesn’t sit well with me to make business deals of this nature. Not when there are more emotions than sense involved. You shouldn’t give away part of your business and real estate for some guy.”
“I’m not. Giving it away, that is. I’d be getting something out of this too. And besides, why do you care if I’m doing it partly to help ‘some guy?’”
“Because I know what your business means to you, what it meant to your dad. I can’t see you being okay with this years down the line. What happens if you and Luke don’t work out?”
Flinching at the prospect, she rushed to fire back. “Then I’ll do what you’re planning on doing anyway—kick him out and have Derek open his winery.” LIE. “It’ll be win-win for me either way.” By the derisive snort from Noah, she knew he was calling bullshit on her big talk.
Noah sighed. “Look, I think what you’re doing is noble, romantic even. But take it from me—no good comes out of mixing your business and personal lives. I speak from experience.”
Dani’s eyes rounded in surprise. “Wait, what? You let a woman interfere with—”
“I’m not saying no, Dani,” he said, ignoring her question and bulldozing right along. “But I’m not saying yes either. You’re right, this would be a good deal for me to take and I’d be a fool to pass it up; yours is one of the most successful businesses in Cactus Creek, with the kind of staying power I’d normally pounce to invest in. However, I’d be just as big a fool if I accepted without giving you a bit more time to think about it. I think we’ve established that you tend to jump into these things ass first, brain second. I’ll go ahead and have my assistant draft some paperwork, but in the meantime, I suggest you evaluate this from all angles once more. Since we’re still vetting the wineries interested in Luke’s building anyway, that’ll give you another few days to think this through some more.”
“But I don’t need any more time.”
“I don’t care what you think you need. Take the few days,” he ordered brusquely. “Also, though I’m pretty sure you’re going to disregard my advice, I still say you should talk to Luke about all this before you make your decision. Trust me on this; he needs to know what you’re trying to do here. I really don’t want this turning out badly for you.”
She remained silent. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tell Luke and Derek what she had planned; she just didn’t want to ‘pull a Dani’ here and fail as epically as she has been known to before. No. She’d do a grand reveal after Noah signed on the dotted line and all chances of failure were eliminated. “Fine. I’ll take the few days but be sure those contracts are ready for me to sign at the end of those few days,” she said, using her best Danica Dobson voice, the one that have shriveled the balls of men nearly as imposing as Noah.
Noah muttered under his breath about irrational romantics and ended the call with an exasperated, “I’ll be in touch.”
Dani looked over at the photo of her dad on the wall.
You’d do this for mom, wouldn’t you?
She took his big, teddy-bear grin as a clear hell-yes.
For once, following in her dad’s footsteps regarding love didn’t quite seem so bad.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“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.” He reached over to open the nightstand drawer. “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.
