Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek) (28 page)

Jaw locked, Dani looked down and fiddled with the table settings. Conflicting emotions muddled her mind. It took her a long time to ask tightly, “So what did she have to say?”

“A lot of apologies mostly. Until I stopped her.” Derek looked like he was trying to find the words to explain it to her. “After seeing her, I knew that, though I would never forgive her completely, I
would
be able to move on. And that made us more like strangers meeting for the first time that day. I told her I just wanted to spend the time getting to know her.” He smiled softly. “She turned into a different woman from when she was our mom, Dani. She became a lawyer. A great one, in fact. Well known for defending the little guy. She got married to the man we heard her on the phone with—” He swallowed a lump in his throat. “I didn’t want to meet him. But, I did send him a card when mom died in the car accident a year later.”

The tears that sprung into her eyes revealed that her heart hadn’t totally cut off her mother.

Derek looked solemnly relieved at that. “She was an amazing woman, Dani. I think you would’ve been real proud of her had you gotten to know her too. The life she had with her new husband...we’d never have been able to give her that. He loved her the way she’d loved him. The way dad had loved her until his dying day. That kind of love was something she couldn’t turn her back on, even if it meant walking away from us.”

“No! None of that means anything!” cried Dani. “I don’t care if she met her soul mate. You don’t just walk out on your husband and kids to be with some other guy.”

“What did you want her to do instead? Tell me.” Derek became almost brutal as he forced her to face the truth. “Did you want mom to stay with a man she only loved as a friend, knowing he loved her more than she ever could? Go through the motions every day and watch that love slowly kill them both? Did you want her to spend her life working in a brewery she never liked to begin with and instead never become the great legal mind that saved countless people throughout her career?” He grabbed her hand to prevent her from turning away. “Did you want her to forego the happy life she eventually found just so she could be a mom for you and me? Because she would have. That would’ve been the only reason she would’ve. Not for dad or anything else.
We
were the only thing that almost made her stay.”

“Then why the hell didn’t she?” Now Dani was tearing up, and it pissed her off since she seemed to be crying more in the last few months than she ever had in her whole life to this point.

“Dad told her to go, honey.”

Her gaze snapped back to his. “What?”

“Mom told me it was dad who convinced her she should go and be happy with that other man. He set her free so she could have the kind of love he’d always promised her she deserved.”

“
No!
” Dani shook her head fiercely. “I was outside dad’s office, I saw him in there reading that awful letter mom wrote him when she walked out on him that night. He was crying so hard. Oh my god, Derek. I watched his heart break right then and there.”

Derek shut his eyes and dropped his head down in pain. “Dani, I’m so sorry. I never knew. Why didn’t you tell me?” He squeezed her hand. “You were so young—”

“I was ten, Derek. Old enough to remember. Mom lied to you; she left him.”

“No.
He let her go.
I asked dad and he told me the exact same things she did, sweetie.”

“But that night...the letter.”

“That letter had been a thank-you. And a goodbye.”

“I don’t understand. He was crying so hard.”

“Of course he was, honey. She was the love of his life, even if he wasn’t hers. Just because he let her go, it didn’t mean he didn’t love her with all
his
heart. She may not have left like a thief in the night, but she left him all the same. You’re right; you did see his heart breaking that night because it was finally truly over.”

Dani was dumbstruck, still shaking her head as if objecting to the truths as they battled the facts she’d based her entire life upon.

“Now let me ask you something,” said Derek softly.

She looked up slowly.

“What do you remember about Valentine’s Day growing up?”

She shrugged, not seeing how that had anything to do with their conversation. “Not much. I didn’t have too many friends growing up and didn’t date until college. I never cared about the whole Valentine’s thing; the guys I dated were pretty stoked about that.”

“Yeah,” he interrupted sadly, “
everyone
knew you didn’t care about Valentine’s Day.”

Something in the way he said that made Dani narrow her eyes in defense.

“You left out the part about you working here every Valentine’s since you were a teen.”

“So?” She measured him carefully, still confused about where this was going.

“Do you remember
why
you started doing that?”

She frowned, never having giving it a thought before.

Derek pressed on. “The year after mom left, when you were eleven, you hatched this elaborate scheme to hook dad up with the divorcee down the street from us, remember? You got me to babysit her kids with you so that dad could go out with her on Valentine’s eve?”

Memories lit her face. “Oh yeah. Nice lady, cute kids.”

“The next year, it was a teacher from school. And the year after, a ‘dancer’ you met.”

“What’s your
point
?”

“Always on Valentine’s, Dani.
Only
on Valentine’s. You made it your mission to keep dad happy every February 14th to take his mind off the fact that mom left him on the 13th.”

Dani blinked. Only on Valentine’s Day, really?

“And the reason dad let you do it every year was simply because it made
you
happy.”

She shook that off as an impossibility. “No, he had fun on those dates, I remember.”

“Probably. You sure did your damndest to make certain he would. I think that’s why, in a way, Valentine’s
was
special to him because every year, on that day, you’d show him your crazy, determined love through your matchmaking antics.” He chortled. “Gawd, remember after he had his first heart attack? You managed to get him that cute nurse’s phone number?”

Her emotional laughter joined his. That’s right, she
had
been fixated on a medical professional for him that year.

“A fortunate byproduct to your seasonal scheming is that you found out how much you loved working here,” continued Derek. “At fourteen, you started learning to cook, work the brew tanks, and run the business end of things here. You couldn’t get enough of it.”

“You make that all sound like a bad thing.”

“No, it was a great thing. By the time you were twenty-one, you were practically running this place by yourself.” His smile was filled with pride. “Everyone said you were just like dad.”

“Again, where’s the ‘
but
’ in all this memory lane bliss?” She had no idea why she was sounding so snarly. It was like she knew something was coming...

“Dad thought you becoming ‘just like him’ was your deep-seated fear.” Derek ignored the red-hot denial ready on her lips and bulldozed on. “The only reason he let you miss out on Valentine’s each year and focus on his love life instead was because he thought
you
needed it.”

“What are you talking about?” Now, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to know.

“You made Valentine’s a day for absolutely everyone else but you, hon. You still do.”

“Big deal. So I don’t believe in the magic of Valentine’s. I also don’t believe in Santa either.” Dani immediately felt contrite, knowing Derek did believe in the magic of the holiday. After all, Valentine’s had been the day Dani introduced him to Jonathan.

Fiddling with his wedding band, Derek sighed. “Okay, say for argument’s sake it’s all that simple. So what do you do now that you can’t play matchmaker for me or dad anymore? Why are you so hell-bent on fixing everyone else’s love life but your own? When is it going to be your turn for the happily ever after?”

She blinked, not having an answer for him. Or herself.

He hugged her tight. “To answer your original question, no, there is nothing wrong with you in terms of love. You have more love in you than anyone I’ve ever known. Do you look at love the same way others do? Definitely not. But that’s what makes you special.”

Dani felt the tears welling up again.

But the unexpected jangling of her phone stopped the deluge from flowing free.

Reluctantly, she read through the urgent text message. “Crap! I’m sorry, Derek. They need me in the back.” She gazed at her brother, not ready for their talk to end.

“You better go,” said Derek, reading her thoughts.

“If I didn’t have to get all these musicians settled...” She lingered on the chair.

“Go on. We’ll talk more later, I promise.”

Torn between sadness and something she couldn’t yet define, she hugged him again, finding it hard to let go. “Give Jonathan a hug for me. I’ll send wine and the sweetheart’s meal over.” She gave him a watery smile. “You two enjoy Valentine’s Day double for me, okay?”

“Nope,” he replied cryptically, his eyes focused over her shoulder.

Standing, she regarded him quizzically and followed his gaze. Her eyes widened when she saw Luke standing not six feet from them.

“How long have you been there?” she asked in a hushed voice reserved for a ghost.

“The whole time,” came his gentle reply.

She turned back to her brother. “Why?”

Derek squeezed her hand. “He deserved to know.”

Her phone rang again and she looked down at it helplessly.

“Go,” said Luke softly. “Call me. Even if it’s late. I’ll be waiting.”

The weight of the last statement hung in the air, not lost on either of them.

“YOU LOVE MY SISTER
, don’t you?”

“Yes,” replied Luke simply as they both watched Dani leave.

“Good. She needs that. She needs
you
.”

Thank god. One Dobson down, one more to go. Luke sighed. “Can you tell
her
that?”

Derek barked out a laugh. “Nice try. I’m not getting involved in this.” He shot him an appraising look. “You’re different from what she’s used to.”

Luke’s grin took on a hint of pride. “She hates my views on romance.”

“Ah, that she would.” He tilted his head. “Has anyone told you she’s never gotten or given a Valentine gift? Despite that, deep down, I know the holiday is special to her. Ask anyone around town. She’s played cupid for her fair share of couples.” Derek pointed to a waitress who’d just winked at one of the assistant managers. “Hands down the most romantic Valentine proposal I’ve ever seen was the one Dani planned for those two.”

Luke believed it. “I’ve been trying to get her to admit she’s a closet romantic.”

“
Ha!
Good luck with that. Honestly, it’s not Dani’s fault that she’s the way she is. Considering the whole mom-abandonment thing, she is actually more normal than most. And though I’m sure she never talks about it, Dani has in fact been hurt by love before. Once. But it was enough hurt to last a weaker person several lifetimes to come back from. It’s not my story to tell, but you have to know that with everything she’s gone through, she just needs time. If you can give her that—”

Luke didn’t even have to turn around to know the reason for Derek’s abrupt pause. Only the man’s husband could make Derek’s eyes light up and go hazy with emotion like that.

Jonathan Dobson approached their table and
hmmm’d
Luke up and down with overt approval. “I swear, everywhere I turn lately, there’s my husband talking with a gorgeous man.”

“Yes, well, the honeymoon
is
over now,” teased Derek.

“Why do you think
I’m
noticing they’re gorgeous?” taunted Jonathan right back.

Luke chuckled good and loud. These two were characters.

And then it began.

The inevitable machine gun interrogation the pair then launched on him, while mildly invasive, did manage to earn him their avid support in his long-term goals with Dani.

“This was fun.” Luke got up to leave at their eventual cease-fire. “Now if you think of any more questions for me, you can find me next door daydreaming about your sister. Or you can also get my number from Xoey,” he informed them dryly, well aware who was supplying their grilling ammo. Their resulting burst of laughter made for a pretty grand exit for Luke.

As he made his way out of the dining area, he found it impossible not to look back and smile at the couple one more time. They were so in love. They looked like one of those quintessential images usually accompanying a caption of ‘ah, true love’ in the Valentine insert of the local paper.