Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek) (46 page)

The logical part of his brain knew that making a new chocolate now was just going to be painful since it’d only have a home in this shop for maybe another month before they shut everything down for good. He didn’t care. This one was just for him.

And Dani.

Time zipped by as he created a layered flavor profile for the paste-thick creamy centers. The layered center would be firm enough to cut into squares but still soft in texture, reminiscent of his whip fillings.

While it hardened in the cooler, he focused on the design, heating red cocoa butter to liquid and brushing it onto a sheet of food-safe mylar in random geometric patterns—one of the first tricks he’d learned years ago to transfer deco art designs onto chocolates. Dipping the square-cut centers into newly tempered white chocolate, he then pressed the coated chocolate onto the dried mylar sheet design. And just like with those kiddie tattoos, voila, the red cocoa butter patterns transferred onto the chocolate squares.

As a final touch, he carved out an organic design around the swirls with a tiny blade and sprinkled vanilla-infused red crystallized sugar into the grooves.

Then it was done.

A new chocolate. Fittingly, a
red and white
one.

And for once, Quinn
wasn’t
the first person he wanted to taste it.

As he gazed down at his final chocolate, Luke decided then and there that if Dani didn’t call him today, he wasn’t just going to sit back and wallow. Nope. Shop or no shop, she was his future. And as soon as she woke up, he was going to stomp over there and demand that the stubborn woman marry him already so they could get started on that future. Start adding more dreams to that future so they could both—

A loud rapping noise broke into his thoughts.

Startled, he noticed the sun was now out. But it was still early.

Who would be here at this hour?

Heading out to the storefront to investigate, he was beyond surprised at who he saw standing there on the other side of the glass.

“Hey, man.” He quickly unlocked the door to let Derek in. “Is Dani okay?” Puzzled by the man’s smiling, almost giddy energy, Luke put aside his worries and amended his guess. “Or is this a chocolate emergency? You planning something for Jonathan?”

Derek grinned and shook his outstretched hand. “No, nothing like that. I actually have something I wanted to show you.”

“Have a seat.” Luke pointed to the nearest table. “Want some coffee?”

The almost frenzied shuffling of papers he heard in response made him look back over at Derek. Seeing Dani’s brother, one of the most easygoing people on the planet, looking so nervous made him forget the coffee pot altogether. The guy obviously didn’t need any caffeine at the moment.

“You okay, man?” Luke sat down across from him, now back to being worried.

After a deep breath, a now very serious, very formal Derek slid a portfolio across the table and stated, “Luke, I’d like us to go into business together.”

Luke did a double take.

Having no clue how to even process that sentence, Luke simply looked down at the elegantly scripted folio cover while trying to turn his brain right-side-up again. “Desert Confections Chocolates
and Wines
?” His gaze snapped back to Derek’s. “You want to open your craft winery with my chocolate shop instead of the brewpub?”

“Ah, so Dani finally told you. Good. Then I can skip the forgive-my-sister part and get right to my spiel.”

The fun-loving Derek was back, visibly teeming with excitement and a very Dobson-esque confidence as he explained, “I’ve been thinking about this for weeks now and I really think turning Desert Confections into a chocolate shop
and
winery would be the perfect pairing—product-wise, business-wise, and location-wise.”

Like a kid in a candy store, Derek looked around the shop excitedly. “This is a spectacular space for a winery. Harold told me about the huge cellar you have downstairs, with both an internal and external entrance from the kitchen. Seriously, you couldn’t get any more perfect of a set-up for an add-on winery. I could do every step of the vinting process down there and you’d never even notice our presence since I hear you don’t even use that space.”

It was true, they didn’t even need it for storage.

Now equally excited, Luke flipped open Derek’s detailed prospectus and scanned some of the highlights.

Meanwhile, Derek quickly walked over to the walls on the west end of the shop. “As for the shop itself, if we line this bare wall with bottle display shelves and shift everything over a little, it wouldn’t take very much room to showcase the wines. And since you only use display tables for your boxed chocolates, it wouldn’t impede on your space at all. You’d barely notice our presence—”

“Stop talking like you’d be in the way, Derek,” cut in Luke. “What you’re proposing is a good idea. Hell, a great one. And an equally profitable partnership from what I can see so far. If we do this, we’ll split the space. The bottles don’t have to be isolated to the shelves; we can pair it with the chocolates in our displays around the shop and put it in combined gift baskets too.”

When he flipped to the next page in the business plan, Luke grinned when he saw Derek had been thinking along the same lines.

“Check out the computer-generated sketches Jonathan and I did. On the last page specifically.” Derek’s voice was brimming with barely contained glee. “I got this idea while we were up on the roof planning Dani’s birthday party.”

Pointing out features on the illustrated page, Derek described what he envisioned for the roof deck. “If we go with a garden setup with vine-covered pergolas to protect the entire area from the elements, we could put comfy patio oasis seating and turn the deck into a trendy little tasting area for customers to hang out. We’ll get even more bang for our buck if we arrange everything so it’s designed with weddings and parties in mind as well. That way, we can rent it out as an event venue with a gazebo corner that can also double as a party/wedding planning café that houses all the food and drinks.” He looked at Luke hesitantly. “What do you think about serving food up there regularly?”

“I think that’ll finally make good use of the chef’s kitchen this place came equipped with.” A wry grin stretched across his face. “And it’ll definitely draw in more customers. It’s an excellent idea.”

Derek exhaled in relief. “I’ve already asked Javier to help me think of dishes to pair with chocolate and wine for a small menu. It would be classy but easy things—finger sandwiches, appetizers, desserts—things he could train a part-timer to put together without any fuss.”

Luke skimmed over the plans for the cellar layout and frowned. “Wait, where are you planning on doing the wine bottling if not in the cellar?” He didn’t know much about wineries but he knew they needed to be bottled and he definitely didn’t have the space for that.

“There’s not enough room for it down there,” confirmed Derek. “One option is to bottle by hand. Quite a few small wineries do. But I was thinking, since I
am
partial owner of Ocotillos, bottling in the brewery might be a possibility. I haven’t discussed any of this with Dani, but I think she’d go for it. We could easily clear some space to put in a small bottling unit or even do a minor expansion if business picks up enough for us to need bigger bottling and labeling equipment.”

Quickly reading through the final pages of the proposal, Luke saw more and more green lights with each page. Eventually, he closed the folio. “I’m sold. I mean, I have to discuss it with Quinn, but seeing as how she
loved
that wine you made her last week—” He blinked, and then understanding—and admiration—hit him. He’d
wondered
why Derek had dropped off that bottle specifically for Quinn.

Derek gave a proud shrug. “What can I say? I’m a businessman.
I work the people as well as the problems.”

Grinning, Luke shook Derek’s hand. “Hell, if we can make this work, you’ll be a perfect fit here. You call your bank; I’ll call Quinn and Noah. I can’t say for certain, but I think Noah might actually crack a smile over this one.”

At that impossible prediction, Derek laughed. “I said I had a great idea, not a miraculous one. But I do think Noah would get on board with this. Let me know if he gives you any hassles and I’ll go talk to him as well.”

After scheduling a time for Derek to meet with Quinn later that day, Luke was ready to climb out of his skin. He couldn’t wait a second longer; he needed to see Dani. Share this with her. Kiss her. Hell, just hold her in his arms.

Shackle her there if he had to.

He raced to clean up his work area, all the while glancing back over at the chocolate he’d made earlier. With considerable effort, he did everything in his power to remain pragmatic and not get his hopes up prematurely but nothing could stop the thought that had begun drumming in his head the moment he’d realized the potential in Derek’s business plan.

Maybe this wasn’t his last chocolate after all.

Ignoring the intermittent beep coming from his cell phone the entire time, he shoved his phone in his back pocket and boxed up his new chocolate. Everything could wait until after he kissed Dani awake, until after he convinced her that he was there to stay in her life and that she was his for good. His life, his future, his...everything.

He wasn’t sure how he was going to accomplish the latter if she put up an argument but he figured there would be some convincing bouts of sex involved.

Along with his new red and white chocolate fed to her in bed.

The perfect start to the rest of their lives, as far as he was concerned.

At ten to eight, Luke dashed out to his car, barely pausing to give Quinn a fast high-five hello when she came in to open up shop. His beeping phone was driving him crazy, putting a serious buzz-kill on his grand plans. Digging it out of his pocket to silence it, he stopped in his tracks when he saw that the persistent reminders were for a text from Dani.

>> COULD YOU MEET ME AT OCOTILLOS THIS MORNING? I NEED TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING.

Shit
. The text had come in over an hour ago. He didn’t even stop to lock his car back up; he just spun around and raced over to the brewpub.

Seeing another text come in mid-sprint, his heart flipped over when he read it.

>> I’M GOING TO SIT AND WAIT FOR YOU UNTIL YOU COME HERE, DAMN IT. I’LL EVEN SHUT DOWN THE BREWPUB FOR THE DAY IF I HAVE TO.

Well hell.

That was just about
the
most romantic thing that Dani could say. That brewpub hadn’t been closed since the day it opened its doors, as far as he knew.

Christ, he loved the hell out of that woman. He was so going to kiss her silly the second he saw her. Smiling now, he yanked open the back door.

And got blown ten feet back into the alleyway.

* * * * *

SON OF A BITCH!
Coughing, Luke rolled to his side with a loud groan, pushing up from the dirt, wondering what the hell had just happened. It took him a second to realize he was in the lot next to Ocotillos and there was black smoke billowing out all around him. His head whipped to the brewery. Already the sound of folks on the street screaming confirmed his worst nightmare.

There’d been an explosion.

“
DANI
!
” Luke ran at a dead sprint. Inside was a horrific scene from a movie—the corner tank wall of the brewery looked like a bomb had detonated right through it. Debris was everywhere with blackened metal shards littering the ground. Beer was still shooting from the pipes above one of the brewing tanks like a liquid firework show.

Luke screamed Dani’s name again.

His heart plunged when he saw her finally, lying in a heap next to the spot where a full tank used to stand, not just the metal remains that looked like the pit of a jagged cauldron.

A few other men raced in behind him but he got to Dani first. She was eerily still; he wasn’t even sure if she was breathing. “
Dani!
Oh my god. Wake up sweetheart.” He didn’t want to shake her, not knowing what her injuries were. Pulling a large metal panel off her body, he just kept talking to her, praying for her to be alive, demanding that she be okay. He stroked her char-smudged face. “Please, please. Just open your eyes for me—”

Shaking erratically now, he smoothed her hair back to check her pulse. It was faint but there. Why the hell wasn’t she waking up? “Dani, honey, can you hear me?”

Strong hands tried to pull him away from her body.

He shoved them to the side and pleaded, begged for Dani to come back to him.

Soon, more people appeared and forcibly hauled him out of the way as firemen swarmed over Dani’s body to give her first aid. The voice shouting in his ear to let the firemen do their jobs washed over him, went through him numbly.

He fell to his knees helplessly as they took Dani, lifeless and limp, away on a stretcher.

LUKE SCRUBBED
his face with his hands, furious that the goddamn hospital assholes still wouldn’t let him see Dani. She was his...no, not his wife, which was why they wouldn’t let him go to her yet.
Only family
they’d kept repeating to him. When they’d asked who he was to her, ‘boyfriend’ didn’t seem nearly strong or true enough an answer. Still covered in the blackened blast dust he’d found Dani lying in, he stared back at them, unable to speak.