A Little Combustible Chemistry by Violet Duke Read Free Book Online Page B

her office, she saw waiting for her, a glass of icy strawberry milk and a warm cookie, her all-time favorite comfort food combo thanks to Elle, the veteran waitress who’d been the first to spoil Dani with this afterschool snack decades ago. A faint mist gathered in Dani’s eyes. Crazy wonderful workers . Smiling sleepily as she sipped her milk, Dani shuffled to the couch at the back of her office and plopped down.
    Halfway through her milk and cookies, a flash of color on the far table caught her eye and had her quickly heading over to investigate the source.
    It was a beautiful Christmas cactus, with loads of volcanic, chlorophyll-green leaf strands and waxy, bright flowers in full bloom.
    Touching one of the pinkish-red petals, unique to this variety, she smiled, curious as to who’d have brought it in. For all she knew, it could’ve been here for days. And since none of her workers saw the untamed beauty in all the local desert cacti flowers she chose to decorate her brewpub with—often asking why she didn’t go with orchids or other ‘normal’ restaurant flowers instead—Dani knew this had to be a gift for her...but from whom?
    Oh , mystery solved—there was a card. She felt her lips curve up in a smile as she read it.
     
    To: Dani (err, fill in the blank because I’m an idiot)
    I’ve discovered that calling you to schedule our first date is just slightly more challenging without your phone number, or a way to look you up without your last name. (That one, I’m really sorry for). I apologize for my utter lack of game. My number’s on the back of this card. Hope to hear from you soon.
     
    She laughed in delight at the ‘This is Luke, by the way’ signature.
    So it hadn’t been a onetime thing for him. Blushing over that news and admiring the cactus with a touch of wonder, she marveled at Luke’s choice of this prickly plant over the more obvious rose bouquet most guys would have opted for.
    The unbidden appraisal of how un-cliché he was made her lace her fingers together to restrain herself from calling him right then and there. As she’d discovered more times than she cared to admit, making a call when she was this tired was about as bad as drunk-dialing.
    Cat-yawning again, she dropped down onto the sofa. Nope, definitely a nap first.
    Burrowing against the cushions, relaxation swiftly draped over her. Soon, she was drifting in and out as she peeked at the cactus one last time.
    So sweet , she thought hazily before dragging her phone out of her pocket. The ‘no sleep dialing’ rule didn’t apply to texting, she reasoned with drowsy clarity. Oh, or sexting . Even better. Blinking slowly, she sexted Luke the first wayward thought floating in her head and hit send.
    A devilish grin tugged at her lips. She’d close her eyes for just a sec until he...
    Dani was asleep before she even completed her thought.
     
    * * * * *
     
    IT WAS past noon when Quinn headed back to Desert Confections after finishing the corporate deliveries along with the drop-offs for their growing local distributor base around the county they’d managed to keep even throughout the move from Mesa to Cactus Creek.
    All morning, she’d deliberately detoured through every main bar district in the neighboring areas as her vision for the Valentine’s Day marketing plan took firmer shape. Sadly, none of the establishments she saw fit the video vibe she had in mind for their ad launch.
    Only one business would do, really.
    Driving past Ocotillos, she decided then and there to go with her first instincts. The brewpub had the exact look and patronage she was going for. With that decision out of the way, she quickly got the ball rolling by first calling in a favor to a friend who worked freelance as a video graphics designer. Evan was the perfect guy to handle the footage she wanted to squeeze in today.
    By the time she finished coming up with the interview questions she wanted to ask during the video, Evan was ready and waiting with