Chapter 3
Poor Luke Jones was the most gorgeous and sensitive guy Sabrina had ever met.
She'd known him for all of about ten minutes, and both of those things were already very clear.
She wanted to giggle and hug him and knock her shoulder into his reassuringly, and also to curl up around him forever and bite anybody who was mean to him.
Which was ridiculous. For one thing, he was literally more than a foot taller than she. There was no universe in which she could curl around him.
Well. There were some ways she definitely could and she was absolutely not thinking about that, shut up, Sabrina, she told herself.
Protectively. There was no way she could curl around him in a meaningfully protective way.
That was what she meant, and she should not be considering a hot weekend of banging Emmy's brother just because he was nice enough to be her fake boyfriend for a wedding.
It would make the friendship with Emmy awkward, especially if Luke went and caught feelings, or something.
So definitely no hooking up with her friend's hot brother.
And also no biting people who were mean to him, Sabrina told herself. Not that she actually would. But she did kind of feel like maybe he should have somebody who was willing to do that for him, if he blushed that easily.
Somebody else, obviously. She couldn't base a long-term relationship on the impulse to bite people who were mean to a hot guy. Especially when they were talking about a very specific short-term relationship for a very specific short-term purpose.
What on earth was she doing, thinking about long-term relationships and protecting big strong handsome men? Sabrina shook her head at herself while Luke glanced upward, almost like he was looking into his own mind, and got over whatever embarrassment he'd had with a gigantic sigh.
She felt her own eyebrows go up. "You okay?"
"Oh, fine. I'm just being…" Luke paused a long moment, then wet his lips. "Do you ever feel like you have a very theatrical version of yourself in your mind, leaning into all your worst impulses?"
Given that she'd just spent several seconds on considering the prospects of protecting, biting, hookups, and their potential effects on her girly friendships, Sabrina chortled. "Sometimes, yes."
"Yes, well…" Luke gestured at his head, indicating he'd had something similar going on in his own mind.
Emmy's gaze was poinging back and forth between Sabrina and Luke, her eyes alight with hopeful enthusiasm. "You know what, I think you two should definitely take it from here. Luke, why don't you take Sabrina over to Kate's and you can have some carbs and figure out your itinerary for the weekend?"
"I don't need carbs, I'm supposed to fit in one of Mindy's damn bridesmaid gowns—" Sabrina broke off, because Luke had matched the first four words there and she had a sudden, vivid, giggling idea of him trying to fit into one of the gowns, too.
"You do fit into it," Emmy said to her. "I've seen you in it and you look fabulous. And you probably don't need carbs, because you eat the most thoughtfully well-balanced meals of anybody I've ever met," she said to her brother with an air of resigned irritation. "Go have some anyway."
Luke was grinning at Sabrina, like he'd shared her thought. "I'm pretty sure I'm too tall for it."
"You haven't seen it," she told him. "The length would be the least of the problems. I don't think the waist would fit around your thigh.
" She couldn't help checking out his thighs again, available for inspection as they were in those shorts.
Genuinely excellent, she decided. Powerfully muscled, though he didn't seem muscle-bound as so many big guys were.
He somehow looked flexible, despite his big broad frame.
That was another thought that led to places she shouldn't let herself go with Emmy's brother.
She had a moment of wondering if she could extract herself from the whole situation, or better yet, if she could possibly arrange for Emmy to only know Luke casually, like as somebody she'd gone to high school with.
That would make Sabrina hooking up with him less of an issue.
Of course, that was impossible, and Sabrina snickered at herself for even thinking of it. "Um, look, I really don't want to interrupt your workout, but if you wanted to meet at Kate's later?"
"I haven't actually started my workout," Luke said. "I can skip it, or do it later. When do you leave for Vegas?"
"Six—"
"Tonight?"
Sabrina grimaced. "No, six tomorrow morning, which is at least as bad. Again, Emmy is insane and obviously there's no reason for you to do this—"
But Luke was turning to his sister, his hands spread. "You're going to have to smooth this over with Mom and Dad, you know that, right? I've been gone for four months and Mom will eviscerate me if I tell her."
Sabrina said, "Oh my God, no—" while Emmy waved it all off casually.
"Yeah, of course. Mom's a homebody, you know she doesn't like it when any of us travel—"
Luke snorted, and Emmy blushed, although not as badly as he had.
"Yeah, I know, I'm one to talk. I used to be super agoraphobic," she said to Sabrina.
"Or, I could leave the house, so whatever the agoraphobic version of 'terrified to leave town' is.
I really only got over it when I met Karl, and even then, really only because he's the most amazing and understanding person who's ever existed. "
"You'd mentioned it, but I didn't know it was that bad.
Good for you. Good for Karl." Sabrina meant it.
She liked Emmy's partner Karl, who was almost as big and handsome as Luke, and as much of an outsider to Virtue as Sabrina herself was.
She hadn't realized how integral he'd been in helping Emmy through her fears, though, and gave him another notch on the positive side in the mental 'good guy/bad guy' column she kept for all her friends' boyfriends.
"Anyway, I've got you covered," Emmy said to Luke. "Mom can't kill you if she still wants to see you, so I'll just point that out to her and that you'll be home again on what, Monday?"
Sabrina nodded apologetically. "It's a long weekend. You don't have to come out right away," she said to Luke. "I mean, you don't have to come out at all. That's insane. But the wedding is on Sunday, so if you're sure about coming out you could—"
"Show up for my girl from the moment she needs me until the moment she doesn't," Luke said firmly, and Sabrina thought, Oh, no. I'm going to fall in love with Emmy's brother.
Luke, who fortunately couldn't hear her thinking things like that, smiled down at her and offered his arm like a gentleman at the opera. "Shall we go to Kate's?"
Sabrina was a little afraid if she let her skin touch Luke's she would burst into flames from the sheer sexy heat of the man, so while she grinned at the offer, she also gestured at her clothes. "I should maybe put on something that isn't hot pink first."
Emmy, not quite under her breath, said, "You wear hot pink all the time."
"I should maybe put on some real clothes that are hot pink, then, jeez, Em! And maybe shower. I've been working out."
Luke glanced down at himself. "I guess I could put jeans on, too."
Sabrina wanted to assure him that wasn't necessary, but also thought doing so would be kind of creepy.
Like, it would definitely be creepy if he looked over her in her skin-tight workout clothes and said it wasn't necessary for her to change into something else, so she figured it would be equally creepy for her to do it to him.
She didn't want to be an equal-opportunity creep.
"Meet you at Kate's in half an hour, then? "
"See you there." Luke beamed at her and headed for the men's locker rooms while Sabrina lingered long enough to watch him go before turning toward the women's changing rooms herself.
Or trying to: Emmy seized her arm and grinned at her so widely Sabrina thought it must actually hurt her face. "See? Was I right or was I right?"
Sabrina couldn't stop a giggle. "You're crazy is what you are, but he's g—" Probably Emmy didn't want to hear somebody say her brother was gorgeous. "—Great. And I gotta say, a man who doesn't make a snide comment about how long it'll take me to shower and get ready is a rare find."
Emmy's smile got even wider, although that didn't seem physically possible. "Right? And he is gorgeous," she said, even if Sabrina hadn't said it herself. "Your college friends will be drooling all over themselves, eyeing their own men, and wondering why they married down."
"Yeah they will. I mean, a couple of them are married to hotties, but…" Sabrina glanced after Luke again. "But wow, Emmy. I should've asked you to introduce me to your brothers months ago!"
"I did. Admittedly, it was to the two married ones and the engaged one, because Luke wasn't in town until last night. I'm working as fast as I can here! Now go shower so you can have lunch and figure out your backstory."
Sabrina, feeling chastised, amused, and slightly panicked, did as she was told, and twenty-eight minutes later walked up the steps to Kate's Cafe.
It was one of half a dozen businesses along the west side of the town square, all of which were fronted by a raised, roofed porch that allowed people to walk from one end to the other without going back down to the sidewalk.
Kate's itself had a few small tables outside, all of which were full, thanks to the late August sunshine.
Sabrina went inside, where air conditioning made it feel much cooler than outdoors, and smiled as Luke stood up from a table in the back corner.
He was still wearing his workout tank top, but had put jeans on. Jeans shorts, at least, which was reasonable for the weather and let her admire his calves again, so she thought that was a win. She went over to put her bag down, and Luke actually held her chair for her. "Wow. You look great."