Chapter 4
Sabrina eyed him dubiously, but she did in fact eat up her sandwich and then arched her rounded eyebrows in expectation as they headed out to the town square and the sunshine. "What's the plan?"
"You, that is, we, leave at six tomorrow morning, right? Does that mean flying out at six or leaving for Syracuse at six to catch a later flight?" Luke hoped it was the second one, and smiled with relief as Sabrina echoed those words exactly.
"The second one. The actual flight's at ten, and then through the magic of time zones I, we, get in at noon or something even though it's a six hour flight."
"'Kay. That gives the afternoon to mock up two months' worth of photographs. Are you a 'takes pictures every day' person? Here, hang on." Luke got his phone out and lifted it, snapping a picture as Sabrina first struck a pose, then made a face.
"No, I'm not that into pictures of people. But if we take a pile of them now they'll all show up on my phone in a big bunch, which will look like we took them all at the same time. Because we did."
"I have evil software that will change photo dates in the meta data so they'll show up in the right places. Of course I would never use such a thing for nefarious purposes, but…" Luke placed a hand over his heart. "If I'm going to be a fake boyfriend, I'm all in."
And hoo boy, looking at Sabrina Keep in that cute little sundress sure did make him want to be all in, but that wasn't the kind of thing a polite man should say to his fake girlfriend.
Luke tried, with some success, to drag his mind away from those kinds of thoughts as Sabrina got her phone out, took a picture of him with his hand over his heart, and laughed.
"I won't ask where you got that kind of software, or why, but okay, yeah, if you've got it, let's use it.
So we met at the Fourth of July parade, but I'm sure I didn't take any pictures of you then.
We might have gone for a couple of hikes, though, that I'd take pictures during?
You know, past the first date so it's worth burning the pixels on you? "
Luke obligingly did a theatrical flex. "Baby, you know I'm always worth burning pixels on."
"You're not wrong," Sabrina murmured, then, aloud, said, "Wait, I gotta get that too," and took a picture of him flexing.
"I should just send that, and tell them I won't be making it to the wedding after all.
They'll understand. Except they totally wouldn't, so where can we fake hiking pics? And I should change clothes…"
"Tell you what, we'll both need some changes of clothes, and the fair is on, so what if we grab some outfits, go out to the fair for a few pics, then head up to the mountains for the hiking pictures, and then maybe just do some around town? How many do you need?"
"Most of the pictures I take are of architecture," Sabrina admitted. "My friends give me a hard time about it, but it means they won't necessarily expect tons of boyfriend snaps. Although I've never had a boyfriend who looked like you."
"Is that good or bad?"
"Oh, it's definitely bad for me. I should be so lucky as to have had a string of boyfriends as gorgeous as you are. What about you?"
"None of my boyfriends have been half as hot as I am."
Sabrina double-took and shouted laughter. "Really?"
"A hundred percent. Probably because I've never had a boyfriend."
She laughed aloud again as they crossed the square. "I'm going to assume that's because you've never wanted one, because I'm pretty sure if you did you'd have them lining up around the block."
"You're right about the first part, at least. Look, I live over there," he said with a nod to the B&B, which hid their house behind it. "Where are you staying?"
"Oh, my apartment is…" Sabrina waved the other direction. "Why don't we get your stuff first and then drop by my place? Do you drive? I've noticed a lot of people don't, especially in town. It's very walkable."
"I've got—" Luke caught himself. "I've got a motorcycle if you're into that, or I can borrow Emmy's car."
Sabrina's eyes went round. "Will you think less of me if I admit I've never been on a motorcycle?"
Luke, thinking of her arms around his waist and her curvy body pressed up against his back, cleared his throat.
"No. No, I won't. But I know a lot of people aren't comfortable with them, and…
" He sighed, glancing at her sundress. "That's not warm enough for a long motorcycle ride, not even on a day like today.
And it doesn't offer any coverage if there's an accident. Not that I'm going to crash!"
"But I'd look hot as hell posing with your bike in it, wouldn't I?" Sabrina said with a sly grin.
Luke nearly tripped over his own feet. "Ah. Yes. Yes, you would."
Ten minutes later, Sabrina Keep was posing on, and with, his motorcycle like a professional model.
Luke knew enough to use the 'portrait' setting on his phone to get a soft, out-of-focus look to the open garage the bike sat in front of, but the farther Sabrina's skirt climbed up her thigh, the harder it was to remember that he was a fake boyfriend.
And he'd only been a fake boyfriend for about half an hour now.
He didn't know how he was going to survive a long weekend just pretending to be intimate with the gorgeous, grinning woman winking at him as she straddled his bike.
His rabbit, almost always supportive, alternated between, You can do it! You can do anything! She's into it! You're into it! It's great! and a very confused, She's your mate, why are you only pretending she's your girlfriend?
Luke, his attention going back and forth between Sabrina vamping it up on the bike and his camera, trying to frame those vampy pics as well as she deserved, said, Humans don't always want to learn about mates first thing, a little feebly. Especially humans looking for a fake boyfriend…
That doesn't make any sense, his rabbit said airily. She's into you. She'll like having you for a real boyfriend. Then you can make lots of babies.
Luke yelped, "No!" out loud, and Sabrina, alarmed, sat up with her hands lifted as she glanced around a little wildly.
"Did I do something? Did I break something? Was I not supposed to touch that? I don't even know what I touched!"
"No, you…" Luke couldn't think of a good reason to have randomly yelled 'no' at her. "Uh. Your skirt went really high? I don't want to be a weirdo creepy fake boyfriend?"
"Oh!" Sabrina tugged her skirt down a little.
It had, in fact, gone appealingly high, showing off most of her thigh, and frankly, Luke hoped he'd gotten a good picture of that.
Although he'd probably have to delete it, since she smiled at him in sunny relief.
"Thanks for not being a creep. Can I see the pics? "
He handed his phone over nervously and watched over her shoulder as she skimmed through them. "Oh. Oh, wow, I really do look hot, don't I? Wow. You're going to have to accidentally let The Girls see those somehow."
"I'm prepared to throw myself on my sword and suffer through the indignity of having one as my home screen photo," Luke offered. "Just to really sell the boyfriend thing."
Sabrina laughed. "That's so noble of you. I like this one," she said, scrolling back to the flirtatious wink, "but you can shock and scandalize me with your choice, if you want."
"I don't think any of these are quite in shock-and-scandalize territory, and if they were, I'd have them in a locked folder, not on my home screen." Luke set the wink as his home screen and showed it to her before she squinted up at him thoughtfully.
"You seem like pretty good real boyfriend material. What awful secret are you keeping from me, that you don't have a girlfriend?"
"I'm a hopeless romantic, waiting for the right one." That was pretty close to true, but Luke didn't expect it to make Sabrina's eyebrows fly toward her hairline.
"Wait. Waiting like waiting waiting or just like…waiting?"
He gazed down at her solemnly. "I need you to know that if I didn't have an older sister, that sentence would make no sense to me at all. 'Yeah, but Luke,'" he said, mimicking Emmy's voice, "'do you like her, or do you like like her?'"
"I refuse to believe boys don't communicate that way too," Sabrina said cheerfully, and held her hand up. "Don't disillusion me. I need something to cling to in this world of failed romances."
"I'm having a hard time imagining you've got a string of failed romances behind you," Luke replied. "I'd think men would be knocking down your door."
"Ugh." She rolled her eyes, and waved toward the house. "Get your changes of clothes and I'll explain it on the way over to my place. Not that there's that much to explain, but yeah."
"Be right back." Luke bounded into the house, avoiding the common areas where he was most likely to run into his mother and have to explain he was leaving for a long weekend immediately after getting home, and grabbed a handful of shirts and a pair of jeans before sneaking back downstairs.
Emmy was waiting for him in the living room door, her cheeks flushed from her gym workout, and her eyes bright with anticipation. "Is she your mate?"
"Emmy!" Luke hissed his sister's name and shot a frantic look over her head toward the yard. "Shh!"
"Oh my God, she is your mate. I thought so from how you reacted when you saw her. Yes! Yay! Amazing!" Emmy capered around, thumping her feet like the rabbit she could be, and beamed at him. "Have you told her yet?"
"Of course not! Does she even know about shifters?"
"I haven't told her!"
"Then she probably doesn't! So no! I haven't! And I'm not going to! She's looking for a fake boyfriend for a weekend, not an unasked-for lifetime commitment! So shhhh!"
"Can I tell Mom and Dad?" Emmy asked gleefully. "Mom will be one hundred million times chiller about you bouncing out of town immediately if she knows you're off seducing your mate."
"I am not going to seduce her! That is not part of the deal here!"
"Uh-huh. So can I tell them?"
Luke groaned. "I guess? But not until I'm actually gone, okay? Because Mom will pin me to the wall and grill me and also insist Sabrina come over for dinner so she can meet her—"
"Lucky for you, she's already met the parents. She stayed here like three times," Emmy said to his astonished look. "She met everybody in the family who's been home in the last year. Except you."
"I've been here most of the past year!"
"Yeah, but your timing has been terrible, I guess, because you weren't here when she was. Anyway, good luck, okay? Actually." Her eyebrows went up and she eyed the shirts Luke was carrying. "What are you doing with those? That's not all you're packing, is it?"
"No, we're going to go take some fake boyfriend pictures so she's got photographic evidence of us being together a while."
Emmy's jaw fell open. "Wow. You're really committing to the bit."
"Well…! If I'm going to be a fake boyfriend, it seems like I should do the best job I can!" Especially, Luke admitted, if he wanted to come across as good enough to be a real boyfriend.
You are good enough! his rabbit said enthusiastically. You're the best! Our mate knows that even if she doesn't know she knows it! Go Luke go!
"I cannot wait for the play-by-play on the whole weekend," Emmy breathed. "Look, text me what you need packed for the weekend and I'll drop it off at Emmy's, because honestly, if you come home again tonight Mom's going to waylay you and you'll never get to Vegas."
A surge of fond gratitude rushed Luke, and he hugged his little sister. "You're really the best, you know that?"
Noooo! his rabbit howled. YOU'RE the best!
We can both be the best, Luke said wearily, and chuckled aloud as Emmy said, "Yeah I am," as she returned the hug. "Like I said, text me and I'll get what you need. Better go now before Mom and Dad come home and see the hot blonde babe on your motorcycle, though. There'll be questions, if they do."
"Yeah. Okay, I'm out of here. Thanks, Em."
Luke made it all the way out of the house before realizing his sister had just set him up to spend the night with Sabrina Keep.