Chapter 6
Kissing Sabrina, even in silly showy ways, was a dream come true. A dream Luke hadn't even had, a few hours ago. But now spending the rest of his life stealing kisses seemed like the best possible future imaginable.
Except she looked a little sad, even as she smiled at the pictures and murmured, "These are perfect." The last thing he wanted was for his mate to be sad, but he wasn't sure there was any polite way to ask what was wrong. He hadn't thought the kisses were that bad.
Try again, his rabbit said encouragingly. I'm sure you can get it right this time. You're a quick learner. Smart. Handsome. Her fated mate. It'll all work out! Go Luke go!
Fake boyfriend, he reminded the rabbit. Can't just go kissing her whenever I want to. It's got to be pre-arranged.
But she's our fated mate! The light of our life! The person you've been waiting for! You can't mess this up!
Luke, trying hard to ignore the rabbit, said, "Everything okay?" as carefully as he could.
Sabrina gave him a surprised, soft smile as the Ferris wheel circled around toward the bottom, stopping every minute or so to let people on and off. "Everything's fine. I'm surprised at how cute and normal we look?"
"Would it help if I said I wasn't normal at all?" That was, after all, true. Most people couldn't turn into gigantic bunny rabbits. Or any other animals, for that matter.
She laughed and tilted her head toward him like she might nestle up. It took all of his willpower to not hug her close, protectively, with a promise that he'd never let anything hurt her. That, like more kisses, was outside the parameters of Fake Boyfriending, and Luke didn't want to blow it.
"Yeah, you're right. You're really not normal."
Despite having just said that himself, Luke straightened up, kind of offended. "I'm not?"
She smiled and shook her head. "No. You're too nice to be normal. So never be normal, okay? You're great."
Aaaaaaand we're back in the game! his rabbit crowed.
Again, we weren't out of it! Now hush! Luke gave Sabrina a relieved smile and, as they reached the bottom of the wheel, hopped out to offer her a hand. "I'll do my best to continue not being normal, then. You want to do a couple more of the rides, or go see the pigs or something?"
"Pigs," Sabrina said in a strangled laugh. "Yeah, let's do that. The Girls will think I've totally lost my mind. Well," she added, glancing at him, "no, they won't."
"…not sure how I'm supposed to read that one…"
"Nobody would doubt why I'd go look at pigs, if it meant being around you. But you bought all those tickets for the rides, so if you want to do that, that's fine!"
"The fair's still open next week. We can come back and use them. As friends," he said, though the idea made his heart ache. "Since you won't need a fake boyfriend anymore at that point."
"Oh, come on," Sabrina said lightly. "I know we discussed the messy breakup happening around those early-morning gym sessions, but we don't have to break up right away."
See? SEE? She LOVES us! How could she not love you? Look at you! You're hot! You're huge! You're handsome! You're h—
Since the only H-word Luke could think of next was 'horny' and he didn't want to hear if the rabbit was going the same direction, he said, "That'd be great!
" a little too loudly, or too enthusiastically.
Both. And felt himself starting one of his terrible blushes again.
"I'm making it weird again. I just meant, whatever works for you. Oh, God. Let's go visit the pigs."
Sabrina laughed as they headed across the fairgrounds. "I'm not sure it's possible to make it un-weird. Fake dating is ridiculous. I can't believe I got myself into it. I can't believe you're willing to do it. Why on earth are you?"
"I've never been to Vegas," Luke said, which was true. "And Emmy, who has excellent taste in people, likes you. And…"
'You're my fated mate,' his rabbit prompted. Go on! You can say it! Go Luke go!
"…and besides, how many chances does a guy get to play the lead role in an actual romcom setup? And if I know my romcoms, if I'm there, that'll mean you'll meet the real man of your dreams and have to make a terrible choice, right?"
His rabbit stared at him in abject horror.
You're the real man of her dreams! What are you talking about?
This is a terrible plan! Quick! DIE OR SOMETHING SO SHE CAN'T LEAVE YOU.
It did its best to clutch at its heart, spin on a back foot like a cartoon, and collapse onto the floor of his mind, its tongue lolling out dramatically.
"I'm pretty sure in those setups I realize you actually are the man of my dreams," Sabrina said thoughtfully.
Luke's rabbit leaped up again, relieved. She understands after all! Whew! No dying! Move on! Get back to the kissing!
Please, please be quiet, Luke said helplessly, while Sabrina, still thoughtful, went on with, "Of course, I'd usually realize that after doing something stupid and or mean that breaks your heart, and then I have to come crawling back to you and do something really embarrassing to prove that no, it's really you I loved all along.
Who knew fake dating was so complicated? "
"Oh, I did," Luke said as they got to the pigs and started taking pictures of each other, the pigs, and themselves with the pigs.
"It became clear it was incredibly complicated as soon as we started.
Okay, we're definitely going to have to come back to the fair next week, because if we spend any more time here we won't be able to go up to the hills to get hiking pictures.
I should've taken a picture of you at the gym this morning, dang it. "
"We hadn't committed to the bit yet."
That was only partially true. Luke had committed to everything the moment he'd laid eyes on her.
It was just a little awkward to say as much, so he nodded, took another picture, and tilted his head toward the distant gates.
They headed out, exchanging more backstory—she'd grown up in eastern Washington and gotten out of town, heading for college as soon as she could; he'd grown up in Virtue and didn't leave all that often, as the rest of his family didn't—and enjoying the late summer afternoon.
By evening, they'd driven up to the hills, changed clothes twice, gotten sunset pictures that they both agreed looked romantic, and were back in town at the diner, which was decked out in fifties kitsch, complete with black and white checked tile flooring, red booths, and chrome trim everywhere.
Sabrina kept laughing as she looked around.
"I can't believe I haven't been here before.
This is great. I've got to compliment the designer. "
"I can't believe you haven't been, either," Luke said beneath the jukebox music. "There are only about four restaurants in town, including Kate's, and that's only open for lunch!"
"Well, there's Hold My Bear, the Italian place, the hotel restaurant, Kate's…
and…here…" Sabrina had been ticking the places off on her fingers, and looked dismayed when she realized he was right.
"Does your family's B&B count? Or—well, there's pizza, too, right?
And…yeah, okay, the thing is I mostly cook at home. "
"Really? I do too, but not many people seem to."
"You should understand that by 'cook' I mean 'make macaroni and cheese or fried egg sandwiches.' But yeah, it's just that restaurant meals are mostly way more than I can eat, and I don't like leftovers more than one day out, so…"
Luke snickered. "Whereas restaurant meals are about half of what I can eat, which is why I cook. That and I can use healthier ingredients."
"So does that mean you've cooked for me? Or have we not gotten that far yet?"
"I might have invited you over for a cookout with the family, but that doesn't really count. I'm thinking that since I was gone over the summer, unless you've told your friends we've been glued at the hip, that maybe we've really only seen each other half a dozen times?"
Sabrina's dark eyebrows darted upward. "I haven't told them a lot, so yeah, that works.
I did have the sense to not give tons of details about my fake boyfriend," she said, putting her face in her hand.
"But yeah, that's smart. Although it might make it even crazier that you're coming to a wedding with me. "
"Not compared to 'we met at lunchtime and I'm coming to a wedding with you' levels of crazy!"
Sabrina gave one of her big loud barking laughs that he already adored. "Good point! Oh, God, I need to buy you a plane ticket! Shoot!" She got her phone out as Luke made a protesting noise.
"I can buy—"
"No, no, absolutely not. For one, don't take this wrong, but I think I might earn more than you do, but for two and much more importantly, there is no way I'm letting you pay for the privilege of zooming off on this wild hare scheme with me."
Wild RABBIT scheme! his rabbit said indignantly.
Sabrina, blissfully unaware of the rabbit's irritation, said, "Full name?" as she typed into her phone.
"Lucas Jonathan Jones. Jonathan without an H. I do okay, by the way. Financially, I mean."
"Well, good, but I'm buying you the plane ticket anyway. Lucas Jonathan Jones, I like that. A nice solid name. Birthday?"
"July eleven."
"Oh yeah? Happy birthday. Six weeks late, but whatever. What year?"
This was not going to make or break their relationship, Luke told himself.
He already knew she was thirty-three, because she'd said so.
He was still nervous as he told her the year, which she punched in, then froze.
"…you're five years younger than I am? No.
Almost six years. My birthday's in October. "
Apparently it didn't matter that she was his fated mate and that he truly believed it would all work out. His heart was still hammering hard as he mumbled, "Yeah. Is that…is that a problem?"
"No, it's…you're just so…tall." Sabrina put her hand over her face again, laughed into her palm, and peeked through her fingers like she was embarrassed.
"Which is an amazingly stupid thing to say, but I just figured…
I don't know, that you were about my age.
Well. Look at me, hooking up with a younger man. "
"Will The Girls be horrified or impressed?" Luke heard himself capitalizing the crew's name in the same way Sabrina did, as she made a little smiling face.
"Both, probably. It's not likely to come up, but…" Her eyebrows drew into a frown. "They better not give you a hard time about it."
"Me?" Luke's voice rose with surprise. "I'll be fine. I don't want them giving you a hard time. I can lie, if it helps. The whole thing is…"
It was funny how he didn't want to actually say it was fake out loud again. Not right then, anyway. It mattered, right now, because Luke knew, even if Sabrina didn't, that forever was a possibility for them. If his age really did make a difference—
"Absolutely not," Sabrina said crisply. "This is all crazy enough already. No way am I lying about your age, or asking you to. You're twenty-eight, not eighteen, it's not actually weird. I was just surprised. If they ask and then get catty, I'll punch somebody."
CATTY? his rabbit asked. Are her friends cat shifters? That's great! We can just tell her about us, now! Go Luke go!
No, it's a way of saying if they get mean, Luke said, though it was too bad the rabbit's interpretation wasn't right. It would make everything so much easier if Sabrina already knew about shifters.
"No punching anybody," he said aloud. "It'd spoil the wedding pics to have the bridesmaids sporting black eyes and broken noses. You're sure you don't mind?"
Sabrina gave him a funny look that turned to a grin. "It's fine. If it comes up they'll think you're my trophy boyfriend and that I'm the luckiest one of us all."
He was surprisingly grateful she hadn't said 'fake trophy boyfriend,' and ended up smiling smugly at the server who came to take their order.
He told the server what they wanted, finding that it took a remarkable amount of effort to not end with, "I'm her trophy boyfriend!
" But he thought it gleefully, and his rabbit started cheering again.
Trophies are great! You're a trophy! Go Luke go! She wants to shine us and polish us! Woo-hoo!
Fortunately, Sabrina turned her phone toward him before he could think too much about her polishing him, and showed him the seat she was buying. "Window or aisle?"
"Either will…that is business class," he blurted. "Are you sure?"
"You're six five. I'm not forcing you into economy when you're doing me a favor like this. Also I save up for flights so I can be comfortable on them, so, yeah, I'm sure. Window or aisle?"
"Aisle?"
"Okay." She finished the purchase and sat back with a smile. "Now all we have to do is fake it 'till we make it."