Chapter 18
The moment Sabrina's door closed behind him, Luke's rabbit said, I cannot.
BELIEVE. That you. Did not. TELL HER. That she.
Is our. FATED. MATE!!!! and spun on one back foot before flinging itself backward onto the chaise lounge that Luke still didn't feel belonged in his mental mindscape.
He swore the rabbit was becoming more cartoonish by the hour, although it had always been incredibly melodramatic.
It had just never had a fated mate to be melodramatic about, before.
"It wasn't the right time," he said aloud, if softly, as he jogged down the apartment complex stairs.
She thought us being a bunny was GREAT. There was no better time! If you don't tell her soon SHE'LL LEAVE US FOREVER!!!!
He smiled a bit and shook his head. "That's not how it works, though, is it.
Fate means we'll work it out. If she leaves forever, then I'll just have to go where she goes.
So it's all right if I didn't tell her now.
We've got time, and we haven't really talked that much about what we want from this… less-fake relationship thing."
She wants to be your real girlfriend! his bunny yelled in exasperation. She likes you! You like her! GO LUKE GO! Turn around! Go back to her! Sweep her off her feet with your big muscles! Tell her everything! She can take it!
"If she can take it now, she'll be able to take it tomorrow, or next week," Luke said firmly. "Chill."
His rabbit gasped with insult and turned its back on him, trembling with emotional injury.
At least it wasn't yelling at him, Luke thought ruefully. For the moment, he would take that as a win. He headed home, avoiding his family so they wouldn't give him the same third-degree that his rabbit was determined to, and went to bed with nothing but thoughts of Sabrina..
Habit awakened him early, and he snuck out to the gym without having to catch anybody up on his relationship status, too.
Victory, he thought with a grin, while his rabbit sniffed.
Apparently it hadn't yet forgiven him for the unbearable offense of telling it to chill.
That was all right: he could do his workout without the rabbit cheering him on, as it turned out.
That also struck him as funny, but he was beginning to suspect that the whole world felt like roses and sunshine to him right now.
Any world with Sabrina in it had to feel like that, as far as Luke was concerned.
Two people approached him at the gym to set up training sessions.
One was available to start right then, so after Luke's own workout, the next hour or so was spent determining the new client's fitness level.
Luke promised him a workout plan for their first session, and went in search of breakfast and a quiet place to work on that plan.
He found one, anyway: the family B&B had great breakfasts, although Luke somehow ended up in the kitchen scrambling eggs and making toast instead of working on the client's plan.
Fortunately it was Emmy, not their mom, who voluntold him to cook with her, and all she said was, "Things going okay with Sabrina? "
"Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I told her about the, you know, about me." Very few shifters mentioned shifting out loud where there was any chance they might be overheard, but Emmy obviously knew what he meant, and beamed at him as they cooked.
"Did you tell her all of it?"
"No, not about the whole fate thing. How did you manage that with Karl?" Luke asked a little desperately. "I mean, he's not from here either, and you…"
"I was afraid to even leave the town boundaries," Emmy finished for him. "He was thrilled that the whole sudden love at first sight thing was really, like, real. Because…well. You know how they are."
They, in this case, were true humans. They wanted to believe in love at first sight. Some of them had even experienced it. But mostly it was kind of a wishful thinking, a fairy tale thing. They had a hard time believing it was real, when it hit them.
"Yeah. It's kind of easier for us. Except the trying to explain that it actually is real…"
"My dude, I see how she looks at you. You don't have anything to worry about. Just tell her."
I TOLD YOU.
"Yes, you did," Luke said under his breath.
Emmy laughed. "Rabbit commentary?"
Luke said, "Oh my God," with feeling, and his sister laughed again before he sighed. "It's that her job is in New York, though. In the city, I mean."
"I know. You'll work it out, though, Luke.
It'll be okay. Besides, she's here through December anyway, so why worry about that at all right now?
Enjoy the moment. God, I sound like one of those self-help gurus, don't I?
'Enjoy the moment,' gawd. Next thing you know I'll have an influencer channel and be out there intoning mantras.
Oh, wait, no, somebody in the family already does that, never mind. "
Luke, with all the dignity of a baby brother, said, "Pblblblbhlltt," and left Emmy alone in the kitchen.
"Hey!" Emmy's laughing protest followed him, and after a ten second wait for theatrics, Luke went back to help finish up, and his sister beamed at him. "I knew you weren't really a butthead."
"No, but I'm funny."
She giggled and agreed, and this time Luke didn't leave the kitchen until they were actually done.
The guy's workout plan would have to wait until later, he decided.
He wanted to wander by the train station building site and see if Sabrina was there yet.
Just to say hi. Innocently. Nothing more.
Maybe not even to say hi. Just to look at her from a distance.
Because he didn't want to disturb her work.
Not because he was a creeper who stared at pretty women for no reason.
Humans, his rabbit muttered darkly, are weird.
Yeah, Luke agreed somewhat too cheerfully for the rabbit's taste, and went to shower, dress, and just happen by the building site.
Although it was up on the edge of town, not that easy to just happen on, really.
Across the square and past the schools and the boutique hotel that had been developed out of several older buildings a while back, then by the houses that sat out that direction until they, too, petered out and left a quiet section of road before the old train station.
There were kids hurrying to school in little groups, and the air had that first autumnal crispness to it, very different after Vegas's dry desert heat.
The station's scaffolding and plastic tenting were quiet still as Luke approached, no trucks out front or people moving around inside, much less already at work, which surprised him.
Granted, Sabrina had said she'd be on site around nine, but he'd assumed it would be already bustling by then, with the construction crew taking advantage of every minute of daylight.
There was a kid standing across the street, hands balled into fists and all his attention on the site while other kids knocked into him as they hurried past. A few steps closer, Luke realized the loner was Noah Brannigan, the kid who had spearheaded the playground effort. He called, "Are you okay, Noah?"
The little boy—he was about ten now, maybe eleven, with hair newly cut for the school year and a laser focus for the building site—shook his head, hardly more than a tremble.
Luke glanced across the street again at the site and shook his own head.
"Nothing's going on there, buddy. You'd better get to school. "
Noah shook his head again. "Call the firemen."
"What?" For some reason Luke was already getting his phone out as he did a double-take between Noah and the site, although he couldn't see any reason to do what the kid suggested.
"Why? Is somebody hurt? What do you—" Noah was a lot shorter than he was.
Luke bent to see things from Noah's angle, but didn't see anyone lying hurt in his new line of sight.
"There's a fire," Noah croaked. "Call the firemen."
"There's not—" But there was. Luke saw it now, smoke curling up and a sudden stink in the air.
He straightened and dialed the emergency number all in one motion, eyes wide as he put his hand on Noah's shoulder.
"Jesus, Noah, good job. Yeah, hi? I'm at the old train station and there's smoke rising somewhere on the building site.
It doesn't look like anybody's in there, but—yeah.
Yes. Great. Thank you." He took the phone away from his ear and squeezed Noah's shoulder.
"All right, buddy. The firefighters are on their way. You can go to school now."
Noah shook his head again and tried taking a step forward, although Luke's hand on his shoulder prevented him. "Let me go! I need to make sure!"
"Absolutely not." Luke didn't know what the kid needed to make sure of, but he knew for certain he wasn't going to let Noah any closer to the train station than he currently was.
After a couple of furious attempts to yank himself free, Noah went back to leaning toward the station, jaw set and fists clenched again like he was concentrating on the growing fire with his entire soul.
Luke could see it by then, licking higher and faster, and all at once the heat washed across the road toward them. He breathed, "Jesus," and searched the site again with his gaze, hoping like hell no one was in there. "Did you see anybody going in or out before you noticed the fire, Noah?"