Chapter 5
chapter five
Luke
“Hey there, girlfriend. What are you—” I stop as I notice the petrified look on Mia’s face.
For a few seconds, my heart stops because I’m scared she’s in danger, but then I notice her background, and the expectant faces behind her.
Shit! From the look on her face and the shocked expressions on those of her family, I deduct that Mia has told them we are together.
This is not something we planned to do right away, but I know Mia.
Once she gets an idea into her head, she runs with it.
I am taken aback by the faces that I see on the screen, even though I recognize everyone who is staring at me.
Mia’s practically gawking, and her eyes are bulging so much that she reminds me of an owl.
I can see the fear in her eyes, and it takes everything in me not to burst out laughing.
Mia is the last person to be speechless, and yet at this moment, I know she has absolutely no clue what to say.
“Hey, everyone. I am guessing, the cat is out of the bag?” I grin and think fast. How do I convince these folks, who have known me since before I could walk, that I am telling the truth?
“So, it’s true?” Shock is in Rafe’s voice as he gazes at me.
Mia’s older brother has always been friendly to me, if not particularly warm.
He’s around the same age as my brother, Rex, but they were not in the same friend groups.
Rex was popular, a jock, and always going on dates.
Rafe was intellectual and thoughtful, and from what I know, he didn’t have many girlfriends—which was surprising because, for all intents and purposes, he was probably the better-looking of the two.
Something that annoyed the shit out of Mia, growing up, as almost all her girlfriends wanted to know about Rafe. All but Juniper.
“Well, I’m not really sure what Mia has told you,” I say, keeping a cheerful expression on my face and trying to read their expressions for some sign of how to play this. None of them are giving me anything. “But if she’s told you that we’re desperately in love, then yes.”
“See? I told you it was true.” Mia blushes a bright red, and I want to tease her and say that Rudolph’s nose is jealous of her cheeks, but I don’t dare. She glances back at Rafe, who still looks quite disbelieving.
“So, tell me, when exactly did this happen? And how come no one has seen you in town, Luke? I know for a fact that you haven’t gone anywhere, Mia.”
He’s firing questions like he’s an attorney and not a vet, and I know for a fact that both Mia and I are panicking inside. He raises his eyebrows and looks at her with skepticism. Rafe does not believe us.
I watch as she puts her hands on her hips and glares at him.
“How would you know that for a fact? Are you spying on me, big brother?”
“No, but Coconut Beach is a small town, and everyone knows everyone. I see you several times a week.”
“But you don’t see me every single day, just like I don’t see you every single day. So, if you left town, you wouldn’t actually know.”
She glares back at him, and I realize that no one else in the family is saying anything. I notice that Mia’s nana, Lucille, is looking particularly entertained, and I know that this entire conversation will be regaled to the busy Bees within the next two hours.
“I would know because we meet up with the family almost every weekend.”
“Rafe, stop being jealous,” she says. “Just because I have someone and you have no one.” She holds her head up high. “It’s not my fault you don’t have a date for the wedding.”
Rafe just rolls his eyes. “I don’t need a date for the wedding. I don’t want a date for the wedding.” He shakes his head and then leaves the screen. “Something smells fishy, and it’s not coming from the ocean,” he calls out as he leaves the room.
“It’s your upper lip, jerk,” Mia calls after him, and her parents just shake their heads, not saying anything.
They are used to Mia and Rafe fighting like cats and dogs.
It’s been that way for years. The Bishops are loud, argumentative, loving, and always there for each other.
Unlike Rex and me. We didn’t argue like that.
He was more subtle in his digs, and I was more introspective.
We didn’t love as hard, nor did we fight.
I kinda wish that we had. But that was the past. We had no real relationship now.
Past hurts and jealousies had caused a wedge between us that even a wedding couldn’t fix.
“I’m looking forward to explaining everything as soon as I get to town,” I say brightly. “I’m sure Mia is as well. We are so happy to finally let the cat out of the bag. Aren’t we, darling?”
Mia stares into the camera, and her eyes are twinkling.
“Oh, definitely. We have been counting down to this day. Haven’t we, Lukey Wukey?”
I try not to cringe at her nickname for me.
As I listen to Mia, I realize there are a lot of things that we need to figure out.
While the idea seemed like a good one at the time, I am fast beginning to think that neither Mia nor I has thought this through properly.
She is my best friend and always has been, and I know her like the back of my hand.
But this is brand-new for both of us. I don’t know her on a romantic level, and I’m certainly not sure how we are going to convince people that we’ve been together for over a year.
I can feel panicked thoughts moving through my brain toward my heart, but I keep my expression cheerful.
We’ll figure out the kinks when I get to town.
“Anyway, I need to speak to my boyfriend in private, please?” Mia says and turns to the rest of her family.
“Grandma, Grandpa, hi,” I say, waving. “Good seeing you both.” I use the old familiar terms that they’d asked me to use when I was young. They’d always been loving and gracious to me. I missed going over for Sunday dinners.
“Hello there, Luke.” Lucille speaks up, beaming at the screen.
Mia’s mother looks pissed, which makes sense because I have a feeling that my parents and grandparents are going to be pissed too. I haven’t been home in a while, and they’re going to wonder if I’ve been sneaking onto the island to see Mia and not them.
Shit, this is already murky.
“So, Lukey, I want to just ask you something private,” Mia says in a singsong voice. “I’ll be right back.”
She hurries quickly through her grandmother’s kitchen toward the backyard. I watch as she opens the door and then runs around to the side of the house. Her hair is wispy and loose, and she’s breathing heavily as she leans back against the white exterior of her grandparents’ home.
“Oh my God, Luke. I think we fucked up,” she says, staring into the phone. “They had so many questions, and I didn’t know how to answer them. And then, of course, Rafe wouldn’t believe me because he sucks, but he’s right. How do we explain all of these things? Ugh, this was a mistake.”
“Take a deep breath, Mia. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in—”
“Jeez, shut up!” she says loudly. “I do not have time for meditation techniques. I don’t even like meditation when I am not feeling anxious, let alone when I’m feeling anxious. Who thought breathing was a good way to calm down? It’s not. It’s absolutely not.”
“Mia, you’re losing it,” I say patiently. “And actually, breathing techniques are known to be—”
“Shush.” She glares into the phone, but she stops speaking and just breathes for a minute. “What are we going to do, Luke?”
“What do you mean, what are we going to do? We’ve already decided what we’re going to do.”
“But it was a mistake. Should we come clean? I can just go in there and be like, April Fools.”
“It’s not April.”
“I can be like June Fools.”
“Really? And then what do you want Rex to think? Oh, I was right. You two are losers who couldn’t get dates.”
“He really sucks—you know that, right?” She stares at me, her light-brown eyes as open and endearing as they’ve been since the very first time I met her.
“I know, trust me. He’s my brother, and he’s sucked for a long time. I’ve told you that.”
“I suppose you’re right. I mean, it’s not my fault that he was charming to me once.” She nods slowly.
“And about that … Mia, I think there’s something that you should—”
“Anyway,” she says, cutting me off, “I have an idea.”
“I was just about to say something to you.” I frown at her interruption.
“You can say it to me after I tell you my idea.” She gives me her impish smile, the contagious one that makes me smile in response, even though I’m slightly irritated.
“I’m listening.”
“Can you come early?”
“What do you mean, can I come early?”
“Can you get home early? Maybe a good week early so that we can go over everything and get our story straight and practice acting like a couple who’s desperately in love.
” She makes a face like that grosses her out.
Her long blonde hair falls past her shoulders and I watch as she twirls it in her fingers delicately.
I can still remember when we were fifteen and she’d asked me to brush her hair a hundred times a night.
At the time, the task had felt tedious, but now, I missed touching those silky locks.
I can’t help but laugh.
“Because I’m not that good of an improv actress, and I don’t think you’re that good of an actor period.”
“It’s going to be that hard for you to pretend you’re in love with me?” I pretend to be wounded.
“Luke, we have to pretend we’re in a relationship.” She practically gags. “We have to pretend that we kiss and we touch and … oh my, even thinking about it makes me feel sick to my stomach.” She shudders. “Can you imagine us kissing?”
My heart sinks slowly at her words. I’m slightly offended by what she’s saying, but I’m not going to tell her that.
“It makes you sick to your stomach to think about kissing me? Well, that’s good to know.”