Relief made her almost dizzy. Maybe she hadn't blown it. Or maybe he was being polite, but she was going to cling to the idea that she hadn't blown it until he said otherwise. Desperate to change the subject, or at least to not make it any more awkward, she said, "Are you looking forward to going home?" and he was quiet again until she came out of the bathroom, nervous about his silence.
He'd climbed under the covers, but was still sitting up, a funny little smile on his face. "Yes, but mostly because you've already said you'll go on a real date with me and I want to get home so we can do that."
"Oh." Sabrina smiled, feeling almost shy. "Yeah, me too. Although that real date we discussed involved me getting my dress altered, so…we might have to do something less formal as our first real date?"
Luke's own smile was so warm and bright it melted almost all of her nerves away. "That sounds great. Are you busy tomorrow night?"
She laughed as she crawled into her side of the bed. "Won't your parents kill you if you don't spend some time at home once you get back?"
"I'm big. They'll have a hard time actually killing me."
"In that case, I've got nothing in particular planned!"
"Then it's a date," Luke said with satisfaction, and after a few minutes, Sabrina went to sleep.
CHAPTER 16
In retrospect, Luke should have realized that a date with Sabrina the night they got back to Virtue wouldinevitablymean 'Sabrina is coming to dinner with the family whether you like it or not because we all want to see you with your fated mate!'
Worse, the entire family turned out for the barbecue. His parents, sure, but also six siblings, nearly all of whom had partners of their own, and some of whom had kids. There were about twenty people, and they were all…
…great, actually. Luke honestly adored his family, from the little shouting rug rats to his parents, who were loveable homebodies. His mom was round like Emmy, and his dad had gotten progressively rounder as the years went by, although he was also where Luke had gotten his height from. Most of his family were fairly tall, actually; it was only Emmy who had gotten the literal short end of the stick. Luke was the tallest, though, and Sabrina was shorter than Emmy, so it all balanced out somehow. At least, it did if he didn't think that through too carefully.
Sabrina was standing with Emmy and their brother Aaron, whose soon-to-be-husband Dion was at the table, scooping anastonishing amount of potato salad onto a paper plate. Sabrina was brandishing a barbecued rib, building something in the air with dramatic gestures, while Emmy and Aaron listened avidly. Luke's mom sidled up to him. "Sooooo…"
Luke groaned good-naturedly. "I haven't told her."
"You spent all weekend together and didn't tell her?" His mother sounded a lot like his rabbit just then.
I TOLD you you should've told her!his rabbit said, seizing the slightest opportunity.
"What if she freaked out?" Luke said reasonably. "Then she'd have been stuck with me on the other side of the country for days. That's not fair to do to anyone."
"Fated mates don't freak out," his mother replied steadily. "On the other hand, I've apparently managed to raise a gentleman, so I can't entirely fault your decision-making process here."
"I'd like to think it was clear I'm a gentleman!"
His mom smiled up at him. "Well,Ithink it's clear, at least. She's adorable, Luke. I suppose you already knew that, of course. So did we, for that matter, since she's been over to visit Emmy several times. But I can't wait for you to tell her. Imagine how happy the kids would be if they could be bunny-rabbiting around."
Luke, watching the four or five little ones running around screaming gleefully, said, "I'm pretty confident they're happy anyway, Mom," and gave her a kiss on top of the head before returning to Sabrina. "Please tell me they're not spilling all my awful childhood stories."
"Only some of them," Aaron promised. "Like the time you rode your bike into the mailbox."
Luke winced. "Not my finest moment."
"The impressive part was he appeared to be looking straight at it, and rode into it anyway," Aaron said to Sabrina, who grinned.
"I once lost a bicycle fight with a tennis court net, so I probably can't throw any stones here."
All the Joneses within earshot looked at her in bewilderment, and she sighed dramatically. "There was a tennis court near where I lived, and when it wasn't being used I would ride my bike around the two courts, weaving between the nets. Only I clipped one somehow and went down in a blaze of glory. I still have the scar." She turned her wrist up to show off a long slender scar on the inside. "So yeah, me and my bike lost a fight to a tennis net."
"You two are a perfect match," Aaron said, sounding impressed in an 'I'm trying not to laugh' kind of way. "Dion, c'mere, do you have any idiotic childhood injury stories to tell?"
His partner came over with a plate laden by potato salad and shook his head. "I was a careful and graceful child. No, seriously, I was!" he said to the skeptical sounds everyone made. "I didn't like getting hurt and I didn't like getting dirty, so I was careful. I gather Aaron was a little more reckless. Did he tell you about falling into a puddle and deciding he should go for a swim?"
"It was a huge puddle!" Aaron protested, laughing. "And I was only six! Small! It made sense!"
Dion shuddered delicately and Aaron leaned over to kiss him, narrowly avoiding dumping his dinner on them both. "Oh my God," Dion said. "To the table, lest I wear your mom's potato salad for the rest of the evening." He and Aaron went to sit down, and Emmy broke off to go see what her boyfriend was burning at the grill, becausesomethingwas certainly burning.
