Pretend You're Mine(14)
“I just thought that this situation might work out for both of you.” Sophie walked to him. “What could it hurt, right? And it would just be for a month.”
“What happens in a month?” Harper asked.
“Luke’s unit ships out. They have a six-month deployment to Afghanistan.”
Harper felt her stomach flip flop. He was deploying?
“So what would Harper do at the end of the month?”
Sophie shrugged. “I don’t know. You guys could stage an epic breakup fight or something.” She turned back to Harper. “If you had a month to make plans, you’d be a lot better off than sleeping on your friend’s couch, right?”
Harper shrugged noncommittally. “I suppose more time would mean a better plan.” And more time with Luke. Pretending to be his girlfriend. Would that mean she would have the opportunity to kiss him? She bit her lip. A place to stay, a job, and an incredibly hot fake boyfriend for a month? What could go wrong?
Luke swiped a hand over his face and then his short hair. “Have any office management experience, Harper?”
CHAPTER SIX
Four weeks...
“You don’t have to do this, you know.” Luke gripped the steering wheel of his truck like it was someone’s neck. Five minutes ago they had pulled into his parents’ driveway, a winding ribbon of asphalt that led to a charming two-story farmhouse with a porch that wrapped around both sides.
Harper bit her lip to keep from smiling. “Luke, they’re your family. How bad could they be?”
“You’ll see.”
She patted his shoulder. “It’ll be fine, boyfriend. Or should I start calling you something gross like Lukey Bear?”
He grimaced.
“Poor baby, it’ll all be over soon. Let’s get in there and get it over with. Unless you just want to hang out here and make out.”
“You don’t know what they’re like.”
“Are they mean?”
He shook his head. “More like well-meaning. Obsessively so.”
“There are worse problems than a family who loves you and wants you to be happy,” she said, arching an eyebrow.
“I realize that. I’m just having trouble thinking of any right now.”
She pinched him. “I thought you were this big, tough, manly guy. And here you are cowering in the driveway because you’re scared of a little family get-together.”
“I’m not scared.”
“My mistake.” Harper glanced out the window and made a chicken noise.
He sighed and reached over to ruffle her hair. “Come on, dear. Let’s get this party over with.”
“Dear? Seriously? Is that the best you can do?”
They approached the house by way of a meandering walkway. He slung an arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. He smelled like a spices and sawdust. Harper tried to quell the pitter pat of her pulse. It was just a fake relationship. Nothing to get physically excited about. They were doing each other a favor, not actually banging like red-blooded adults.
“Ready?” he whispered in her ear.
Harper was suddenly the nervous one. “What if they don’t like me?” she whispered back.
“Now who’s scared? Trust me, you could have two heads and a criminal record and they’d still want to like you.”
“Because I’m awesome?”
“Because I’m fake dating you.”
Harper snorted.
“Actually that gives me an idea,” he said. “Mind if we have a little fun with this?”
“Oh, way ahead of you. We met online two weeks ago in the Craigslist missed connections,” she said.
“I just couldn’t say no to your topless profile picture.” He guided her up the walk.
“Don’t be modest. That shot of you in just a toolbelt was pretty spectacular.”
They stepped up onto the wide front porch and Harper saw the lace curtain twitch.
“I think they’re watching us,” she said without moving her lips.
“Uh-huh,” he answered through a jaw-straining fake smile.
Luke pushed the bright red Craftsman-style door open without knocking and found the entire family — all eight of them — standing awkwardly in the airy foyer.
“Hi guys.”
“Hello, sweetheart.” A woman with a pixie cut and a soft pink sweater stepped forward to kiss Luke on the cheek. “We were just checking out a squeak in the floor.”
“The one that’s been there for twenty years?”
The woman ignored him and held her hands out to Harper. “You must be Harper. Since my son’s manners seem to have deserted him, I’m his mother, Claire. This is Luke’s dad, Charlie,” she said gesturing to the tall, silver-haired man at the back of the pack. Charlie raised a hand in a silent greeting.