Becca found it extremely easy to talk to both Leanne and Mrs. Shelton, and she really enjoyed how they spent their first afternoon and evening. All four of them helped make the dinner, which Becca found very telling about how the Sheltons had raised their twins. Mrs. Shelton and Leanne of course took this opportunity to get to know their guest better and, in turn, told her all about Luke after dinner. Leanne had her own stories about her twin brother and their mother mostly had cute ones, which he found embarrassing of course.
"Mom, she's not my girlfriend and everybody knows mothers are only supposed to tell the embarrassing childhood stories to girlfriends, so can you please stop?" Luke eventually objected, making the three most important women in his life laugh.
"We're just having some fun honey," his mother said with a chuckle.
"Yeah, and I promise I won't tell anyone else," Becca promised, trying to fight back her laugh when she saw the look on his face.
"That's not the point," he said, trying not to whine.
She reached over to give him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, but he grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her in to tickle her. "No, Luke!" Becca was the one to object now, as she fought back her giggles and tried to get out of his hold.
His mother and sister exchanged intrigued looks as they watched. Of course, they'd seen Luke with Kirsty before over the almost three years they were together, but he did seem to be more playful with his new friend than he previously had with her.
"Give?" he asked with a chuckle when it became obvious that she wasn't going to release his hold.
"Yeah, give," she panted as she giggled, leaning against him gratefully when he stopped tickling her. "You're so mean," she told him for good measure, which only made him laugh. Becca gave him a lighthearted shove. "So… what are we doing tomorrow?" the brunette asked as she returned her attention back to his family.
"Tomorrow we'll be getting the Christmas tree and putting up our decorations. It's not easy to get this house done up by myself," Mrs. Shelton said, trying not to dwell too much on the fact that she usually lived in this big house by herself. She'd thought of downsizing a couple of times over the years, but she could never bring herself to go through with it. As long as her two children still called it home and wanted to come back, she would stay. She would just like it better if they came home a little more often than they currently did.
"That sounds like fun," Becca smiled, making herself more comfortable against Luke. She was struggling to stay awake now, after their late night yesterday and travel this morning. She immediately thought back to the weekend that they'd decorated his tree together, how much fun they'd had, and she sat up a little straighter. Leaning against him the way she was, only reminded her of how close they'd come to kissing at the tree lot and the kiss they'd shared in the car.
"Maybe you should head up to bed," Leanne suggested now, seeing that their guest was struggling.
"Yeah, maybe," Becca conceded after a minute. "I'll see you in the morning," she said as she slowly started sitting up, glancing at Luke for a second.
"Breakfast will be ready for 8," Mrs. Shelton told her with a smile, getting one back before the brunette got up to head upstairs. "Hope you sleep well," she added.
"Thanks, night," she nodded to everyone, heading up now with one more look at her pretend boyfriend.
"Night," Luke said with a smile, happy to get a sweet smile back. As soon as they heard her bedroom door close upstairs, his sister and mother turned to him with curious looks. "What?" he asked suspiciously, sure he wasn't going to like what was about to follow.
"Nothing," his mother started innocently, "it just looks like there's more between you two than an agreement to pretend."
"Mom," he objected.
"No hear us out," Mrs. Shelton said now. "If you say you're just friends, we'll believe you."
"But would it really be that bad if there was more between you?" Leanne interrupted now.
Her brother shook his head without thinking, quickly shrugging when he realized what he'd done. "It won't happen. She literally broke up with her boyfriend two days before we started this agreement. There's no way she'd want more than friendship," Luke said, playing it from her angle instead of having to think about his feelings for the amazing woman upstairs who'd agreed to meet his mother and sister to help him.
"I'm not so sure," was all his mother said before she too decided to call it a night.
The next morning Becca made sure she was showered and ready to go down for 8am, surprised to see that the others were still in their pajamas.
"We're in no rush today, I just like to take our time with breakfast," Mrs. Shelton answered her surprised look, giving her a sideways hug as she led their guest to the dining table. Her son was already sat there with a big mug of coffee, reading through the paper. He looked up to give Becca a big smile as she sat down next to him, smiling back. His mother smiled to herself when she saw the exchange and went through his hair to straighten it a little, as it was currently sticking up in all angles from sleeping.
"Mom," Luke objected, thoroughly embarrassed now, and wanting the earth to swallow him up when he saw how Becca was fighting back a laugh behind her hand. She quickly turned her gaze to the garden to straighten herself out. He took a deep breath to settle himself before he asked, "did you sleep okay?"
"Oh, yeah, great. I was so tired from Saturday night and then travelling yesterday," Becca nodded as she turned back. There was no way she could've stayed up any later, even if she'd wanted to.
"What did you do on Saturday night?" Leanne asked curiously as she sat down on the other side of their guest, ignoring her twin's warning look.
"Oh, we had Luke's office party on Saturday," she answered with a shrug.
"Was it fun?" the blonde continued asking, wanting to know what else might have happened.
"Yeah, for the most part. Until they announced my ex Derek would be promoted to junior partner over Luke," Becca said now, trying not to glance at him with a sorry expression. She didn't want to make it awkward for him, but she definitely still felt that he deserved it more than her ex.
"Oh, honey I'm sorry to hear that," Mrs. Shelton came over from the kitchen to give her son a big hug.
He appreciated the gesture, but it made him feel bad again and he really didn't want to dwell on it. He was surprised to feel Becca's hand gently take hold of his under the table to comfort him, and he did feel a little better already. Luke gave her hand a squeeze before he slowly let go; he didn't want to fuel his mother and sister's misguided ideas about them. "It's okay, there's always next round in 6 months," he shrugged, trying to play it cool. "Anyway…" he said to try to move on the conversation.
"Okay, well, what time did the party finish for you to be so tired?" Leanne asked as she turned to the brunette curiously.
"Oh, I think we got back to mine before midnight. But we watched a movie with hot chocolate and fell asleep," Becca answered without thinking, missing the intrigued looks on his family's faces. "So where will we be getting the tree?" she asked curiously.
"There's a family lot we always go to, just outside the city," Mrs. Shelton answered.