Chapter Twelve

When they'd finished breakfast, the others started getting ready as well. Becca stayed downstairs with a book, as Mrs. Shelton showered in her ensuite and Luke showered in the main bathroom.

"Becca, do you mind if I ask you about this agreement you and Luke have?" Leanne asked carefully as she sat down on the sofa next to their guest, putting two cups of tea on the coffee table.

"Yeah, sure," the brunette nodded, putting her book away and curling up against the arm of the sofa.

"How did it even come up as an idea?" his twin asked curiously. Pretending to date wasn't exactly a normal topic of conversation.

"Oh, we ran into each other at a bar and started talking about Kirsty and Derek. And I decided I didn't want to drink myself into oblivion over him but because I wanted to have fun. So we were drinking and dancing, and this song came on about two people, sending pictures to their ex about going home together. And Luke suggested that maybe we could pretend that we'd hooked up to make them jealous and it kind'a went from there," Becca told her about that first night in the bar. Thinking back to it, it was actually one of her favorite nights out in a long time, for the most part because she met Luke that night. It made her smile as she remembered how he felt a little awkward about dancing with her at first, not dissimilar from how he felt when they went ice skating last week.

"It was Luke's idea?" Leanne asked surprised. She hadn't thought he would've suggested something like that, not that she thought he would actually have suggested hooking up for real either.

"Yeah, the original idea was. Though… it was me who kissed him first when I saw Derek was home when we got to mine that night. And I said that I would help him with Kirsty if he wanted me to. It kind'a evolved from there," the brunette admitted.

"You've kissed?" the blonde struggled keeping her voice down. She didn't think anything like that had happened yet.

"Only in public when needed, so only about 4 or 5 times. It was part of the agreement, if it would help make them jealous," Becca justified quickly. "But we realized about halfway through that Kirsty was happy for him that he was in a new relationship, so I said I'd try to help him make a good impression to make partner instead, so the agreement didn't just benefit me," she added.

"But then when or how did you guys decide you needed to come here?" Leanne asked. She'd deal with the kissing later; she couldn't quite get her head around her brother's thought process on this one and wanted to deal with that first. "How would it help anything?"

"Initially, because Kirsty lives on the other side of San Antonio and there was nothing tying their lives together anymore, Luke thought that the only sure way to make her jealous would be for me to meet you guys. But when we decided to focus on the promotion, we figured it might still help him look good as they really value commitment and are quite family orientated. And me coming here with him would show that, especially compared to Derek who cheated on me with his secretary Gina," Becca tried to help explain their thinking.

"Oh, that's such a cliché," she responded in slight disgust, making her laugh about the situation for probably the first time. "Sorry your ex turned out to be such a douche," Leanne said a bit more sympathetically now.

"It's okay," the brunette said, picking up her tea and wrapping her hands around it to warm them up. "There's a lot of things that, in hindsight, weren't really that great about him. Plus, I wouldn't have gotten to know Luke otherwise," she added, unable to stop herself from smiling at her tea, intriguing his sister further. "I will say, the best kiss…"

"Iew, I don't want to know about how my brother kisses," Leanne reacted in disgust as she physically recoiled, making Becca burst into laughter.

"I wasn't going to tell you that. I meant, the most effective kiss we've had was when I went to visit him at work the first time with mini muffins. Derek got a bit huffy about me never coming to visit him, because he basically never wanted me to. So I said, looking at Gina, 'guess now I know why' and I walked over to Luke and started kissing him as he pulled me into his office," she told her now.

"That's cold, I like your style," his sister said with an approving chuckle now, glad she didn't go into detail about his kissing technique.

'Well actually, it was rather hot,' Becca couldn't help thinking as she fought back a blush but chuckled outwardly.

"What are you ladies laughing about?" Luke asked as he walked in.

"Nothing," Leanne grinned as she got up, clapping him on the shoulders and headed up to have her shower.

"What was that about?" he asked suspiciously, seeing Becca laugh with a shake of the head.

"Don't ask," she assured him, of course only making him more curious. But he let it lie for now.

It was chilly when they finally headed out to get the tree, but it wasn't anything they weren't used to. Walking through the lot, Mrs. Shelton decided they should split up and ring each other if they thought they'd found a good tree. She was initially going to ask that Becca join her, but Leanne already pulled her mother with her, so she could tell her about some of the details she'd found out this morning. Becca and Luke didn't mind being left by themselves as they looked for a big, fat tree but it did remind them of last weekend when they went to find his tree, which made it a little awkward to start with. Initially they walked side by side as they talked, Luke holding his hands in his coat pockets. Eventually Becca started feeling a little cold though, so she hooked her arm through his and leaned against him a little as they walked.

"My hand's cold," she complained after a few minutes of trying to ignore it. Her right hand was snug in her own pocket, but her left was exposed as it rested on his arm. He resolutely took his warm hand out, enclosed hers with it and brought both their hands into his coat pocket. "Thanks," she said with a slightly embarrassed chuckle. "Oh look, that tree would be perfect," she pointed out when she looked up and spotted it.

He was just about to agree with her when his phone rang. "Hi mom, we found…" he started, pausing when she said something. "Yeah but so have we…" he responded, making Becca think that Mrs. Shelton and Leanne thought they'd found the tree as well. "Okay, take a picture and we'll do the same, and we'll see which one's better," Luke suggested now. When she'd voiced her agreement, he hung up and took a picture of their tree. "Mom seems to think they found the best tree," he informed his fake girlfriend as he sent the first picture through. "Get in there," he said as he used his hold on her hand to move her in front of the tree. "Smile."

She gave a small smile, which he took a picture of while he could. "I will if you come in with me," she said, pulling on his hand to help him in.

He dug his heels in for a second but conceding she wouldn't stop trying until she got her way. Luke lifted both their hands over her head, so his arm went around her back and hers crossed in front of her stomach with both resting on her hip. "Smile," he said again as she leaned into him and they both did. When he'd taken the picture and sent it to his mother with the first one of just the tree, Becca raised her green eyes to look up at him. He saw it from the corner of his eye and, to stop her from leaning in as she appeared to be considering, he carefully twirled her away. She giggled, a little shyly, dropping her eyes before raising them up again. She noticed his blue eyes lingering on her, tempted to pull her back in. The moment was interrupted as his mother text back with a picture of her tree and immediately another text to concede theirs was better. "Ours won, no competition," he told her out loud, holding the phone up long enough to show her the picture of the losing tree. He'd just turned his phone back towards him when his mother text again, 'you two make such a cute couple!'. 'We'll meet you at the front with the tree,' he texted back, ignoring her message. "Come on, let's get this tree up to the pay desk up front," Luke said as he turned his attention back to the woman whose hand he was still holding.

They quickly found one of the salesmen and got the tree brought out. Mrs. Shelton and Leanne were already there when the other two got there. Luke cautiously brought Becca's hand out of his pocket and slowly let go, so her arm was just hooked through his again. He gave her an apologetic smile when she looked at him, nodding his head towards his family, at which she gave him an understanding nod.

When they got the tree back to the house, Mrs. Shelton made Luke put it in exactly the right spot, the same as always. She then made them some lunch and, after they finished eating, asked her twins to get the decorations from the loft. Becca started untangling the first string of lights, as Luke and Leanne started sorting through the boxes to see what they had. Mrs. Shelton made them divide things up in categories to make it easier for them to tackle the actual decorating. First, the white fairy lights went around the tree, then the colored ones. Then the tinsel, which Leanne and Becca found hilarious as they pretended a string was a scarf as they wrapped it around their necks. When Luke rolled his eyes at them, they ganged up on him to wrap several of them around him.

As much as Mrs. Shelton was enjoying watching the two girls take him on, she eventually told them to be serious and let him go. They wrapped the tinsel around the tree, before adding the baubles and other ornaments.

Luke had just flopped himself down on the sofa when his mother cleared her throat. He almost didn't want to look up to see what she wanted. "We've still got the rest of the house to do," she said strictly, making it perfectly clear that he would be helping.

"Mom, can't we at least take a break?" he asked, not able to keep a slight whine from his voice, making the three women fight back chuckles.

"Okay, fine, take a break," Mrs. Shelton conceded. As the three youngsters sat talking on the sofa, she decided to make some hot chocolate for them to enjoy so no one could complain about her being a slave driver or sucking the fun out of it.

Becca was really enjoying spending time with them as they drank their hot chocolate and made jokes at each other's expense. It almost felt like she was at home, she felt comfortable and at ease around them. It wasn't hard to imagine being a part of this family, staying in touch and visiting them again.