I Pretend You're Mine

4. He's Just Not...

Tim kept staring down at Lucy while holding her hand where the new engagement ring was sparkling in his periphery. From what he could tell, she was holding her breath while being caught in the same trance.

The only coherent thought Lucy had was that she wished her real engagement could be like this- simple. Even though she was wearing a robe and standing near the doorway of the cottage, it still felt special and unbelievably charged. She had never been the type of girl to plan her engagement before, but she decided she wanted it to be exactly like this...and if Tim happened to be the man who actually proposed to her, well, she did not hate the idea.

He finally cleared his throat and asked softly, "Does it fit okay?"

"Yeah," she replied just as quietly and looked down to see that he was still cradling her hand.

Since Lucy brought attention to their hands, Tim dropped his away from hers and scratched the base of his neck as he does when he's nervous. "I'm gonna take a shower."

"I just took one...not that you were asking me to join you, because that would be weird...I'm-I'm gonna go to the main house to get some milk for my coffee." She was feeling so nervous around him just like after the first time they kissed; apparently, realizing she could see herself getting engaged to Tim was enough to throw her off balance.

"You might wanna change first," he suggested and pointed at her robe.

"Right," she agreed and scrambled towards her clothes to pick something out. She wondered how he could be perfectly fine and not at all effected by their situation; what Lucy did not know was that his heart was galloping in his chest and his palms were sweaty.

♡ ⋆˙⟡ ♡ ˙⋆ ⟡ ♡ ⋆˙⟡ ♡˙⋆ ⟡ ♡

Breakfast with Amy, Dave, and Tamara started easily enough; Amy was explaining to Tim and Lucy the last minute set up for the open house to welcome all of the family coming into town for the wedding and to expect the cousins to start arriving shortly.

"...And then tomorrow is the big day. It's gonna be a beautiful ceremony right on the beach," Amy described.

"Sounds perfect," Lucy grinned.

"You know, Dave and I were talking last night, and we really wouldn't mind sharing our big day." Based on everyone's expressions, Amy elaborated, "If you two wanted, we could do a joint wedding. Get you two crazy kids hitched."

Tim started choking on his water and Lucy patted his back until she heard his breathing even out.

Tamara was so amused she sat back in her chair and crossed her arms to give the fake couple her full attention; she was genuinely curious how they were going to gently decline the offer of a joint wedding. Or better yet, they SHOULD just get married- maybe then her favorite idiots might realize they're in love, she thought.

"Are you okay, babe?" Lucy asked.

Tim thought he might choke again from hearing the term of endearment and the way it rolled off her tongue so easily. After a beat, he tried speaking and replied, "I'm alright, boo." Lucy crinkled her nose at him for a fraction of a second before recovering.

Tamara had to bend down out of view and feed Kojo a strip of bacon off of her plate to hide her silent giggles from the rest of the table.

"Thank you so much for the offer, Aunt Amy, but Tim and I are happy to be engaged for a bit," Lucy said.

"We really don't mind. Life's too short to wait," Dave chimed in.

Lucy took Tim's hand and smiled, "We're sure. We're happy to celebrate you guys this weekend."