Andy and Sam lead Tim and Lucy through some stretches before starting their first dance lesson, but Tim was having trouble paying attention, because he just kept staring at Lucy. He had gotten so close to telling her his true feelings before Andy interrupted them to start their dance lesson, and as much as he loved the prospect of holding her in his arms while they danced, Tim wanted them to have a discussion before any more physical contact would just make him fall deeper in love with her.
When Sam showed Tim where to touch Lucy, she felt the warmth of his hands course throughout her entire body. It was a feeling she had grown accustomed to over the last few days and was grateful for the excuse to savor the contact for a few more days due to their extended stay.
"Keep eye contact with your partner. Silently talk to each other as you move," Andy instructed. "It'll take some practice, but you'll get there."
That was not a problem; Tim and Lucy found it really simple to speak with their eyes and adjust when one made a misstep or moved offbeat. It was their verbal communication that was failing. Even though they were supposed to be focusing on learning the steps, following the music, and coordinating with each other, Tim could see there was something in her eyes- pain mixed with longing that made him wonder for the first time in years what was going on in Lucy's head.
She was not necessarily surprised they danced so well together even with barely any training, but Lucy was still wistfully watching Sam and Andy. Their warm smiles, the genuine joy on their faces from dancing together, and the fact that they looked like they were having fun. They seemed like such an unattainably perfect, and Lucy wanted that kind of relationship with someone. Actually, not someone. Tim.
"Lucy," Tim murmured to get her attention. She looked up at him with something odd shining in her eyes. "Look at me," he requested in a low voice. Her palm remained resting on his shoulder while the other was firmly in his grasp with what felt like too much distance between their bodies.
When she looked over at the couple, Andy urged, "Stand a little closer together."
Tim moved towards Lucy while she moved towards him at the same time. Now, they might have been standing too close together, because with every exhale she felt her chest brush against him, and she was not sure if that was proper form for ballroom dancing, but Sam and Andy did not tell them to step away from each other, nor did she want to move. Lucy wanted to stay close to Tim for a few more minutes before they had their dreaded conversation where he would probably pull away physically and emotionally afterwards.
♡ ⋆˙⟡ ♡ ˙⋆ ⟡ ♡ ⋆˙⟡ ♡˙⋆ ⟡ ♡
As they drove back to the cottage after dance practice, neither of them spoke until Tim pulled the car onto the side of the road, parked, turned to look at her, and huffed, "We should talk."
"Yeah, Tim, I know," Lucy bit her lip. "So what you said earlier..."
"I meant it."
"I-I know," she looked down at her hands but then returned her gaze to him, "and, you're right, I'm not really pretending either." Lucy saw his eyes start to soften. She put a hand on his knee before speaking quietly, "That's why I'm scared."
"Of what?"
"I have feelings for you, Tim. Real feelings, and if I'm being honest, I want us to be more than friends, but...neither of us have the best track record when it comes to relationships. If...if we do this and it doesn't work, I'll have ruined the most important relationship in my life..." her eyes widened, surprised she had divulged that last part out loud.
Tim could tell she was about to apologize for unexpectedly admitting how much she values their relationship, so he put his hand over hers on his knee and said, "I feel the same way."
"So, it's not..."
"Lucy," he squeezed her hand, "we can be scared about taking the risk, but we owe it to ourselves to see what we could be. Maybe we mess everything up, but maybe we have something better."
She tried not to shake despite her anxiety. "We can't know what'll happen."
He traced the outline of her engagement ring and replied, "I think our time here has proven we know what our future holds. How happy we can be together. How easy it all is."
"That's the thing, Tim. We're pretending."
"What exactly are you pretending? You just said you aren't, and it seems to me that you're genuinely happy."
"I am, just..." Lucy pulled her hand away. What was she pretending? Every time she touched him, kissed him, and spoke to him, she did so with her whole heart- the only "fake" part about their situation was referring to him as her fiancée, but the feelings were far too real. Yet, how could she risk her heart without knowing he was not acting? "I think the best way to give us a real chance is if we wait until we're back in L.A. While we're here, it's confusing to add real feelings to this fake engagement."
He hated that she moved her hand away, but moreover, her suggestion was pretty sad, even if it made sense. "You're right. We should take this slow and wait so there's no confusion, because I like you, Lucy. A lot. I care about you, and I don't want you to think that I don't mean every word I say to you, because I do."
She was speechless. If Lucy were being honest with herself, she would not want to wait any longer, but she was TERRIFIED.
He sighed, "Okay?"
"Okay," she felt relieved.
"Alright, well then, when we get back to L.A., do you wanna get dinner with me?"
"Yeah," she paused, "I would."
"Good," he pulled his lips down into a frown of satisfaction and started the car to resume their drive to the cottage.
♡ ⋆˙⟡ ♡ ˙⋆ ⟡ ♡ ⋆˙⟡ ♡˙⋆ ⟡ ♡
While at dinner with Dave, Amy, and Tamara, Tim put an arm around the back of Lucy's chair with a smile on his face that he could not wipe away. He had a date with Lucy. He was excited about the prospect, and his mind was running with the countless options for where to take her for their first date.
"So, since the bookstore is closed on Tuesdays, what are you kids planning on doing?" Dave asked the couple and Tamara.
Lucy glanced at Tim before answering, "We don't have any plans."
"You guys should enjoy the beach for a while. Have a picnic. I'll see if I can join you depending on how I'm feeling," Amy suggested.
As Lucy was about to say that Tim hates that beach, he said, "That sounds perfect," with a sweet smile. She reached under the table to squeeze his thigh and tell him a silent "thank you".
"Are you inviting that boy you spent all day with?" Dave inquired.
"I don't know. Maybe," Tamara shrugged.
"You have to give love a chance. Love is too special to let slip away," Amy advised.
"You're right, Aunt Amy. Tim and Lucy didn't really like each other at one point, but then they got out of their own ways and gave love a chance, and now they're happy together," Tamara smiled over at the fake couple across the table. She liked torturing them. Of course, she was quite surprised by what transpired next. It was not the usual discomfort from Tim that he swiftly masked and Lucy's quick response to maintain their covers.
"Lucy gave ME a chance. More than a few chances if I'm being honest," Tim corrected.
"So worth it," Lucy assured him and ran a hand up his arm before reaching his shoulder. "I wouldn't have wanted this to slip away."
"Me neither," he smiled down at her, wrapped up in her gaze.
Were her eyes deceiving her or had something shifted between Tim and Lucy, Tamara wondered. After dinner, she volunteered to help clean up to have some time alone with the fake couple to find out if they had FINALLY talked. She watched them exchange little smiles while working together to clean the kitchen, and she could not wait any longer, "So, are you two like a REAL thing now?"
Neither knew how to answer that question- how could they characterize that they planned to go on a first date? "None of your business," Lucy decided to say.
She picked up on the look they exchanged with poorly concealed matching smiles on their faces and sighed, "Oh, thank GOD! I was trying to figure out how to parent trap you two when I don't have a twin. Wasn't shaping up to be my best plan, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Angela might be a little pissed you'll show up back at the station hitched, but I'll explain everything to her. And besides, she half expected you two to come back from your undercover job in Vegas married, so she'll be fine."
There was a LOT to discuss about what Tamara just said, but he decided to address the most pressing part. "Hang on, we're not getting married. We agreed to go on a date," Tim explained.
Tamara groaned, "A date? You two already act like you're married, and I'm not just talking about during this trip, and your big step forward is a first date?" Maybe she would have to enact her one woman parent trap idea after all.
"Okay, it's a big deal for us," Lucy replied defensively.
"Yeah, she just decided we're worth the risk," Tim volunteered.
Lucy heard an edge to his tone. "Don't act like you've felt that way for a while, and you've been waiting for me to come around to the idea of being with you."
"I have. Why do you think I asked you to dance at Angela's wedding?"
"That was like a year ago!" Lucy shot back.
"Yeah, also, no offense, dude, but asking a girl to dance is not exactly a feelings declaration," Tamara snorted. "Actually, maybe for you two idiots it sorta is."
Tim ignored the younger woman's snarky comment and spun on Lucy. "Everything that went down at Angela's wedding sorta put a damper on you and me, and I didn't really know how to move forward."
"I'll give you a hint- if you wanted to move forward with ME, you shouldn't have asked out ASHLEY," Lucy insisted through gritted teeth.
"You wanted to be my aide. That was practically friend zoning me. What did you want me to do?"
"I don't know. I wasn't thinking clearly. Nolan told me Grey wanted you to ride with me, and when you picked everyone else for the gig over me, I was so focused on winning that I wasn't thinking about the cost of winning," Lucy replied.
"How was I supposed to know that?"
"Wow. You two should have tried this novel concept. It's called TALKING to each other about your feelings. I bet Tim knows when your next period is but had no idea how you felt about him until like today," Tamara turned to Lucy.
It took a second, but then he locked eyes with Lucy. "Two and a half weeks," Tim replied. "That's when your next period is. I know that, but I didn't know you...I mean, I suspected and hoped, and there were moments when I was sure, but you hadn't said anything definitive until today."
He was correct about her period, but more than that, Tamara was right; they knew everything about each other except how the other was feeling. Lucy's lips were a thin line as she awkwardly scratched her head in her embarrassment, "I should've told you. There were so many times I almost did tell you I have feelings for you, but I..."
"You run into gunfire without a second thought, but risking your heart sounds terrifying enough to make you freeze? Yeah, me, too," Tim agreed and smiled bashfully.
"Pretty much," Lucy agreed.
"Now that you two are being honest with each other, maybe you should spend tomorrow alone. Have your long awaited first date," Tamara suggested.
"We're waiting until we're back in L.A. We don't want to get this fake relationship confused with our real feelings. We'll only be away for another day or two depending on how long it takes for my car to get fixed anyways," Lucy justified.
"Oh, more delays I see. At this rate, I'll have a kid by the time you sleep together," Tamara quipped sarcastically.
"Don't you dare even think about having a kid right now. You're in college. You should finish getting your degree first," Tim started feeling very protective of her future.
Lucy saw the firm set of his jaw and put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down, "I think that's her point." She turned to her roommate, "But, there's nothing wrong with the fact that we want to take things slow. We wanna get this right. There's too much at stake to screw this up."
"Fine," Tamara surrendered. "Part of me really wants to find what you two have, but I don't think I wanna be driven absolutely insane. Now that my work here is done, I'm going to bed. Good night." Feeling supremely exhausted by her friends' ridiculousness, she shuffled her feet through the kitchen and up the stairs to her bedroom.
They exchanged a look but did not speak until they reached the cottage.
"We're good, right?" Tim asked.
"Yeah, we're good," Lucy assured him. She lead the way into the bathroom to get ready for bed where they coordinated their movements just like during their dance lesson earlier in the day.
He stopped her before she could walk over to the bed. "I'm looking forward to our date."
"Me, too," she felt butterflies flutter in her stomach in anticipation.
Tim bent down to kiss her cheek. "Good night, Luce."
"Good night," she whispered as her heart beat so violently, she thought it might bounce right out of her chest.
♡ ⋆˙⟡ ♡ ˙⋆ ⟡ ♡ ⋆˙⟡ ♡˙⋆ ⟡ ♡
Tim was making his mom's pancakes again the next morning when Lucy sidled up next to him.
"Pancakes again?" She asked happily, already salivating.
"Is that okay?"
"More than okay," she grinned. "Need someone to taste test the batter?"
"Sure," he held out the spatula for her to lick the end. Tim watched her stick her tongue out to soak up a little bit of the batter and then moaned. The sound was enough to distract him momentarily before he swallowed hard and said, "The secret is extra vanilla, a hint of cinnamon, and extra baking powder."
"Are you sharing your mom's recipe with me?" She was surprised.
"I trust you, besides, I like sharing this with you."
"I like you sharing this with me. You can make me pancakes any time."
Immediately, he saw a vision of waking up on Saturday mornings to make her pancakes with the sound of kids in the other room. It was too easy to picture a future with her.
"Tim?" Lucy noticed that he had zoned out, and he was about to burn a pancake.
He blinked a few times to refocus and slightly charred the pancake before turning it over.
"Are you alright?" She asked.
"Mhm," Tim hummed, not trusting that his voice would come out evenly.
They ate breakfast together, then brought Kojo to lay in the sand with them. Lucy tried to bite back a smile from the way Tim kept struggling to lay down comfortably on a towel.
"Tim, you don't have to sit out here. I know how much you hate the beach."
"No, Amy wants us to sit out here, so that's what we'll do."
"She'll understand. Besides, Aunt Amy will probably be resting for most of the day and not even see us."
"Well, I also know how much you love the beach, and I'm happy to be here with you."
Lucy used all of her self restraint to hold back from kissing him the way he spoke to her so softly and genuinely. No one was around, and she was quite certain he was just being honest.
He looked up from where he was laying to see her sitting upright and staring down at him with love shining in her eyes. It did not happen often enough, but Tim could get lost in that gaze of hers. He reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, watching her smile widen.
"I like seeing you happy," Tim remarked.
"I was just thinking the same thing about you," she replied, noting a rare iridescent brightness in his blue eyes reserved for when he is at his happiest.
She was not confident in her ability to hold back from kissing him, so Lucy stood up and waved Kojo to join her in the water.
Tim watched Lucy and Kojo at the edge of the water, and it had to be one of his favorite views (not just because of the beautiful dark green bikini that made it hard to take his eyes off of her).
"Hey, Tim," Tamara greeted as she walked over to the beach with a small cooler.
"Hey, wanna jump in?" Tim asked.
"No, Dave said I could come with him to an antique shop a town over, so I'm not staying."
"I know that you define anything older than Justin Bieber as antique, but going with Dave, you'll probably find things over 100 years old. You know that, right?"
"Sure," Tamara shrugged.
He narrowed his eyes at her, "Since when do you like going antique shopping?"
"Since today. It's a new hobby."
"Really?" Tim shot back sarcastically, "and it has nothing to do with making sure Lucy and I are alone for a while?"
She feigned cluelessness, "I'm not sure why I would do something like that. You two already agreed to start dating when you get back to L.A."
"That's what she wants, and I'm following her lead."
"And what do YOU want?"
Tim stood up and replied, "To be with her." Then, he strode up to the ocean and though he hates open water, he barely thought about it as he stepped right in to join her.
"You're in the ocean," Lucy pointed out beaming.
"Well, I didn't want to be that far away from you."
She visibly swooned.
"Actually," he started and put his hands on her hips, "you're still too far away," Tim said and pulled her to his chest. He paused, staring down at her and searching her eyes for any objections, but when she fluttered her eyelashes and angled her head upwards, it was all the invitation he needed to lean down and capture her lips.
The hot sun did nothing to heat up her skin the way Tim's palms did as they slid up her bare back before landing at the back of her head. He could have touched her anywhere he wanted without pesky clothing getting in the way thanks to her bikini, but Tim kept his hands in respectful spots, which only made her want him to touch her MORE.
He heard her moan when his tongue touched hers, and he wanted to swallow up all of Lucy's sounds until the end of time.
"What was that for?" She asked breathlessly once she finally pulled away to take in a much needed gulp of air.
Tim traced her cheek and smirked, "You said we have to wait until we're in L.A. to go on our first date, but you didn't say I have to wait that long to kiss you again."
"You're right. I didn't," she grinned and pulled his face down to hers before gripping his biceps.
Amy hated to interrupt what seemed to be a very involved moment between Tim and Lucy, but she had to, so she called for them from where she was standing on the beach, "Tim! You have a visitor."
It took a second for them to process that someone was speaking to them before Tim barely detached his lips from Lucy's to glance at Amy on the shore. He saw that someone was on the beach with Amy, but he thought his eyes were deceiving him.
Lucy felt Tim's body tense, and she followed his line of sight to see what caused him to go rigid. She had to blink a few times due to the brightness of the sun, but also because she could not believe who was standing next to her aunt.
Ashley McGrady.