Chapter 1

Weddings are strange.

One minute you’re standing in front of everyone promising to become a family, and the next you’re trying to figure out whether you’re supposed to call someone your stepbrother before you’ve even finished your cake.

Personally, I thought Ethan and I had done pretty well.

We’d known this day was coming for months. We’d survived family dinners, shopping trips, and exactly one disastrous attempt at bowling where he somehow managed to throw the ball into the next lane.

Now we were officially siblings.

Well…

Step siblings.

That still counted.

I was reaching for another dinner roll when Great Aunt Lorraine appeared beside our table.

She was one of those relatives who always seemed to know everyone’s business, even when nobody remembered telling her.

“My,” she said, smiling at us. “You two make quite the pair.”

“Thanks?” Ethan answered.

She tilted her head.

“Same age…”

She looked at me.

“Same birthday, too, isn’t it?”

I nodded.

“July eleventh.”

She chuckled.

“Well, if your parents had met a little earlier, you could’ve been twins.”

I smiled politely because it seemed like the thing to do.

She wandered off to find someone else to surprise with an observation.

I looked at Ethan.

“That was random.”

He snorted.

“Welcome to Great Aunt Lorraine.”

I laughed.

Then forgot all about it.

…For about fifteen minutes.

While I was getting lemonade, one of Ethan’s cousins grinned at me.

“So you’re practically his twin now, huh?”

I blinked.

“I guess… not really.”

He laughed and ran off before I could answer.

That was twice.

Weird.

A little later, one of Mom’s friends smiled as she walked by.

“You two certainly look like siblings.”

“People keep saying that,” I muttered.

“Well, with the same birthday…” she said. “It’s hard not to think of twins.”

Twins.

Again.

I found Ethan near the dessert table.

“Has anyone else been saying weird stuff to you?”

He sighed.

“Three people.”

I stared.

“Seriously?”

“‘Step twins,’ apparently.”

He rolled his eyes so dramatically I almost laughed.

Almost.

I wasn’t upset.

Not exactly.

It was just…

I had waited a long time to have a sibling.

I wanted a stepbrother.

Not a step twin.

And somehow, before the wedding was even over, people had started acting like those were the same thing.

I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be the last time I heard it.

And for the first time all day…

I thought I might not like having a step twin very much after all.