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.

Chapter 2

The problem wasn’t Ethan.

I kept reminding myself of that.

It would have been much easier if it was.

If Ethan was rude, or annoying, or the kind of person who left dirty dishes everywhere and never apologized, then I could have decided that having a stepbrother was the problem.

But Ethan wasn’t like that.

Ethan was actually pretty easy to get along with.

That was what made everything complicated.

Because yesterday, I had wanted a stepbrother.

I just hadn’t expected everyone to decide I had a step twin.

I found Ethan sitting at the kitchen table the next morning, staring at a piece of paper.

“What are you doing?”

He looked up.

“Trying to figure something out.”

I walked closer.

There were numbers written all over it.

“Are you doing math?”

“Technically.”

I looked at the page.

“It looks like you made a chart.”

“I did.”

“Why?”

He shrugged.

“Because I was curious.”

I smiled.

That was something I understood.

Numbers made sense.

People didn’t always.

“You’re strange.”

“You’re the one who enjoys math competitions.”

I pointed at him.

“That is different.”

“How?”

“Because my math makes sense.”

He laughed.

“That is the most you answer ever.”

I ignored that because he was right.

For a while, everything felt normal.

That was almost surprising.

We helped clean up leftover wedding things. We argued about where boxes should go. We found decorations that nobody remembered buying.

It felt almost like we had been doing it for years.

Almost.

Then Mom walked in.

“There you are, my favorite step twins.”

I froze for half a second.

Not because she meant anything by it.

She was joking.

Everyone was joking.

That was the problem.

Everyone was comfortable with it.

Everyone except us.

Ethan glanced at me.

I knew he noticed.

He always noticed things.

“How many times do you think people are going to say that?” he whispered.

I looked at him.

“Today?”

He nodded.

I thought for a second.

“Seven.”

He smiled.

“You counted?”

“I like numbers.”

“I know.”

Later, Ethan’s cousins came over.

I had met them before, but I had never really been around them like this.

They were loud.

Not in a bad way.

Just in a way I wasn’t used to.

They argued about games.

They teased each other.

They knew stories about Ethan from years ago.

“Remember when you tried to build that fort and it collapsed?”

Ethan groaned.

“I was six.”

“You still did it.”

“I was six.”

Everyone laughed.

I smiled too.

But something about it felt strange.

Not bad.

Just different.

These people knew a version of Ethan that I didn’t.

They knew little-kid Ethan.

I only knew almost-stepbrother Ethan.

And he didn’t know little-kid me either.

He didn’t know what my dad’s favorite joke was.

He didn’t know the things I did when I was younger.

He didn’t know the stories that made my family mine.

I wondered if he thought about that too.

That evening, when everyone had left, Ethan and I sat outside.

The quiet felt nice after all the noise.

“Can I ask you something?” he said.

“Sure.”

“Does the step twin thing bother you?”

I looked at the grass.

The honest answer was complicated.

“Not exactly.”

He nodded.

“Same.”

“You too?”

“Yeah.”

He leaned back.

“I mean, it’s funny.”

“It is.”

“But everyone keeps acting like it means something bigger.”

I looked at him.

“What do you mean?”

He was quiet for a moment.

Then he said:

“Like we’re supposed to suddenly have everything in common.”

That was exactly it.

I nodded.

“We don’t.”

“No.”

“We have the same birthday.”

“That’s about it.”

I laughed.

“Technically.”

He smiled.

“But I think that’s okay.”

I looked over.

“How?”

He shrugged.

“Because we’re not trying to become twins.”

The answer was so simple that it almost annoyed me.

Almost.

“We’re not?”

“No.”

“Then what are we?”

He thought for a second.

“I don’t know.”

A small smile appeared on his face.

“But I think we get to figure that out.”

I looked away.

Because somehow, that made more sense than anything anyone else had said.

People wanted a label.

Twin.

Step twin.

Something easy.

But Ethan was right.

We didn’t need to pretend we had shared a whole childhood.

We didn’t need to pretend we were the same.

We just needed to learn how to be family.

And maybe that was enough.