Auggie swore she heard the girl’s stomach rumble and felt for her. It had nearly reached eight in the evening, and if Justine had come from work without eating any dinner, she had to be hungry.

Xavier must have heard, because he paused. “Hey, you want something to eat?”

Justine flushed. “I’ll get something later.”

“No, really. I could eat too. They have great panini sandwiches. It’s on me.”

“I couldn’t.”

“I insist.” He shot Justine his killer smile, that one that always knocked them dead from ten paces.

“Well, okay. But I’ll buy the dessert.”

“Something sweet. Sweet.” Xavier chuckled. They both stood, and he waited for Justine to precede him, ever the gentleman.

The pretty blush on Justine’s cheeks, the way they kept smiling at each other, then glancing away, keeping it casual, was telling.

Auggie said nothing, however, and made a mental note to discuss this with her mom. Because though she had a twin bond with Xav, would always remain loyal to him, there was such a thing as looking out for her brother. And their mother had mad instincts when it came to her boy.

No one could ever be good enough.

Yet Auggie kind of liked Justine, what she knew of her, anyway.

Might be interesting to see where this went with the new girl and her too-chill brother.

She sent a text to her mom and smiled when the pair came back with something for her as well.

“We didn’t know what you wanted, so we brought back three of each,” Justine said with a smile, spreading the food around.

Xavier shot Auggie a warning glance to be nice, so she nodded her thanks. “Appreciate it. I guess I’m hungrier than I thought.” Though the amount of bad carbs in this dinner didn’t bode well for Justine’s food and nutrition awareness.

“Don’t even,” Xavier warned in a low voice, reading her mind.

“What?” Justine watched them.

“Never mind,” they said at the same time.

Justine stared in astonishment. “Do you guys do that a lot?”

“Not really,” they both said again.

Auggie chuckled.

Xavier frowned at her and said, “Well, hardly ever. Now, let me tell you about my guy choice for my mom. Auggie, no comments from the peanut gallery.”

She rolled her eyes but said little, swapping sandwiches with her brother. As twins, she and her brother were very much in tune. People always seemed to have something to say about it. But Justine seemed to absorb that detail and accept it, hanging on Xavier’s every word.

Auggie made another mental note and decided a visit to Mom’s was in order. She smiled widely at her brother when he frowned at her all of the sudden.

“Problem?” Justine asked.

“Nope,” she said for him. “I’m just glad to see my brother’s got a new friend.” Oh yeah, you know we’re going to talk about Justine later.

She laughed to herself when he kicked her under the table. She kicked him back and thought about how she couldn’t wait to tell her mom all the good parts.