“You say tomato. I say you like her.”

“I don’t like her,” I say again, mostly for myself. “I mean, of course I like her. She’s talented and kind and beautiful and for a while there I thought she might not work out but she’s really turning things around. But I don’t like like her. We’ve...fooled around a little bit.”

“There you go, burying the lede.”

“I didn’t even know she was queer until a few weeks ago. And she wasn’t fully on board with this reality show idea. And now I’m trying to figure out if she likes me or if she just doesn’t know any other queer women, you know? And is now really the time to start something? When I’m trying to save this restaurant and we’re inviting cameras into our space. She’s not even out. I don’t think she’s told many people.” I grab his sleeve. “You can’t tell anyone I told you.”

He covers my hand with his. “I won’t,” he says, and I know it’s gone in his vault along with the password to my laptop and exactly how many times I’ve watched Dirty Dancing.

“Fine. Yes. I like her.” I pout, mad that he’s been able to pull it out of me without saying much at all. How am I supposed to have a modicum of privacy with a twin? “But she’s in no place to have a relationship right now. She needs to spread her wings and do it out of the view of a bunch of cameras. With someone who’s got the time for her.”

I worry at my lower lip, staring at the paused screen. “I don’t think she took to her first reality show fame as well as it seemed.”

“Have you talked to Sophie about any of this?”

I shake my head. Jeremy comes in with a bowl of unburned popcorn and a charcuterie board that looks like it belongs in my restaurant. “Voila,” he says with a flourish.

“This looks amazing.” Wes doesn’t wait to start building a tiny cracker sandwich as Jeremy runs back into the kitchen.

“You should talk to her first, Amy,” he says around his mouthful of food. “You don’t know how she feels. Follow your heart.” Like it’s that easy. Wes has never had to worry about where following his heart could lead to because it’s always led him in the right direction. It led him to baseball, to his career. His heart led him to Corrine.

But when you’re the gay girl in what was supposed to be the Million Dollar Family, following your heart means alienating people who were already stingy with theirs, with their affection and time. When you’re a woman trying to make it in the service industry, following your heart means doing it alone, and now here I am bringing Sophie into all of that.

Jeremy flops down between us, throwing his arms around our shoulders. “Ready, Chamberses?”

“Ready,” Wes says.

I drop my head back on Jer’s arm and close my eyes. “Ready,” I mutter. Except I’m not ready at all.