Page 127 of Promise Not to Fall for the Rich & Famous

Warm tugs pulled at Viv’s mommy heart. “You think it hurt his feelings that he didn’t get one too?”

Diego nodded.

“What people look like has less to do with attraction than some people think. There will be lots of girls that like you guys for different reasons. That’s how love works.”

A knock came to the front door—Mom’s indication that she was about to let herself in with the key code.

“Grandma’s here,” Dante chimed from the other room.

Diego darted down the hall without another word to welcome her as well.

Mom’s usual greeting rang out. “Luce dei miei occhi, light of my eyes.”

Viv’s thoughts were still stuck on her conversation with the Diego and the unique dynamics between twins. About the insecurities that constant comparison could bring.

She’d never forgotten what Duke Benton—the only identical twin she’d known before having her own—had said on the topic.Once people put you in a box, it’s hard to climb out of it.

A hot sting pricked a tiny corner of her heart at the recollection. At the end of their freshman year at Stanford, Duke had thoroughly broken her heart, proving just how difficult breaking out of that box really was.

“So who are you going to be interviewing next,Veritå?” her mom asked as Viv joined them in the front room. Mom used her pen name when asking questions about her job as a freelance writer.

Viv opened her mouth to answer the question, but stopped short as the name escaped her. She thought back on her conversation with Riley Shay fromSlipper Magazine,still unable to recall it.“You know what? I’m not sure that she told me.”

“When are you going to interview Batman?” Dante asked.

“Batman’s not real,” Diego said.

“I mean the actor whoplayedBatman,” Dante corrected.

“Shedidinterview one of the men who played him,” Mom chimed. “Right, hon?”

“Yep, I did.” Viv led the crew into the kitchen, still perplexed about her upcoming interview. “How could I have not asked who I was interviewing?”

“I want you to talk to thenewBatman and get a picture with him,” Dante continued.

“Maybe someday I will.” Viv stepped over to the butcher block, a gorgeous custom piece that wheeled over to the window to double as a breakfast bar, and snatched the ring of times tables cards from its nook. “They’re doing eights right now,” she said to her mom.

Mom’s eyes lit up. “Oh, eight? That’s how old you guys are.”

“Until next month,” Diego said.

“That’s right,” she agreed. “You guys have a birthday coming up.”

“But we get to go to Disneyland first,” Dante cheered.

That they did. Viv’s mom and dad were taking the twins to celebrate over spring break. A fact they talked about at least three hundred times a day. Viv had chosen to stay back and refinish the deck, something that might not happen if the interview took her out of town.

“You really don’t know who your interview’s with?” her mom asked again.

Viv shook her head. “I know, it’s weird.” Sure, she needed the money; half of what she’d made on her last house was in a savings bond and the other half was dwindling fast with the renovations for this one. But accepting a job without knowing her subject? She’d never done that before.

“You know what?” she decided while hurrying over to the fridge and snatching a cheese stick from the drawer. “I trustSlipperthat it’ll be somebody worth interviewing. I think she said he’s getting like a twelve-page spread with a photo shoot, the works. Sounded like I might get to travel to someplace exotic for the shoot during the process.”

“Oooh, that would be neat,” her mom said. “So it’s ahenot ashe?”

Viv shrugged. “That’s the impression I have.”

“But you’re not sure…” Mom said in her thinking voice.