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Shaking herself out of her stupor, Charlotte moved closer to Renee and lowered down onto her knees, her eyes full of awe as she stared at my girl. “Hi, Renee. It’s so great to meet you.”
“Hi!” she chirped. “I’m fwee yeaws old!” She curled her chubby little fingers, trying her hardest to keep three of them up, but still having a little trouble.
“Wow. Three? That’s so big.”
“I know!” Renee yelped excitedly. “Whas youw name?”
“I’m Charlotte.”
Renee’s eyes nearly bugged out of her skull. “Like the pwincess in da clouds! Mommy says dats who I’m named aftew.”
“A princess?”
“Yeah! Mommy says da stowy at night about da pwincess twins in da clouds who get stoled by da bad dwagon. Awe you da pwincess? You look jus like Mommy.”
My sister looked up at me, silently willing me to help her out with the answer. “Yeah, honey. This is the princess from the story. She’s your aunt Charlotte. My twin sister.” Renee looked at her like she’d just met the most famous person in existence.
Charlotte sniffled back another round of tears, her voice hoarse and shaky as she said, “I’m so happy to meet you, Renee. You’re such a beautiful girl.”
Renee launched herself at Charlotte, wrapping her tiny arms around her aunt’s neck. “Nice ta meet you too,” she exclaimed before pulling back. “Dat’s my Tent, and dat’s my Lu-Lu,” she told Charlotte, pointing out Trent and Luna. “Did you meet dem?”
I filled in introductions for her, holding my hand out toward Luna. “Charlotte, Dalton, this is my best friend, Luna.”
“Hey.” Luna waved at the room. “Nice to meet you guys. I’m the one who gave that dude his first black eye.”
I curled my lips between my teeth to stifle a laugh just as Charlotte snorted. Dalton chuckled, before saying, “Good to meet you too. I’m the dude who gave him the second. And the busted lip.”
She gave him an appraising look before nodding in approval. “You’ll do just fine.”
“All right,” Trent grumbled. “While it’s great you guys are finding common ground to bond over, what do you say we take Little Bit out to play on the beach and give the two princesses some time to bond?” He looked to Renee. “How’s that sound, honey?”
Renee sucked all the air in the room into her lungs on a gasp that had Luna, Trent, and me all warning, “Cover your ears!”
Charlotte and Dalton obeyed just as Renee’s excited shriek filled the whole house. “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Let’s go! Come on, Tent!”
“Holy sh—” Dalton caught himself before he finished his curse.
“We spell them out in this house,” Luna advised.
“Holy s-h-i-t,” he started over. “Am I deaf?”
Charlotte burst into laughter, cackling so hard she fell onto her butt. “That’s incredible! I can’t believe she does that too.”
“Too?” Trent asked, quirking a single brow.Jerk.
“Yeah. I used to do that when I got excited.” She turned to me. “Remember? Mom and Dad used to tease me that I’d shatter all the windows.”
The memory slammed into me like a wrecking ball. “Oh my God. That’s right. You did!”
“Beach! Beach! Beach!” Renee shouted, not caring that something epic had just happened.
In no time at all, Trent had Renee on his shoulders, and he and Dalton were heading across the deck toward the gate. Luna hung back for a second, looking at me to ask, “You good?”
“I am. Thank you so much, hon.”
She smiled, reaching out to give my arm a squeeze. “Any and every time, babe. I’m going to head out, but it was really nice meeting you, Charlotte, and I’m sure I’ll see you around.”
“It was nice to meet you too,” my sister told her.
