Page 13 of Renaissance Bear

"Oh my God. We haven't done that in a long time. Are you hungry enough?"

"Well, I'm not now but I will be in the morning!"

Alis, who hadn't been hungry until they started talking about food, pressed her hand over her tummy as it rumbled. "I guess I will be too. Okay, that'll be fun, but we'll have to go early, because I have to be back, in costume, and at court by ten."

"I get up earlier than you do anyway," Jasmine said patiently. "Worst case scenario, I actually drag you out of bed and shoo you into the diner when I've eaten my fill."

"I'll be up before that!"

"Not if you don't go to sleep now."

"Okay,Mom. Hnf." Alis crawled into the bed space above the driver's seat, spent a hazy few minutes reviewing Sword Boy's finest qualities in her mind, and fell asleep while Jasmine was still thumping around.

Renaissance's best-revieweddiner turned out to be more or less across the street from the Thunder Bear Brewery. Alis actually squeaked as they passed it on the drive to the diner, and shook her head frantically at Jasmine. "I can't go first after all! I have to get pretty! Sword Boy might be there!"

"First, you already are pretty. Second, this only works if we're dressed and made up identically. Third, I amstarving, so if youwanna wait, I'm not going to argue." Jasmine, in jeans and a white t-shirt, with her black curls knotted up off her neck, pulled a pair of aviator sunglasses off the dash and slid them on before striking a pose. "How do I look?"

"Exactly like me," Alis said, amused, then shook herself. "Look, if you see a tall, good-looking, dark blonde guy with long hair, do not engage!"

"We've moved on to engagements already?"

To her horror, Alis felt herself blushing. "No! That's not what I meant and you know it!"

"Oh my God." Jasmine pulled her sunglasses off, the better to stare at Alis. "You really like this guy."

Alis put her face in her hands. "I do. I don't know why. I mean, he's cute and nice and has an amazing voice, which is all excellent and everything, but not stupid fluttery gaga-goopy worthy."

"All evidence to the contrary." Jasmine smiled. "I promise not to get engaged, or otherwise engage, until you've at least pointed out the right brother to me. It would be embarrassing if I did a polite flirt with the wrong guy."

"His brother's in a knee brace," Alis remembered. "So if he's not in a knee brace he's probably my guy. Unless there are more of them. Oh. Except he said there were. But he also said his older brothers are ginormous and one of them doesn't live here anymore anyway."

"Yeah? Did you get his ring size and whether he wants kids?"

Alis felt herself turning red again. Jasmine said, "Aw," and snuggled her into a hug before letting go. "Sorry. I won't tease you." She paused. "Much."

"Just go eat. As much as you possibly can," Alis reminded her.

"Yes, Mother, I remember the game." Jasmine climbed out of the RV and went into the diner, leaving Alis to blush again.

Eating a lot was the whole point of the diner trick. It was a silly game they played, where one of them would go stuff themselves silly, and then they'd switch places and the other one would eat just as much. The entire point was just to watch the staff grow increasingly disbelieving as what appeared to be one slim woman ate half a diner's worth of food.

Only one place they'd ever been had figured it out mid-meal. The waitress there had twin sisters herself, and it turned out that Jasmine and Alisheld their forks differently, a thing neither of them had ever noticed. The waitress, accustomed to paying attention to details so she could tell her sisters apart,hadnoticed. She'd clued in halfway through Jasmine's breakfast, and burst into laughing applause. Alis had ended up coming back into the diner and they'd gotten a picture with the whole staff, everybody grinning like fools. Since then, they'd practiced holding their forks the same way, at least for the purposes of the Diner Trick, and nobody else had caught them.

Alis had the crazy wish for Jon to catch them and to just somehowknowsomething was off, which was the most preposterous, romancey thing she'd ever thought. But it seemed almost possible, somehow. She wasn't in the habit of meeting a man and thinking he just feltright, but Jon Torben…

…well, it didn't matter how handsome, charming, and right he felt. In ten days Alis would be gone, off to the next tournament, and he would be a sweet summer memory. Maybe, she admitted, maybe even an affair to remember, because she didn't especially want to resist temptation, even though it seemed like this particular temptation might lead to a semi-broken heart.

Alis sighed and tucked herself into the couch so she could watch the diner through the RV's screened window. It hid her from view but let her see when Jasmine—who really could eat a lot—was about done. Their trade-off was a quick easy one: thetwin in the diner would realize she'd left her wallet in the RV and would pop out to get the wallet. Then the twin-in-waiting would go in, announce she decided she was still hungry, and order at least as much food as the first one had.

A door slammed somewhere in the parking lot, making Alis flinch upright. Then, to her combined horror and delight, Jon Torben walked past the RV and into the diner, looking all stunningly handsome in the morning sun. His hair was the color ofhoneyin the sun, for heaven's sake. Alis wanted to lick it.

The thought made her laugh and mutter, "Hairballs!" out loud. Then she grabbed her phone to text Jasmine:That's him! Don't engage! No eye contact! But be nice if he sees you! Augh!

She got one word back:Chill.

"I can't chill!" she said, out loud again. "He's too hot to chill!"

Jasmine couldn't possibly have heard her, but twin telepathy really kind ofwasof a thing. Jazz turned from her meal to glare out the window toward Alis and mouthed, "Chill!"

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