I Like You a Latte {Completed}

Bonus Chapter - Two of Three

"Long enough to see your boy hold his own. I thought you said he was shy?"

Beverly shrugged. Normally, he was, but he'd proven when he'd met Alicia that he would do his best to be outgoing and confident when it came to meeting people important to Beverly. It would be interesting to see if he got flustered at all—Beverly had a feeling that, between her mom and the twins, they were both bound to be caught off guard eventually.

"Where are the twins?"

"Ah," her mom chuckled, "upstairs. I told them they had to make sure your room looked good for you; I was really just trying to keep them away from the cake I made, but it worked, so I'm happy."

Nodding, Beverly hugged her mom once more, pressing a kiss against the woman's cheek and muttering a soft, "I missed you," before leaving to find her siblings.

She found them in her bedroom, lying on top of the dark blue bedspread and conversing about something or other. Seeing them made Beverly's grin widen further, and she took a moment to lean against the doorway and watch them.

Felicity, the older twin by five minutes (a fact she loved to rub into her brother's face), was halfway off the bed, her legs on the comforter while her upper body hung off, her pin-straight raven hair dusting against the carpeted floor.

The youngest of the family, Abe, was spread starfish to take up the rest of the bed's available space. His hair, the same shade as Felicity's, was several inches long and looked as though it had gone through a tornado as it stuck up in various directions.

"—but he's not all that bad," Felicity was saying, waving her hands around in the air wildly. "You just don't like him because he accidently hit you with a bat during practice."

Abe groaned. "He did not 'accidently' do anything! It was on purpose. Besides, he's not even that good; I don't understand why he got promoted to captain."

"Well," Felicity mused, "he is a year older than you, and he's a better player, too."

"Hey!" Abe swatted in his sister's direction, missing one of her feet by inches. "Don't talk about him like that—I am way better than Byron Johnston any day of the week—you're supposed to be on my side."

"I'm on your side," Beverly piped up, smirking when matching pairs of blue eyes looked at her with shock. "Byron Johnston is such a weirdo."

Twin cries of, "Beverly!" were the only warning before she was engulfed by the two, and she laughed as they fell into a heap on the floor.

"Man," she joked, "if this is the welcome I get, I should come back home more often. Or maybe I should stay away longer?"

"I am so glad you're home," Felicity exclaimed, wriggling out of the hug and standing before offering a hand down to Beverly. "It's been so awful without you—Abe's a terror."

"You better not be insulting one another!" Came their mom's voice from downstairs, and the three exchanged wide-eyed glances.

"She's got ears like a bat," Felicity muttered as she helped Beverly up. "She heard me talking to Rebecca the other day, even though I was out back and whispering."

"A mom always knows when her kids are doing something they shouldn't," Beverly snorted, before pausing and narrowing her eyes at Felicity. "Why would you need to whisper, anyway?" Rebecca was Felicity's best friend; there was no point in whispering unless the two were getting into some kind of trouble.

Felicity blushed. "No reason."

"She's got a c-r-u-s-h," Abe sang, grimacing when his twin elbowed him in the stomach. "I mean, yeah, no reason."