Page 39 of Sing For Me

Eva

The blond guy—River, I think they called him—leads us out a side door into a service hallway, and then up a flight of stairs into the darkened balcony. From here, we can see the entire ballroom spread out below us.

“Over here,” a female voice calls and we follow it over to a little alcove by the railing. Another blond guy and a stunning woman with honey-colored hair are already sitting there, shoeless feet propped up on empty chairs. The folding table next to them is filled with trays of food.

“Jesus, Alex,” River says. “What did you do, raid the kitchen?”

She smirks at him. “I got a few waiters to help me.”

“And how’d you convince them to do that?” Will asks.

The girl bats her eyelashes, looking coy. “I have many charms.”

River snorts. “So is that what we’re calling them now?”

“Hush,” Rose says. “You’re going to freak Eva out.”

The girl they called Alex stares over at me, eyes curious. In fact, that’s how most of them are looking at me—like my presence here isveryinteresting. I duck my head, taking one of the empty chairs.

“Finally,” Rose moans, kicking off her heels. “I don’t understand how women wear those all day.”

“Eventually your toes get numb and you forget how much it hurts,” the dark-haired girl says brightly, kicking off her shoes as well. The guys are removing suit jackets, loosening ties, and I get momentarily distracted by the sight of Will rolling up the sleeves of his dark dress shirt. Bright flashes of ink dot the smooth, tan skin, the muscles in his forearms flexing as he works.

“I have a thing for forearms, too,” the dark-haired girl whispers in my ear, and I blush. Not that I should really feel embarrassed by my gawking. I mean, justlookat this man. Who could blame me for staring?

“Will,” Alex says, still eyeing me with interest. “Aren’t you going to introduce your friend?”

He grits his teeth, as if he expects this to be painful. “Everyone, this is Eva. Eva, these are my cousins.” He points around at the various faces. “Rose, River, Everly, Alexandria, and Fox.”

There is no way I’m going to remember those names, so I just smile and wave. Everyone watches me for a moment more, their gazes still curious, before Will clears his throat. “Are we eating, or what?”

The cousins grab plates and start filling up while Rose explains to Alex how they’d rescued us from the younger kids.

“They shouldn’t have been allowed to come,” Fox says. “Should have stayed home with the Littles.”

“But they were so excited,” Rose argues, and they all start talking over each other about younger siblings and cousins and how annoying they are. I attack my food, starving, and let the conversation flow around me.

“So this is probably crazy overwhelming for you, isn’t it?” the girl with the black curls asks, popping a crab puff in her mouth. She’s pretty with delicate features, huge blue eyes, and the creamiest complexion I’ve ever seen. “Our family can be a bit much.”

Will snorts. “Understatement.”

“I just don’t know how you all keep it straight,” I admit. “There are so many of you.” Seventeen cousins. I can barely wrap my mind around that number.

“Donottry to learn all the names,” Will orders. “You’ll just end up frustrated.”

“It’s really not that hard,” Rose says, and her family all make noises of disbelief.

“Jesus, Rose,” one of the guys—Fox?— says. “I’ve been stuck with you all my whole life and even I forget half your names most of the time.”

“No, really,” Rose insists. “There are patterns for the names in each family. That makes it easier to keep straight!”

“If you say so,” Will mutters.

“All right, hit me,” I tell Rose. “What are the patterns?”

She sits up straighter. “Okay, so Uncle Reed and Aunt Paige—they have all girls, so that’s easy enough. And all four of them have that same dark hair.” She points to the girl at my side, who holds out one of her curls as evidence.

“And,” Fox points out, “Uncle Reed is the only one who kept up the rock star naming tradition.” I chew on my pizza, remembering that all the Ransome brothers were famously named after the rock legends their father idolized—Lou Reed, Johnny Cash, John Lennon, and Roger Daltrey.