Page 12 of Fight For Me

“You know how to design a website?” River asks, gaping at his younger brother. “How the hell did that happen?”

Fox shrugs, looking even more embarrassed now that his brother is questioning him. Fox is kind of in the middle between the older cousin group and the mid-teen cousin group. I think he wants to impress his older cousins and siblings more than he’d ever admit. “I took some courses online. Mostly I played around with it until I figured it out.”

River still looks astonished. “This is what you’ve been doing when you hide away on your computer? I figured you were playing video games.”

Fox shrugs again. “SometimesI was playing video games.”

“This is…” My mom gets up and fingers the fabric of Eva’s dress, studying the careful stitching and the lace appliqué. “Wow, you guys.”

“Seriously,” Aunt Daisy agrees, still looking at her phone. “I’m blown away.”

“I know nothing about fashion,” my dad says, a proud grin spreading over his face as he looks at me. “But this is awesome.”

Next to me, Everly and Fox flush with pleasure at the praise. Try as I might, I can’t help my eyes from drifting back over to where Wyatt is still hovering at the back of the group. He’s leaning against the doorjamb, his eyes still locked on me. I can’t get a read on his expression, but I have the strangest feeling that he hasn’t stopped looking at me this whole time.

“Have you sold anything?” my brother asks, drawing my attention away from the taciturn man in the background.

“Yes, Nix,” I say, rolling my eyes. “We’ve sold some things.”

“We’ve been doing pretty well, actually,” Fox says. “And that’s why we called this meeting.”

My stomach twists. Telling them about the line and the website was the easy part. I have a feeling this won’t go over nearly as well.

“We didn’t promote the line under our own names,” Fox continues. “We wanted to see if we could be successful without the whole famous Ransome family thing to fall back on.” He casts me a glance and I know he’s thinking what I am—they’re not going to like this. “About a month ago, we were approached by an investor. They’d heard about us—”

“You’ve done well enough that an investor heard about you?” Uncle Reed cuts in, clearly surprised.

“This isn’t just a hobby, Dad,” Everly says, a touch defensively. Then she sighs. “It also helps that Eva wore one of our formal gowns to that youth music benefit two months ago and told all the reporters the name of the line.”

Santana’s eyes go wide as she points at Eva. “I remember that! The champagne beaded sheath dress?” She stares between me and her big sister. “That was you guys? No.Way. That dress was all over fashion Instagram!”

“Hell yeah, it was,” Fox agrees proudly. “Our website traffic went up more than three hundred percent after that.”

“Wow,” Santana breathes.

“So an investor approached you?” Reed presses, apparently jumping right into business mode. “Have you talked to a lawyer yet? I’m sure there are people at the label who can recommend someone in the fashion field—”

“We actually already hired a lawyer,” Everly says, and her dad’s face drops. We knew the parents weren’t going to be pleased with the fact that we did this on our own—especially Everly’s dad, who definitely has some control freak tendencies. But it’s important to us, all three of us, that we be independent in this. I watch Everly swallow, girding herself. “We have an agent, too.”

“An agent?” he asks, voice sharper. “Fashion designers need agents?”

“Sometimes,” she says, and I’m proud of the way her shoulders stay back, her head tall as she faces down her intimidating father. “Agents can help you find retailers to sell your line. They can also handle promotion.” She takes a deep breath. “We specifically hired an agent to help us with…additional opportunities. In the entertainment field.”

“Like matching you with celebrities to wear your clothes?” Santana asks sounding giddy with excitement. Girl is way too into famous people.

“Sure,” Fox says, again rubbing the back of his neck. He locks eyes with his dad. “And to help us decide what to do about the reality show we were offered.”

The room goes very quiet. A few of the younger kids are glancing between the parents, waiting for the explosion that is sure to come.

“Reality show?” My dad’s voice is quiet but sharp. “What reality show?”

“Before they approached us, the investor did some research on us and figured out who we were,” I explain. “Well, who they are,” I correct, pointing at Everly and Fox. My mom is a well-known photographer and my dad’s a co-owner of Six Man Band Records but I’m not under any illusions about why the investor and agent are excited about us. The Ransome family is incredibly famous. “He got together with some producer friend of his and they pitched us an idea for a reality show tie-in.”

“What the hell does a reality show have to do with a fashion line?” Uncle Reed growls, glaring at Everly.

“We want to open a store front, Daddy,” she says. “Our own boutique. That’s the next step and that’s where the investor comes in.”

“You don’t need an investor to open a store,” he says dismissively. “I’ll give you the money.”