Page 111 of More For Me

“It’s definitely lame,” River agrees, and Alex smacks him.

“That’s not the best part,” Fox says, undeterred by his brother’s teasing. “She’s arranged for me to meet Jimmy Cain next weekend.”

That shuts River up. “Seriously?” Rose squeaks as we all gape at him in shock. “Fox, that’s like, a huge deal.”

A huge deal is actually an understatement. Jimmy Cain is one of the biggest producers in Hollywood. His entire family is in the industry.

Fox looks stunned himself. “I know. Apparently, she showed him my screen test and he was interested.”

“Wow, man,” Leo says, shaking his head. “That’s crazy.”

“This is all happening so fast,” Rose says, sounding a little shaken. “I assumed you’d just be modeling for a while.”

“So did I,” Fox admits. “And it’s more than likely nothing will come from this.” He turns to Everly. “But you’re doing the dress for Juniper Cain’s engagement party, right? Caroline wants to talk about maybe setting up some cross promotion in the new season. If I’m auditioning for Cain and you’re working on Juniper’s dress, they think they can make something out of it.”

Caroline is the producer ofRansom the Runway. She was hand-picked by the Ransome fathers after the show’s first producer turned out to be such a giant ass. She’s a little boring and long winded, but she seems to have their best interests at heart.

“That sounds like a good idea.” That’s the first thing Everly’s said since Fox mentioned the Cains and I wonder if the others can hear the strain in her voice. She’s freaking out about this and trying to hide it, because she doesn’t want to put a damper on Fox’s excitement. But the fact that this is all moving faster than any of them originally thought is definitely affecting her.

I squeeze her hand again, more firmly this time, and she relaxes against my side.

“We can talk about it in our first production meeting in a few weeks,” Alex says.

Rose makes a face. “A few weeks? God, are you going to be filming again already?”

From her expression, I can tell that she’s not excited about the prospect of a reappearance of cameras any time soon. “Not for a few months still,” Everly says, patting her arm. “But there’s a ton of planning to do first.”

“What about you guys?” River asks, pointing between the two of us. “Are you taking this thing public? Your internet fans will be thrilled.”

Before we can answer, Reed bellows from the patio. “Food’s ready!”

I lean into Everly as the younger kids immediately crowd around the grill. “Want me to make you a plate?”

She raises an eyebrow. “I already sent you over to my father alone once today. I’m not doing it again.”

“I won’t be alone,” I say. “I’ll bring Leo with me and your dad will love me by comparison.”

“I heard that, asshole,” my best friend mutters.

“No, it’s fine.” She jumps up from her seat and immediately takes my hand. The gazes of every person within fifteen feet lock onto us and we both pretend to ignore it as we walk over to the patio.

When Reed sees us approaching, I have the ridiculous urge to pull away from her, but manage to contain myself. His eyes zero right in on our hands and he scowls.

“Good afternoon, Daddy,” Everly says sweetly, going up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

His face softens. “Why is this the first time you’re coming to say hi to me? You’ve been here half an hour.”

“I didn’t want to interrupt the master chef at work.”

He makes a grumbly noise and looks at me, the scowl back on his face. “Don’t be rude, Dad,” Everly says in that same sweet voice. “I will absolutely tell Mom on you.”

“I’m not being rude,” he grumbles. Then sighs as he looks at me, like the very effort is painful. “What will you have, Bodhi?”

I blink a few times, caught off guard. That interaction could have been much worse. “A turkey burger sounds good.”

“Here you go.” He slides one onto my plate then looks at his daughter. “Same?”

“Yes, please.”