Page 19 of Shine For Me

I tug the end of her braid. “Shut it, tiny one. You might be a high school graduate but I can still throw your skinny ass in the pool.”

“Can we open these now?” Vega asks, so excited she’s bouncing on the seat.

“They’re really not that exciting,” June says, her discomfort even more obvious.

The kids clearly don’t agree, because they attack the presents. June fidgets next to me while they tear away the paper. “Ooh, a book!” Violet says. “What is…” she goes still, staring down at the cover. “How did you know?”

I peek over her shoulder and see a black and white photo of a ballet dancer on the dust jacket. I recognize the dancer—Violet has a poster of her on her bedroom wall. It looks like an autobiography. My eyes travel to the other Littles and see that they’re all holding books.

“There’s more inside,” June says sheepishly.

Violet lets out a little gasp when she opens the cover. “She wrote me a note?” she squeals. “Tanya Whitlock wrotemea note?”

“Holy shit,” Ash mutters. “Is this for real?” He looks up at June with wide eyes. “You know Bradley Aimes?”

“My agent knows his agent.” June looks incredibly uncomfortable now as each of the Littles react pretty much the same way as Violet and Ash. She’s given each of them a different book. Ash’s is a collection of poetry by his favorite writer. Vega’s is a cookbook. Cade got a graphic novel by an artist he won’t shut up about. And CeCe has an autobiography of the captain of the US Women’s National Soccer team.

June bought them each a book representing something they love. Not only that, each book has a personalized note from the author.

“How did you know I play soccer?” CeCe asks, staring up at June with something like awe on her face.

“Fox has mentioned it,” June says, her cheeks turning a brighter pink by the second. “He, uh, talks about his family a lot. I guess I remembered some details about you.” She shoots me a worried look and whispers, “Is this too over the top?”

“Are you kidding?” Violet squeals. “This is amazing!”

“Seriously!” Vega jumps up and throws her arms around June. “This is like, the best present ever!”

June accepts hugs from all the Littles. By the time they run off to show their parents the books, she’s looking sheepish, but no longer so worried. “I kind of feel like a stalker,” she tells me. “Is it weird that I remembered all that stuff about them?”

“It’s not weird.” I have to clear my throat to dispel the rasp in my voice. I can’t seem to stop staring at June. I can’t believe she went to so much trouble for my family. “It’s really cool.”

She blushes again, but this time she looks pleased.

We leave shortly after that. But it’s a long time before I stop thinking about how pretty June looked when she blushed like that.