Page 73 of Shine For Me

June

“The menu is all set?” I ask Cassie. “Everything we talked about?”

“Everything is ready.” She reaches over and gently pries my fingers from the hem of my sweater—which I’ve been twisting nervously for the past several minutes. “Let’s avoid ruining the gorgeous cashmere, okay?”

I let out a long breath, trying to quell my stupid nerves. “I don’t know why I’m so worked up,” I admit. “It’s not like I haven’t hung out with Fox’s family before.”

But that was before I started sleeping with their cousin.

Not to mention the fact that I’m going to be introducing all of them—including my boyfriend—to my mother and older brother soon. Of course I’m nervous.

Cassie gives me a knowing smile. “Everything is going to be fine, June.” She gestures around at the sleek interior of the private jet I’ve chartered for the trip. “You’re going to whisk them off to wine country in the lap of luxury. What could they possibly have to complain about?”

That’s what I’d thought when I instructed Cass to make these arrangements. But now I’m second guessing everything. Fox’s dad and uncles might be famous musicians with boatloads of money and a collection of mansions in a gated neighborhood in the Pacific Palisades, but they don’t really strike me as fancy people. I picture Fox’s older brother, always dressed in a uniform of torn jeans and ratty old converse sneakers. His cousins Will and Wyatt are the same way. I doubt any of those guys are going to be impressed by me flashing my money around.

Damn it. We should have just flown commercial. They’re probably all going to think I’m a complete spoiled brat with this ridiculous jet. Did I really arrange to have a gourmet breakfast served, complete with lobster frittatas and caviar for the artisanal toast? What was I thinking?

“That poor sweater,” Cassie says, once again prying my fingers from the hem. “Relax, June. Everything is going to be fine.”

I don’t know how to explain to her that I want it to be better than fine. This weekend is a huge deal for me. I’ve never taken anyone to my mother’s house. I thought I was going to marry Adam, for fuck’s sake, and he still never made the trip up to Napa with me—mainly because I knew my mom would hate him. That should have been my first red flag that the relationship wasn’t meant to be.

But I don’t think my mom will hate Fox. Not at all. She might be distrustful at first, because he’s an actor, but once she spends just a few minutes with him I know she’ll change her mind.

Which is exactly what I should want, right? So why does the thought of bringing him there still scare me so much?

And it’s not just the idea of Fox meeting my mother that has me all worked up. It’s also the fact that I’m going to be spending the next four days with his family. His older brother and sister and three of his cousins, plus their significant others. Like I told Cassie, I’ve hung out with them before and they’ve always been perfectly polite. But there’s a part of me that’s pretty sure none of them actually like me very much. Which is fine—it isn’t like they know me that well, so it’s not something I should take personally.

But now I’m with Fox, and these are some of the most important people in his life. He spends as much free time as possible with his family—if they’d rather not have me around, I can’t imagine myself lasting very long with him. Why would he want to date someone who doesn’t fit in with his totally amazing, loving, loyal as hell family?

God, now I’m making myself feel sick. Cassie is right, I’m going to ruin this sweater.

I’m just wondering if it’s too late to send the food back to the terminal in favor of some more normal snacks when I hear voices outside on the tarmac. Too late.

A moment later, Everly Ransome’s pretty face appears in the door. “Oh my God, June!” she squeals. “Look at this! This is so cool!” She turns around. “Bodhi, get in here! You’re not going to believe this!”

“I would have been in here first ifsomeonehadn’t literally pushed me out of the way to jump ahead,” her fiancé says as he comes up behind her. Then his eyes widen as he takes in the posh surroundings. The noise he makes is very close to a squeal.

“Right?!” Everly squeals back, grabbing his arm. “This is going to be the most amazing trip ever!”

“In preparation for the most amazing wedding ever,” he agrees, sliding an arm around her.

My chest actually aches a little, they’re so cute. And yes, I might be having a fangirl moment here. I’ve been shipping the two of them since the very first season of Ransome the Runway.

“You guys do realize you’ve both flown on a private jet before, right?” Fox’s voice rings out, and then he appears in the doorway, his eyes going straight to mine. He gives me a wink before turning back to his cousins. “The label owns two jets.”

“But they’re not as cool as this!” Everly says. “Oh my God, is that an actual water feature?”

Fox rolls his eyes, pushing past them to stride across the plane to me. He doesn’t hesitate to pull me into a one-armed hug, pressing a kiss to the side of my head. Immediately my cheeks go red and I have to fight to keep my gaze from going to his cousin and Bodhi to see if they noticed that.

I know that he said something to his family about us being together. He didn’t give me any details, just said they understood it was new and not something we’re sharing with the world yet. I didn’t ask him if they’d had any questions about Adam. I don’t think I want to know if they did.

“You okay?” he asks, ducking down a little to look into my eyes. “You look nervous.”

I manage to smile. “I just want this to go well.”

His face softens and this time he presses a kiss directly to my lips. Just a soft brushing of his mouth with mine but I feel it everywhere. He’d spent the last two nights at his parents’ house, wanting to spend some time with them and the twins before leaving town again. It’s the longest I’ve gone without seeing him since we started filming in North Carolina all those weeks ago. Now that he’s here, I’m starting to think I don’t actually care what his family thinks about our relationship—just so long as Fox doesn’t stop touching me.

“Well this is swanky,” another voice calls from the doorway, and I jerk back away from his kiss as his sister appears. Okay, so maybe I still care. Just a little bit.