Page 98 of Shine For Me

“Seems probable,” Dad says. “We Ransome men have a tendency to do that.”

“Are we talking about the movie star?” Mom asks.

“Don’t call her that,” I say, my voice way sharper than it needs to be, but after everything I just saw,Juneandmovie starare the last words I want to hear in the same sentence.

It’s silent in the kitchen for a moment and I realize I just snapped at my mom. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. I’m about to apologize when she surprises me.

“You’re right, Fox. I shouldn’t have called her that. It’s obvious she means a lot to you.”

I swallow. “She does. She’s…not what you think. She’s way more than anyone gives her credit for.”

“Then why isn’t she here with you right now?” my dad asks.

I don’t even know where to start. “Everything just got so complicated.”

“Because she has a fiancé?” Mom asks.

Just thinking about Adam makes me want to start breaking things. “He’s not her fiancé. Not really. I mean…her family really sucks.”

My mom and dad share a look. “Not really following, kid.”

“Honestly, Dad? I’m not sure I understand this myself.”

How could I possibly understand a family where children are used as props to further a career? How could I understand a man who puts his business over his grandchildren's happiness? It’s the complete antithesis of the way I grew up, and I’m only just starting to understand how lucky I am.

“Grey showed up here,” I say, then shake my head, realizing they probably wouldn’t have ever heard him called that. “James Cain. June’s twin brother.”

“What did he want?” Mom asks.

I toss the magazine I’ve been clutching onto the table. “He wanted to show me that.”

My dad leans over her shoulder as my mom flips through it. “June’s father put his kids in a magazine.” I say. “In the middle of divorcing their mother.”

“He sounds like a total asshole,” Dad mutters. Mom looks a little sick as she studies the pictures. Finally, she looks up, and her eyes are sad.

“Tell us what happened in Napa. Rose said that you barely spoke a word on the jet and none of them knew why you were so upset.”

So I tell them about the phone call from her grandfather, what he demanded that she do. That he had been pressuring her to stay with Adam for years, even after he cheated on her—that was a pretty sickening revelation to hear in her mother’s living room—because it was good for the studio. How she’d been working so hard this summer to build up the courage to stand up to him.

“When she agreed to go back to Adam, I thought it was all for nothing. I figured she was always going to find an excuse to go along with whatever Jimmy wanted. But now…” I look down at the magazine on the table—Mom dropped it immediately after she finished reading, as if she didn’t even want to touch that trash. “I think pretty much everyone she knows has been pressuring her for her entire life.”

“It’s okay to expect your girlfriend to not hide your relationship, Fox,” Dad says. “That’s not asking for too much.”

“I know that. I just…” I shake my head. “He told June he was going to send press up to her mom’s house. I think she panicked.”

Dad looks at the magazine in distaste. “Yeah, I can see why she might do that.”

We’re all quiet for a moment, and I wonder if they’re thinking what I am— about how messed up it would have been to grow up in a family like June’s.

“Did you know that I quit the band once?” Dad asks out of nowhere, and my head snaps in his direction.

“What?”

He nods, looking over at Mom. “We had just found out your mom was pregnant with you. We were at the park with Rose and River and we got caught by the paparazzi. We didn’t have any security with us and we got separated in the crowd.” He swallows. “Your Mom was surrounded. While she was holding River.”

“And pregnant,” I mutter. “God.”

“It was terrifying. Your mother had a panic attack and some of those assholes kept taking pictures.”