Page 40 of Sing For Me

“I’m Everly,” the girl next to me says, waving. “I’m the oldest. Presley is my little sister, she’s around here somewhere, probably hiding because Mom wouldn’t let her wear jeans. You met Santana—sorry about her, by the way. Then Vega is the youngest, but she’s at home.”

“Everly, Presley, Santana, and Vega,” I repeat, then laugh. “But that’s only like, a third of you.”

“My family,” Rose continues, “you can recognize by the hair.” She holds up a white blonde strand and I realize that the two guys up here have the exact same shade. There’s no need to ask who their dad is—that’s Daltrey Ransome’s hair.

“So the girls in their family have flower names, like Aunt Daisy,” Everly explains. “Rose and Violet. And the boys have nature names.”

“Yeah,” Will says, smirking. “Because Aunt Daisy and Uncle Daltrey have a farm and they like to pretend to be hippies. So they have Rose, River, Fox, Ash, and Violet.”

The smug boy from downstairs waves. “I’m River,” he says, then points at the other guy. “Fox. And then Ash is at home with Vi.”

“Ash and Violet are twins,” Rose adds.

I stare around at all of them, possibly even more confused now than I was before.

“You’ll get the hang of it,” Rose says confidently.

“What about your family?” I ask Will. “What’s your pattern?”

“Ours is easy,” he says. “My older brother Wyatt got to name me, so he picked a W name.”

“Still wish they would have gone with Wilbur,” River says.

Will ignores him. “So then they decided each person in the family should get a matching name. So Silas goes with Samantha, my mom. And Cecelia, the baby, goes with my dad.”

“Pretty much Uncle Cash just wanted to convince Aunt Sam to have four kids,” River says. “She was ready to be done after Will.”

“Because you can’t really top perfection,” he says, winking at me.

“Our dads arecrazycompetitive,” Rose explains. “Uncle Cash would have been mortified if he didn’t try to keep up with my dad and Uncle Reed.”

“Which reminds me,” Everly cuts in. “We didn’t cover Uncle Lennon and Aunt Haylee’s family.”

“Right,” Rose says, smacking her head.

“Like I said,” Fox laughs. “Easy to forget half of y’all.”

“Aunt Haylee and Uncle Lennon only have two kids,” Will says. “They both have musical names, since their parents are, you know—”

“Members of two of the most successful rock bands of the last quarter century?” I ask.

He laughs. “Yeah, that. You met the oldest downstairs, Lyric. She’s fifteen. And her little brother Cadence is at home.”

“And that’s everyone,” Rose declares, like it’s the easiest thing in the world.

“Um,” I say, looking at the girl who had been waiting for us with the food. She doesn’t seem to share many similarities with the other cousins. Her shoulder length hair is blonde but unlike Daltrey’s three kids, hers is a warmer, honey color. She’s also drop dead gorgeous, like, supermodel beautiful. “Who are your parents, then?”

She waves a hand dismissively. “Oh, I’m not family.”

There’s a general outcry at that. “Like hell you aren’t,” Fox growls.

“Uncle Levi and Aunt Karen are our parents’ best friends,” Everly explains. “We grew up with Alex and her little brother Phoenix just as much as we were with each other.”

I know that name. Levi Fraser is a pretty big deal in the music industry. He’s Ransom’s manager and one of the top A&R guys on their label. I had actually met with him back when I was shopping my demo, looking for my first contract. I shake my head, thinking about how surreal it is to be here with the Ransome family.

“Now that really is everyone,” Rose says.

“Great,” I say drily, patting my temple. “I’ve got it all right here.”