Page 10 of Fight For Me

Fox groans and I do my best to keep my patience. God knows I’m nervous too. But… “Lele, every day that we delay this, the worse the whole thing is going to go over with everyone.”

My best friend is still wringing her hands. “I just think it’s a bad idea to do it with the whole family here. Why don’t we just pull our own parents aside?”

“We’ve talked about this,” Fox reminds her. “Multiple times. What we want to do affects the whole family, so they all need to hear it. Let’s just get it over with.”

“That’s easy for you both to say!” she cries, throwing up her hands. Again I meet Fox’s gaze over her shoulder and I can read exactly what he’s thinking in his expression.Always so dramatic.

He’s not wrong. Everly has been my best friend since we were in diapers. I trust her implicitly and I love her to death but yeah—the girl can be a drama queen.

“Of course you want to get it over with,” she continues, flipping her dark curls around the way she does when she’s agitated. “Neither of you have to deal with my dad!”

“You have a point there,” Fox mutters. Neither my dad or his are anywhere near as protective or uptight as Uncle Reed. He’s definitely going to be the hardest one to win over.

“But that’s why it’s better to do it this way,” I tell her, stilling her fidgeting hands in mine. “It will be harder for your dad to freak out if everyone else is around.”

She raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “Have youmetmy father?”

Fox snorts and I narrow my eyes at him. “Still not helping.”

“Uncle Reed is going to be fine,” I say, sounding more confident than I feel. Reed is going to freak out, and we all know it. But I feel fairly certain we can get Everly’s mom and my mom on board. And if we can do that, they’ll convince my dad and the overprotective Ransome brothers.

Hopefully.

You can’t give up now,I remind myself as my nerves ratchet up again. We’ve been working on this for months. It’s time.

As if on cue, Fox’s older sister, Rose, sticks her head into the kitchen. “Everyone’s in the living room. You guys ready?”

I take a deep breath, turning to face Fox and Everly. They both look a little pale. “Now or never,” Fox says, sounding a lot less sure than he did a moment ago.

I look between the two of them, the fear evident on their faces. They need me to be the strong one right now, need me to have my shit together to make this work. I straighten my shoulders. “Let’s do it.”

My false bravado falters the second I walk into Reed and Paige’s living room and see the entire family assembled there. I’ve spent countless hours with these people throughout my life, but it can still feel a little shocking to see them all grouped up in one place.

Technically, only a few people in this room are related to me. My dad is slouched on the floor next to my little brother Phoenix, and I’m relieved to see that my mom is sitting next to Everly’s mom, Paige. Hopefully we can get Aunt Paige excited about this plan, and if Aunt Paige is excited, my mom won’t have much choice but to get excited too. That’s just how it works with Paige—she’s impossible to resist.

Paige and my mom have been best friends for decades. And the Ransome boys and my dad have been best friends for just as long. Those friendships give my brother and I honorary membership in this big, crazy family.

But none of that familiarity makes me feel any less sick about standing in front of all of them right now.

“This is fun,” Aunt Paige says, looking around the room. “I can’t remember the last time we had a family meeting!”

Fun is not the word I would use to describe it. I kind of feel like I might puke. Instinctively, my eyes seek out my mom’s. Her warm gaze is steady on mine and I breathe in, feeling a little better.

“What’s this all about?” Uncle Reed asks, looking far less supportive than my mom. In fact, he looks downright suspicious, and we haven’t even started yet. “Please don’t tell me the three of you want to get an apartment together.”

I look over at Fox and Everly. “Well…”

Reed swears and Cash points at him, smirking. “Not so funny now that it’s your kid, is it?”

“You’re moving out?” Everly’s little sister Vega cries in dismay. “You can’t move out!”

“Hang on.” Fox holds up his hands. “We haven’t even said anything yet, everyone chill.”

But Reed is watching us with narrowed eyes, his arms crossed. My dad doesn’t look much happier. This is off to a wonderful start.

“Do something!” Everly whispers next to me.

“Eva,” I call. “Will you come up here, please?”