Page 11 of Fight For Me

Will’s fiancée stands, giving me an encouraging smile, and joins us. “I wanted to show you what Eva’s wearing today,” I begin, wincing at the way my voice shakes. “Eva’s in a simple wrap dress, which, of course, looks particularly beautiful on her—”

“Yeah, ‘cause she’s freaking hot,” Will calls out from one of the couches before giving a loud wolf whistle. Eva grins back at him.

“Not as hot as you, babe.”

There’s a chorus of awws mixed with gagging noises from the assembled cousins at their sickening cuteness and I’m reminded how quickly everything can go off the rails in this family.

“As I was saying,” I call, raising my voice over the noise. “The outfit looks lovely on Eva, but we think it’s the kind of thing any girl can wear and feel comfortable and fashionable.”

“Oooookay,” Will’s little brother Silas says, looking confused. “And we needed to have a meeting about Eva’s clothes because…?”

I ignore him. “Rosie, you’re up.”

My older cousin jumps up from the couch and flounces up to my side, grinning widely. She’s one of the few people who have an inkling about what’s happening here and she’s been excited ever since we told her. I wonder if she’ll be as excited when she hears the rest of the plan.

Before I can describe Rose’s outfit, movement at the door to the kitchen catches my eye. I glance over the crowd of faces and all the air rushes out of my lungs when I see the person who just sneaked in.

Wyatt’s eyes meet mine and he grimaces slightly, before his features go blank. He holds a finger up to his lips and I get his meaning right away—he doesn’t want everyone to know he’s here yet. I don’t blame him. Getting mobbed the second he walks in the door doesn’t sound like a fun welcome to me, either. And it will take forever to get everyone back under control to finish our presentation.

But now I have to give the rest of that presentation with him standing here. He isn’t supposed to be in town yet. I thought I had a few days to brace myself for the impact of seeing him again. And now he’s here, his eyes locked on mine while I try to dredge up the courage to convince our family to go along with this crazy plan.

My heart rate picks up, a bead of sweat slipping down my spine. Shit.

“Alex?” Fox whispers, and I realize that everyone is still staring at me, waiting to hear what the heck is going on.

I take a deep breath and force myself not to look anywhere in the vicinity of Wyatt Warner. Instead, I focus on Rose, who looks absolutely gorgeous in the clothes, if I do say so myself.

I somehow manage to keep my voice steady while I describe her sundress.

“She looks lovely,” Aunt Paige coos, and I have to grin. She might not have any clue what this is about, but that doesn’t stop her from being thrilled at the sight of her niece in pretty fashion. “I love that lipstick on you, girl. And the dress is so flattering!”

“She looks great,” my mom agrees, gaze flicking between Rose and me. “But I’m still not sure why—”

“We made these clothes,” Everly bursts out. “Me and Alex. We both designed them. I did the sewing.”

There’s a beat of silence before the room erupts in exclamations and questions—plus a few excited gasps and squeals from Paige and some of the younger girls.

“Sorry,” Everly mutters to me, pushing her trembling hands against her flushed cheeks. “I couldn’t handle the suspense.”

“Everyone look at your phone,” Fox calls out, tapping at his screen. Around the room I hear notifications going off as the entire family receives the same text. He locks eyes with me. No going back now. “I just sent you a link to our web store.”

“Your web store?” his dad asks, frowning down at his phone.

“For our fashion label,” I say, feeling a little faint. Even Rose hasn’t seen this yet. All we told her is we’d started making clothes and we wanted her to help us show the family. “The three of us started FEA Threads six months ago.”

“You started a fashion label?” Aunt Paige squeaks. “Without telling me?”

“We wanted to see if we could do it before we showed anyone,” I say, watching as they all tap at their phones, presumably looking at the pieces we have for sale. I feel a little ill at the knowledge that everyone is examining our work, like my baby is suddenly exposed and vulnerable to the judgement of the world. I’d felt the same way when Fox hit publish on the website all those months ago—protective and nervous and sick to my stomach. But at least then no one had known it wasus.

“This is impressive,” Uncle Daltrey says, looking from his phone to us. “You did this?”

Fox’s shoulders are tight as he meets his dad’s gaze. “The girls handle most of the design—”

“He designed some of the graphic tees, though,” Everly cuts in. “He actually has a really good eye for this stuff!”

Fox’s cheeks pink up and he rubs the back of his neck. “I mostly work on the website.”

“Hedesignedthe website,” I correct. “Built the entire web store from scratch. It was a ton of work.”