My new book will be available in just 4 days but you can read a sneak peek now! Scroll down to read the first chapter of Play for Me, the latest book in the Ransom Family Series. I can’t wait for you to meet Cecelia and Solomon!
Chapter One
Cecelia
The first time I got in trouble for fighting with a boy, I was six.
I don’t really recall much about it—kindergarten memories aren’t super clear—but I do know his name was Logan Brisbane and he pulled my cousin Vega’s hair.
My older brother Silas, who was also on the playground at the time with his fourth-grade class, certainly remembers what went down that day, and gets a big kick out of retelling it. Apparently, I kicked a soccer ball in Logan’s face before pushing him down and sitting on him.
The next time I had to fight a boy was in second grade. I’d really gotten in trouble then, like sent to the principal’s office and suspended from school trouble. And, okay, I did give the kid a pretty bad bloody nose, but I maintain to this day that he deserved it for calling my other cousin Ash a ‘cry-baby freak.’
As hazy as most elementary school memories are, I can very clearly recall the fear I felt when my parents came in to talk to the principal. Later that evening I’d overheard them telling my aunts and uncles about it. Dad had been laughing but Mom just seemed tired. “I thought having a baby girl might be more chill after all those boys, but I swear, she’s the most stressful one yet.”
I managed to keep my little fists to myself for a couple years—which maybe had more to do with the fact that kids were scared of me after that and knew not to mess with me or my cousins. But in fifth grade, my good behavior streak came to an abrupt end. Noah Giles, who lived down the street from us, decided his new favorite activity was making my life miserable. He tripped me in the hallway, made fun of my “boy clothes”, and knocked my art assignment off my desk, ruining three days of work.
But it wasn’t until he stole my soccer ball and popped it that I finally had enough. I waited for him at the bike racks after school and proceeded to push him down and take his backpack—which I emptied onto the ground before pouring the red paint I’d stolen from the art room all over his belongings. It hadn’t helped that he hit his head on his bike pedal when he went down, scraping his eyebrow and causing him to bleed pretty good.
When I last saw him at our high school graduation, he still had a scar over his eyebrow.
“She’s absolutely feral,” my second oldest brother Will had said, laughing with my dad and Silas.
“The teacher told us the kid has a huge crush on her,” Dad had said, not bothering to hide his grin. “Apparently he’s been acting like a little shit to get her attention.”
“Jesus,” Will had groaned. “Can you imagine what she’ll be like as a teenager? The boys in this town are in so much trouble.”
At least one person in our family didn’t think it was very funny—my oldest brother Wyatt. Wyatt is technically my half-brother, and my mom had him when she was really young, making him a full-grown adult by the time I reached elementary school. But even with our age gap, we were really close. I idolized Wyatt.
Which is why I took our conversation to heart. “CeCe,” he’d told me, voice serious. “I want to make sure you understand this—no one gets a pass for picking on you and treating you badly. Any adult who says it’s fine for a boy to be mean to you just because he has a crush is full of shit. That’s trash behavior, and you don’t have to put up with it. Never, ever take shit from any boy.”
Then he’d taught me how to really throw a punch, “just in case.”
That stayed with me over the years. I did get a lot better at controlling my temper, so there weren’t as many opportunities for school yard fights, but the whole ‘never take shit from any boy’ thing? Yeah, pretty much my life motto.
And that motto is roaring in my ears right now as I glare daggers at the absolute asshole who had the nerve to make my cousin Violet cry at this fucking Kappa Sig frat party.
“Can we just go?” she asks, tugging on my arm. “I want to get out of here.”
I turn to gape at her. “Your boyfriend is like, six feet away with his tongue down another girl’s throat. And you want to leave? Without kicking his ass?”
She wipes at her leaky eyes. “He isn’t really my boyfriend. We were just hanging out.” She cuts off when I release a low growl. “Okay, I thought it was more than that, but clearly I was mistaken, so let’s just go.”
I turn back to the dickwad, narrowing my eyes as he appears to eat the poor girl’s face. “Could he have any less class?” I mutter. “He’s in a room full of people and he’s acting like this?”
“CeCe,” she moans. “Please. Let’s go.”
“Without confronting him?” I snap. “Absolutely not. I’m going to superglue his dick to his jeans.”
“Oooh,” a singsong voice trills beside me, and I feel a familiar pair of arms wrap around me. Our cousin Vega has joined us. “Is CeCe about to go all badass on someone?”
I shake off Vega’s arms and point across the room. She goes still next to me. “Is that—”
“Travis,” I snarl and hear another pathetic little sob from Violet behind me. It only increases my rage.
“Oh, sweetie,” Vega cries, turning to Violet and wrapping her arms around her instead. “I’m so sorry. What an asshole!”
I’m relieved Vega is here, and I’m sure Violet is as well. Out of our group, I am definitely not the soft and comforting one. I’m more the take-names-and-kick-ass member of the family.
“Who’s an asshole?” A third cousin, Cade, slides up to our little huddle. His eyes go wide when he sees the look on my face. “Shit. Is CeCe about to go all badass on someone?”
“That’s what I said!” Vega is just tipsy enough to giggle even as she continues to soothe Violet.
I gesture to the couch and Cade goes still. I watch as his eyes narrow, jaw going rigid. “I’ll go for the face,” he says in a low voice. “You kick him in the balls.”
“Sounds good to me,” I mutter, already moving to pull my hair back into a ponytail.
“Okay, we’re not doing that,” Vega says, releasing Violet to slide between the two of us. “The semester hasn’t even started yet and I’m not calling your fathers for bail money tonight.”
“You can call my brothers then,” I growl. “I’m sure one of them will be good for it.”
“I just want to go home,” Violet hiccups.
“We’re not doing that, either,” Vega tells her. “What we’re going to do is go over there and tell that guy he’s an asshole, then the four of us are going to drink and dance and have a great fucking time.”
“I really don’t want—”
Vega turns to Violet, eyes flashing. “You are a Ransome, Violet,” she says sternly. “We do not go hide out and wallow when someone treats us badly.” She grins, the expression unsettlingly sinister on her lovely face. “We stand tall and show them what they’re missing.”
I breathe out a sigh of relief when Violet laughs at that. I know this idiot wasn’t the love of her life or anything. This heartbreak won’t be permanent. But I still don’t like seeing her upset.
To say my cousins and I are close is an understatement. The five of us—Violet’s twin brother, Ash, is off being pretentious at a coffee house poetry reading—were born within a few months of each other, so we’ve literally been together our whole lives. Add in the fact that our unusual families have always spent a shit ton of time together, and our group is basically inseparable.
When someone fucks with one of us, they get to deal with all of us.
As the stupid asshole on the couch is about to learn. “You ready?” I ask Violet. She takes several deep breaths while Vega wipes under Vi’s eyes and fluffs her hair for her.
“Gorgeous,” Vega says approvingly. “What a dumb loser that guy is.”
“Let’s go tell him that,” I say, grabbing her hand.
Violet doesn’t need to be dragged along and I’m so freaking proud of her when she takes the lead, marching across the room to the couch. She doesn’t wait for Travis to notice her. She leans right in and taps him on the shoulder, calm as anything.
“Vi!” His eyes go all big and scared. “What are you doing here? I thought you had that poetry thing with your brother.”
She smiles down at him. “I decided to come to the party, instead. Imagine my surprise when I saw you mauling some other girl’s face off.” She gives the make-out partner a little wave. “No offense, girlie. I’m betting you didn’t know what a two-timing asshole this guy is.”
“I definitely did not,” the girl says, glaring at the guy who just had his tongue down her throat.
Violet tsks. “Yeah, huge manwhore as it turns out.”
“Vi, it’s not what you—”
“Shut the fuck up,” Cade snaps.
But Violet remains smiling, her attention on the girl. “Honestly, I kind of saved you from some disappointment here. He’s totally boring in bed. Couldn’t find my clit with a map.”
Cade groans next to me. “Seriously Vi?” Vega laughs in delight.
“You can do way better,” Violet continues. She straightens, staring right at the dumb fucker. “And so can I.”
Then she turns on her heel, curtain of golden-brown curls swinging behind her, and marches off like a queen.
“Hell yeah!” Vega cries, following her. Cade, the diabolical bastard that he is, leans down and offers a hand to the fuming girl still glaring at Travis. “How ’bout you and I go get a drink,” he says in that sly, charming voice of his that girls somehow always seem to get taken in by. “Wash the taste of this loser away, yeah?”
Once they’re gone, I lean down so I’m right in Travis’s face. He looks shell-shocked, like he’s not exactly sure what just happened. “You got so lucky tonight,” I tell him. “My cousins didn’t want me to kick your ass.”
“CeCe—” he starts but I hold up a hand.
“Shut the fuck up, Travis. You fumbled the best girl at this university. And I promise you this—if you ever even talk to her again, there isn’t anyone at this school who could keep me from wrecking you. Do you understand?”
“Jesus,” he mutters, wiping a hand over his face. I growl and bring my foot up only to slam it down on the couch cushion in front of him, inches from his pathetic dick. He yelps and tries to push himself back.
“Next time, I won’t be so restrained,” I say brightly.
He glares up at me. “You’re a fucking psychopath, do you know that?”
I grin. “I’ve been told, yes.” I inch my foot forward and he yelps again. “And now you have this psychopath as an enemy. Well done.” I put my foot back on the floor and point a finger at him. “Leave Violet alone, asshole.”
Then I shake out my hair and turn to follow my cousins to the kitchen, where Vega is waiting with a beer for me.
“You just couldn’t help yourself, huh?” she asks, smirking.
I shrug as I take the bottle from her. “Just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page.” I turn my attention to Violet. “You did amazing.”
She manages a small smile. “It was kinda fun. Maybe I should try being a badass more often.”
“You know what a badass would do next?” Vega asks, reaching for Vi’s hands.
“Dance?”
“Hell yeah!”
As I follow Vi and Vega to the living room, I catch sight of some of my soccer teammates standing by the back door. I wave, feeling a little guilty. As one of the captains, I know the plan was to encourage team bonding when we suggested everyone come to the start-of-the-semester party tonight, and I’ve barely said a word to any of them.
But as much as soccer is my life, my cousins come first. Always.
The music is blaring in the living room, bodies crowding the small space. As we join the throng of people dancing, there are a plenty of eyes on us, but we’re used to that. It comes with the territory when you’re a member of one of the most famous families in the country.
Our fathers—Reed, Cash, Lennon, and Daltrey Ransom—released their first album back before any of us were even born. Uncle Daltrey had still been in high school when they left home for their first tour. Decades later, Ransom is considered one of the most successful rock bands of all time. The record label they started with their best friend, Levi, and our grandfather, has been cranking out hit after hit for years. Their fame has opened the door for some of their kids to enter the entertainment industry, too—acting, fashion design, reality TV.
So there’s never been a time in my life when people didn’t know who my family was. Of course, there are shitty moments that come along with that—finding out so-called friends are only using you to get access to rock stars, seeing cell phones covertly recording you when you’re just trying to walk across campus, people saying crap about your family behind a computer screen—but, for the most part, I’ve made peace with being a Ransom.
The two cousins I’m currently dancing with—along with Cade and Ash—are a big part of that. We’re the kind of close that goes deeper than friendship, deeper even than family. There’s no one else I’d rather go through this life with than the four of them. So I throw myself into dancing with my girls, not letting myself worry about anything else. Not even soccer. And definitely not worthless boys.
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