We are getting so close to the release of my new book! Sing For Me is the first book in a brand new series all about the grown-up offspring of the Ransom gang! I am SO excited for this series. The first book introduces a whole bunch of new characters and I already feel like they’re all friends.

Sing For Me comes out on Tuesday, August 11th, but you can pre-order it on Amazon now! I hope you’ll check it out!

In the meantime, here’s a little sneak peek of the first chapter. I hope you enjoy getting to know Will, Eva, Rose, and all the rest of the Ransom gang ❤

Pre-order Sing For Me now on Amazon!

Chapter One

It’s so loud backstage that I’m pretty sure the walls are shaking. Over the pounding noise of the band’s instruments, I can hear the sold-out crowd screaming and cheering. All around us, roadies, venue staff, and random people I don’t recognize rush around.

It would be easy to get lost in a madhouse like this.

“Will! Rose! Wait up!”

Next to me, my cousin Rose huffs loudly enough for me to hear even over all the noise. She flips her long blonde braid over her shoulder as she turns her head. “Hurry up, RIVER. You said if we let you come you wouldn’t slow us down.”

I turn back to locate Rose’s brother. His white blonde hair, the same color as Rose’s, makes it easy to spot him, even as short as he is. River’s not that much younger than us—he turned eight a few days ago. But I’m just coming off a growth spurt, and Rose recently turned ten, which is really old. Next to us, Riv still looks like a tiny kid.

And if I let him get lost in all this craziness, our parents will kill me. Sure, Rose is the oldest, so you’d think they’d blame her, but I know that’s not how it would go. Rose is everyone’s favorite and she never gets blamed for anything. Besides, everyone will know that this spying mission was my idea.

Not wanting to get grounded for the rest of the tour, I turn back and grab River’s arm. “Such a baby,” Rose grumbles next to me. 

River’s face is red, the way it gets before he cries, so I ruffle a hand through his hair and grin down at him. “Stick with us, okay? We don’t want to get in trouble.”

“Speaking of trouble,” Rose says darkly, peering down the way we just came. “Someone’s going to notice us if we don’t get moving.”

“Let’s go then.” 

I lead my cousins down the twisting, crowded hallways of the stadium. It’s like a maze back here and I’m not exactly sure where the stage is. I figure if I follow the noise we’ll get there eventually.  

We make another turn and all three of us freeze at the same time. Standing just a few feet away, talking to a roadie, is our Uncle Levi. Great.

We must be lucky, because he seems pretty preoccupied with his conversation. But I know he could look up at any minute and then we’ll be busted.

“Run for it!” I hiss, spinning on my heel. My cousins follow suit, Rose keeping a firm hand on River’s elbow this time as we take off down the hallway.

“Will?” Uncle Levi calls from behind us, sounding confused. 

“Faster!”

Our sneakers pound on the concrete floors as we run down a long, crowded hallway. Being smaller than everyone else comes in handy for once—we can dart around the roadies and the venue staff. “Hey,” a man carrying a heavy looking amp shouts as River jumps right in front of him, making him stumble. A security guard makes a grab for me as we pass but I manage to pull my arm back at the last minute.

“We’re with the band!” I shout over my shoulder, and River gives a snort of laughter.

“Down here,” Rose cries, turning down another hallway. I manage a glance over my shoulder as I follow her. Our uncle is standing way down the hallway, his hands on his hips. But he grins at me when he sees me looking, shaking his head, and I know he’s not really mad. I grin back before I take the turn, running fast behind Rose and River.

“Shh,” Rose says suddenly, pulling up short. I skid to a stop behind her, out of breath, and look around. 

“Excellent,” I say, clapping her on the back. Rose has somehow managed to lead us directly into the dark wings around the stage.

“You think Uncle Levi is gonna tell Mommy?” River whispers to Rose.

“Probably,” she says flippantly, like she’s too grown up to care about getting in trouble. 

I catch the worried gleam in River’s eye. “Let’s hide,” I suggest, leading them over to one of the empty equipment crates. I push River in front of me, wedging us both behind the crate. Rose sighs behind me but follows us. With a little wiggling, we mange to squeeze into a pocket between the crates. From here we’re hidden from the rest of the wings.

We also can’t see anything.

“Shoot,” River mutters. “Why’d we go through all that trouble sneaking out of the bus if we can’t even see?”

I risk sticking my head up long enough to take stock of our area. There’s another crate right in front of us and beyond that I have a perfect view of the stage.

The noise actually hurts my ears this close to the speakers and the massive, screaming crowd. It’s so noisy it’s hard to even think.

“Let’s just go back,” Rose mutters.

“Nah,” I say, making up my mind in an instant. This is probably the kind of thing my mom always gets mad at me for. Impulsive, she calls me. I’m not totally positive what that word means but one time I heard my dad laughing with her after they’d yelled at me for getting caught sneaking into one of the hotel pools on the last tour. “Kid acts first and thinks later,” my dad had said.

“Sounds like someone else I know,” Mom said, laughing with him.

I’m pretty sure that’s what impulsive means—acting first and thinking later. And mom would definitely get real mad at me if she could see what I’m about to do.

I grip the edge of the crate and give it a huge push. It’s heavy but luckily it has wheels, and I manage to move it a couple inches.

“What are you doing?” Rose hisses.

“Giving us a way to see.” I push on the crate again, with my shoulder this time. It moves a little more.

“Awesome!” River calls softly. “I can see Daddy’s piano!”

“A couple more feet,” Rose tells me, crawling over to where I’m still pushing on the crate. She adds her shoulder to the side and we both give a good hard push—sending the crate sliding quickly forward, way faster than before. “The wheel must have been stuck!” Rose whisper-yells. 

We both watch in silent terror as the crate keeps on rolling until it’s right on the stage. In the middle of Ransom’s sold-out show.

“Get down!” I whisper, pulling on Rose’s arm. We crawl across the dirty floor before throwing ourselves behind River’s crate. “Did anyone see us?” I pant.

“Uncle Lennon looked over here,” River whispers back. “But I don’t think he saw you.”

Peering over the crate, I can see my dad standing just a few feet away. He’s in the middle of a guitar solo, not paying any attention to what’s going on backstage, and I let out a relieved sigh. Across the stage, Uncle Lennon keeps looking over at the crate, probably wondering where the heck it came from. Then a roadie darts out to pull it back into the wings and I let out a relieved breath. We got away with it.

Rose slaps a hand over her mouth, giggling. I grin at her. Sometimes it’s fun to almost get caught.

“Ooh, I love this song,” Rose says happily, settling in next to me. The three of us rest our chins on the top of the crate, careful to keep our heads low. It doesn’t matter—from here we can see just about everything. Our dads playing their instruments. Uncle Lennon with his bass guitar. The flashing lights reflecting on the stage. And the huge crowd filling up the stadium, yelling and cheering for Ransom.

“This is so much better than the box,” I say, excited. For most of the shows, that’s where we sit, in the fancy boxes up at the top of the stadium with our moms and all of our cousins. There’s more room up there for the babies to play and for all of us to spread out—we have a super big family. And there’s usually a waiter who will bring me as much root beer as I can sneak without my mom noticing.

But the boxes are really far from the stage. Nothing like this little hideout in the wings. I’m close enough to see my dad’s fingers on the strings of his guitar.

“It’s definitely louder,” Rose says, rubbing her ears. “Now I know why mom always makes me wear those headphones when we come close to the stage during a show.”

“Louder is what makes it cool,” I say, eyes glued to my dad’s guitar. “Rock music is supposed to be loud.”

“Can you see Uncle Reed?” Rose asks, twisting her body around to see the back of the stage.

“Nah, can’t see him from here.” But the pounding of his drum’s means he’s out there with his brothers.

“Someday, I’m gonna be out there, too,” I mutter, mostly to myself. I have it all planned out. When I get older, I’m going to be a guitar player, just like my dad. I already know a bunch of my chords, which Grandpa says is really good for my age. By the time I’m a grown up, I know I’m going to be just as good as my uncles. Then they’ll have to let me in the band.

“Not me,” Rose says, shaking her head. “I would hate to have all those people looking at me.”

“How many people are there?” River asks, craning his neck to see the crowd. “A hundred?”

Rose snorts. “No way, Riv. This stadium seats twenty thousand people.”

River’s eyes go wide, like he can’t even imagine a number that big. I kind of feel the same way. I have no idea how many people that is, all I know is that it’s a lot.

Because Ransom is the best band in the entire world and so, so many people want to come see them play live.

“I wish we were on the other side of the stage,” River says. “We can’t see Daddy’s face!”

Across the stage, my Uncle Daltrey is pounding on his piano keys while he sings, his back to us. 

“It’s good we can’t see his face,” Rose mutters. “You’d probably wave at him or something and then we’d be caught.”

“I would not!” River cries, way too loud. I slap a hand over his mouth.

“Just because it’s loud out there doesn’t mean the roadies can’t hear us,” I tell him.

“The roadies, huh?” a grown up voice behind us says, and we all freeze. “I think you kids have bigger things to worry about.”

Heart sinking, I turn to see my older brother, Wyatt, standing behind us. His arms are crossed over his chest and he’s got a serious look on his face. But when I look at his eyes I can tell that he’s not really mad. In fact, I think he might be trying not to laugh.

“We just wanted to see the show,” I tell him.

He glances down at his watch. “Pretty sure it’s a school night, kids. Which means you aren’t supposed to be anywhere near the show.”

Rose sticks a finger into her mouth, pretending to make herself throw up. “I hate school.”

“It’s so, so super boring, Wyatt,” River agrees.

Wyatt rolls his eyes. “I used to have school on the bus, too,” he reminds us. Wyatt is way old, like almost a grown-up. My mom had him a long time before she met my dad, so he was already almost ten when I was born. When he wants to tease me, he reminds me that he was the one who got to name me when I was a baby, and if I’m not careful he might change it to something really awful. Like Barney. 

But Wyatt doesn’t tease too much. He’s a really cool big brother.

Hopefully that means he’s not going to get us in trouble. “Are you gonna tell Mom?”

“You should have thought of Mom before,” he says, his voice suddenly a little sharp. “She doesn’t need to be chasing you down, Will.”

I hang my head, feeling a rush of guilt in my belly. My mom is really, really pregnant with our baby sister right now, and she gets out of breath and uncomfortable when she has to walk a long way. I picture her following us through all those winding hallways we just ran through and feel awful.

“Is she looking for me?”

“Nah, I don’t think she noticed yet.” He looks between the three of us. “But I do need to text your moms and let them know where you are.”

“Wyatt!” Rose cries, reaching for his hand.

“Sorry, Rosie,” he says, pulling out his phone. “If they see your bunks are empty they’ll worry.”

She scowls at him as he types into his phone. “This tour was more fun when you were still away at college.”

He laughs, tugging at the end of her braid. “When I’m at college, you’re the oldest,” he reminds her. “Maybe you should start acting more responsible.”

“Responsible sounds like another word for boring,” she says, and Wyatt laughs some more before he pockets his phone.

“Climb on out of there,” he says, holding out his hand to give us a boost. He eyes the crate. “Let me guess, the runaway crate was you guys?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say, climbing out of our hiding spot. Wyatt slings an arm around my neck, pulling me close and messing up my hair. I squirm and try to punch him, but I’m just messing around. I never really get mad about Wyatt teasing me. Rose was wrong—I like tour much better when he’s here. My brother goes to a fancy college where he practices piano all day and I miss him a lot.

“Why don’t you guys come with me,” he says, letting me go to help Rose climb over the crate.

“Are you taking us to get in trouble?” River asks glumly.

“Nah.” Wyatt leans close to him. “I’ll tell you a secret—I used to sneak back stage when I was little too.”

“You did?” River asks, eyes wide, like he can’t believe a grown-up ever messed around like we do.

“Sure,” Wyatt says. “These are the best seats in the house.” He grins. “Well, almost.” He herds us away from the crates but we’re going the wrong way. Instead of heading back to the hallway, he seems to be leading us to—

“Wyatt, this is the stage,” Rose squeaks. 

“I know.” There’s laughter in his voice. “Check it out.”

We all look up to see that the song is over. Instead of moving right into the next one, the grown-ups on the stage are all relaxed. And they’re looking right at us.

“Oh, shoot,” River says, defeated.

“Don’t worry,” Wyatt says, pulling us out onto the stage. 

“Oh no, oh no,” Rose is muttering next to me, staring at the still-screaming crowd. Across the stage, Uncle Daltrey holds out his arms. He’s smiling. I let out a relieved sigh. Maybe they won’t be too mad.

River takes off immediately, beaming as he runs to his dad. The crowd goes even crazier when Uncle Daltrey pulls him up into his arms. He whispers something in his ear and River shyly waves at the fans. They erupt in another wave of cheers.

“Come on, Rose,” Wyatt calls over all the noise. He takes her hand, leading her across the stage to the piano. Before they get there, big arms appear in my vision, wrapping around me. My dad.

“You’re trouble, kid,” he says, but he’s grinning down at me. I grin right back, knowing he’s not mad. He gestures to one of the roadies before stepping up to his microphone. 

“So my son Wyatt was going to join us on piano for the next few songs,” he shouts to the fans, who scream right back. “But it looks like he brought a couple stowaways.”

Way out in the crowd I can see two of the huge screens that show what’s going on to the fans who are too far away from the stage to see much. Right now, the screens are showing River and Rose. My cousin slaps her hands over her eyes and Uncle Daltrey laughs. He gets both of them sitting in front of the piano, handing them tambourines. 

A roadie runs out on stage, carrying another guitar and three pairs of the big headphones our moms make us wear to protect our ears at concerts. On the screen, my face appears. My mouth hurts, I’m smiling so big. 

“Will,” my dad shouts over the noise, crouching in front of me, and I drag my eyes from the sight of my face on the huge TV to look at him. “Put these on.” He hands me a set of the headphones. “You don’t ever get this close to the stage without them again, you understand?”

I nod quickly. It doesn’t seem like we’re going to get in trouble for this so I’m pretty eager to do whatever he says to keep it that way. He helps me adjust the headphones on my ears and the sound immediately drops, no longer hurting my head.

My dad grins and holds out the extra guitar. I just stare at it. There’s no way he actually wants me to—

“You guys can sit in on this song,” he shouts. “One song. And then it’s straight back to the bus and into bed, you hear me?”

I can’t seem to close my mouth. I’m just standing there in front of all those people, staring at my dad like he’s lost his mind. He laughs and pushes the guitar into my chest. I finally snap out of it and grab the instrument out of his hands before he can change his mind. It’s too big for me, and heavy, but my dad helps me to adjust the strap around my neck then pulls a pick out of his back pocket.

“You remember the chords we worked on this week?”

I nod eagerly. Dad smiles at me. “Have fun, kid.”

When he turns back to the microphone, I snap my head over to Rose and River. They’re both wearing the big headphones too and Rose doesn’t look as scared of the crowd now. She gives me a huge smile and a thumbs up, like she’s happy for me. Rose knows all about my plans to be in the band someday.

“Looking good, kid!” Uncle Reed calls from behind me, and I spin around to see him grinning down from the drum kit.

This is so cool, I think, turning back to the front of the stage as my uncle counts off the intro behind me. Perfectly in sync, my dad and Uncle Lennon come in on their guitars. Across the stage, Wyatt is standing over the piano, his hands already a blur on the keys. Then Uncle Daltrey starts to sing from a mic at center stage and I remember that I’m supposed to be playing too.

For the next four minutes, I do my best to concentrate on playing my chords, trying to keep up with my dad. It’s hard to focus though—I just want to look around at everything.

Way too soon, the song is over. My dad takes the guitar from me and hands it off to a roadie. “Have fun?”

I throw my arms around his legs. “So much fun.”

He laughs, ruffling my hair. “Get back to bed now before your mom comes out here and kills me.”

I’m too happy to care that I have to go back. My cousins run across the stage to me, Rose grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the wings.

“That was the coolest thing ever!” I shout. “Did you see me play guitar?”

“Daddy let me play tambourine!” River is grinning just like me.

Rose flips her braid. “That was so scary! Did you see all those people? I thought I was going to throw up!”

“Don’t be a baby, Rose,” River says, and she pushes his shoulder.

I lead my cousins back to the hallway we came through. The sudden brightness hurts my eyes after the darkness of the stage area. It’s a lot easier to hear now, so we all take off our headphones.

“I want to do that every single night,” I tell them fervently.

“Think again, buddy.”

We all look up to see Aunt Daisy standing in front of us, her arms crossed over her chest. 

“Um, hi, Mommy,” Rose says, her voice too high. “We just went for a little walk.”

Aunt Daisy’s lips twitch. “You can drop the act, Rosie. I know all about it.” She looks between the three of us. “We’ll talk about it in the morning. Beds, now.”

I practically skip all the way to the busses behind the stadium. I’m already thinking of the next time I’ll be able to get on stage. Maybe I can convince my dad to make it a regular thing. Wyatt usually plays with them when he’s on a break from school. Why can’t I?

My excitement fizzles a little bit when we finally get on the bus and I see my mom standing in front of the bunks. She’s got her arms crossed too, and she looks a lot more annoyed than Aunt Daisy had.

She takes one look at my face and sighs. “Enjoy your moment, Will,” she says. “Tomorrow we’re going to have a long talk about the rules.”

“Sorry, Mom,” I tell her, but I can’t seem to wipe the smile off my face.

I rush to get my PJs on, eager to get into the privacy of my bunk where I can relive those minutes on the stage over and over. Before I can get my curtains closed, an upside down face appears next to my mattress. My cousin Everly, hanging down from the bunk above mine. 

“Go to sleep Lee,” I say, pushing on her forehead. 

She doesn’t listen, of course. Everly is seven and she thinks she’s the boss of the whole family.

“You’re in big trouble,” she whispers, and I can see her grinning even in the dark. Rose says Everly loves drama. “I heard your mom say you were going to get grounded tomorrow.”

“Big deal.” It’s not like I can go anywhere when the bus is on the road. We’re all stuck here.

“I bet she takes away your video game privileges,” she says.

Okay, that would be pretty bad. Playing video games with Rose is basically the only thing I look forward to when we’re all doing our school lessons on the bus.

But it’s hard to care too much about that right now, not when I can still hear the sound of the fans cheering for me. “It was worth it.” My smile is so big my cheeks hurt. “That was the best night of my life.”

Everly huffs and disappears back to her own bunk, leaving me alone with my memories of being on stage.

That’s going to be my life, I promise myself. Someday, I’m going to be a rock star, just like my dad and my uncles.

I can hardly wait.

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