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Harper turned away from them, and Lucy let out a pent-up breath and started tapping again. He was starting to see that she didn’t notice she did it. But when she was actually on edge or nervous, she stopped completely. He just wished he knew what had happened between the sisters.
As the group settled in, Nick grabbed the microphone and announced to the room that they were doing karaoke tonight since Lucy was getting married. Oddly, there were cheers from others in the room.
Nick laughed at the small cheering section and said, “There have already been a few requests, but first, let me tell you that Lucy was not the best waitress we ever had in this place, though Agatha was definitely the worst.”
Agatha cheered at her name, as did their table.
Nick pointed to Agatha and continued, “But she was always fun. When I started here, she wanted to be a bartender, so I gave her a chance. Fuck, she messed up nine out of ten drinks. Even her favorites. But she was a great waitress and was always willing to sing!”
The table cheered again. It seemed she was the queen after all.
“So, for the first song, I’m going to start with one of her favorites to get it out of the way. And so you all don’t have to hear her sing it, I will.” With that, he started singing Garth Brooks’s “Friends in Low Places,” and the table cheered again.
Leo looked around and knew not a single person was drunk, they were just this enthusiastic while sober. Even Lucy was a bit jumpier than usual. But as the song started, she leaned into his chest and whispered to herself, “I love this one.”
As the song started, she started to hum to the music, then sing softly. Wrapping his arms tighter around her, he enjoyed the sounds she made as she sang softly to just herself. He wondered if she even knew she was doing it, because nobody looked at her or commented about it.
As the bartender ended the song, he got a round of claps from the entire place, though he wasn’t very good. Once the song ended, he took control of the machine and started another song with no announcement of who was singing or what song.
As the opening notes started, all the women at their table perked up, and Sera, Maby, and Bea rushed to the stage. The song ended up being a Juice Newton number that had him laughing at the women, and he could feel Lucy laughing as she sang along.
The next song was by Dolly Parton and had Harper joining the group. As they sang about working nine to five, Kaine hauled his wife off the stage before the song was half over. Harper was completely willing to let him do it as she laughed and tried to continue to sing but failed.
“All My Ex’s Live in Texas” came on, and the girls sang through that one, and Harper rejoined them from the back hallway before the end of the song. Kaine sat back at the table, but his eyes didn’t leave his wife.
It was the next song that had Lucy off his lap and on the stage before the first word was sung. It seemed all it took was a little ‘80s Reba McEntire to get her into it. Not that she hadn’t sang every word of every song anyway, but it seemed a song about New England had to be sung from the stage.
“She held back pretty well,”Cliff said from beside him.
“I was really thinking she didn’t want to,” Leo admitted.
“Now they have to get Agatha up there, but that’ll be a little harder.” He nodded at the black-haired woman in the leather jacket who was sneering at the stage.
It took exactly three songs and a genre change to get her up there. When Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up” started up, she swore and pulled off her jacket, tossing it at Kaine as she walked by and jumped onto the stage.
All the sisters hugged on her as she started singing just as badly as the rest of them. Oddly, it was this song that had them all taking off their outer layer, all but Lucy that is. All were wearing a T-shirt like Cliff’s.
None of the shirts’ sayings were spelled right, and nobody said anything about it at the table. In fact, Kaine pointed to the one Bea was wearing and said it was his favorite. Then added with a smirk, to rip off his woman that was. Jonas groaned and the rest just laughed.
After that, the songs went back and forth from country to pop, but never leaving the ‘80s unless it slipped into the ‘90s, but nothing new. The women knew every song, every word. There was also a lot of dancing, mostly just made-up moves, but they all knew them.
After a dozen songs or so, women started slowly dropping out of the band, as the men called it. First was Sera, then Bea. Agatha tossed up her hands when another Garth Brooks song came on. She jumped off the stage, heading for the bar.
The twins and Harper were holding down the stage until the song “40-Hour Week” came on, then Maby left the threesome for something to drink. That left Harper and Lucy, which seemed to be okay since they’d done the song enough times to know what they were doing. But when Lucy accidentally bumped into Harper during her mimic of a coal miner, Harper turned and pushed her sister, causing Lucy to stumble backwards and trip over her own feet. She teetered on the edge of the stage and then fell off of it onto the floor three feet below.
For her part, Harper jumped off the stage to help her sister, who instantly pushed her away from her with one hand while the other was holding tight to her stomach.
Cursing, Leo pushed her family away from him as he rushed to her. Stopping right next to her, he pushed Harper and Maby away from her.
“Are you okay?” he asked, crouching down to keep her sisters from her. Maybe he was being overprotective, but her sisters seemed to be the most dangerous at the moment.
She looked up at him, and judging by her scrunched-up face, he knew she wasn’t okay. Shoving everyone away again, he lifted her into his arms and demanded of her mom, “The nearest hospital?”
“St Mary’s. I will take her,” Sera said. All the laughter was gone from her face, replaced by worry.
“No, I’ll take her,” he stated and hurried out the door with her in his arms.
