I frowned but smiled simultaneously. ‘Thank you then… I think.’ I vowed to search the song on the web and read the lyrics for myself. ‘Can we get out of here?’ I asked breathlessly.
‘Absolutely. Come on.’ He grabbed my hand and turned, but his way was blocked by twoverylarge,veryintimidating men.
Oh, shit.
Fin protectively pushed me behind him, and I peeked out to see what the hell was going on. If they were going to start trouble, I needed to get a good look at their faces so I could be a witness when the cops arrived.
‘Evening, gents. What can I do for you?’ Fin’s unwavering voice oozed confidence, even though I was a terrified, quaking mess behind him.
One of the men, tall...verytallandmuscular, dressed all in black and with shaggy shoulder length hair, was the first to speak. ‘We’ve been watching you for a while now.’Huh? Oh, God. That does not sound good. Were they sent by his father? Would his father stoop so low?
Fin tilted his head to one side and his grip on my arm at his back tightened. ‘Have you now?’
‘Aye. An’ we think you’re wasted.’
Drugs police? But we’ve only been drinking beer? Unless... oh, God. Someone spiked our drinks? I feel fine, though.I rifled around my head, trying to make sense of the situation. Maybe Fin was a drug addict and they’d been watching him. I mean, how well did Ireallyknow him? The urge to run came over me, along with a sense of impending doom.
‘Oh? You do, eh?’ Fin carried on in his firm and calm manner, giving nothing away.
I peeked around Fin’s large frame once again. The other guy, the slightly shorter but no less terrifying one of the pair, had a beard and a shaved head, was the one to speak. ‘Aye, that’s right. A bloke with a voice like that shouldn’t just be doing karaoke. He should be heading up a band.’
What the...?
Long-haired guy butted in again. ‘And we just happen to be sans singer at the moment.’
I leaned my head on Fin’s back and heaved a sigh of relief.Sans singer? Seriously? Is this some kind of bad joke?
Fin laughed, making his body vibrate and relax. I guess he was as relieved as I was. ‘Are you kidding me? I thought you were going to beat me up or something.’
The two huge men burst into raucous laughter and I came out of hiding to witness not a beating, but a kind of bizarre male bonding as they all shook hands and laughed about Fin’s—and my—error of judgement. Fin introduced himself and me to the guys, and draped his arm round my shoulder casually now he had relaxed.
‘Thanks, guys, but I honestly think you’ve got the wrong impression of me. I’m... I’m a lawyer, and I’m definitely not good enough to sing with a band. I do the karaoke thing for a laugh. I just—’
‘You’re joking, aren’t you? Have youheardyourself sing, pal? You’re the dog’s danglies.’ The huge man’s strong Scottish accent made me smile. I could listen to that accent all day.
I glanced up at Fin to see his face scrunched in disbelief. ‘Nah. It’s nice of you to say that, but honestly, I’m just not up to it.’ He tried to push past them, pulling me along behind, but they were not letting him pass.
The other guy gestured wildly at Fin. ‘Come on, come on, Fin. Just come and meet the rest of the crew, eh? We all agree you’re the man for the job. You’re amazing, seriously. And I think you may be a wee bit surprised at what you discover about us. Just come and meet everyone, eh?’
Fin turned to face me and pleaded at me with his eyes. I smiled widely and cupped his cheek with my hand. ‘I’m sorry, Fin, but they’re right. You have an amazing voice. But it’s not just that. You’ve got stage presence. It’s like you become someone else up there. You should go talk to them.’
His eyes widened for a moment. ‘Really?’
‘Really.’
‘Right… so what kind of music do you play?’
Long haired guy—now known to be Nate—replied with a grin. ‘It’s usually classic rock, a bit of Whitesnake, a bit of Rainbow, Deep Purple, maybe the odd bit of Queen, Bowie and Fleetwood Mac thrown in for good measure. What do you think?’
A smile spread across Fin’s face and he nodded. ‘Okay then. I’d like to hear more.’
The men, Nate—the long-haired one who played lead guitar—and Billy the bass player—the bald one, took us to a table where other members of their band sat, along with their girlfriends. Nate went to order a round of drinks, and Fin sat beside Billy and pulled me into his lap.
‘So, tell me more about this band of yours,’ Fin said, after the introductions were made.
‘Well, we play for fun. We all have day jobs and we don’t take ourselves too seriously. The guy who was singing for us got fed up of playing. Can you believe it? Anyways, he went off to pursue his dream of opening a bloody deli in Kelso, and so we were left with Nate on vocals. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not bad but... well, we want him to be able to concentrate on lead guitar, and so we’ve been auditioning singers for around three months now.’
Nate returned with a tray full of drinks and handed them round. He gave me a bottle of beer and winked as he sat beside me. I felt my cheeks heat a little. I think I was still a little bit intimidated by the hulk of a guy.
