“Hey, Lil?”
“Ya.”
“Don’t look now, but over your shoulder, like two o’clock, there’s a man staring at me. Do you know him?”
She casually does a search around the bar as if she’s looking for something before she looks where I guided her to look. To keep the act up, she keeps looking around for another second before shaking her head. “No, he looks like an out-of-towner. But I don’t blame him for having eyes on you. You look hot tonight.” She winks.
The scratch of the speakers draws our attention to the mini stage set up for the karaoke party. There’s a full black backdrop with twinkle lights cascading in rows down the middle alongwith multicolor strobe lights that rotate throughout the whole bar.
“Good evening, Bluestone Lakes,” she shouts into the microphone like she’s the main performer at Coachella. “It’s my turn to give this karaoke shit a try.”
The room laughs because they know her.
The music plays, and Lily and I still our dance moves, turning to look at each other with wide eyes.
“She did not,” Lily gasps.
Nan dons a pair of black sunglasses, putting one hand in the air and holding the microphone in front of her face. Clearly ready for the most epic performance of her life.
And then she sings. “I’ve been drinking. I’ve been drinking.”
“She did not choose ‘Drunk in Love’ to sing at a karaoke bar,” I say to Lily.
“She so did,” she replies, eyes on Nan as she sways her hips in a seductive motion on stage, bellowing every word into the microphone as if she’s the main character.
We watch fascinated as she gets into the moves. Using the whole stage as her platform to let everyone know that she’s “drunk in love” tonight, it seems.
Lily and I turn to each other and both of us curl over in laughter.
Neither of us can believe this is happening right now.
“I need another drink for the rest of this show,” I tell her.
“Go see Griffin.” She gestures to the bar. “He will take good care of you.”
I keep laughing, but it comes out more nervous. Because the idea of Griffin Barlow taking “good care of me” sends shivers down my spine.
And I’m not talking about him making me a drink.
I turn to head toward the bar and my eyes land directly on Griffin, who’s already looking at me. Poppy and Tucker are smiling and engaging in conversation.
But he’s not.
His eyes remain locked on mine in the fiercest way possible.
In a way that makes me feels like I’m the only one in the bar tonight.
And, damn, he looks so good tonight. I noticed when I first walked in, but it’s hitting me all over again right now. He’s wearing a baseball cap, shadowing his eyes. He ditched the flannel for the evening, only giving the entire bar a show of his abdominal muscles. And I say that because the solid black T-shirt he’s wearing hugs every ridge and curve of his body.
Making me want to trail my fingertips along?—
“One day he will smile again,” Lily says into my ear.
Little does she know, I’ve seen it. Just enough to tell me that there’s a heart somewhere deep inside of him.
Ordering an actual drink from him has me on edge. I don’t know if it’s because I can’t get my mind to stop thinking about him in very inappropriate ways, or because I want him to lean over the bar and kiss me, or because I need to keep my distance before I end up screwed and falling for the guy.
I see Tucker behind the bar and remember him from the day they rebuilt my deck.
