Tonight cannot be karaoke night.
Chapter 7
Olivia
Karaoke.
Karaoke.
Did they just say karaoke?
Yep, they definitely said it.
My worst nightmare is now sitting in front of me. Singing in public. Absolutely not. I have always been a shy girl. I love music; give me the house to myself and I can guarantee you that I have music playing loud. Probably a little too loud. And I’m singing, also probably a little too loud. But I'm by no means a singer, I'm not good at it, and to stand up in front of a large number of strangers and sing is an absolute hard no for me.
But it's okay I don’t have to sing, right? I can sit quietly at the bar with my drink and listen to everyone else sing. My internal monologue is going a mile a minute and I'm trying to avoid the panic from showing on my face. I was already nervous about tonight before karaoke was even considered.
“And for you?” the bartender asks, snapping me out of my head. He looks vaguely familiar and I definitely know him from somewhere, but can’t place him.
“Oh um, just a gin and tonic please,” I stammer.
“Just a gin and tonic? You don’t want anything off the specialty menu?” Noah asks, surprised.
“I didn’t know there was a specialty menu.”
“You really don’t come home much do you?” “Can you give us a specialty menu and a few minutes please?” Noah asks to the bartender.
“Not really, at least not in the last year”
“Ollie, Carter worked out a deal with Mark and Melinda, they source all their cranberries for their cocktails from you and make everything in house.”
That is a huge deal for the farm, Mark and Melinda own not only Fishy’s but the bed and breakfast that hosts basically every tourist we get on this side of the lake. The number of people our Cranberry Farm reaches with this deal alone is insane. It makes me proud to be a Bennett and of Carter, who has more formally taken over the farm, for getting a deal this big.
“You didn’t know?”
I shake my head no. “Carter and I are more of the fight first and speak later type of siblings.”
“I remember that. Ya’ll used to fight like your lives depended on it and then Cole and I had to pick up the pieces.”
The warm, homey feeling creeps back into my abdomen as mentions of our lives in the past, bringing me back to a time where he was my home. I love remembering back to those days, where the world didn’t feel so heavy and it was just me and the boys conquering everything.
“Ready?” the bartender asks, coming back to us again.
“Yeah, can I have the Fishy’s Fog? Please.”
“And a float for you?” he asks Noah.
“Yessir” he says with a smile. I give him a pointed look in response.
“Thereisonlyoneplace to drink here” he says with a shrug.
He’s not wrong. Fisher Creek is an incredibly small town, with basically one stoplight to get you through the center of town, but it is weird to imagine him here regularly.
“We have to sing tonight,” Noah says to me as he comes from behind me to take the seat beside me.
“Absolutely not! I don't do karaoke,” I respond.
“You used to love singing, you’d scream-sing as loud as possible in my car.”
