“Okay… we have. We do.” Ginny didn’t know what was happening exactly. Was she in some sort of twilight zone? What had her sisters said in that text message?
“Okay.” He nodded and looked around the room again, tapping his fingers on the sticky table top and sighing heavily. Deciding something.
“So, are you hungry?” he asked, looking at her with much softer eyes than he had in weeks.
He didn't want to leave? He wasn’t annoyed? Was this a pity meal?
“I’m starving… I mean, I haven’t eaten since breakfast, and I worked up an appetite out there, and well, we’re here, so…”Way to play it cool, Virginia.She was definitely hungry for something. “I could eat.”
He nodded to the menu in front of her. “We’ll stay if…”
Ginny’s heart stopped beating. “If?”
He smirked, looking over his own menu, “If I get to pick your first karaoke song.”
Ginny had to fight to hide her smile. “Do I get to choose yours?”
“Sure.”
They’d done this before as a large group. Choosing one another’s songs and seeing who they could embarrass the most. It was nothing new and nothing to get overly excited about. He’d probably have her sing a cringey 90’s boy band song then skedaddle outta there before she had her say. She’d love every minute of it. Maybe she’d even tell Melody Man tomorrow. Like a diary entry after a dreamynot-date. But she wouldn’t disclose a bit to her sisters. They’d get zero details. The traitors.
Plus, Ryan was obviously just making the best of the hand they’d been dealt and sticking it out so as not to hurt her feelings. She wouldn’t think anything of it…
Only, Ryan seemed to be holding his breath. Ginny watched him as he studied his menu. But even in the darkened corner of their booth, she could see his eyes hadn’t tracked along the large, laminated sheet at all.
He’d merely been staring blankly at it. His fingers gripped the page as if he were waiting anxiously for her answer. Even the final wretched note of the song overhead didn’t garner his attention.
Ginny finally nodded. “It’s a deal. But you’re paying, Coach.”
He blew out a breath and smirked, moving his eyes across the menu but never letting them drift to her. “You got it, Ginny.”
“I was sabotaged!” Ginny yelled over a woman belting Shania Twain. “No one can sing Celine, but Celine.”
“Backstreet Boys, Gin. You made me sing Backstreet Boys.” Ryan tossed a tater tot at her, which she soundly caught in her mouth. “You did Celine proud, tonight. And Adele… and Whitney.”
“Yup,” she said proudly. “I sounded just like them.”
He nodded, tossing a tot in his mouth. “You sure did.”
They’d been challenging each other for over an hour, taking turns picking the others’ songs and laughing over every performance, all while eating tater tot nachos and now a tater tot dessert comprised of perfectly fried, lightly golden tots covered with a chocolate and raspberry drizzle and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top.
“I still think you should have added in a little of the dancing. A boy band isn’t a boy band without some movement.”
Ryan glared playfully and scooped a bite of ice cream from their shared dessert. “A boy band isn’t a boy band with one fully grown man.”
Ginny shrugged and tapped his spoon out of the way. “Meh. Excuses, excuses.”
They both took bites of ice cream and watched the other, falling into a quiet stare down in the first moment of quiet tension between them since they’d arrived. Ginny bit the inside of her cheek, suddenly feeling low-key anxiety. She’d been having fun. So much so that she’d forgotten all about how her siblings had orchestrated this night. As much as Ginny had enjoyed almost every moment, it had happened against Ryan’s wishes.
“Virginia!?” A sanguine, male voice approached their table bringing with it a cloud of Axe body spray, shaking Ginny and Ryan from their quiet standoff. “I thought that was you!”
Liam grasped Ginny’s hand and pulled her from the table, wrapping her in a tight and particularly close hug before she realized what was happening.
“Liam Michael Holder,” she said playfully, holding him at a distance, though he held her by the elbows so as not to let her get away. “I thought you were in Florida with my brother… playin’Top Gun.”
“Nah. I’m here for another week or two. Enjoying all the South has to offer.” He bit his lower lip suggestively at Ginny. “Dakota went off on his honeymoon and then gave himself time to settle. But the rest of us don’t report for another few weeks.”
“Oh, that’s great. I’m… glad to see you. You should come to the Bicentennial Celebration we’re having in Sugartree in a few weeks, if you’re still in town then. It’s gonna be loads of fun.”
