“Oh no, here we go,” Drea said, rolling her eyes fondly.
“Who’s that?” Alfie asked in a whisper, his eyes glued to the tall form making its way through the crowd toward the stage.
“That, my friend, is Gray. Prepare to be blown away,” Josiah said as he leaned on the bar.
“Hello, everyone, as many of you know, I’m Gray, and I’m here to sing a little.”
Alfie let out a whimper in his chair, making Drea cackle quietly. “What the fuck?” Alfie whispered.
Yeah, Gray had a deep voice, and sometimes Josiah forgot that because he knew Gray better by now. Not that the man wasn’t an enigma, but at least Josiah had not only heard him sing like lot of the regulars.
Gray started with a cover of the ‘Sound of Silence’, which made a weird hush fall in the bar. He’d picked up an acoustic guitar from the selection that Josiah kept on the stage just in case, and was playing in a minimal way, to enhance his own singing.
The next song was also a cover—because Gray didn’t sing original content, ever, as far as Josiah knew—of a song he’d heard on the radio but didn’t know the artist. It was followed by a couple of more, and then he put the guitar away.
“These last two ones I don’t need the guitar for,” Gray said in his quiet, even tone. “This is ‘Blackbird’ by the Beatles.”
He hadn’t performed ‘Blackbird’ before, and Josiah had goosebumps running all over his body at the acapella, and the perfection of Gray’s lowest notes. He ended the song with something so low, that Denny let out a shocked gasp.
“That was subharmonic,” Denny said in an awed tone. “Holy fucking shit, I hate that guy.”
Josiah and the twins all cracked up, while Alfie looked confused.
“He owns a record label, Number Three Records, and despite his attempts, Gray doesn’t want to be a recording artist,” Josiah explained.
Alfie nodded slowly, his attention back at Gray already. “Oh, okay.”
Like on most Wednesday nights, Gray ended his set with ‘Parting Glass’, and almost everyone sang along, or hummed along if they didn’t know the words.
The applause was deafening after two beats of silence. Gray jumped off the stage and turned into his awkward, shy self once again. The transformation was obvious, and again Josiah wondered what Gray’s story could be.
“Hey, here you go,” Josiah handed Gray his alcohol-free beer.
“Thanks.” Gray took the bottle and just then seemed to notice Alfie sitting next to where he’d stopped.
“Nice set,” Alfie said, smiling slightly.
Josiah could see that he was holding back like hell, wanted to fanboy all over Gray, but was reading the big guy well enough to know it wasn’t what Gray wanted.
“Oh, thanks.”
Even Denny seemed to quiet his usual pitch for a deal tonight when he saw Alfie’s reaction.
“Gray,” he just said, tipping his bottle in greeting.
“Denny.” Gray grinned a bit, looking devastatingly handsome for a few seconds before the smile vanished. “I better be off.”
“See you next week?” Alfie squeaked.
With a raspy bass, Gray replied, “Uh, probably. Bye, all.” And with that, Gray made his way out of the Hare.
“That boy needs someone to teach him how to sing without hurting his voice if he’s going to do the subharmonic stuff,” Denny grumped after Gray had left.
“And we all know he’s not going to want that, so back off,” Yolanda said.
Denny lifted up his hands. “I know, I know.”
“He’s amazing,” Alfie said in a reverent tone.
