Holding onto the microphone stand, I hold my eyes shut tight as I muster up as much courage and go out big for the last verse.
Even though I know the storm is coming, I feel alive in this moment. I haven’t felt this alive since I left for Cali. This is exactly what I came back for. The fire.
Finishing the song, the bar erupts, and I finally take the breath that I’d been holding since I arrived in this town.
Looking at my brother, he’s smiling, clapping his hands hard and slow. “Well done, brother.” He lifts his hands higher. “You ain’t lost it.”
I hand him back the microphone, doing my best to catch my breath.
“Hey. Don’t go. Sing with me?” He stands, shifting his guitar back into position.
He strums on his guitar and fire’s upFlorida Georgia Line’s – This is how we rolland the crowd goes fucking wild.
As he leans into the microphone, I hear plenty of girls screaming in the front row. Wow, this fucker does this every Friday night.
Lucky son of a gun.
My ego is getting a well-needed inflation as the seconds roll by. I throw my head back and laugh at him. How could I refuse now?
Leaning into the stand, I take it with my right hand and pull my face into the microphone, so my lips are touching the cold metal.
We belt the song out together, like we’ve been doing this forever and we never stopped.
Taking my eyes off my brother, I scan the crowd, looking out for the angered eyes I had to stop staring at to inflate my ego. I spot our friends still standing next to the bar. The girls with the same sour faces they had the last time I looked. Luke looking increasingly uncomfortable. He shoots me a sly shrug.
However, Mabel isn’t in sight.
I scan the crowd in hopes that I’ll spot her. Maybe she went to the restroom?
As Jake wraps up our song, he holds his guitar towards the crowd on its last strum, and the girls scream even louder. I bring my fingers up to plug my ears from the noise.
His shit-eating grin loudly on display, like this is the best day of his life. Placing my microphone back on its stand I pat my brother on his strap free shoulder.
“Good to have you home, bro.” He winks at me. That’senough now, I think I’ve done enough damage.
“Y’all give a big hand to my brother, Maverick,” Jake shouts as the bar erupts yet again.
Stepping off the stage, I shake Cole’s hand to the side. “Good to see ya’, pal,” Cole says. I smile at him with a nod.
I walk back towards my old group; Mabel still nowhere to be seen. Jake starts the instrumental toLuke Combs – Beer Never Broke My Heart, as I start to walk away.
Squeezing my way through the crowd once again, garnering plenty of slaps to my back and welcome home’s, I reach Iris, whose arms are tightly crossed, hip slightly out of place. Before I get a chance to speak, Hope opens her mouth.
“She’s gone by the way. Well done, Asshat,” She spits with venom.
“Yeah, what the hell were you thinking?!” Iris pipes in, throwing her arms to her sides with force.
“I… uh-” Shit, I clearly wasn’t thinking.
“If you wanted some grand romantic gesture, this is the wrong place!” Hope adds.
“I… I-” Suddenly I’ve lost the ability to speak.
“Ladies, give the man a chance to speak,” Luke chimes in, handing me a glass of whiskey that I gladly take. I smile at him, tail in between my legs as he offers me salvation from the womens line of questioning.
At least Luke isn’t as pissed at me, well not as much as the girls are. Both Hope and Iris let out a sigh before giving each other a knowing glance.
What I don’t expect to happen before I can try and even defend myself are both girls walking over to either side of me and they pull me into a three-way hug. I flinch at the contact but move each arm around both of them.
