“You couldn’t feed me enough liquor to do that.” Sierra crossed her arms over her chest, her shoulder brushing mine.
“I’m with you there.” I nodded, raising my bottle in agreement.
“What, you didn’t put in a song?” Mikey asked.
“Nope,” I said, popping the P.
Colter raised his brows. “You didn’t put in a song, but how much do you wanna bet Killer up there put one in for you?”
“I don’t know. Guess we’ll find out.”
Jake’s song ended, and the crowd went absolutely wild as he hopped down. The guys sitting near the bar clapped him on the back, and he threw out a few cocky smiles at some of the girls nearby before stumbling back over to our group.
“How about that performance from Jake! Let’s keep up the good mood, shall we?” DJ Evan laughed into the microphone. “Come on up, Mikey!”
“Ah, that’s me!” Mikey chugged his beer, handing it off to Sierra before speed-walking over to the microphones.
He performed a very poor rendition of “SexyBack,”and then Evan called up Colter and Ellison, who, to Ellison’s obvious dismay, performed “You’re the One That I Want.”
Colter went all out, pulling out some ridiculous dance moves that made Ellison blush and roll her eyes as she stood next to him.
“Give it up for Colter and Ellison! Next up we’ve got…Hayden!”
My eyes widened and mouth gaped as Jake whipped his head toward me and winked.
“Go get ’em, Tiger!” He pushed me toward the DJ booth, despite my protests, even going so far as to threaten me, saying, “I’ll drag you over there if I have to!”
I had no idea what song Jake wrote down for me, so this was truly the worst kind of roulette to play. I fiddled with the microphone in my hands as “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” began playing.
“Are you kidding me?” I muttered, whipping my head toward Jake before lifting the microphone up to my lips. “Who do you think I am? Heath Ledger?”
The bar erupted into laughs, but I wasn’t playing around.
Of course Jake would choose this song. If this wasn’t an attempt at matchmaking between me and Sierra, then I didn’t know what it was. I’d get back at him one day, though. I was sure of it.
Reluctantly, I started singing along with my eyes focused on the lyrics on the TV screen and my feet glued to the floor.
“Come on, Haydie! Give us a show!” Mikey yelled from our table, and I dared to look over at them.
Ellison was clapping along to the beat, encouraging therest of the group to get involved, and Jake was doing some kind of weird dance move.
By the time I locked eyes with her, Sierra had a big, radiant smile on her face. I didn’t know if it was because she thought I looked ridiculous up here or what, but if making a fool of myself was how I could get her to smile, then so be it.
As the chorus started, I sang so hard I thought my lungs might burst. Walking over to the group, I took one of Sierra’s hands in mine, lifting it to my lips during a break between lines before serenading her.
The way her face turned scarlet was enough to make up for the humiliation of Jake putting in a song for me.
“Wow, Hayes. I didn’t know you were such a rockstar.” Sierra giggled when I returned to the group. “If cowboying doesn’t work out for you, I’d say we send you to Nashville. Or send in an application for you to be on one of those singing competition shows.”
“Only if you come with me, Skip.” I winked.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
sierra
Iwoke up with a gnarly headache, a weird stain on my shirt, and Pancho standing directly over me.
The remainder of last night’s karaoke outing was a bit fuzzy after Hayden’s10 Things I Hate About You-esque serenade, but I could vaguely piece together taking a few shots of tequila and belting out “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” with Ellison and Juniper.
