Chapter Ten
“Are you really going to sing?” Lilly was smiling ear-to-ear as Mia walked back from putting her name on the karaoke list.
Nodding, and taking a sip from her third beer, Mia figured she should slow down her drinking if she didn’t want to slur the words of the song. Fiona had no such hesitation as she headed toward the bar and said, “She’s going to kick ass.”
Thinking about it, Mia knew she’d do a more than respectable job.
Her three years at NYU may have been cut short, but her time there wasn’t wasted. In fact, there was a good possibility, she’d be banned from ever singing karaoke in town again. But this was going to be fun. Other than the voice lessons she’d just started, she hadn’t had time to sing in ages, so tonight she was going to indulge her inner diva.
Feeling happier than she had in a long time, Mia surveyed her surroundings. McGinty’s Pub had been around for over a hundred years in this very location. Originally, it catered to the town’s fishermen, buying the local catch and becoming known for its seafood chowder. Now, it was still a gathering place for the locals, but more for a fun night out with friends or a quick bite to eat of the simple but delicious fare they offered.
The pub also hosted karaoke night once a week, and so, for the first time in years, Mia was having a true girls’ night out and she intended to make the most of it.
“Okay,” Fiona said coming back to the group. “I’ve been hit on by the same guy five times. It’s getting annoying.”
“Who?” Mia looked around. “Is there something wrong with him?”
“He’s seventy-five.”
Mia, Lilly, and Jordan tried to suppress the giggles that were building, but it was no use. Fiona, who was fiddling with her drink, leveled her gaze at them and rolled her eyes as they laughed.
“Are you all done? Because if you aren’t, I’m going over to that group of hipsters and tell them you three are totally hot for guys with big horn-rimmed glasses.”
Jordan savored her martini, and glanced in the direction of said hipsters. “At least they wouldn’t need oxygen after…”
Again, Mia couldn’t help but laugh. Nana was getting a big hug and a kiss for pushing her out the door, because if she hadn’t Mia would have stayed home, and once again would have lost out on a fun evening. It was good to have friends.
Ever since the evening that the four of them had dinner together, the friendship had developed quickly. They had a lot of common ground and their personalities, while different, all seemed to mesh.
Jordan ordered another chocolate martini when the waitress came by and winced as the latest karaoke superstar made a fool of himself singing a lounge lizard version of “Do You Think I’m Sexy”.
“I don’t know what’s more terrifying, the singing or the bad hairpiece?”
Mia leaned her arms on the table and grinned. “Definitely the hairpiece. It’s like a small animal.”
Jordan clinked her glass to Mia’s in agreement. “I’m glad Lilly talked me into coming out tonight. I guess I can’t wallow at home forever. Lord knows, Chase isn’t hiding.”
Chase, Jordan’s ex-fiancé, came from a very prominent family, and he’d been caught the day before their wedding screwing his secretary. It was such a cliché, it made Mia wince, but for Jordan it meant taking a stand and walking away from the wedding of her dreams and what should have been a life of relative ease.
Chase was humiliated, but that didn’t stop him from taking the secretary on the honeymoon. Supposedly, they were now engaged.
“You shouldn’t be thinking about Chase.”
“Honey, it’s hard not to when I’m the one who’s being blamed for the whole mess. You know, I’m the one who overreacted, and called off the wedding.”
“Not everyone blames you.” Mia smiled and Jordan returned a weaker version. It was hard to imagine what she was going through; it couldn’t be easy, especially since her fiancé’s family had lived in Compass Cove for three generations. But her own grandmother had heard plenty of gossip about the cancelled wedding, and the consensus was that Jordan got out in the nick of time.
“I’m really glad you moved here,” Jordan said. “It’s nice to meet someone who doesn’t pass judgment on me.”
“I bet there are more people in your corner than you think.”
Sighing, her friend nodded and took another drink. “I hear you are very popular, my new friend. First Adam Miller, and now you and the new English professor are an item?”
Mia thought about Noah. They’d been out four times and date number five was tomorrow night. He’d been over to the house a couple of times, and for all intents and purposes, they were an item. If there was any doubt, it had been vanquished when one of his colleagues in the English department sent out invitations to a literary themed Halloween party. They’d been invited together.
They became a couple in two short weeks.
As soon as the invitation had come, Noah came to her house with a list of ideas of famous romantic pairs from literature. Tristan and Isolde? Lancelot and Guinevere? Daisy and Gatsby?
Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler from Gone with the Wind, were Mia’s first thought. She loved the idea of wearing a big flowery gown and Noah would look dashing as a Confederate soldier. But he decided that was “too commercial.” Mia wondered what made a couple acceptable, since he seemed intent on finding the perfect match. Again, he asked her for suggestions from something she’d recently read—and that’s when Mia, who considered herself very well read and was highly educated, horrified her academic boyfriend by telling him the last ten books she’d read were romance novels. The look on his face was priceless.
If Noah weren’t young and healthy, she was sure he would have had a heart attack. Once he started breathing again, it seemed he took her revelation as a challenge, scribbling titles of books she might like.
Of course, he was stunned when Mia told him she’d read them all.
Mia shouldn’t have been surprised to find out that Noah was pretty stuck up in general. Food, wine, movies… everything. And unlike his awkwardness, there was nothing endearing about him when he became a pompous ass. By the end of the evening, he’d decided they’d go as Hamlet and Ophelia, which disturbed her more than a little since Ophelia’s story didn’t end so well.
“Mia, I think you’re up next.”
“What?” Mia looked at the stage, realized she was going to be singing after the lounge lizard, and the familiar butterflies returned to her stomach. Some people hated the nervous feeling, but for Mia, the nerves came on just before the shot of adrenaline, and the rush of being on stage was something she’d love forever.
Putting down her drink, she turned toward the stage and glanced toward the door. She felt her pulse race because standing there, staring at her, was Adam.
And God, did he look good. Even in the dim light of the bar, she could see his flashing blue eyes, the slight shadow of his beard, and the bands of muscles in his forearms.
The slight buzz she was feeling from the beer and the crowd was giving her more nerve than was wise, especially with a man who could melt every female heart within a hundred feet of him. But there he was staring, smiling a little. And then a tall blonde woman walked toward him, took his arm, and the two of them found seats at the bar.
Glancing in his direction just as Adam turned his head, Mia cringed when he caught her looking. Crap. He grinned, and that just pissed Mia off even more. But at the same time, the tingles which started around her heart were crawling down her midsection and made her more aware than ever of how much she still wanted him.
Awesome.
It wasn’t like he needed the ego boost. He certainly had enough attitude without her help. Asshole. He was an asshole. He’d treated her like crap and ignored her. She should be taking comfort in the fact that she had nothing to do with him. Even though there had been a brief window in which he’d been nice, and he was giving Ben something to do in the afternoons, he’d probably saved her a lot of grief by blowing her off. Looking back in his direction, she caught him looking this time, but he didn’t think anything at all of staring. He smiled—and that got her seriously pissed off.
The DJ who was running the karaoke finally got her attention and Mia knew she was about to completely humiliate herself. Well, if she was going to go down, it might as well be in flames. Glancing for a third time at Adam, who was still looking her way, Mia headed toward the platform that acted as a stage. Originally, she’d planned to sing something pretty and light, but now she wanted to show off.
A lot.
“You know,” she said to the DJ, “I think I might like to sing something else.”
He glared at her, annoyed. “Seriously?”
Mia turned on her charm, giving him a girlish smile. “Please?”
He asked what she wanted to do and then nodded just before Mia stepped onto the platform to face the room.
*
She was going to sing? He noticed she was with her friends and was drinking a bit. Drunk? That could be interesting, and he’d certainly take the opportunity to tease the crap out of her. No one who sang during karaoke could expect any less.
Mia stepped to the mic and gave the audience that pure, sweet smile that undid him every time. Then she floored him when she set her eyes right on him. Damn.
The intro was a familiar wailing sax and twanging guitar. Unlike the other performers so far, Mia didn’t look awkward or uncomfortable as she swayed to the thumping bass. The song was familiar, and had the potential for all kinds of embarrassment. But when Mia opened her mouth, the notes she belted out rocked the noisy bar.
Holy. Shit.
It was a classic female anthem, a staple for drunken bar patrons and wedding guests, and while Adam’s musical knowledge was usually crap, he was blown away at what Mia’s voice was doing to cover it. On top of the vocal gymnastics, Mia wasn’t just singing, she was performing, and it didn’t take long for her to get the crowd with her. Less than a verse in, and the women were bouncing up and down, clapping over their heads, and the men were probably wondering what they could do to get her into bed.
By the time she hit the first chorus, she owned the place. Adam decided, right then, there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do.
The entire bar was moving, but the only thing Adam was totally aware of was the rushing sound in his ears and the pounding in his chest. The burn through his body was intense and the memories of how she felt pressed against him—warm, soft, and his—intensified with each note.
Adam couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was sexy, confident, and he felt like he took a hit to the chest when she looked right at him and sang. He didn’t realize how intensely he was staring at her until he got an elbow in the ribs.
Lisa, his date, was not happy. At all.
“Who is she?”
“She works on campus.”
“You know her?”
He should have told Lisa that Mia was a friend, but he couldn’t get the words out. He could have told her that he’d been an ass and stood Mia up, but Adam simply nodded, and kept his attention glued to Mia.
Sure, he knew he should have been paying more attention to his date. That would have been the nice thing to do, but Adam didn’t.
It wasn’t long, maybe two minutes into Mia’s song, when Lisa turned on a wicked high heel and left the bar. He didn’t even call after her. Yeah, he was a real prize.
Turning back toward the bar, he’d been joined by Joe and Drew, forgetting that they were coming here to watch the game.
“You’ll have to tell me your secret to charming women,” Joe said.
“Fuck you,” Adam said, still completely mesmerized by Mia’s voice.
“You know she’s still seeing the professor, right?” Drew added.
Adam grumbled at Drew’s question. Mia made sure he knew when she sent those lines in his direction. He’d pulled in every favor out there to get information on the English dork and what he found out he didn’t like. He was a poster child for the good guy award. Adam couldn’t even say he was a wimp, because he’d found out that the guy was an Academic All-American in lacrosse when he was at Yale.
Yale. Of course he was an Ivy Leaguer. That made him perfect for the whip-smart Mia, but Adam knew he was still getting to her. That’s what the declaration of female independence was all about, and that made him wonder if Dr. Dork was good for her in other ways.
“Adam?” Joe gave him a shot to the ribs.
Coming out of his trance, he looked at the stage and at Mia, whose eyes were closed as she belted out the final notes of the song, finishing even bigger than she’d started. The crowd was going crazy and her friends were screaming their approval from the table. She smiled wide as she finished—once for her audience and once for him—and Adam felt his insides collapse. Less than two months in town and she’d made this place her very own. This girl was amazing.
And at that moment Adam realized how badly he’d fucked up.
“Do you think you’ll get another shot with her?” Joe asked. The way his friend read his mind was almost eerie, but considering Adam was probably looking at Mia like he wanted her to bear his children, it was understandable.
Turning toward the door to leave, Adam shrugged. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”