Chapter 30

It took us another thirty minutes to even get to the karaoke competition. There was another round of lumbersnack chanting much to Declan’s dismay—only made better by the fact that Raven fucking started it—another round of drinks, more pirate jokes coupled with a drunken sea shanty, and then Brady and Mom decided to check the mics for us by doing the worst rendition of ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’. Cute but they both sucked at singing. Granted, we all took videos of Mom getting Brady to dance around on the stage with her.

Of course, Cole took the stage to kick off the official competition. He did every fucking year. And just like every fucking year—and probably even the last few games I’d skipped—he’d carted his whole fucking band with him. We playfully fucking booed him as he pulled off a perfect rendition of ‘Sounds Like Something I’d Do’ complete with hip movements to make Elvis jealous. The fucking man was talented. Why he stuck around a biker bar when he could’ve been bigger was beyond me. To each his fucking own, right?

Poor fucking Declan had to follow him—a slot the rest of us were glad we didn’t have to take. Singing after Cole had become something of a cursed slot. Bad shit always happened. I swear to fuck I saw Declan glancing around the stage as he took his place like he’d find a fucking snake or something hiding.

With the curse, it wouldn’t have surprised me.

“Can you even hear me?” Declan said into the mic, a little too close and a little too loud. I cringed but didn’t say shit. He shoved his hands in his pockets and just stood there. Yeah, Declan wasn’t a fucking performer. And he didn’t have the swagger or flair our younger brothers had. To top it all off, he was stone-cold sober. This whole performance was going to be a tad painful. “So, this year I wanted to sing something for my fiancé—”

“No!” Roan booed. “Stop being so cute! We don’t want it!”

“Hey! Shut your mouth!” Raven snapped, her tone sharp. “That’s my fiancé up there. Keep going, baby! I love you!”

And while Declan gave some adorable as fuck sugary speech to Raven, I watched the way Lucas and Finn giggled like fucking morons.

“What the fuck did you two do?” I asked quietly.

“We changed his song,” Finn whispered. That stupid grin on his face looked ready to break his cheeks.

“To what?” And then fucking ‘Baby Shark’ blared through every goddamn speaker in the place. We all fucking lost it. But Declan? Declan just fucking rolled with it—props to him. He stumbled his way horribly through the fucking song while Raven did the same from the table with him. Jesus Christ, if anyone needed convincing those two were made for each other, this moment right here was fucking it.

“I liked grumpy Declan more,” Lucas commented under his breath. Clearly, their adorable antics defeated the point of the prank.

“Eh, she’s good for him,” Sam said. “Though, it means we need to up our game.”

“You just have to know the right buttons to push. And now you’ve got me for that shit.” If anyone was good at getting a fucking rise out of Declan, it was me. So challenge accepted, new Declan.

When the song ended, Declan got off the stage. He wasn’t even halfway to the table before Raven met him—and Jesus fucking Christ, that woman climbed him like a tree. God, if she got that grateful over fucking ‘Baby Shark’, Declan would have no problem keeping that woman happy.

My turn followed. I had no problems taking the fucking stage. I was no Cole Stone, but I was damn good with a guitar and my voice went over with crowds damn well. Country was my go-to. I had the fucking voice for it, but I dabbled in rock from time to time. Country music had always been Mom’s thing. Learning to play songs she loved was something I enjoyed doing.

Mom liked a lot of songs—always had—but there was one song she kept close to her heart. Any time it came on, she’d just stop and listen. I always told myself I’d learn it and sing it for her but then life happened. All the bad shit happened and just kept happening.

Before any more proverbial fucking shit hit the fan, I was singing the damn song for her.

“You know, Declan isn’t the only one who can make sugary sweet speeches,” I began as I settled on a stool with my guitar. I adjusted the mic and pivoted enough to be facing Mom. “I suck at sugary sweet speeches, but I know one of the other idiots at the table can.”

“Nolan!” Finn and Lucas shouted together.

“No one writes epic speeches like Nolan does,” I said. “Anyway, since we’re over here dedicating songs to people, I’m dedicating—”

“This ain’t how the Fall Games work!” Cole cut in loudly.

“Calm your tail, Stone,” I chastised with a cocky grin. “You’re looking a little green under the scruff. Worried you’ll lose the second round too?”

A round of oohs rolled through the bar as his eyes narrowed.

“One day, Byrne—”

“Not today. Today, I’m singing to my mom,” I interrupted. That shut him the fuck up. No one would fight me for singing to her. I knew I wasn’t fucking winning. This was just the start of a very long grovel to her. I owed Mom more apologies than I could make. I couldn’t begin to imagine the three fucking years of not knowing. I didn’t deserve her.

And so, I sang my fucking heart out. I put everything I had into strumming and singing ‘Live Like You Were Dying’ because Mom loved it. It wasn’t a fucking apology, but it’d make her happy. All I cared about was that misty-eyed look on her face while she swayed and soaked up every line of the song. As I plucked the last few chords, no one in the bar made a fucking sound. It was crickets as Mom walked across the bar and onto the stage. She hugged me fiercely.

“That was beautiful, baby boy,” Mom whispered.

“I love you,” I said quietly. She leaned back touching my cheeks.

“Well, how the fuck are we supposed to follow that?” Roan demanded, breaking the emotion in the room. I laughed and leaned closer to the mic while Mom left the stage.

“Language, Roan!” she chastised.

“You aren’t, you furry jack-butt,” I told him so the whole damn room could hear me. Fuck this censoring thing. I sounded pathetic as shit. “Mom, can I please go back to swearing? My threats aren’t working like this.”

“No,” she called over her shoulder.

“Brady, it’s your bar—”

“Boy, you’re dumber than you look if you think I’m going to fucking argue with your mama,” Brady replied, inciting a burst of laughter from around the bar as I frowned.

“I don’t look dumb. And why does he get to swear?”

“I ain’t wearing tight pants,” he shot back, making everyone laugh harder. Fucker. I liked my pants.

“Get off the stage!” Sam shouted and got to his feet. He threw his arms out in drunken dramatics. “It’s my turn, you furry sap!”

“Fine!” I retorted and matched his attitude with a big eye roll. We traded places, and I readied myself for whatever chaos my brother was about to bring to the stage. Knowing that fucking smirk on his face, it’d be good.

And then the fucking slideshow started.

Sam came with a fucking slideshow.

Of his kitchen.

After being set on fire.

“This,” Sam announced loudly into the mic, “is my kitchen after Finn set it on fire.”

“I said I was sorry,” Finn yelled with a groan.

“Oh, I know,” he replied. “You and Killian can be roommates at Mom’s. That’s not the point.”

“I’ll make him all the good snacks—”

“Donuts,” I cut off. “I demand all the donuts.”

“Oh,” Finn crooned. “There are so many ways to make some hot reels off donuts. And for fall? My fall fans will go feral.”

“You are a manwhore,” Sam told him.

“Somhairle Hannigan Byrne!” Mom chastised. I snorted and ducked my head. Our family was a fucking disaster when we had Mom around to hold us to our shit.

“What?” he demanded. Gripping the mic, he swiveled to stare at her. “You have the voicemails to prove it. And I’ve had to listen to those conversations! I know the things he said.”

I howled, wheezing through laughing. Fuck, this was turning into stand-up.

“Fucking kill me now,” Finn groaned into his hands.

“He’s just a very… attentive young man,” Mom replied and pressed her lips together to keep from laughing, which was a moot point. This shit was hysterical.

“When did we start dedicatin’ songs?” Cole demanded.

“It’s better than the year we all turned into strippers,” Declan commented.

“Can I get an encore presentation of that tonight?” Raven asked, but he shushed her.

“New goal, we all dedicate our songs!” Cade damn near shouted to be heard over laughter. “Let’s fuck with them, furball.”

“Language, Cade!” Mom cut in. Good Lord, was Brady the only one who was safe from her wrath?

“Aye, aye, Captain.” He saluted her.

Music from the stage drew us all away from our conversation as Sam launched into his song—complete with a goddamn slideshow about his fucking kitchen in varying stages of repair. And the song? ‘I Will Survive’. I slid down in my chair, laughing my ass off.

It only got funnier as Finn hopped onto his chair and danced in place. The two vibed off each other in a ridiculous way. There weren’t many moments that I was reminded they were our cousins and not our brothers. Moments like this, though, were it. They were so damn alike that it showed.

Roan followed, hopping up on the stage with a cheeky fucking grin on his face as he sidled up to the mic. He cleared his throat. From the look on that man’s face, he was up to shit.

“I’d like to dedicate this next song to Cole and his frozen fucking heart—”

“Language, Roan!” Mom chastised all over again. The edge of annoyance in her voice as she kept repeating herself wasn’t lost on me. It was lost on Roan. And his drunken state, he was the definition of a moron.

“Mama B, you’re in a biker bar! You can’t expect us not to swear!” he exclaimed. See? Fucking moron.

“No!” Axel shouted. “You don’t say that to Mama B!”

“Say it to Mama B!” Alice yelled over him and gave him a smug look. Axel growled, bearing his teeth at her. I just rolled my eyes. For as much as those two fucking fought each other, it was only a matter of time before the anger combusted and they started fucking each other. The sooner they did, the better for the group dynamic.

“Are you trying to get us in trouble?” Maverick demanded.

“Boy,” Brady growled, but Mom snapped her fingers at him.

“This is your one reminder, Roan Fletcher Ironwood,” she clipped, “that I don’t need crass language to put your little wolf butt back in its place. You may be a pack leader, but I helped raise you. I know things about you that you want no one to know about. Do I make myself clear, or do we need to talk about the incident when you were seventeen?”

“Oh, damn.” Lucas whistled.

“What’s the incident from when he was seventeen?” I asked under my breath, leaning across the table so Declan would hear me. He merely shrugged.

“Sorry, Mama B,” Roan murmured into the mic while we laughed. Every single fucking one of us had been on the receiving end of that kind of threat. There was no fucking with Mom. She didn’t play. She just came in like a fucking wrecking ball if she needed to. “Okay, look. This song is dedicated to Cole and his frozen heart.”

“Okay, Elsa,” I yelled at him. “Just sing your song already!”

And just like I thought, the fucking man sang ‘Let It Go’. His voice was off-key, his enthusiasm was ridiculous, and just when it couldn’t get any worse, this fucker walked around our goddamn table throwing glitter on the lot of us.

“What the fuck, asshole?” I growled and got pelted in the face with an extra handful of fucking glitter. Fucking hell. My growl deepened. The sound echoed around the table as others joined me in frustration.

“Is that a fuckin’ dick?” Alice asked suddenly. My eyes snapped to her where she was staring at a handful of glitter.

He wouldn’t fucking dare.

I ran my hands hard through my hair and grabbed whatever fucking fell out. Sure enough, fucking dicks. The furry fucker pelted us with glitter dicks.

“Oh, it’s on, you furry fucker,” I snarled and vigorously shook out my hair. I wasn’t the only one as damn near everyone else did the same.

But it wouldn’t fucking come out.It kept fucking sticking. To everything. Everywhere. I caught Raven trying to pluck pieces of glitter out of her bra. Danica was attempting to disengage them from her braid. Cade furiously picked them off piece by piece from his hat. Finn and Lucas looked like a pair of fucking monkeys picking it off each other.

Jesus fucking Christ, Roan.

“What’d you do, Roan?” Cole demanded angrily.

“Just a little spray adhesive,” Roan told us with a stupid ass grin. That furry shithead was dead when I got my hands on him. He bowed at the end of the song. “Happy Fall Games, you dicks—it’s not a swear word, Mama B.”

“No, but you better be cleaning up my bar, boy,” Brady called out. “You sprinkle your dick everywhere, you clean up your mess.”

“It’s our bar!” he shot back.

“Clean our bar!” Axel and Maverick yelled. And in true Fall Games fashion, the karaoke contest was derailed with another round of chanting and table thumping.