Chapter 31

The karaoke contest took all fucking night—which didn’t surprise me. But the longer I dealt with all the drunk people, the more I wanted to leave. In a round of musical chairs, I managed to snag a spot next to Declan and stayed there since he was the only other sober one. If he wasn’t, I probably would’ve gone to hang out with Mom.

To piss Cole off more and more, everyone kept dedicating songs, only drawing out the night longer.

Alice started the whole thing by changing her song at the last second to ‘Fuck You’ and dedicating it ever so sweetly to Axel. We all held our breath because the two of them were probably going to start a fucking brawl over it. Thank fuck Axel found it funny as shit and toppled out of his chair laughing.

It also pushed him to take Finn’s singing slot and change his own damn song. The fucking moron ended up singing ‘Something In Your Mouth’. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure who was more mad: Alice or Cole. Cole looked damn near ready to rip Axel to shreds for singing about his baby sister that way.

Both ended up in an epic apology to Mom at the end of it all. I was fairly certain at this point Mom didn’t give a flying rat’s ass what we fucking did. But we still scrambled to behave.

Finn dedicated his song to Sam’s kitchen and proceeded to dance around the entire fucking bar to ‘Shake It Off’ by Taylor Swift. The second that fucking boy tried to climb on the bar to keep dancing, though, Brady hooked an arm around his waist and carried his sorry ass back to the stage. He never ended up finishing the song because he couldn’t compose his dumbass enough to continue.

Lucas, in all his drunken fucking glory, dedicated his song to his dick—bad fucking move, kid. Sure, it was fucking funny watching him strut around the fucking stage singing ‘Sweet Dream’, but the look on Mom’s face. That boy was dead.

Good as fucking dead.

Brady broke down laughing so hard he had to excuse himself and get some fresh air. Before anything else happened, Mom made Lucas get back on the stage and make an apology. Except that apology somehow turned into a sales pitch about his dick—and from the looks of some of the Ironwood ladies, the boy wasn’t going to his room alone tonight.

After Lucas, it was Cade’s turn, but as he headed to the stage, Cole grabbed him by the arm.

“Hold on up, Locke,” Cole said. “This bein’ your first Fall Games and all, we picked your song for you.”

“That’s not fair!” Raven exclaimed in immediate protest, but Cade put a hand on her shoulder.

“I can take a little fucking hazing,” Cade replied. He backed toward the stage, boasting, “You should’ve seen the shit the ball club tried to fucking do to me when I signed on. Sing a little fucking song? That’s nothing. Do your worst, Stone.”

“You’ve got this, handsome!” she shouted after him before glaring at Cole. “Don’t be a dick.”

“Whose side are you on, woman?” Cole demanded.

“The no-dick side,” she snapped. Behind her, Declan scoffed.

“No one fucking believes that, honey,” he commented.

“I like dick! I like dick a lot! We all know this!” Raven retorted. I hid my face in my hands. Jesus fucking Christ, she had no fucking filter.

“Half of Cedar Harbor knows that,” Sam muttered into his drink.

“I don’t like people who act like dicks. Especially not to my favorite guys.”

“Be careful. She might chuck a bottle at your fucking head,” I warned with a smirk. And then I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Mom didn’t hear because that’d be my fucking luck. Thank fuck she didn’t. God, was this what the next few months would be like living back at home?

The intro music for ‘Before He Cheats’ drew away my attention.

“That’s what you fuckin’ picked?” Danica demanded. “Way to make a guy feel welcome.”

“I ain’t wantin’ him to feel welcomed,” Cole growled. Yeah, Cole wasn’t adjusting to the whole Lochlan undertaking thing. I’d heard the rants. While he was doing it for his pack, he wasn’t happy.

“Okay.” Cade nodded. “I can hang with Carrie. Hell, I’ve met Carrie, and she’s cool. I can’t sing Carrie for the life of me, so you’ve been warned. This is going to suck.”

And it did. It really fucking did. Granted, no one could sing Carrie like Carrie could, but listening to Cade was something akin to auditory torture. When he finished, no one clapped quite as loud as Declan and Raven did, but we all gave him his props.

Maverick’s turn came and went. Fast. It lasted about long enough for him to walk up to the stage, lean next to the mic, and say the word no before walking away. He did it every fucking year, and just like every fucking year before, none of us argued with him. It wasn’t that Maverick couldn’t sing. He could. The guy had a fucking voice to be envious of. He’d spent much of his late teens and early twenties traveling, recording music, and making a small name for himself. He could’ve gone a lot further, but one day he showed back up in Iron Falls and that was that. Never said a fucking word about why. We asked once—well, Sam pushed the matter. Once. And ended up with a black eye and a broken collarbone for his pestering.

That was the last time anyone dared to fucking ask.

Though, there was something fucking epic about being able to walk up to a fucking mic, say one fucking word, and a whole goddamn room listened.

It did make him an easy act to follow. Danica was fucking grumpy about the whole damn thing, but honestly, that was just Danica. She hated making this trip and only did it for morale. As far as I knew, she wasn’t going to Cedar Harbor with us. Not that I blamed her. A single mom with a six-year-old, this trip was the only vacation that woman fucking got. If I were her, I wouldn’t want to be stuck with our dumbasses either for the only time off I got every year.

“You know,” Cole began as she wrapped up her song, glancing down the table at Isla, “you weren’t supposed to be here.”

He was stalling, letting Nolan hold the last slot in case my baby brother decided to back out of singing.

“Is Mr. Big and Growly telling me he’s glad I’m here?” Isla teased, and I chuckled at the scowl on his face.

“What I’m sayin’ is we picked out his song, but we ain’t picked out a song for you,” he said. “So, get your little wolf ass up there, no music from the band, and put your heart in it.”

“Oh, come on, Cole,” I cut in. That was fucking harsh. I knew he wasn’t a fan of the arrangement with Cade and Isla, but there was no fucking need to take it out on her.

“No, no, sweet thing.” She waved me off with a cocky little grin. “I know I need to prove myself.”

“Digging your own grave, Stone,” Cade commented into his beer. Okay, I was fucking curious. That interest was only piqued as the feisty little redhead grabbed my fucking guitar and proceeded to tune it.

I growled. She fucking tuned my guitar.

“Don’t worry, sweet thing, I’ve got you covered,” Isla promised. Did she though? Did she even know what to do with my fucking guitar? I wanted her hands off my goddamn guitar. “Now, Mr. Cole Stone said I needed to come up here and put my heart into it. Since we’re dedicating songs and all, I dedicate this one to my ex-fiancé, Brad, who I caught getting a blowjob from his best man. On our wedding day.”

“Oh, shit,” Axel blurted out. We chuckled but oh shit indeed. What a fucking dedication.

“Fuck Brad!” Cade and Raven yelled simultaneously.

“Fuck him, sweetie, you can do better!” Mom hollered in support. Sure, she got to swear. And Cade and Raven got to swear.

“Yeah, fuck Brad!” I echoed, testing a theory.

“Language, Killian.”

“God fucking dammit,” I grumbled and crossed my arms.

“At this point, she’s just doing it to mess with you,” Declan pointed out as Isla strummed her way into playing an acoustic version of ‘abcdefu’.

“I know, but I still don’t want to cross her,” I replied but only vaguely heard his response.

Holy fuck. Feisty little Lochlan had a goddamn set of pipes on her. She was fucking incredible. Flawless even. When Raven and Cade obnoxiously joined in on the chorus, Isla harmonized right alongside them without once changing how the song should’ve gone.

What the ever-loving fuck?

By the second chorus, she had every fucking woman in the bar singing the lyrics—including Mom. Her stage presence was intoxicating.

“She used to be in a band,” Cade announced when the music began to fade. “Her once gothic little self used to travel with a band, doing bar appearances and small concerts. She had a whole fucking following. She plays guitar, is classically trained in violin and piano, and took voice lessons from some of the best coaches available for most of her life. You never stood a chance.”

“You fucking lost.” I grinned like a fucking idiot as I met Cole’s surprised expression. No one ever beat Cole in singing.

One point for the Byrnes.

One point for the Lochlans.

There was no fucking way we wouldn’t win this year.

“Thank you, thank you, darlings,” Isla said cheerfully into the mic after putting my guitar down—properly I might add. Okay, maybe I’d let her touch my guitar again. She had to fucking ask first.

Nolan always sang last, and the kid visibly paled when we all glanced down at him. The thing was, Nolan had social anxiety. Always had. He was great in small groups, he somehow was doing well managing the pack, but anything bigger? Like… say performing in a bar full of people staring at him? He couldn’t do that shit. But he fucking tried. The kid deserved more respect than anyone because we would’ve let him skip out on his turn, but he was determined to do it for the pack.

“Slide over, honey,” Declan whispered and gently nudged Raven in Cade’s direction as he nodded to me.

“Yeah,” I agreed quietly. I snapped my fingers at my brothers, getting Lucas and Finn to pay attention to us. Sam was on top of it despite being drunk. We perched on the edges of our seats and waited as ‘Head Over Boots’ started. Nolan cleared his throat and shoved his hands in his pockets. The music moved from the intro into the first verse.

Nolan tried. He really fucking did. But even with the mic, we couldn’t hear him in the dead silent bar. Before the song ever hit the chorus, the five of us were on our feet and headed toward the stage on a fucking rescue mission. No one expected Nolan to fucking win, so there was no need for him to suffer.

“Oh, thank God,” Nolan whispered as Lucas threw an arm around his shoulders and stole the mic.

“Come on, this is prime Byrne boys dancing material,” Sam teased as Finn sang for the lot of us. “You didn’t think we’d miss out on this, did you?”

Not a fucking chance. For a good two and a half minutes, we sandwiched Nolan between us and belted out the lyrics to the best of our ability. I knew most of the song, Lucas and Finn knew mostly the chorus, and Declan and Sam resorted to making shit up as we went. It was a fucking mess.

But it was fucking perfect.