Page 14 of An Irish Hope

She peeked across to the booth where Andy sat, a little smile on his face. In front of him, Aidan was grinning, clapping along.

Oh, it was fun to perform like this. To let her hair down, literally, as she released the clip that had held her French roll in place. That move instantly drew a roar from the crowd, and she hoped they didn’t think it was a precursor to her removing anything else. But they wouldn’t. They knew her and her family too well to ever think that.

By the time they reached the end, nearly the whole room was singing along. “Sisters are doing it for themselves.”

“Now that’s how we like to karaoke!” Ethan clapped for them. “Let’s give it up for Ash and Rory.”

“Thank you, thank you very much,” Aisling said in her best Elvis impression, then passed the microphone back to Ethan.

“I hope that’s inspired a few of you to give it a go,” Ethan said as they made their way back to their seats, among congratulations and praise.

“That was awesome.” Aidan kissed Rory as two glasses were placed on the table by a barmaid.

“Oh! We didn’t order these,” Aisling protested.

“It came from the ladies over there.” She pointed to a table where a group of women who looked to be on a hens’ night, judging from the pink sashes and cowgirl hats.

“Thanks!” Aisling waved, then took a sip. “That was fun.”

“You two were fantastic,” Aidan said. “I think everyone else is now too scared to get up and have a go.”

“Oh, come on,” Rory said. “You said you’d sing.”

He shook his head. “There is no way I’m going to sing by myself. I’ll sing with you, if you really want me to.”

“I really want you to.”

As the two of them compared notes on which song would be most appropriate Aisling glanced behind her again. The two women were still there, pleading with Andy to sing.

He glanced back at her, and she offered a wry smile then looked away, feigning interest in the room’s low wooden beams. The current singer, one of the hens’ night group, was obviously fuelled up on liquid courage, which made for some interesting notes. But good on her for having a go.

Aisling glanced around the room, then frowned. “Hey, have you seen Fiona anywhere?”

“No.”

“Has Declan come back?”

“He seems to have disappeared too.”

Rory gave Aisling another pointed look. “How interesting.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Okay, thanks for that Lily. We’re glad you had fun, aren’t we?” The cheer that met Ethan’s comment was more muted than before. “Okay, let’s have Patrick, who has a Michael Jackson song to perform.”

Patrick, another tourist, seeing she’d not seen him before, gave a spirited, mostly accurate rendition of “Billie Jean”, which also included some hip thrusts which was a little unnecessary, according to some jeers from the crowd. He was followed by some others who sang everything from Tina Turner to Toto in the eighties mix.

She clapped and then cheered as Rory dragged Aidan to the front, and they sang the “Power of Love”. And yes, Aidan wasn’t great, but Rory more than made up for him, covering his occasional lapses in melody with her strong voice.

Ethan clapped them then checked his playlist. “Okay, and this next person has been nominated by his friend. To sing ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ let’s hear it for Andy.”

“Really?” Andy muttered from behind her.

“You’ll crush it,” his friend assured.

He shook his head, but made his way out the front like a good sport.

She bit her lip. It wasn’t kind of his friend to put Andy on the spot like this. She was half tempted to see if he needed someone to sing with him, and offered a smile of encouragement when he glanced out at the crowd.