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Stan waved his hand and picked up his beer, plunking down on his stool to a number of shoulder claps.
“Now, I know y’all get to hear these lovely ladies sing all the time, but up next we have the Blum sisters, singing a little ditty about love—and why not, since two outta three got snapped up by somebody who wasn’t as lazy as the rest of you. Here’s ‘Sincerely’ by the McGuire Sisters. Cheer ‘em on up here, won’t you?”
Daisy stretched to kiss my cheek, and Jo took her hand. Poppy rolled her eyes and shoved her cousin Presley.
“You go. I’m the odd man out,” she said.
“Poppy, I don’t even know this song all that well. We’ve only done it a couple of—”
“Oh, just go. Sing it to Sebastian. He wants to hear it, don’t you?”
Wisely, Sebastian put up his hands. “Oh, no. I’m not getting in the middle of that.”
Poppy put both hands behind Presley and walked her toward the stage until the three filed up, leaving Poppy in the crowd. I didn’t miss her exit—she wound her way toward the bar where I figured she’d ordered a double of something flammable.
And so, Sebastian, Grant, and I stood in front of our bar tables while a substantial percentage of the town watched on with googly eyes. The swingy, slow song that was probably played in a thousand proms in the fifties began, and they slid into a perfect three-part harmony, smiling at the trio of schmucks that consisted of their boyfriends. I liked to think I didn’t possess eyes that googled, but as Daisy sang to me, begging me to be hers, letting me know she’d do anything for me and she’d never, never, never let me go, my eyes googled real hard. Mighta had little pink hearts floating out of them and everything.
My was too big for my chest, stretching my ribs to the point of sweet, sweet pain. I’d never felt such a feeling from something that made me so happy. And I’d never known that I would crave that ache all day, every day, even when she was in my arms. Not ever, not in my whole life.
I’d considered it often enough lately, about why I never felt this way about Mandy. When we first started dating, this sort of feeling was all wrapped up in the physical, too entwined to untangle. After that, we were a fact, a certainty. A sure thing. My whole life felt like a sure thing, one I’d imagined and expected to turn out just like I planned.
Maybe that was the heart of it. Now I knew what I had to lose. Now I knew what it meant to be alone, truly alone. And I knew what it felt like to find deliverance, thanks to her.
When the song finished, the crowd erupted in praise, but before Jo could hang up the mic they’d been circled around, somebody started chanting for an encore. Tilly blocked their exit, and after a side conversation, she snuck off to a laptop just off stage where she started another song by a different set of sisters from the same era. With everyone’s eyes off us, we relaxed just a little.
I took a long pull of my beer, sidled up next to Sebastian, Presley’s boyfriend. Grant was on the other side of him, a crooked smile on his face and eyes soft as he watched and listened. Jo hadn’t broken eye contact with him yet. I wondered which blinked first and huffed a little chuckle.
When Sebastian elbowed me, I frowned. When I saw the direction he was looking and the grave expression on his face, I steeled myself and took a look of my own.
Marnie Mitchell had just walked in with a friend of hers from high school.
Mandy’s little sister had been difficult from the day she was born, so her family said. She came into this world screaming and pushed those lungs to their limit until she was in elementary school. When she mellowed, it was only by a degree, aligning herself with the bullies and mean girls, running her social circle with an iron fist. She’d dated Sebastian off and on through high school, and when his mother’s cancer returned, Marnie had been his life jacket. He’d made the mistake of marrying her, but it didn’t last. None of us were surprised, with the exception of Mitchell, who had adopted the two of us like the sons he never had. As such, Sebastian and I had suffered enough family functions and interventions to forge a steel bond, regardless of time or distance.
“Didn’t know she was back in town,” I said.
“Me neither.” Sebastian’s voice was filled more with concern than anything. His eyes cut to Presley, who then followed his previous gaze. She tightened, her brows drawing together just a little.
