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“Was he now? Shame you didn’t wait for us. He never tells it properly.”
“Hey—”
Mikayla held her hand up against William’s laughingly indignant interruption. “You always leave out the bit where, at the height of labor, with the head almost crowning, your best advice was…?”
William cleared his throat. “I told her to look at the moon.”
Everyone laughed at William’s sheepish look. Juniper leaned over and kissed his cheek. “You were trying your best, honey.”
Ryan leaned back in his chair, playing idly with Georgie’s hair and drinking his beer. The conversation swirled around him and he enjoyed every moment of it. The humorous teasing, the gentle affection, the ribald commentary. It was a very connected group Georgie had found for herself here. It was obvious that they’d pulled her straight into it and himself right behind her.
The party got steadily livelier and louder as the night wore on. Then Mikayla asked Callum to get his guitar from his truck. Once he was back, seated next to Ryan, Mikayla said, “PlayA Song for Leah.”
“Oh, no, don’t do that. It’ll make me cry,” Leah objected.
“But it’s so sweet.”
“I know! But I’m gonna blubber and I don’t want to on your hen’s night.” She turned to Georgie. “What song was he singing when we walked into the pub?”
“Hmm,” Georgie tapped her forefinger against her lips. “Be My Girl…maybe?”
“Yeah, that’ll do.”
The other people in the pub gathered around when Callum strummed the first chords of the song. It was upbeat and loud. When he’d finished, everyone cheered and clapped.
“Know any Irish ones?” Mikayla asked.
“Maybe one from the Cranberries, if I google how it goes.” Callum quickly looked up the music on his phone.
“Not going with U2?” Ryan asked.
“Nah,” Callum replied, flicking Ryan a derisive smile.
“I love the Cranberries,” Georgie said.
“I’ve got it.Ode To My Family.But you all have to sing it too, it’s not the right key for me.”
Ryan heard Georgie humming the opening bars as Callum started playing. She sang the first line with perfect pitch, putting the right twang on the words. It was soft and breathy and lovely.
“Jesus, Georgie May can sing.”
“She can,” Leah agreed.
“Join me,” Georgie said to Leah.
“Ah, no, you’ve got this. I’ll ruin it. Off you go.”
Callum smiled at Georgie in encouragement, joining his voice to hers for the chorus. Ryan was awe struck as the song played out and was sure that Georgie barely noticed that the pub had fallen quiet to listen to her. When the song finished, everyone clapped again. Georgie smiled self-consciously.
“Okay, that was lovely. Thank you, Callum and Georgie.”
“Pull the stick out of your ass,” Callum said to Mikayla, making her laugh.
“Ryan, got any dirty ditties?”
“Is the pope a catholic? Of course I’ve got dirty ditties.”
“Excellent.” Mikayla rubbed her hands together. “Let’s go.”
