Page 21 of Can't Fight the Moonlight

"We're not having Chelsea sing," Keira said, with a shake of her head. "She's too good for karaoke. She'll make the rest of us look terrible."

"None of you are terrible," Chelsea put in with a laugh. "But I am resting my voice tonight. I'm going to start recording tomorrow."

"That's exciting," Lizzie said. "Is the studio completely finished then?"

"It's close enough for me to start laying some tracks. And Brodie will be happy to have me do something besides talk about the wedding. I never thought I'd be one of those brides, but it turns out, I might be."

"Not at all," Brodie said, his arm around his fiancée's shoulders, his fingers gently stroking her neck. "You're nowhere close to a bridezilla, babe."

"I've been a little obsessed. Now I can see why you and Zach eloped," Chelsea added, giving Gianna a pointed smile.

Gianna shrugged. "I'd already planned a few weddings that didn't happen; I didn't want to go through all that again. Zach and I got married on New Year's Eve," she added for Justin's benefit. "We had a babysitter for his daughter, Hailey, so it seemed like the perfect time to do it. Lizzie threw us a reception at the inn a few weeks later."

"Which was amazing," Zach said. "You are the party queen, Lizzie."

"I like being the queen of anything," she said with a laugh.

"I think we need another round," Kevin said, getting to his feet. "Who's in?"

"We should probably get going," his wife Chloe put in. "Leo has a cold, and I don't want to stay out too long."

"Leo is fine," Kevin told his wife. "And he's with his grandparents. How often do we get a night out? I'm going to order another round for the table." He headed for the bar.

Justin couldn't help noticing the irritated expression that moved across Chloe's face. Adam also gave her a concerned look.

"Everything okay?" Adam asked.

"It's fine," Chloe said quickly, masking her disappointment. "Kevin is right. We haven't had much fun lately."

"Then let's get this party started with some karaoke," Keira said, a forceful note in her voice.

Justin had a feeling that when Keira went after something, she got it. She was definitely the most hard-edged of this group. Chloe seemed softer, quieter, more of a follower than a leader. Chelsea had a free-spirited, bohemian vibe. He hadn't quite figured out Gianna yet, although her comment about having planned three weddings intrigued him.

Shay had mentioned that Adam was the complete opposite of his sister Lizzie, and on first impression, he definitely appeared to be the night to her day. He had an intense, more serious vibe to him. He also appeared to be opposite to Brodie, who couldn't seem to stop smiling. Although that might have something to do with the beautiful Chelsea. And then there was Zach, who appeared to be as entranced with his phone as Justin normally was. He couldn't help noticing that Zach kept checking his texts.

"Let's not be first up," Lizzie said. "Let's see how good the talent is tonight."

"Are you kidding?" Keira asked. "It's way better to be first. The bar has not been set yet. Plus, I don't want you guys to back out if someone great hits the stage before us."

"Don't waste your breath arguing, Lizzie," Gianna interjected. "If Keira wants us to sing, we will sing."

Keira gave a careless shrug. "You guys always complain and everyone always has a good time in the end."

"All right, all right," Lizzie said, getting to her feet. "Come on, Gianna, Chloe. Let's do this."

"Not me," Chloe said. "I want to call home and check on Leo." She pulled out her phone, got up from the table and headed to the door, leaving a somewhat tense silence behind her.

"What is going on with them?" Lizzie muttered.

"Kevin is being an ass," Adam said tersely. "In case you haven't noticed."

"He's just finding his way back into the group," Lizzie said.

Adam gave his sister a disbelieving look. "You always look for the positive spin, but in this case, there might not be one."

"I hope that's not true. They have a baby to raise together."

Adam got up from his seat. "I'll be back."

---