Page 44 of Hound Dog
Addy slapped her palm to the table, rattling all the empties that had accumulated over the last forty-five minutes. “Well, let’s hear it!”
“No…”
“Yes.” She was already pulling me to my feet, and I clutched my almost empty dirty vodka martini. “Come on. If you’re nervous, Finn will sing with you.”
“Like hell he will,” Finn said.
“Come on!” Addy whined, stomping her foot. “You’regood.” She spun back around to me. “Did he tell you about how he used to sing in the church choir? Mom roped him into it, and they always had him sing the solos.”
Well… that was a surprise. I lifted my brows and looked him up and down. “Yousing?”
He rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to ask it like that. I mean, I didn’t go to a conservatory or anything, but I know my way around a littleJesus Loves Me…”
Addy groaned. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,pleasedon’t sing a hymn in my bar.”
Enzo hopped up from where she was sitting and swayed momentarily. I caught her elbow just in time as she tipped her wine glass back and polished it off. “I’ve got just the song for them.”
Them? Absolutely not.“No…” I started to say.
“Seriously, my answer is no—” Finn tried to interject, but the girls weren’t having it.
While Enzo ran to the DJ, Addy herded us toward the stage. As the current singer finished her song, she whispered, “Please, you guys. Having a couple good singers sing a song will pick up the vibe here. It’ll help me out.”
Finn met my gaze and held it as I gave him a small shrug.Why not?It was just one song.
“Fine,” Finn said, rolling his eyes. Then, he booped his sister on the nose with his index finger. “But you owe me, Shortcake.”
Her glower narrowed. “Don’t call me that.”
“Pretty sure I can call you that all night afterthisfavor.”
The previous singer hit her note, and it wavered almost as much as Enzo did as she stumbled back our way, giving us a thumbs up.
“Okay, you two,” Addy said, giving us a shove up the steps of the stage. “Get on up there!”
The DJ brought over a second microphone, handing it to Finn with a besmirching grin. “Sorry, dude.”
“Sure you are, Tim,” Finn muttered.
“What are they having us sing?” I whispered.
I hated not knowing. I hated not being prepared. It was actually awful being a bona fide singer at karaoke. People expected you to sound good, but the truth was, very few people did.
Even good singers don’t sound good at karaoke. You can barely hear the track. A lot of times you don’t know the song well. You haven’t practiced. There was a reason why singers rehearsed their music before going in front of a crowd.
“Who knows,” Finn muttered through the side of his mouth. “They’re trying to embarrass me, so it could be anything from a Disney song to Queen.”
“Yeah, but they likeme, right? They wouldn’t embarrass me.”
“Don’t be so sure. You’re collateral damage at this point.”
Just then, the intro played, and Finn groaned. “It’s worse than I thought.”
The song title popped onto the screen in all caps: “DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART.”
“What? You don’t like Elton John?”
He sighed and dropped his head. “No, he’s awesome. But they’re going to expect me to do the accent.”
