Page 67 of For the Win
“I have missed singing,” I find myself telling them. “And performing. I’ve been thinking I might need to do something about that. Maybe I can put a school band together or something.”
“Mighty Win, the sequel?” Connor asks before nodding enthusiastically at the idea. “My assistant coach actually plays a mean bass guitar. And the band director plays the keyboard and drums. He was in a blues band until last year.”
“How do you know that when I don’t?” I ask in disbelief.
“I’m easygoing Coach Lafferty.” He smiles and shrugs. “People tell me things.”
“I think you should do it,” Val adds his two cents, more relaxed than I’ve seen him in a while, in spite of the fact that Kate Finn is on the other side of the large room.
“Maybe I will.”
“Does that mean you’re coming back after your break?”
I hesitate, because I’m not sure yet, and I don’t want to lie to Connor.
“He’s still got six months left,” Bex says protectively. “There’s no hurry.”
My roommate puts his arm around my shoulders. “You’re right. Forget I asked.”
I blink in surprise. Is he actually mellowing about my decision? Or is this Veronica’s influence already at work? “Where’s your date?”
“Working. She gets a break in five minutes or so, though, so sing something romantic. I want to ask her to dance.”
“Are you sure?” Val asks dubiously, making me laugh.
“Don’t worry. Conman has the slow dance down. I taught it to him myself. It’s his white-man boogie that could still use a little work.”
The guitar player heads back up to the stage as our break ends, and that’s when I see him. Michael. He’s talking by the door with Bellamy and Ken and looking directly at me. From this distance I can’t tell what he’s thinking.
“The band break is going to be extended for another minute or two,” Seamus says into the microphone, an apologetic smile on his face. “I’m not doing another toast, I swear.”
“Good. You’ve made us cry enough for one evening,” Kate calls out, and I can’t help but agree with her. Seamus Finn is the king of heartwarming speeches.
Connor leans down to whisper in my ear, “Your guy is glaring at me. Did you tell him I didn’t mean the Liam Neeson thing?”
“I told him you hit me.”
“You told him that?” he asks loudly, his eyes wide. “I was six, man. And you were gluing glitter to everything back then. It got in mypants. Not on my pants.In them.”
Someone at a nearby table bursts out laughing, and it starts a chain reaction as I grin up at him. “We’re always going to remember this moment, Connor. The moment when you were at a Finn anniversary party, talking about your glitter penis.”
“Okay, I can tell everybody is having a good time,” Seamus interrupts the new wave of laughter, “and that’s what this weekend was supposed to be about right? Before we all got snowed in together? It’s fitting in a way. In any long-term relationship, after you fall together, you stay together. No matter what kind of obstacles other people—or Mother Nature—put in front of you.”
“Hear, hear!” Shawn Finn raises his pint and kisses his tired but joyful wife on her cheek.
“I thought you weren’t doing any more toasts, damn it,” someone—it sounds like Natasha Finn—shouts.
Seamus grins. “That wasn’t a toast. I’m just up here to introduce someone else who’d like to say a few words.”
Val stills beside me and I place an excited hand on his arm. We both know what’s about to happen now.
“Now he’s glaring at Val,” Connor mutters under his breath.
“Most of us met Ken a little over seven years ago. My brother Stephen’s wife, of course, has known him a lot longer. In fact, she was the one who introduced Brady to Ken for the first time, under circumstances we’ve all agreed to never mention again in mixed company.”
“You all signed paperwork,” Stephen reminds them lazily.
Connor gives me a wide-eyed look and I shrug, unwilling to spoil the surprise for him.
