Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77611 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77611 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Bellamy requests another Joel hit, “You May Be Right,” and whips a laughing Seamus around on the dance floor before pulling him close and playfully grabbing his ass. They’re joined by Owen Finn and his husband Jeremy, Senator Stephen and his wife Natasha, and Shawn and Ellen’s only daughter Jennifer, who is splitting her time between her two very attentive partners.
After several requests, including one from Jake and another from the actual band—who’d been practicing all day yesterday without me—I sing “Pink Pony Club” and nearly bring the lodge down. Every woman in the family gets on the dance floor for that one, including the teenage Penny and my gang’s favorite ex-bartender Fiona, who is definitely pregnant again, both trying to mimic my dance moves while giggling together like best friends.
There’s so much love in the room, it’s choking me.
I haven’t seen Michael for hours, though his dessert towers were set up at the table and promptly dismantled in less than fifteen minutes after the special couple got their sample. The Finns are a shameless and ravenous horde and I hope someone saved a few for me.
I’m never left alone. Whenever the band takes a break, Bex, Val and Connor are right there, making sure I’ve eaten, handing me water and praising my performance while still teasing me mercilessly. I couldn’t have gotten through this day without them.
“You’re so good at this, you could have been a wedding singer,” Bex says with a playful grin. “Instead, you tossed it all away to teach history.”
“Clearly, I’ve wasted my life.” I watch the crowd mill around in groups, talking and hugging and chasing after the younger children. I see the bearded man I once thought Michael might be dating standing with a few of his brothers. He’s holding someone’s baby in his arms while a redheaded boy that could be in my class in a few years leans against him, obviously tired. James. That’s the man’s name. He looks a little like Brady. Better than I would have expected after the stories I’d heard.
“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 my pants. 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.”