Page 36 of Secret Pucking Unicorn

“Five!” Now it’s Mallory waving my paddle.

“Ten!” Spot again.

Kendall gets a steely glint in her eyes. Oh, no.

“Fifteen.” Kendall’s bid causes gasps to go around the room.

Spot starts to raise her paddle, but a lady at her table grabs her arm as another yells in a thick North Jersey accent, “Give it up, Diane. You’re making a fool of yourself.”

Yeah, Diane, listen to your friends.

Teagan speeds through the closing spiel and slams her gavel. “Sold to paddle eighty.”

The smile Declan gives me causes my heart to race and my face to flush. He stalks to me like the wolf he has inside him, and even though I am his prey, I am more than willing to be caught.

“Thank you,” Dec says when reaches our table. He’s speaking to everyone, but he is focused on me.

Declan grabs my hand. “The clock is ticking. Wanna do karaoke?”

“Yeah, sure.” Honestly, I will do anything, anything, he wants. Karaoke is our thing. We always did it when I visited him at Cornell. Music is something else bonding us.

Hand in hand, we weave through the crowd.

Carter yells, “When you’re done, you owe me a dance.”

I wave with my free hand to acknowledge him.

The karaoke is in a lounge area as far away as possible from the band to enable the singers to be heard.

We look to see if our song is available and, when it is, add our name to the list. There is one singer in front of us and we listen to their version of “Toxic” by Britney Spears. They are having fun and that’s what matters.

I’ve never sung in front of people I know. Why did I think this was a good idea? Oh, yeah, Declan is holding my hand. As long as he does that, I will try anything. We applaud the singer before us and climb the stage. With our connection severed, the nerves claw at me again.

“Hey,” he says, looking at me with concern. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. You never have to do anything you don’t want to. I thought it would be fun.”

He takes my hand again, and the butterflies flitter away.

“I’m okay,” I say.

But when I face our audience and see Daphne, Mallory, and Kendall, along with their guys, smiling back at us, the butterflies return in force.

“Miranda, look at me. We’ve done this dozens of times. Doesn’t matter who is out there, we are singing to each other. Okay?”

I nod, and Dec gives the thumbs up to start our track and the opening chords of “500 Miles” come out of the speaker. We almost always choose songs by Irish or Scottish artists and this fun song by The Proclaimers is a favorite of ours. We’ve worked out a duet version, and it usually gets the crowd clapping and singing along. This time is no different and by the time the song is over, a huge smile has spread across my face and I’m laughing with Dec. He gives me a big hug and spins me in a circle as our friends clap and cheer. When he puts me down, we turn and bow to the crowd—it’s bigger than when we started singing—and leave the stage.

“You’ve sung together before,” Kennie says, as she gives me a hug.

I get hugs from Mallory and Daphne while the guys do high fives and bro hugs with Dec.

Carter gives me a long hug. When he turns me loose, he holds me at arms’ length, and I swear his eyes look misty.

“You never sang with me. All those parties and karaoke nights at cheer comps, you never sang a note. Why?”

Oh no. His feelings are hurt, and a pouting Trevor Carter is a Carter needing to be placated. I think it’s from being the youngest child. Dec’s youngest brother, Seamus, is the same way.

“I dance with you, Trev. I was going to go on a TV dance show with you. Dancing is our thing.” Please, let Dec keep his mouth shut about all the times we’ve danced together. He must have seen my desperation because, other than raising his eyebrows, he doesn’t react. Bless him.

“Can we dance together tonight? It’s been years since we’ve danced together.”

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