Page 36 of Best Summer Ever

The bar was completely silent when they finished, aside from a few sniffs and Josh looked around, a frown forming.

‘We thought—’ he started to say, but was instantly drowned out by a sudden cacophony of clapping and foot stomping.

‘Again!’ someone shouted.

‘Play it again!’ someone else joined in and within seconds, everyone was demanding an encore.

I did cry then. I couldn’t stop the tears flowing as Josh grinned and George doffed his trademark hat. Throughout the second rendition everyone joined in, swaying if they were seated, dancing if they were on their feet and we all sang along. The third and final time, Josh barely took his eyes off me and I knew I’d never wanted to be with someone more.

‘Oh my god,’ cried Pen, once she’d made her way to me, her mascara as smudged as mine when Josh and George were finally able to leave the stage. ‘Did he know that was your favourite song?’

‘No,’ I said, trying to sound more together than I felt. ‘We’ve never talked about music. We’ve hardly talked about anything at all, really.’

‘It’s fate,’ she insisted, taking my hands and holding them in hers. ‘That’s what this is. You two are destined to be together.’

‘I don’t know about that,’ I laughed, though I was actually inclined to hope she was right, even if only in the short term, ‘but I do know that if I don’t start pulling pints soon, we’ll be stuck in here all night.’

I made my way to the bar and served as many of the extremely happy crowd as I could. I’d lost sight of Josh, but I could see George’s hat bobbing about and everyone wanted to buy the pair of them a drink.

‘That,’ I said to George, a while later, after he’d finally soaked up all the praise and reached the bar himself, ‘was phenomenal.’

‘It did go down rather well, didn’t it?’ he agreed. ‘Josh has the most amazing voice.’

‘He certainly does,’ I sighed dreamily, thinking I could have listened to him all evening. ‘Where is he?’

‘Outside cooling off.’ George grinned. ‘He made some excuse about ducking out to take his guitar back to the cottage. I think everyone’s reaction rather took him by surprise.’

‘I wouldn’t mind booking the pair of you as a main act at some point in the future,’ said Sam, who had come over to join us.

‘In that case,’ George laughed as Josh walked back in looking flushed, ‘we’d better add a few more songs to our setlist.’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Sam, ‘I reckon you could have played that one a dozen times over and everyone would have still wanted to hear it again.’

‘What did you think of it, Daisy?’ Josh asked, fixing me again with his beguiling eyes. ‘Did you like it?’

‘I loved it,’ I gulped, looking right back at him. With me behind the bar and him in front of it, we were face to face and I had to resist the urge to pull him across it and kiss the lips off him. ‘I’ve always loved it and you played it so beautifully, every time.’

He looked choked when I said that and I couldn’t believe he had no idea how talented he was.

‘I told you,’ said George, giving him a wink. ‘And now Sam wants to book us properly.’

Josh looked astounded.

‘You do?’ he croaked.

‘Absolutely,’ said Sam. ‘The pair of you will pack this place out.’

‘What do you say?’ George asked Josh.

‘I don’t know,’ he said hesitantly. ‘I need to think about it.’

As far as I was concerned there was nothing to think about, but he obviously had his reasons and I didn’t want to pry. Well, I did, but not in front of everyone else.

‘Crikey,’ said Sam, ‘look at the time. You’d better head home, Daisy.’

‘I don’t mind helping you clear up,’ I offered.

‘No,’ he insisted, ‘it’s fine. You get off.’

---