Page 73 of Flirting with the Rock Star Next Door
“So, Eric’s in a great mood today?” Mir said, glancing toward the singer.
“Yeah.” Bob grunted. “His team is playing, and this is his good-luck song. He said they win every time he sings it.” He looked at the stage ruminatively. “Practice ain’t made him any better, though.”
“It’s an improvement from what I remember,” Mir said, then went to get a table as its occupants left.
“There’s no waiting list or anything?” I asked.
“Nope. First grabbed, first served,” Killian said, leading me over.
Eric struck a triumphant pose, one fist in the air, as he sang the last note. “To victory!”
Everyone clapped as we sat down. A waitress came by and cleared the table. “Hey, guys. Want something to drink?” she asked.
“Hop Hop Hooray raspberry, if you have it,” I said.
“Two,” Killian said.
“Three. And Sue, you know I want one of each appetizer.”
“Smart,” Sue said with a grin. “You always know how to have fun, Mir.”
Mir laughed. “What’s life without fun?”
After Sue left, I turned to Mir. “You know everybody.”
“Kingstree’s a small town. Killian knows everyone, too.” That made me pause for a second, but it made sense. He’d said he grew up here, and when he heard my characters’ names, he’d made connections to actual people in town.
I saw Sunny get on stage and grab the mike, which was a little weird. The supermarket owner always seemed so proper. On the other hand, I guessed this was how she had fun and blew off steam.
“You know, it’s downright unfair of me to sing when we have our own homegrown rock star here. I didn’t know he’d be out on the town tonight,” Sunny said with a small laugh.
I gave her a look of sympathy even though she probably didn’t see it from the stage. I imagined that vocals were touched up in the studio to make them sound better than in real life. But if Killian sang live even half as well as his recordings, it was going to be a tough comparison for Sunny.
“Nobody cares. It’s not an audition,” somebody called out.
“Then why don’t you come up here with me, Calvin?” Sunny said.
“You know I flunked music.”
“Flunked? You didn’t even take the class!”
“What were you gonna sing?” Mir called out.
“‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’”
“Two Queen songs back to back?” Mir said.
“I sing better than Eric,” Sunny said with a wink. “But I don’t sing better than Killian.”
“Let’s get our rock star up on stage.”
As though in agreement, the people started to chant Killian’s name. I clapped to the beat of their chant, smiling at the crowd’s eager reaction. It was inevitable they wanted him on the stage. What was that 911 dispatcher had said? Right. Free concert. And given how small the town was, they didn’t often have a big star show for a concert, free or otherwise.
Killian took a sip of his water. “You wanna go up there with me?” he asked me.
“Ha! And embarrass myself? I don’t know this song well enough to sing. Besides, I don’t do music, remember?”
He pursed his lips. Before he could find a way to drag me up there with him anyway, I quickly added, “But I won’t mind it if you go up there and wow me.”
