I shot him a confused look, but before I had a chance to say anything, he darted across the room, shouting something about peanuts. With nothing better to do, I snatched a shot and drank it down, relishing the burn. With any luck, this night would temporarily kill my desire for Charlie, if only for one night. The last thing I needed was to show up at her apartment drunk.
“So, for our first number, we have a newcomer to the karaoke scene. She’s a bit nervous, but she’s here to win her man back and make him see that she doesn’t want to be without him. So, let’s give a big, warm applause to Charlotte.”
I was about to drink another shot when the name made me pause. I glanced up at the stage and saw none other than Charlie standing up there, looking like she was about to puke.
“What the hell is she doing?” I asked Robert.
“Just watch.”
“Oh God, why the hell is she doing this?”
“I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that it has something to do with winning you back and the fact that you stole her beef tenderloin.”
“Christ. I’ve gotta get her down.”
Robert put his hand on my arm to stop me as the opening strains of If You Leave Me Now by Chicago filled the room.
I dropped my head in my hands and groaned. “No, this is so bad.”
“Dude, this is her grand gesture.”
She started singing and it was…awful. I cringed, especially when she went for the high notes. “Who let her do this?”
“Well, it was a group effort, but she came to us,” he said defensively.
I was surprised they weren’t booing her off the stage.
“She sounds terrible,” I hissed to Robert. “Didn’t you at least practice with her?”
“Oh, this is after practicing several hours a day for the last week.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
He shook his head. “Afraid not. You’re stuck with that voice for the rest of your life.”
I watched her as she struggled up there to sing the song. I wanted to say it was touching that she was singing her heart out to me, but cats crying would have sounded better.
“I don’t get it. Why would she think to do this?”
“Well, Andrew’s big idea was to have a baby.”
“What? How would that solve anything?”
He shot me a bored look. “Look at our family history.”
“Good point. Still, you couldn’t think of anything better for her to do?”
“Well, if you look at it this way, she had to go out of her comfort zone for you, thus proving how much she really wants you back. And, she’s doing it in front of a room full of people.”
“Plus,” Eric cut in, “we had a bet running to see if she would really go through with it.”
I scowled at him.
“Paul’s in the lead, by the way. He was the only one that really thought she would do it.”
“You guys didn’t think she would do it?”
Robert snorted. “Are you kidding? We recorded her so she could hear herself. Trust me, she knows exactly what she sounds like right now.”
I glanced around the room, and though no one was booing her, they were all grimacing at her singing.
“Someone go save her,” I hissed to Robert.
He looked at me funny. “That would be you. You’re supposed to save her. She’s your woman.”
“Oh,” I said, completely forgetting what the whole purpose of this was. I stood, about to make my way to the stage, smiling at her when she hit a high note, trying to cover the grimace on my face.
I was about to head up to the stage when I felt a hand clamp down on my shoulder and push me back down in the seat. I looked up to see Nathan grinning up at the stage.
“I need to go get her down.”
He shook his head. “Trust me, this is for the best. It’ll knock her down a peg or two.”
I jerked out of his grasp and stood. “I don’t want to knock her down a peg or two. I want her to walk out of here with her head held high.”
He grinned at me, like he had been hoping I would say something like that. I shoved past him and stormed up on the stage, yanking the mic out of her hands and pulling her into me. “I love you,” I said, just before I crushed my lips to hers. Her hands wrapped around my neck and she kissed me back just as hard. It was sexy, it was romantic, and it was the worst singing of my life, but I wouldn’t trade what she just did for anything.
The room filled with cheers and when I finally pulled back, she blushed, biting her lip. “I love you too, Will. I’m sorry it took me so long to realize it.”
“Just remember…I could have let you keep singing.”
She burst out laughing and then kissed me again. It was the most indecent kiss of my life, and it was in front of the whole town, but I didn’t care. I had her back, and a gesture like this could only mean one thing. She was mine for good, and I wasn’t letting her go now.
“Alright, alright, lovebirds,” Jake grinned, stepping up on the stage. “Now that that’s over, let’s put on some real music.”
“What?” the crowd shouted. “More karaoke!” They chanted for it, begged for it, and I could tell after Charlie’s performance, he was really hoping the night could be over.
“Alright,” Jake shouted. “On one condition…” He turned to me and grinned, covering the mic. “This is only fair. Your brothers did this, and now you’re going to pay for it. For one night only, the Cortell brothers!”
My face blanched as I looked out at the crowd, particularly my brothers, who all looked to be fleeing the building. Except the crowd stopped them, and started hauling them up to the stage like a mosh pit. Charlie gave me a kiss and then skittered off the stage, leaving me and my brothers up here to face the crowd. I swallowed hard, wondering what the hell we were going to sing.
Turns out, I didn’t have to decide. The Proclaimers came over the speaker. So, we were going old school. Eric and Robert pushed me forward, obviously wanting me to take lead on this.
Charlie
I sat down with the girls and grabbed a shot off the table as Will started to sing. And from the looks of it, he was singing his heart out to me. It was sweet. It was a shame that I didn’t sound as good as he did.
“So, you pulled it off?” Kat shouted over the music.
“It wasn’t exactly my shining moment, but it worked.”
“I think you’re insane,” Carly said, taking her own shot. “Do you realize that he pushed you so far that you went up on stage sounding like a wounded animal? It was awful.”
“It was not awful,” Kat said diplomatically. “It was…soulful.”
“Soulfully depressing,” Anna snorted. “I’ve never heard something that actually made me want to shoot myself.”
“Haha,” I said, laughing along with them. “I know I was bad, but it was worth it to get him back.”
I turned back to the stage and watched as Will started thrusting his hips to the music and the guys sang along in the background. They were actually pretty good.
“They should start their own group.”
“The whole town would come out to see that,” Kat laughed. “Especially Mrs. Cranston.” She took another drink and then waved her hand at me. “Quick! Someone record this for Facebook. We need this for blackmail.”
“It can’t be used as blackmail,” Carly informed her. “They’re doing it in front of the whole town.”
Will motioned for me to come up and I shook my head rapidly, but Kat and Anna thought differently and stared dragging me toward the stage.
“No, I’ve already embarrassed myself enough for one night!”
People started pulling at me, then I was lifted off the ground and hoisted to the stage. Will yanked me toward him as he continued singing, a gorgeous smile on his face. It was hard to be mad about being forced into an embarrassing situation when I had such a handsome man singing to me.
So, when he moved the mic to my lips, I belted out the words with him, not m
issing how people started cringing. But I didn’t care. Will was laughing, and that was all that mattered. And when he got down on his knee and sang to me, it didn’t even faze me. Well, I had a momentary flutter of panic in my chest that had me searching for the nearest exit, but it really only lasted a second. Five seconds tops.
And as the song came to a close, I smiled and kept my mouth shut, letting the crowd off from my terrible singing. They all seemed to appreciate that. The brothers all laughed and slapped each other on the back, and we made our way to the edge of the stage. Will jumped down and held up his hands like he was some kind of rock star. And the women went crazy for it.
Will pulled me off the stage, kissing me hard. Everyone in the bar was cheering again. Was this normal? I decided it didn’t matter and wrapped my arms around him. I had him back. That was all that mattered.
When I pulled back and stared into his eyes, I saw the adoration that I had seen before. I opened my mouth to tell him just how much I loved him when Joe came up, wrapping his arms around both our shoulders.
“Hey! It’s my favorite couple!”
“I thought Eric and Kat were your favorite couple,” Will retorted.
“We’ll call you my flavor of the month.”
I cringed. “Please don’t.”
He tilted his head to the side and thought about it. “You’re right. We’ll stick with my favorite new love mates.”
“That doesn’t sound any better,” I shouted, when the music picked up again.
“Don’t be so salty,” he grinned. “Just go with it. Love is an amazing thing!”
“I’ll remember you said that one day,” Will grinned. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to be alone with Charlie.”
“Ah,” he grinned, pressing his finger down on his nose as he pointed at Will with the other. “I gotcha. You want a little Netflix and chill. I get it. The struggle is real.”
I looked at Will, shaking my head slightly. I had no idea what he was talking about.
“Just go with it, babe,” he grinned at Joe. “Just pretend you understand.”
I smiled and waved at Joe’s retreating form and then looked at the rest of his family. As fun as it was to hang out with all of them, I really just wanted to get Will all to myself. This night had been embarrassing enough. I wasn’t looking forward to sticking around for everyone to gossip about us.
“You ready to get out of here?” he whispered huskily in my ear.
I bit my lip and nodded. I had so many dirty things planned for him. And they all required the two of us to be completely alone. I held his hand as he pulled me through the crowd of people. When we got out to his truck, he practically tossed me inside. The drive to his house was rife with tension. Both of us wanted to strip each other down, but we had a fifteen minute drive to his house.
I wanted to say something, but I was too afraid that anything I said would only mess things up. I had decided going into this that I was all in. Sink or swim. Whatever happened between us, I was willing to go along with it and see where it led. When we pulled into his drive, I tackled him as soon as we hit his lawn.
We collapsed in a tangle of limbs, me on top and grinding against him like I would die without him. My hands had a mind of their own as I reached down and yanked on the zipper on his pants. I heard him groan and I knew he was struggling for control.
“It’s been too long,” I said, kissing him hard. “I’ve missed you so much.”
His hand snaked through my hair, pulling me closer to him. “You have no idea how hard it was to play the long game.”
I jerked back, confusion filling my face. “The long game.”
He grinned at me. “My plan all along, to act like I wasn’t interested to draw you in.”
I smiled back at him, tearing my shirt over my head. “Well, you suck at that.”
“Yeah? What gave me away?”
“When you declared your undying love for me.”
“Hey,” he snapped. “I did not do that. Why does everyone assume I did that?”
I laughed and kissed him hard, then started rocking against him. I could feel his hard cock grinding against me. He sat up and pulled my nipple into his mouth after shoving the cup of my bra out of the way. His hot breath warmed me in the cold. I didn’t feel anything but his mouth.
“Oh God,” I cried out when I was about to come. It was too much. The sensations were insane. I was going to lose it. He pulled me tight against him, yanking me down on his cock. He watched me, his gaze zeroed in on my face as I came hard just rubbing up against him.
We both were panting hard, our breath fogging out around us. I shivered, only then realizing how cold it actually was. I smiled down at him, brushing the hair off his forehead.
“Hey,” he grinned.
“Hey.”
I was about to kiss him when I noticed movement out of the side of my eye. I glanced to my left and froze. Across the lawn, on the other side of the neighboring driveway, there was a family of five standing there. The youngest couldn’t be any older than five. And the oldest was maybe a teenager. Will’s hands tightened around me, pulling me in closer.
“Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Roberts,” Will smiled, waving his hand. “Nice night out, huh?”
They didn’t say anything, just stood there watching us half naked in his grass.
“You know, this isn’t normal,” Will said. “I mean, Charlie is…well, she’s a girl. I’m not gay. Charlie is short for Charlotte.” They still didn’t say anything. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Unless it’s against your religion. But uh…see, this isn’t really what it looks like. Charlie’s not just some random girl. I mean, it started off that way, but then I started stalking her-“
“But in a good way,” I cut in, not wanting them to think that he was insane.
“Right. I mean, until you thought I was a murderer and the cops showed up.”
“Yeah,” I laughed. “See, the cops showed up and we were naked…” I stared at the little kids and cringed. That probably wasn’t a good thing to say to them.
“But there was no chalk outline,” Will cut in. “You know, because she wasn’t dead.”
They continued to stand there and stare at us. It was weird, because they weren’t moving a muscle. Shouldn’t they be running inside right now to hide their children from us?
“I’m moving in with him,” I blurted out without thinking.
“You are?”
“Well, I guess? I mean, that was kind of the point of the whole karaoke night.”
“Yeah?” he grinned.
“Well, I had to show you that I was ready.”
“Fuck yeah,” he shouted, throwing his fist in the air. Then he remembered his neighbors and slowly lowered his hand. “You see, she wasn’t into commitment and I was trying to convince her that we could be together…”
It was clear that they were just going to continue staring at us. “So, in the future, if you meet someone that you fall for, be smart about it and make sure that you really love that person.”
“Yeah, I mean, obviously, you should test the waters first. Don’t just marry the first girl you stick your dick in,” Will said.
“Why do they keep staring at us?” I whispered to Will.
He looked back over there, tilting his head to the side. “I don’t believe it,” he whispered.
“Believe what?”
“They’re fucking lawn ornaments.”
“What?” I jerked back, looking back across the lawn, squinting into the night. “Those aren’t real people?”
He started laughing and flopped back on the grass, laughing up into the night. “I forgot, they do this creepy thing at Christmas. They’re plastic figures of themselves.”
“Are you serious? But it’s not even Christmas.”
“They’re notorious for leaving their decorations up well past Christmas.”
“Psychopaths,” I murmured.
“Babe, we just spilled our guts to plastic decorations.”
/> I stared at him in shock. “I’m not sure what’s more embarrassing, that we were giving kids sex tips, or that we were talking to people that weren’t there.”
He ran his hand across my cheek and through my hair. “Can we make a deal?”
“Yeah.”
“No matter what happens between us, neither of us are ever allowed to tell anyone this story.”
I zipped my lips. “It’s sealed in the vault.”
Will
“Are you sure I should be here? This feels more like something you should do on your own.”
Charlie glanced over at me with a raised eyebrow. “How would I introduce you to my ex-husband and tell him you’re going to be part of Oliver’s life if you’re not actually there?”
I squirmed in my seat. This all felt weird. It was like an interview or something. “Well, what if he doesn’t like me?”
“Who cares? I haven’t met his fiancé.”
“Well, that’s not fair. If you haven’t met her, then why do I have to meet him?”
“Because I’m doing this for Oliver. I want him to feel comfortable staying at your house and I need his father to be comfortable with that also.”
I blew out a breath, not sure this was the way to go. “Are you sure you want to move in? I mean, we could take some time to think this over. You could maybe freak out again and then I could come steal a beef tenderloin. We could do that a few times just to be sure this is the way to go.”
She smiled at me, a bright smile that had me melting. She was so damn perfect. “Are you freaking out about our relationship? Because I thought that was my job.”
“Oh, it’s definitely your job, but it’s my job to freak out about meeting the ex and basically having a stepson in just a matter of days.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that. He’s not your stepson unless we get married.”
I laughed nervously. “Thank God you don’t believe in marriage, am I right?” I grinned.
But she just sat there, looking content with all this. When did she become so calm and I started freaking out?
“I’m not saying that we should get married. I think we need to be together longer before we jump the gun. But it’s something we should think about. If there’s anything I’ve learned from you, it’s that I need to really consider what I want in this relationship.”
Textbook Approach: A Small Town Romance Page 27