Page 80 of Back in the Saddle

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, pushingaway the tears that threatened to spill over. ‘Thank you for telling me all this, Mitch.’

‘I’m not sure I should’ve, but here we are. Make of it what you want.’ He shrugged and they joined the queue for the food truck.

‘Finally! I was starting to think you drove all the way to the city for these.’ Megan grabbed the small tray with three tacos from Mitch’s hands and took a large bite.

Hunter raised his eyebrow at his sister. ‘Hungry?’

‘Well, they’ve been gone for ages.’ She ate her first taco in three chews and had started on the second one before Caroline and Mitch had a chance to properly sit back down.

Caroline passed Hunter a tray with mixed tacos and set another one in front of herself.

He searched her face for a second as if trying to see any imprint of her and Mitch’s conversation. ‘You have been gone for a while. Was the queue that long?’

‘Oh, come on, Hunt. The queue was a bit long, but we also just chatted for a while. Getting to know each other and that. This was the whole point of tonight, right?’ Mitch said in a cheerful tone that Caroline hadn’t heard before. He looked a lot more relaxed now, his initial icy demeanour gone.

Before Hunter could respond, a redhead middle-aged woman walked up to the stage and announced through the microphone, ‘Howdy Purcell! Hope you’re having a good time this Friday night?’

A few murmurs of agreement and some whistling followed.

She beamed and continued, ‘Good, the night’s just starting! We’re officially opening our karaoke – who is brave enough to go first?’

More whistling and laughter, and a confident hand shot up in the air from a guy sitting at the bar. ‘Awesome, let’s give a round of applause to Trent Gorey!’

Caroline leaned over to speak into Hunter’s ear over the noise of the commotion that accompanied Trent’s walk to the stage. ‘How does she know his name?’

Hunter wiped his mouth with a napkin, swallowing the last of his food. ‘Everyone knows everyone around here. Trent went to school with my brother, Buck. He often volunteers to go first at karaoke nights.’ He looked at Trent, who chose a song that was met with a loud round of applause from the crowd. ‘Sadly, he doesn’t have the greatest voice, but you can’t fault his enthusiasm.’

He was right, too. Trent was singing one of the classics – ‘Austin’ – which was the song that had introduced Caroline to the world of country music.

She winced when he missed note after note in the chorus.

After Trent, there were two women who looked to be in their late thirties. They sang a duet and received a warm round of applause, which was a step up from the polite response to Trent’s performance.

Starting to enjoy the music and cold beer, Caroline felt the tension leaving her body. She still didn’t understand why Hunter had lied to her. She knew she couldn’t be upset, not really, but it was hard to rein in her feelings. Whatever they were, tonight wasn’t the time to get into this with him.

She swapped seats with Hunter so she could speak with Megan, who seemed like she wanted to absorb everything Caroline had to say like a sponge. They mostly talked about medicine and Caroline’s job.

About five more karaoke performances later, the emcee made another announcement. ‘I can see that our karaokefavourite is here tonight. Hunter Jackson, would you come up and sing something for us?’ Her eyes and those of a dozen others among the audience landed on Hunter, who blushed under the brim of his hat.

He shook his head. Mitch elbowed him in the ribs and said something that Caroline couldn’t hear. He shook his head again.

‘Come on, Hunter. One song?’ Mitch teased.

It didn’t take long for the whole bar to start chanting ‘One song!’ and clapping their hands.

Finally, Hunter raised his hand in capitulation and downed his lemonade.

Caroline raised her eyebrow, amused. She moved her chair closer to him. ‘I didn’t know you could sing.’

He just blushed a deeper shade of pink.

‘No? He’s actually quite good,’ Megan said with a hint of pride. ‘We used to come here every Friday before I started college and, well, the regulars got used to hearing a song or two from him.’

‘Don’t exaggerate, Meg.’ Hunter stood up and sighed. ‘Guess I don’t have much choice.’

His walk to the stage was accompanied by loud applause.

He pulled up the microphone stand to match his height and looked across the room. ‘You got your wish, here I am. Any song requests?’