Page 3 of The Weekend Getaway

“How do you feel about being my partner in crime this evening?”

Puzzled, he glanced around for Keira. “What’s the crime?”

“I think Keira should do karaoke since it’s her birthday.” Mel held out a slip of paper. “I already filled it out. You just need to hand it in. Keira will be back from the bathroom any second, so she’ll catch me if I go.”

“Is she going to be happy about singing? I’ve never seen her get up on stage before.”

“She’ll hate it! But it’ll be funny. Go on, quick! She’s coming back.”

Turning, he caught Keira’s eye and didn’t manage to shift from the spot.

“Are we getting table service because it’s my birthday?” she asked, then glanced at the empty glasses on the table. “Maybe I should call it a night and avoid being hungover for work tomorrow.”

“I was just going to get you another cocktail.” He tucked the slip of paper into his pocket. “Stay for one more at least.”

She squeezed past him and into her seat. “I suppose we could stay for one more, but when my head’s pounding at work tomorrow I’m going to blame you.”

He flashed her a smile, then went to get the drinks. Mel glared at him when he returned.

“What do you think of Elvis?” Keira asked, nodding towards the stage. “I give him a four.”

“Five because of the costume,” Noah replied.

She shook her head. “I knocked a pointoffbecause of the costume. It’s weird that he comes dressed as Elvis every week. Also, that’s the third time he’s sung tonight. Is he friends with the DJ or what?”

“Can you tell the DJ we’d like to see more variety?” Mel said, giving him a pointed look. “Tell him you’ve been receiving complaints about Elvis.”

His lips twitched to a smile. “I can mention it to him.”

“Please do!”

Amused, he left them and went over to Duncan, who was in charge of karaoke. As he handed him the slip of paper with the song request, he mentioned it was his friend’s birthday and asked him to jump the queue with it.

A couple of songs later, Duncan asked for the birthday girl to come to the stage. From behind the bar, Noah looked over at Keira, who was clearly having harsh words with Mel. Then her steely gaze whipped to him and she mouthed that she was going to kill him. In response he held his hands up, feigning innocence.

As Duncan called out to her again, Keira begrudgingly made her way up to the stage. When she shyly sung the first lines of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, Noah couldn’t keep the smile from his face. After hurriedly serving a young guy at the bar he went over to Mel, slipping into Keira’s unoccupied seat to watch her on stage. She’d loosened up a bit and seemed to be enjoying herself, even if she was giving everyone earache.

“God, she’s terrible,” he muttered, unable to take his eyes off her or remove the smile from his face.

“She’s even worse than Elvis,” Mel replied. “And I wasn’t sure that was possible.”

The song came to an end and they applauded loudly.

“I’m going to kill you both,” Keira hissed, pulling Noah out of her seat when she arrived back at the table. “That was so embarrassing.”

“I’d give you a four and a half,” Noah said cheekily.

She cocked her head to one side. “You realise we score out of ten and not five?”

“Yeah. I realise that.”

“Well then you’re very mean. And I think it’s rude of you to judge me when I was brave enough to get up there.”

He stifled a laugh. “I thought people who get up to sing are asking to be judged.”

“Shut up!” She smiled widely and took a swig of her drink.

“I’d give you a five,” Mel said. “But you get extra points for being pretty. I’m surprised Noah didn’t give you points for that too.” She wiggled her eyebrows at Noah and he took a step backwards, thinking it was probably a good time to get back to work. “Wait. I have a question,” Mel called after him, stopping him in his tracks.