Unlucky in Love (14 page)

“No way. I'm not asking Gunnar to do a duet.” Lexi shook her head, then had to blink hard to bring Hayley and Jess back into focus. “And also? Time to ixnay the ots-shay.”

“Come on—go ask him.” Hayley elbowed her, grinning.

“I'm not a sing—” Her foggy brain stopped her. Wait. She mentally scanned Katie's list—the list she actually hadn't thought about in days. Oh, right. Guitar named Dahlia, clubs on weekends, yadda yadda. But she hadn't actually
admitted
to singing, had she? “I don't really do—you know—
this
type of singing.”

“
Everybody
does karaoke if they've had enough to drink,” Hayley argued. “Am I right, Jess?”

Jess smiled. “And if they have Hayley at the table.”

“Fine.” Hayley frowned. “If you won't ask Gunnar, then I think the three of us should go up there and do a song.”

“Hey, Lexi?” Jess leaned closer to Lexi. “In case you haven't noticed, Hayley loses about three years with every shot she does. You're looking at college sophomore Hayley right now.”

“Very funny.” Hayley narrowed her eyes. “And just so you know, college sophomore Hayley already put us on the list, so there.”

“What?” Jess and Lexi chorused in stereo.

“You like Beyoncé, right?”

Lexi shook her head. “No way. Beyoncé is ridiculous. We can't sing like her.”

“We can try.” Hayley swept her hand out sideways. “And really? Does it look to you like anyone's expecting Grammy-quality vocals in here?”

“No.” Lexi laughed, thinking about how hard it had been not to put her hands to her ears for the past three singers.

“Good, because we're next.”

“No, we're not. Hayley, I can't get up there.” Lexi felt her eyes widen. Loosening up with shots and dances with strangers was one thing, but she already felt like she was kind of at her limits here. Getting up on a stage in front of those strangers—in front of
Gunnar
—was way out of her league.

Just then the deejay pulled his mic closer to his mouth. “Hayley, Jess, and Lexi, come on up here. You ladies are up!”

Before Lexi could argue, Hayley took her hand and lifted her out of her chair, and then Jess had no choice but to follow. When they got to the stage and turned around to face the bar, Lexi was almost relieved to realize that the two cheap spotlights on the ceiling were so bright that she couldn't even see the rest of the crowd.

The first notes of her favorite Beyoncé song filtered out of the speakers as Hayley handed her a mic, and she took a deep breath. What was she
doing
? Though she'd been on some sort of crazy mission to change all summer, right now she'd be happier to melt right back into the woodwork.

Then Hayley started singing, and it was so, so awful that Lexi had to laugh. And then, as Hayley put her arm around Lexi, she couldn't help but lift her own microphone. She could do this. If not here, in a small Western bar where most of the patrons were half in the bag, then where, right?

So she took a deep breath, pasted on her bravest smile, and joined Hayley on the chorus.

When they finished, the crowd clapped and whistled for a full minute, and Lexi felt herself smiling widely. Wow! That had actually been fun! As they jumped off the makeshift stage and headed back to their table, Kyla joined them, laughing as she hugged each of them.

“You guys were great!” She had her phone in her hand, clicking buttons as she gushed. “I took a video.”

“Oh, no,” Lexi replied. “Tell me you didn't.”

“Did!” Kyla held up her phone, then tapped on the screen. “Here—I'll send it to you.”

Lexi felt her phone vibrate with the incoming text, and fought not to pull it out and watch the video right now. She had to send it to Katie. Her sister wouldn't believe Lexi had gotten up on that stage, and done
well,
from the sounds of the crowd.

She smiled at Hayley and Jess as they mock-clinked their paper cups together.

Maybe she should actually think about getting a guitar named Dahlia.

“I, uh, I thought you said she was a singer.” Cole tipped his head like it was in pain, just after the girls had returned to their table.

Gunnar nodded slowly, his ears still smarting. “She said she was. Said she plays clubs on the weekends.”

“Is everyone in Maine…deaf?”

“The poor girl can't sing a note, can she?”

“Heads up. The girl's three point five seconds from your elbow.” Cole bit back a smile as he turned the other way.

“Gunnar!” Lexi gushed, and he had to smile at her. She was definitely giving 110 percent to this Lexi 2.0 campaign she was on, and though he admired her tenacity and effort, it still pissed him off that she was doing it all for a guy who should have appreciated her just the way she was. Had that guy never taken her to dinner? Never watched her eyes sparkle in candlelight? Never shared ice-cream cones with her? How could he want her to be anyone different?

She grabbed his hand, a goofy, alcohol-induced smile on her face. “Did you see us?”

“Sure did.” He tried to hide his amusement. “That was—brave.”

“The crowd loved us! It was so much fun!”

He bit his cheek. The Salty's crowd clapped the loudest for hot girls singing badly. It was tradition.

“They sure did, Lex.”

“Hayley sent me over here to ask you to do a duet.”

“Oh, no way.” He shook his head. “No cowboys on the karaoke stage. Club rule.”

Her eyebrows came together. “But there've been other cow—”

“Nope. Not real ones. Salty would have our heads. Sorry, sweets. Can't do it.”

She sighed, then brightened as a new song started. “How about dancing? Are cowboys allowed to do
that
?”

He couldn't say yes.
Shouldn't s
ay yes. He knew touching her would be an exercise in self-torture like no other. But as he looked down at her, as his arm zinged from her light touch, all he could do was shake his head and roll his eyes.

“All right, cowgirl. One dance.”

The next morning, Lexi woke up cuddled into the patchwork quilt on her bed, morning sun streaming through the back window. Birds were twittering in the trees outside, and she could hear the sounds of the ranch in full swing.

She blinked and sat up, trying to bring her bedside clock into focus. She hadn't slept past six o'clock since she'd been here, but it was—what? Nine o'clock? She'd overslept by three
hours
?

She flopped back on the bed, feeling the beginnings of a pounding headache taking hold as her phone erupted with Katie's signature ringtone. She clicked the button to answer, but before she lifted it to her ear, she heard Katie laughing.

“Well, good morning, my wild and crazy sister!”

“What?” Lexi blinked hard to clear the cobwebs.

“You're a karaoke goddess! Who knew?”

“Huh?” Lexi sat up. “What are you
talking
about?”

There was a pause on the other end. “Lex? Please tell me you know that you got up on a stage last night and sang your brains out…and videotaped it?”

A sudden vision of bright lights and a sparkly microphone hit Lexi, at the same time she tasted the remnants of vodka and—was that cherry?—in the back of her throat. Oh, no. She'd been drunk exactly three times in her entire life. Had she—no. She couldn't have.

“Alexis?” Katie's voice had a tinge of worry. “Did you drink last night?”

“No!” Lexi tipped her head. “I mean, yes. But we just had one drink, and then a bunch of those gelatin-in-a-paper-cup thingies. But they weren't that strong.” Her voice faded as she rolled out of bed, then winced at the pain between her ears.

Okay, so maybe she was a little delusional about the alcohol content.

“Well, looks like they were strong enough to break down my little sister's barriers and get her up on a stage with her new friends. But how are you feeling this morning?”

“Ugh. Like I got run down by a lobster boat.”

Katie laughed. “Welcome to your first hangover. It's your first, right?”

“No.” Lexi sighed as she put on her robe and headed for the kitchenette, desperate for coffee. “But I don't have a lot of experience in the area, so if you could just maybe talk a little more quietly, that would be great.”

“Oh, boy. Hope you have a jug of extra-strong coffee and a big bottle of Tylenol, honey. Take both, and call me tomorrow. You might be starting to feel better by then.”

“Comforting, thanks.”

“Hey, Lex? You didn't—I mean—did you by any chance send that video to anyone else? Possibly?”

“No.” Lexi shook her head firmly, then cringed as her vision went blurry. Dammit. “I can't even believe I sent it to
you
. Why would I have sent it to anyone else?”

As she said the words, she closed her eyes. Oh, holy hell. She couldn't have. She didn't. She
wouldn't
have.

“Kate? How bad
was
the video?”

Katie laughed, but it felt forced to Lexi. “You were having a blast. That's all that matters, right? So it was a little…unexpected. Isn't that what you're going for here?”

Unexpected?
Somehow, even through her hangover fog, she knew that was Katie's code word for omigod-girl-you-were-a-disaster.

Lexi swallowed. “I think maybe I'm going to be sick.”

“Tylenol and coffee. If you get desperate, get somebody to make you a Bloody Mary.” Katie laughed. “And maybe no making any more videos.”

After Katie'd ended the call, Lexi stared at her phone for a full thirty seconds, afraid to tap the green icon that would tell her whether she'd sent Tristan something last night. She looked at the ceiling, praying silently that she hadn't. Then, because she was dead scared that maybe she had, she prayed that the video was at least silly and fun, not desperate and awful.

Finally, she clicked into her text messages, and to her horror, Tristan's name popped right to the top.

With one hand to her mouth, she tapped the video, needing to see exactly what she'd sent, even though she was growing surer by the second that she was going to suffer mortal embarrassment the moment it started.

She was right.

The three of them sounded like a pack of drunk hyenas. And she was by far the worst of the lot. The crowd was loud, but not nearly loud enough to cover up the fact that she couldn't hold a tune to save her life.

Oh. God.

Just then, there was a sharp rap at her door, and she looked up to see Gunnar through the plate-glass window. Dammit, he could see her, too, since she hadn't pulled the shade last night. She looked down at her robe and slippers. Seriously? Was it some sort of Lexi's Mortification Holiday?

She opened the door slowly, hoping her appearance wasn't enough to scare him right back down the porch steps.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty.” Gunnar smiled widely as he held out a to-go cup. “Thought maybe you could use some coffee.”

She struggled to keep her chin up, like she wasn't suffering from the most monstrous hangover a human had ever felt. But Lexi 2.0 would take a hangover in stride, right? Not be about to jump him for that to-go cup? Just because he looked so damn delicious with his morning stubble and those damn eyelashes of his?

“Because?”

“Because…I have a feeling it'll go well with the painkillers you should be throwing down the hatch behind it?” He smiled again. “May I come in?”

She closed her eyes, sighing, then opened the door and waved him in, defeated. “Sure.” She took the coffee as he walked past her. “Thank you for the coffee.”

“So how are you feeling?” He perched on one of the kitchen-counter stools, studying her eyes. “Should I have brought you a Bloody Mary instead?”

“God, no.” Her stomach revolted at the thought. “Coffee's perfect. And I feel…fine.”

Gunnar laughed softly, reaching up to touch a strand of her hair. “Lex, you are a shade of green I'm not sure I've ever seen on a woman before. How much did you drink last night?”

“Not as much as you'd think, I'm sure. I just don't—drink. Usually, anyway.” She waved her hand in the air. “No tolerance.”

“Are you
still
drunk?” He tipped his head, looking into her eyes.

“God, I hope not. I already did enough damage last night.”

“What did you do?”

She shook her head. It was too embarrassing to admit. “Nothing that can't be cured with, say, a cyanide pill.”

He smiled. “You're kind of cute when you're dramatic—did you know that?”

“Oh, this is not me being dramatic. I sent Tristan a karaoke video. Because I was apparently drunk enough to think Jess, Hayley, and I
didn't
sound like a pack of baby rhinos up there.”

He laughed. “Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes.” She pushed her hand through her hair, a foggy memory creeping in. “Did you, by any chance,
know
I was sending it?”

“No.” He shook his head. “My chaperone duties involve keeping people inside the walls and out of trouble. They don't extend to inebriated women texting karaoke videos to their exes.”

She took a deep breath. “You're kind of enjoying this, aren't you?”

“Nope. Not really.”

“I can't believe I've come to this.” She sighed, walking over to the sink so she could blink back the tears before he saw them. “I made a complete and utter ass of myself, didn't I? First on stage, and then by text.”

“Nah. You were just having fun. And that was the goal, right?”

“I guess so. Yes.” She felt her face fall a little bit.
Had
it been fun? Or had she just been using the alcohol to try to dull the pain of trying to be somebody else?