“To the best night yet,” he says, meeting my eyes.
I can’t help but wonder if there’s a double meaning to his toast.
I pick up my glass and touch it against his. “To the best night yet.”
An hour later, we are both three shots and two beers deep into the night. We’ve managed to clean up most of the mess behind the bar and set all the chairs and tables back up, and now we are just sitting together alone, enjoying the silence.
“So, I want to know more about what Owen Kanton was over there talking to you about earlier,” I say.
“Oh, him? He just wanted a recipe for my Fairhope Iced Tea,” he says, avoiding my eyes. “It’s famous around here.”
“Tell me the truth,” I say. “You guys were standing there talking for a while.”
“Really, it’s nothing important,” he says.
“I want to know, and if you don’t tell me right now, I’ll cut your shifts for a week,” I say, teasing of course.
He gives me his lopsided smile and his eyes light up. “You never let up, do you?”
“Not when I can tell ‘nothing important’ is really something special,” I say. “What did he want?”
He messes with the label on his beer bottle, pulling pieces off and rolling them into tiny balls that he sets on the bar top.
“Well, Mr. Owen seemed to agree with you. He thinks I’m a natural on stage and had some crazy idea about me coming in to audition for the morning show.”
“What?” I scream and stand up. “Are you serious?”
“It’s nothing, Jo, really.”
“That is not nothing,” I say. “That’s huge. When is the audition?”
“I’m not going to audition for some morning show,” he says. “Do you realize how early those guys have to get up?”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. Sleep all afternoon if you want to sleep,” I say. “You don’t turn down an opportunity to be on the radio. That’s one of the most popular morning shows in the state. There are rumors they’re going national soon, but I heard there was some kind of hold up.”
“Losing his partner would probably qualify.”
“I would bet,” I say. “So he’s scouting out talent, and he came here tonight to see you? Colton, that’s big news. You have to go.”
“I wouldn’t be able to work the bar at night and go into work again at the crack of dawn,” he says. “And I like tending bar.”
“Come in on the weekends,” I say. “We could work it out. But if you got that gig, you probably wouldn’t need a second job. I bet it pays pretty well.”
He takes a long breath through his nose and shakes his head. “It’s just not me. It feels too much like a career, you know? I like living with the illusion that I’m a free man,” he says. “I can go anywhere and do anything I want at any time I choose. With a real job like that, I’d be stuck in this town every day of my life.”
“First of all, this is a real job, thank you very much,” I say. I’m afraid I’m slurring my words a little bit, but I take another sip of my beer anyway. “Third of all, you never really go anywhere now.”
He smiles. “You skipped second of all.”
I frown and finish my beer. “Second of all,” I say, searching my mind for another point I was trying to make, “I like having you stuck in this town.”
“Do you?” His eyebrow flicks up and my heart flutters.
My face flushes and the back of my neck feels like it’s on fire. “I mean, I’m glad you came to work for us, but that’s a good opportunity. I think you should go to that audition.”
He shakes his head and sits up straight. “I’ll think about it.”
“Good enough,” I say. “How’s the apartment working out for you?”
I’ve specifically been avoiding the garage, because I didn’t want to be tempted to go hang out with him. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about it, though. In fact, it’s been driving me wild.
“It’s great,” he says. “Thanks again for letting me stay.”
I hand him my empty beer and he reaches into the cooler for another.
“No more,” I say. “I’m starting to get a little giggly, and when that happens, it’s time to call it quits.”
His smile drops for a second, or did I imagine it?
“Let me get you some water, instead,” he says. “Don’t want you trying to walk