the kitchen, I hear footsteps on the steps. I look up to see Jo standing a few stairs from the top.
“Oh,” she says, her lips parting and her hand gripping the handrail. “Greg said I might be able to find you up here.”
She shakes her head and turns around, running down the stairs and out the back door.
“Dammit,” I say. I pull away from Willow and run after Jo, but Willow calls after me, and I hear her footsteps right behind me.
I push through the crowded entry and search the back deck for any sign of Jo, but by the time I catch sight of her, she’s already down the back steps and in the parking lot.
Willow grabs my arm and won’t let go.
I turn around and shake my head. “I have to go,” I say.
“What’s your problem?” she shouts, drawing the attention of everyone within hearing distance.
“That girl on the stairs? She’s my girlfriend and she thinks something was happening between us just now,” I say. “I have to go explain to her that there’s nothing going on, Willow. Please, just go get yourself some water and sober up.”
“Hey, what’s going on?” Greg asks, making his way through the crowd. “You guys okay?”
I pull my arm away from Willow’s grip and nod to him. “Can you take care of her, please?” I say. “I’m sorry, but I have to go.”
“Colton,” he says, but I’m already running.
I catch up with Jo on the road, and when she turns her face toward the light, I can see she’s crying.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “She’s drunk and I was trying to get her to come downstairs so she could get some water or coffee or something. I swear to you nothing was going on.”
“But you used to date her, right?” she asks.
I swallow and run a hand across my jaw. “A very long time ago,” I say.
“And you didn’t think maybe that was something you should have told me before you asked her to come to the bar?” she asks. “No wonder they were willing to come back to this area to play at a hole in the wall place in Fairhope. She wanted to see you.”
“It’s not like that,” I say. “Things were never serious between us. They came back because Greg’s been one of my best friends since I was a kid.”
“Well, the fact that you had a thing with the lead singer of the band was probably something you should have told me before you brought me here tonight,” she says. “Instead, I had to hear it from someone I just met. They told me you wrote that song for her.”
I groan, my shoulders tense. This cannot be the thing that screws it up for the two of us. Not my past relationship with Willow. It was never anything compared to what I feel for Jo.
“I didn’t think it was important,” I say. “It’s been over for years.”
“Did you?” she asks. “Write that song for her? Those lyrics were about the two of you?”
I shake my head. “It’s a dramatization of what was going on between us back when I was living in Athens with the band,” I say. “I wasn’t in love with her, if that’s what you’re asking. I’ve never been in love with anyone but you, Jo.”
“Well, apparently Willow still has a thing for you,” she says. “She was all over you. Not exactly what I wanted to see when I came looking for you.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” I say. “But I swear to you I wanted nothing to do with it. She just had a little too much to drink.”
Jo closes her eyes, and wipes the tears from her face.
“Look, I don’t want to be this girl,” she says. “I don’t want to be irrationally jealous and a pain in the ass. I want to believe you that there was nothing going on between you guys, but I really don’t want to go back to that party right now.”
“Do you want to go somewhere else?” I ask. “We could go walk on the beach for a while. Anything. I don’t want the night to end like this.”
“I just want to go home,” she says. “It’s been a rough few weeks with all these doctor’s appointments and the busy nights at the bar. Maybe I just need some rest.”
“Okay,” I say. “I wasn’t expecting to have to drive so soon, though, and I’ve already had a few beers.”
“I’ll drive,” she says, holding her hands out for the