Page 5 of Crossing the Line (Small Town Love #7)

Three

JANICE

When she pushed open the door to the The Tap, the pub across the street from her market, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the air conditioned chill that washed over her.

"Ahem..."

Janice felt her friend nudge her, close to her shoulder.

"Move it, lady. I'm baking out here."

Smiling, Janice stepped inside and aside so that Taylor and Caroline could step inside the pub.

Taylor Engel, oh... Janice had to remind herself that Taylor was Taylor Donovan now.

She had been Taylor Donovan for over a year, marrying best selling author Vance Donovan who'd fallen head over heels for her awesome friend and decided to move to Saint Raphael instead of going back home.

Janice had to admit she was happy that the couple were in Saint Raphael.

Taylor had been a great friend over the years and she was one of the people who Taylor enjoyed spending time with away from the store.

"I see a table over there, near the windows." Caroline Brierly gave Janice a nudge. "You're taller than me, take a look."

Janice looked in the direction where Caroline had pointed and nodded. "There's one table open. Let's grab it. I'm dying for some high fat, fried foods."

Caroline took her hand and nodded. "Me, too."

As Caroline led them through the maze of round tables in the pub, Janice shook her head at the oddity of it.

Caroline had come to Saint Raphael as Caroline Franzen, a kick ass chef who'd made her rounds in the U.S.

as a celebrity chef. Every restaurant she worked with was destined to be amazing and wildly popular.

When she'd come to town, she'd opened a restaurant that was still thriving and attracting diners from miles and miles around.

The local chamber of commerce had been very thankful for the boost in tourism that could be attributed to Caroline's work.

And more recently, Caroline had opened a new restaurant with her husband, Lucas Brierly.

The man was hot, silver fox hot. He was also British and reminded Janice of a taller, sleeker Gordon Ramsey. They were both famous for the same hot temper, but Lucas was also a local star now.

He'd moved to Saint Raphael for his daughter, Nadia. She had wanted to stop moving around from place to place and spend her high school years based in one place.

Janice grinned to herself as they took seats around the table.

Nadia had come into the market quite a bit during her time in Saint Raphael and had bought a few of the plants that Janice had for sale in the corner of the entryway, but every time she came into the market, Nadia always had a question to ask or a story from school to tell, so Janice always forgot to ask about her plants.

As soon as she was sitting down Caroline handed her a Happy Hour menu but Janice waved it off. "I've got the menu memorized."

Taylor passed on a copy of the menu itself. "I'm getting one of everything to start us off at the table." She sat back in her chair and shook her head, letting her auburn hair fall back over her shoulders. "My treat. I'm feeling a little wild today." She waggled her eyebrows at the others.

Janice leaned forward on the edge of the table. "I'm sure with our appetites, we'll make it through a second round, my treat."

Caroline leaned in and spoke quietly under her breath. "I've got thirds." She winked at her friends. "Just don't tell Lucas. He's on a healthy kick at home. I mean, we rarely eat crazy stuff, but he's really tightening the belt on us now that he got a mailer from AARP."

Taylor snorted a laugh. "Tell me about it. I'm a member through Vance and damn, I think I started limping the day after I got my card. I swear, I felt older," she lifted her hand to her glorious hair, "and grayer."

Janice knew all too well that she had streaks of gray in her own hair and she was loving it.

She'd had people suggest that she dye her hair but she didn't care to. She was going to age from head to toe and love every minute of it.

She liked to look good, she liked to keep fit, but dying her hair seemed like a waste of time in her opinion.

Besides, the gray felt like something she'd earned after living past her forties, she felt even more fabulous!

Caroline pulled out her phone and looked at the screen, smiling, she typed something and sent the message.

"Good news?"

Caroline turned the screen around and showed it to them at the table.

Janice leaned in and squinted a bit at the screen.

Nadia was wearing a gorgeous midnight blue gown and dainty white gloves and standing beside her father, her arm linked to his. With Lucas' silver hair and his fit form, he made his tux look even better than it would have on its own.

"They went to look at colleges in the UK. Lucas keeps waffling about whether or not he wants Nadia to go to school there."

Taylor nodded. "I thought she was already planning to go to school here in the U.S."

Janice smiled, knowing she wasn't going to get to ask about Nadia's plants again. This conversation was much more interesting. "Nadia mentioned Stanford the last time she was in the market. Then she mentioned Wellesley, or was that Lucas?"

Caroline nodded. "Lucas mentioned Wellesley because it's a women's college."

Janice giggled a little as waitress came up to take their order.

Taylor made her smile with her order of the entire Happy Hour menu and a pitcher of Margaritas.

Then, Janice offered her suggestion. "If she wants a women's college, there's always Scripps near Los Angeles. That's a woman's school."

Caroline nodded. "I mentioned that to Lucas and he thought it was great until he found out there were four other schools along with Scripps. He doesn't like that idea, either."

"Fathers and their daughters, I guess." Janice's heart warmed at the idea. "But I thought Nadia already had a boyfriend."

"She does. Cameron's a sweetheart and Lucas likes him about as much as an overbearing father can like his teenage daughter's boyfriend."

Janice chuckled and sat back as the waitress brought over a tray of food.

There was just enough room on the round tabletop for the pitcher of margaritas that followed.

Janice breathed in the heady scent of fried food and then looked at the other women at the table.

"I really needed this. Thanks for coming with me. "

Taylor reached out and took her hand. Caroline did the same on her side of the table, taking Janice's hand in hers and then reaching for Taylor's.

"Sometimes..." Taylor murmured her words softly, "you just need your friends-"

"And fried food," Caroline shuddered with joy. "Now, let's dig in."

Janice reached for the onion rings first, taking a bite of the golden brown ring and savoring the flavor even if the heat did burn a little on her tongue.

"So good," she wasn't sure how much of the words the others heard since she had her lips pressed lightly together while she chewed.

As she swallowed, she set the rest of the ring back down on her plate and reached for the ketchup and pepper.

"Delicious. And just the right amount of crispy.

You know," she sprinkled pepper over the ketchup she'd squeezed out onto her plate, "it reminds me of the Star Trek cafe that we went to in Vegas.

They had a huge stack of onion rings... I think they called it the Rings of Betazed.

" She grinned at the memory. "Our server was Ferengi, you know the guys with the big ears? "

Caroline was chuckling softly and trying to fan her mouth to ease the heat of the newly fried deliciousness on the table.

It was Taylor who spoke. "I didn't think you were a sci-fi fan."

The answer was simple. She wasn't.

"Bixby and I went to Vegas for a long weekend and ended up staying for a week.

Bixby is a huge Trek fan so he was the one that wanted to go.

I went along to see my big hunk of a guy turn into an utter fanboy.

" Janice felt the warmth in her chest at the memory.

Bixby had been like a little kid at times, enjoying the aptly named Star Trek Experience .

And she'd been swept up in the excitement.

"Big hunk, huh?" Caroline leaned in, grabbing a mozzarella stick between her fingers. "You know, I moved here when you two were already divorced. If you don't mind," she swept the stick through the marinara sauce in the little cup on the plate, "what's the story?"

Janice hesitated, unsure of what she should say. She saw the worry that raised Taylor's brow and the hesitation that brought out a furrow between Caroline's.

"You... you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." Caroline took a bite of the mozzarella stick and busied herself chewing.

Janice felt horrible that Caroline felt uncomfortable, but she didn't know what to say exactly.

She opened her mouth planning to say something... funny or offbeat, but before she could say anything, the side door of the pub opened up, letting in a flood of daylight. Late in the afternoon like this, the sun was in the perfect position to bathe Saint Raphael in sunlight into the early evening.

Three people walked in but only one of them was instantly identifiable to her.

Bixby.

The man was looking good.

Okay, he always looked good.

That was one of the things she'd always loved about him.

He was fit and it wasn't the kind of fit that just came with genetics. He was a healthy guy because of the way he lived. He used to run all over Saint Raphael when he'd first moved there. Then as they opened the market together and started to work their long hours, the man never kept idle.

"Uh oh..."

Janice turned her head and saw Caroline and Taylor staring at her intently. "What?"

"Looks like Bixby has your complete attention."

Taylor nodded. "That 'big hunk' comment makes more sense now."

Janice was busy trying to get her brain to catch up to the conversation. "It's a hold over. I used to call him that when we were still in the honeymoon phase."

"Ah... The honeymoon phase." Caroline swooned a little. "I hope Lucas and I won't lose that feeling for a long... long time."

Taylor snorted a laugh and then sagged back against her chair. "I hate to say this... but Vance and I... I feel like," she lifted her hands to her face, touching her palms to her cheeks, "we're still in the honeymoon phase and we've been married for a few years."

Caroline took a sip of her margarita and sighed. "I'm going to have to make sure we keep things... going, too."

Janice watched as Bixby led his friends to a table that had opened up closer to the bar.

The honeymoon phase.

When had they lost it?

She watched him pull out a chair and sink into it with a smile. Sitting with him were two long-time Saint Raphael residents, August Clement, whose family ran the biggest Christmas Tree farm in the area, and Hank Ford, who ran the largest construction company outside of Sacramento.

They'd always been good friends, even though they weren't all the same age, but looking at her own group of friends, she understood it well. It didn't matter how old someone was if your heart connected with theirs.

She watched the three men talk and laugh, putting in their orders with the waitress that came by their table.

"Looks like we lost her again."

Lost who?

"She looks like a smitten kitten." Caroline giggled.

"More like... What did they call it in Bambi? Twitterpated?"

"Oh... I like that one."

"Maybe we should send a note over to that table and ask if any of them is single?"

"Single?" Janice turned her head. "What? Which table?"

Janice felt panic rising in her chest. She was the only one at her table that was single.

Divorced counted as single, right?

Leaned over until they were shoulder to shoulder and pointed at Bixby's table. "That table."

"What?"

Janice leaned back.

"What are you talking about?" Her face suddenly felt cool and clammy. "Bixby's table?"

Caroline reached across the table and touched her arm. "Have you seen how you look at him?"

Taylor snorted another laugh. "I don't think that's physiologically possible, Caroline. She'd have to be outside herself to see herself and that is-"

"We're not talking plot holes, Taylor. That's your husband's thing. I'm just saying that our lovely friend here obviously has it bad for her neighbor." Caroline lifted a brow and Janice saw her wink. "It just so happens that he's your ex."

Janice shook her head. "I don't think..."

"If you don't mind me asking, and you don't even have to answer if you don't want to. No harm no foul. But I wasn't around when you and Bixby divorced. You guys seem to get along really well."

Janice smiled at that. "It's true. We made up a very short set of rules before the divorce was finalized.

" She took her straw and stirred the drink in her glass.

"Honestly, I can't remember exactly why we decided it was over.

I think we just looked at each other one day and. .. and it just made sense."

Janice felt the smile die on her face. It fell away and she lifted the glass to take a sip of her drink and ended up almost emptying it in one gulp before she slowly lowered it back to the table.

"We split the store in half. I," she shuddered physically, "I never like the meat aspect of it.

Seeing him cut through a side of beef made me sick. "

Taylor nodded and Caroline shrugged.

"Of course you'd be okay with it," Janice wrinkled her nose at her chef friend. "I just... ick."

They all laughed.

"And the house. We talked about one of us buying the other out, but with most of our money tied up in the market, that wasn't really possible on either side.

So we took a quick look at the house and our finances and realized we could split the house down the center.

" Janice lifted her chin toward the other table.

"Hank did us a favor and helped Bixby put up the wall down the center and added in the other kitchen on Bixby's side. "

Taylor grinned at that. "If you have to have a best friend, make it a kick ass carpenter."

Janice nodded. "I think we just paid off his fee in beer and bratwurst last week."

They'd actually paid Hank in cash long ago, but it was a long-standing joke among them that they'd paid him in beer and brats.

"I have to say," Caroline's cheeks flamed with heat, "I've had your ex's brat and it is good."

The whole table went silent for a moment and then they all burst out in laughs.

Taylor refilled all the glasses and lifted her own in a toast.

She waited until Janice and Caroline lifted their glasses as well.

"To thick and juicy... sausages!"

"Sausages!" "Yes, sausages!"

They clinked their glasses and downed their margaritas in on long gulp.

When Janice lowered her glass she couldn't help but laugh.

And laugh.

And laugh some more.

She really needed this.

She really needed her friends.

She thanked god for them every day, but on days like this?

She couldn't help but be doubly glad that she had them.