Page 6 of Crossing the Line (Small Town Love #7)

Four

BIXBY

Bixby was happy and relieved when Hank called him up, asking him to go out for a beer.

At first he wasn't sure that he'd enjoy himself.

After all, he'd been in a bit of a mood lately.

Moody.

He rolled his eyes at his own thoughts.

It wasn't a good word.

But it was accurate.

He should have been thrilled at the success of his sausages.

He'd spent a pretty penny on the machine, after all.

Sitting there at The Tap, it felt good to be with friends, but he wanted... something else.

Some one else.

"Hey," Hank lifted his chin in the direction of the far wall, "looks like we're not the only ones celebrating tonight."

Celebrating?

Bixby frowned. Who else is celebrating?

He put a hand on the table and turned in his chair to look over the rest of the room.

He saw a lot of familiar faces, but he didn't know who Hank was talking about until he saw her.

Janice.

Janice was smiling.

And laughing.

She did that a lot.

She just didn't do that... in his direction.

Well, that just soured his mood.

August cleared his throat. "You should go over and say hello."

Bixby turned back to the table and looked at his friend. "They're having a girl's thing."

August dropped his chin to his chest. "Girl's thing?" He shook his head in an almost sad, melancholy expression. "I worry about you, man."

Bixby raised a brow at that. "So this is a pity party for me?"

"Pity?" August scoffed. "Hardly. I wanted to make sure to keep my friend-cred because my wife really wants some sausage. And when a man hears that his wife wants another man's sausage, it's time to be very careful." August looked up as the waitress brought over their beers.

He thanked the waitress with a nod and took a long sip.

"That and I don't like to drink around Lucy right now."

Bixby leaned against the table as he took a drink. "Because she's pregnant?"

August grinned from ear to ear. "Yeah. Since she found out she was pregnant I haven't had a drink at home.

Not that she told me I couldn't, but the one time I took out a beer that we had in the fridge, I almost took a sip of it and she almost started crying.

She wanted some but... And I don't plan on drinking in front of her even after the baby is born since she wants to breastfeed. "

Hank nodded knowingly and Bixby could just sit there.

Sure, he knew that pregnant women shouldn't drink, that was kind of a cultural knowledge thing, right?

But he knew it probably extended to breast feeding moms.

That also made sense.

He'd just never had any practical experience.

Bixby looked down at his beer and stared a little too long into its depths.

So long that the conversation at his table had gone silent.

Bixby looked up at his friends and tried to think of a subject to get conversation started again.

Ah! Yes.

Perfect.

"Moira Lundin had an edict to pass on to me and Janice at the market."

Hank and August leaned in, their eyes widening.

"Oh?"

August spoke right on top of Hank's words. "What did the busy body have to say?"

There was an element of frustration in August's tone. He'd likely had a run in with Moira recently.

"She asked us... No, she told us to get an arborist to look at the oak in our front yard."

Hank sat back in his chair with a thoughtful look. "What did she say was wrong with it?"

Bixby thought back to their conversation... Well, the lecture from Moira.

"I don't think she said exactly."

August groaned. "Now she's the tree whisperer?"

Bixby shrugged. "I wanted to argue about it, but..."

Hank snorted. "But... Now you think you should call someone out to take a look at it?"

He nodded."Can't hurt right?"

August tapped his fingers on the table, his face showing his emotions. "If you just give in and do it, isn't she going to feel like she can just... order you around?"

"Have you seen her?" Bixby drew himself up, lifting his chin. "She barely comes up to my ribs!"

Hank dropped his chin and stared back at Bixby. "She might be small, but she's annoying when she wants to be. Like... like a mosquito. Barely bigger than your fingernail but one bite will make you itch for hours."

August's nose wrinkled and Bixby felt a little sick to his stomach as he spoke.

"I really didn't need that image in my head."

Hank raised a brow. "Mosquitoes?"

"Well, sort of." Bixby grimaced. "Like that fly in the Phil Collins video, with his head on it? Now I'm imagining Moira's head on a mosquito."

Hank frowned at his words. "Fly in a video?"

Bixby looked at the two men at the table. "It might have been a little before your times. I think the video was for the song... uh... 'Billy'? Something?"

August and Hank both frowned in thought.

It was August who snapped his fingers. "Don't Lose My Number."

Hank drew back a little. "Why does that strike a chord with me?"

Bixby smiled then, chuckling a little. "Chord? Ha."

Hank rolled his eyes. "I mean it. The song..."

Bixby nodded. "It's the one with the crazy video where people are pitching videos to him. So there's a little bit of everything in it. 80s Aerobics-"

August leaned in. "Like "Physical" by Olivia Newton John."

Hank nodded. "And... that Elton John video on the beach with the boater hat."

"I'm Still Standing."

Hank pointed at him. "Exactly!"

"Ah..." August nodded. "The fly thing was from... another video."

The waitress stopped beside their table and put a basket of waffle fries in front of each of them and then a carrier for BBQ sauces. "Anything else?"

Bixby smiled at the basket in front of him. "I think we're good, thanks."

The waitress turned slightly, and leaned her hip against the edge of the table. "You sure?"

He looked up to answer her again and saw the smile she had aimed at him.

He'd seen that smile before.

It was the same smile that Janice used to smile at him.

Warm.

Open.

She looked good back then.

Damn, she looked good now.

He smiled, thinking about the way she leaned in to him and gave him that smile when she wanted to...

"So, can I leave you my number?"

Bixby would have died of embarrassment if August and Hank didn't start laughing like complete idiots leaving Bixby to explain. "We were just talking about a song with the title "Don't Lose My Number.""

The waitress frowned at him and then she looked at the other two for a moment before turning her gaze back to him. "Is that from the Big Band Era or something?"

Bixby's jaw almost dropped. "I'm sorry... What?"

"The Big Band era. You know the one during wartime? The second or... third World War?"

Bixby knew they were in trouble.

Hank and August had stopped laughing.

He was thinking they'd stopped breathing, too.

They were just staring up at the waitress like she'd grown a second... or third head.

He didn't know when she realized that the whole mood had gone down hill, but he saw her expression change from open to hesitant.

"Uh, yeah... Sorry. I'll be back later to check on your table, 'kay?"

He nodded along with Hank. August gave her a little wave as she left.

It was Hank that spoke first, grumbling under his breath. "Third World War."

August looked like he'd been kicked in the shin. "What is this world coming to?"

"I don't know," Bixby sighed, "I was living in the Big Band Era, I think."

They looked at each other and then burst into laughter.

Hank ended the raucous mess with an exaggerated wince and a hand to his lower back. "I'm getting too old for this kind of thing."

Bixby sighed. "Not as old as me, apparently."

August opened his mouth, probably to join in on the kidding, but stopped short. "Uh... Don't look now, Bixby, but someone 'not' of our advanced age is talking to your woman."

Bixby turned to look because of course, he had to since August had told him not to.

The man standing at Janice's table was indeed talking to her.

And only her.

Narrowing his gaze at the scene before him, he watched as the man who had to be at least ten or fifteen years younger than him, gave Janice a smile that would have blinded most people.

His teeth were brilliantly white and the shirt he had on was barely more than a second skin.

The two other women at Janice's table were watching whatever-it-was unfolding before them with rapt attention, sipping on their margarita straws as if they were the tastiest things in the world.

"Who the hell is that?"

It took Bixby a moment to realize that the words had come out of his own mouth.

"I don't know," Hank bit out, "but he's got his eyes on Janice."

Hank turned to look at him. "What do you know about this guy?"

What could he say? He had no idea who the man was or what he was doing at Janice's table.

August leaned in against the edge of the table. "He looks like one of those strippers from Vegas."

Bixby and Hank turned to look at their friend.

Hank spoke first. "You want to tell us how you know you know that?"

August glared at him. "What are you talking about? It's that movie with the strippers. You know. There's that guy who played Alcide from True Blood? The werewolf?"

Bixby didn't know what to think. "True Blood?"

Hank added in. "Alcide? That sounds like a medicine my doctor would prescribe for me."

August shrugged. "Lucy likes to watch it and I like the benefits of what happens after she watches it.

" When Bixby and Hank didn't say a word, August smiled.

"It's like a pregnancy craving. Lucy doesn't want to eat weird things she likes to watch these guys on TV and then.

.." August raised a brow and took a long sip of his beer.

Bixby remembered that when they'd been married at first, they'd sit in front of the TV and watch shows together.

Mostly his shows, because he wasn't interested in most of what Janice liked to watch. Still, they'd sit on the couch together and watch.

Most nights, Janice would fall asleep on his shoulder and he'd have to nudge her awake when it was time to go to bed.

His expression dropped even more when he realized that he should have been... better.

"Looks like he's flirting with her?"