Page 7 of Crossing the Line (Small Town Love #7)
Bixby looked up and watched as the man crouched down beside Janice and put a hand on the back of her chair.
The looks he was giving her definitely seemed personal.
And before he could figure out what those looks meant, the man stood up and put something on the table in front of Janice.
From where they were seated, Bixby couldn't see what it was, but the man headed for the bathrooms at the back.
Drinking the rest of his beer, Bixby got up and walked back toward the bathrooms.
When he reached the men's room, he opened the door and stepped inside.
There were two urinals in the back of the bathroom beyond the two stalls.
The bar wasn't big, so there wasn't need for more.
After all, a men's room wasn't like the ladies room. They didn't stand around and have conversations and shit like that.
The younger man looked up into the old fashioned bar mirror over the urinals, etched with gold foil and some kind of scrolling. Janice would know what it was called. She seemed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of random stuff like that.
"You can come on up if you have to pee. There's an open one," the man pointed his chin in the direction of the open urinal. 'We don't need to get into a contest."
Yeah, Bixby, grumbled inside his head as he walked up beside the other man and lifted his gaze above the mirror as he, started to take care of business.
"You own that butcher place, right?" The younger man didn't wait for an answer. "I think I saw you in there when I went in to see the lady on the market side about a job."
"Job?" That got Bixby's attention. "I didn't think she was hiring at the market."
The other man smiled at him. "I'm not working for her in the market," he grinned. "I'm building her a chicken coop for her backyard."
Bixby fumbled a little and cleared his throat as he got things in hand. "A chicken coop? That's a little odd."
"Right?" The other man's shoulders shook as he finished up and tucked himself in."Crazy right? Women and their hobbies ."
Bixby bristled a little at the man's tone.
The young man chuckled as if he'd told a really funny joke. "Well, I'm off. Got a few beers to drink."
He turned and made his way past the sinks on the way to the door.
"Uh..." Bixby finished and half turned his head to meet the man's look in the mirror over the sink. "Did you forget something?"
The younger man lifted up his hands. "Like what?"
He pushed the door open with his right hand and left Bixby in his wake.
"Like washing your hands, dumbass ." Bixby moved to the sink and washed his hands with soap and water because at least he had some manners and personal hygiene skills. Then, as he wiped his hands on paper towels, he growled under his breath. "His generation sucks."
From the stall a few feet away, he heard someone snort out a laugh. "Feeling old here."
Bixby heard the flush as he moved over to the sink to wash his hands.
Where , he wondered, was this world heading?
As he walked back out into the bar, he used his elbow to push on the door well away from where the other man had touched, Bixby thought about what the young man had said.
He was building Janice a chicken coop in the backyard.
His first instinct was to tell her that she'd have a chicken coop over his dead body, but knowing Janice as well as he did.
Well, as well as he thought he did, she'd not only have the ass build her a coop, she'd put it right next to the fence they had built separating their backyard into two yards.
He found his way back to the table and sat down, his mind in a muddle about what he'd just learned.
He knew that August and Hank were waiting for him to say something, but he didn't know what to say exactly.
He didn't want to come off as an ass himself.
Then again, Janice hadn't even said anything to him yet.
"So, apparently," he reached for his glass only to realize that he'd already emptied it before he went to the bathroom and the waitress hadn't come to refill it, so he lowered his hand to the table, "he's building Janice a chicken coop in her half of the backyard."
"Chicken coop?" August sounded interested.
"Chickens? Well, that's a commitment." Hank winced. "Are you ready for the noise that comes with it?"
"I just found out about it."
"Forget the noise," August wrinkled his nose. "Are you ready for that man working shirtless in the backyard?"
"Shirtless?" Hank rolled his eyes. "That's not all that professional."
August snorted. "You know he'll do it. I bet that's part of his service ."
Hank smiled. "I'm talking about the noise when they start laying eggs. I've heard it's crazy loud."
Bixby's first instinct was to say that he'd be fine with it, after all, he wasn't going to around when they laid their eggs since he worked long hours at the market, but he'd have to look it up. After all, he knew squat about chickens. "I don't know."
"Well, if she doesn't have the coop yet, she's probably just planning," Hank took another drink from his glass. "Maybe you should talk to her about it, you know, before she builds the coop."
Bixby nodded.
"Oh, hey," Hank turned to August, "I was wondering about that expansion Lucy wants to make on her greenhouse, has she looked at the plans I sent over?"
The two started talking about the greenhouse and it gave Bixby some time to think.
His first instinct when he heard about the coop was to draw a line with Janice. Nope. No chicken coop.
But then he remembered that it wasn't going to be on his land.
It would be on hers.
And really, what say did he have?
It was her yard.
She could build what she wanted there.
If she wanted chickens, then she should have them.
He wasn't going to argue.
He pulled out his phone and typed in a search: When do chickens lay eggs during the day?
And of course, he got every answer under the sun.
He would have to do more research.
Maybe... they probably had some books on chickens at the library.
Sure, he could do more searches online, but he'd grown up using the library at school and there was something about holding a book in your hand when you were trying to learn from it.
Yeah, he was kind of old school.
But then again, he was from the Third World War.
Oh, brother.