Page 8 of Crossing the Line (Small Town Love #7)

Five

JANICE

Her Saturday started off in the worst possible way. She’d taken the day off to be around when Garret was going to build her chicken coop.

But she woke up to a text message.

HAMMERHEAD: sorry, can’t do today. Got stuff to do.

She texted him back.

JANICE: but you said you’re booked except for today

HAMMERHEAD: yeah, sorry. I think I have time to do it two weeks from now.

JANICE: I took today off. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to take off again

HAMMERHEAD: huh, that sucks. Sorry

And that’s when he stopped responding to her texts.

Grumpy and more than a little ticked off, Janice decided to go to the backyard while she called around to find another contractor.

As soon as she sat down at her table she let out a huff. Did she really want to waste her day calling around for another contractor?

No.

She was in the mood to watch the coop build and then she was doing to pick up the chicks that Samantha said were ready.

She decided against looking for another contractor at the moment and lifted her phone to call Samantha instead.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Samantha. It’s Janice.”

“Hey! Uh… why do you sound … not so happy?”

“That guy who was going to build the coop today cancelled this morning.”

“This morning?” Samantha let out a huff. “That’s… that’s… that sucks!”

Janice tipped her head back and looked up into the rafters. “I was going to start calling around for someone else, but I just… I can’t.”

She wanted to be angry, and honestly, she was. But yelling?

She just didn’t have it in her.

It felt like the ground had gone out from under her feet, a sinkhole that had pulled out every ounce of the excitement that she'd felt when she crawled into bed the night before.

"So, what are you going to do, Janice? Are you still coming to get the chicks?"

She sat upright in a rush as panic flooded through her.

"Of course I still want them! They can't go outside yet.

I have a box with a heat lamp in my laundry room ready for them.

I've collected a bunch of old newspapers ready to change it in and out in the box.

And I have the feeder and watering system ready for the chicks. When can I come over?"

"How about I pack up the girls and bring them over. I don't think you're in a mood to drive right now."

Janice deflated a little.

Samantha was right. She wasn't in a mood to drive.

"If you don't mind," she sighed, "please bring them over. If you have time to eat with me, we'll figure out what you want when you come over. Since we won't have any construction happening we can have a good talk."

"Sounds like a plan."

"It’s what we do when our original plans fall into the cracks, right?" Janice was trying to lift her own spirits and if Samantha was coming over, she didn't want her to suffer as well. "I'll go and double check that I've set everything up for the chicks."

"Sweet! I'll be there in less than an hour, 'kay?"

"Sounds great! Thanks, Samantha!"

"For you? Anytime."

The call ended and Janice's shoulders sagged.

She was going to have fun once Samantha got there. Especially when she got to see the chicks. She couldn't remember exactly how many chicks they'd decided that she would take, but at this point she was just excited to take that next step.

There were two things that should get her up off of her butt.

She told Samantha she'd double check the box she'd set up for the chicks, but that was just busy work.

She'd done it the night before.

People might think she was a little obsessed.

She rolled her eyes at the idea, because she was.

She'd read a lot about chickens since she'd talked to Samantha about the idea.

It was just that she was about to put it all into practice.

The other thing she should do was pick up the phone and let Bixby know that he didn't have to leave the house to avoid the noise.

Since there wasn't going to be any.

The back door opened just on the other side of the fence, and she heard Bixby's soft steps on the porch.

Smiling at herself, she imagined him standing there, looking out over his half of the yard and listening for noise.

It made her laugh and her shoulders shook. "I was just going to call you."

She knew if she stood up, she'd see him as their fence was about five feet tall, not enough to hide him from her completely, or her from him for that matter, but where she was sitting, she had her back to the fence.

"Janice?"

She smiled and shook her head. "Yes, Bixby?"

"Are you talking to me?"

Yeah.

There was something to be said for face-to-face communication.

She just didn't want to see pity in his expression.

Failure was not something she liked.

Who did?

But it was one thing to have someone like 'Hammerhead' the contractor make her into a fool. She just didn't want to see Bixby's expression when she explained it.

She stood up and swallowed her pride, both in her psyche and her physical body.

She saw him standing on the other side of the fence and had to catch her breath.

He was always well dressed in market, but it had been a while since she'd seen him in a more casual setting.

He was wearing a button-down cambric shirt, and his hair was a little damp as if he'd just finished showering.

"Hi," he smiled at her.

Janice lifted a hand and gave him awkward little wave. "Hi."

He looked down, a smile on his face. His shoulders started to move and she imagined he was rolling up his sleeves.

Wow.

Her mind took a strange turn right then.

His arms.

She let out a long breath.

Bixby had always had amazing arms.

Awesome arms and strong hands.

"Were you... talking to me?"

She felt her eyebrows rise as her mind tried to put two and two together.

What had she said?

She looked around herself and couldn't quite remember, but...

The phone in her hand buzzed, startling her for a moment.

"Yes!" She grinned. "I was talking to you."

She let out a relieved breath and looked at him over the fence. "I know I told you about the chicken coop."

The grimace that crossed his face was... telling.

"Yeah?"

"Well," she shook her head, "it's not happening today."

She saw the smile that almost twisted up the corners of his mouth.

She saw it start and then fall away.

Janice had to appreciate his effort there.

They said good fences made good neighbors, but she knew that Bixby was putting in an effort here.

"So, I thought you'd like to know in case you'd planned to keep away today."

She let out a breath and when he didn't reply or show much of a reaction, she nodded.

"Okay," she tilted her head toward her door, "I'm going to go in and-"

"Janice?"

She drew up short, like she'd suddenly hit an invisible wall.

Then she turned to look at him.

"Yeah?"

She didn't know what she expected to see on his face, but it wasn't the gentle look she saw in his eyes.

Wow.

Standing there, looking at him.

Looking in his eyes.

It had been so long since she'd felt like this about him.

Hell, about anyone.

"I was talking to Hank."

"Hank Ford?"

She grimaced.

She knew she'd kind of pushed in before he was done talking, but she'd just blurted out the first question that had popped into her head.

He smiled then and nodded. "Yes. Hank Ford."

"Ah..." she nodded. "Sorry."

Bixby shook his head. "I was talking to him about your coop. He has some plans he drafted when Jenny was thinking about getting some chickens."

Janice felt her eyes widen at his words. This was news to her.

"He even put together some schematic drawings because he was... How did he say it?" She watched him nod as his brain searched for the information. "Oh, yeah. He said he was on a roll."

She felt her grin stretch then. "I bet he was. He probably thinks about building projects the way you think about new product ideas, and I think about the displays in my half of the market."

His brows rose thoughtfully and then a few seconds later, he nodded. "Maybe."

She felt her whole body lift with joy, rising up on her the balls of her feet in her sneakers.

"So, he said if you want the plans for your coop, he'll send it to me."

Her smile brightened for a moment before reality came crashing down on her.

"You... you don't have to use it," he took a step back, making it harder to see his face.

"No, wait." She reached out and put a hand on the top of the fence. "I... I'm not saying I don't want it. I just don't know when I'm going to have someone to build it."

So," he was almost smiling, "you might want to use his plans?"

"I'm sure his ideas are better than what I found online. I just don't have... someone to build it. And unless it comes in a box like a Lego set, I won't be able to-"

"I'll call Hank." He nodded and turned toward his door.

Before she couldn't gather her words, he opened the door and stepped inside.

"Ahh... Okay?"

She rocked back on her heels and tried to replay his words in her head.

It was a struggle.

When she'd first told Bixby about her plan to have chickens and build a coop in her backyard, he'd given her that one-raised brow stare and let out a sigh.

He hadn't argued with her, but he hadn't been all that excited about it either.

There was a universe of levels between those two. She was really curious where it fell.

Even more interesting was how she'd wanted to keep talking to him.

She'd expected more tension between them, especially because he didn't seem that enthused about the idea earlier.

Offering to ask Hank for his plans?

That was interesting.

He'd talked to Hank about her idea and instead of trying to shut her down, he was offering her help.

Interesting.

More than interesting, it felt... good.

And she could certainly use more good moments like this.

BIXBY

Once Bixby stepped back into the cool air of his air-conditioned kitchen he stopped and replayed the last few minutes of conversation with Janice.

Rather than the stilted back and forth at the market, it was less stilted.

He let out a sigh.

"Great job, asshole."

He picked up his phone from the kitchen counter and found Hank's number in his recent calls.