Page 19 of Crossing the Line
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.
