Al watched Sunny leave the bar, wondered what the hell was going on, then saw Joanie approach the bar, equidistant from Al and Joe. He looked down at his drink so as not to be too obvious about looking. This was why he didn't like going to bars. There was a whole ritual to looking without staring, and more often than not he bungled it. It had an unsavoury connection, for him, with all the times he struck out whenever he went to bars with the Reis boys when he was younger, never working up the courage to approach women, wondering how in the world people met and formed relationships if they didn't already know each other. He thanked his lucky stars for the women who graced him with their love over the years, who approached him first; without them, he'd probably have remained a virgin.

It occurred to him that Rachel was the only woman with whom he'd taken the chance to approach first, and only then because they shared a past, and still all he'd been able to do was meet her in the middle. He still remembered it because it was such a weird situation; he'd just found out Rachel had been in conversation with an imaginary friend named Samael for a few weeks by then, and had just been in the middle of an attempt to send him back to his home world with a ritual involving a pentagram drawn in iron filings and salt. He'd been the only one to whom she'd revealed her secret, because of all her reunited friends she'd trusted him most not to think her crazy. All he could ask was if she wanted to spend the day with him after cleaning up the pentagram, just as friends so he could keep an eye on her and make sure she was okay, and then she'd stepped out of the pentagram and kissed him softly on the lips. It was probably the best first kiss story ever for him, beating Marnie's kiss at the gas station when no one was looking, even beating the time thirteen-year-old Rachel kissed him after they'd rescued her from Mr. Trybek's clutches, because this time he knew what he was doing.

He sneaked a glance at his wife, those lovely shoulders of hers exposed by her halter top, and knew that if she were a stranger at this moment, gabbing happily with her girlfriends, he'd never have had the courage to approach their table and offer her a drink. Ditto Lauren, in that tiny black dress she'd worn when entrapping the rapist Joe knocked out all those years ago; Al had to avert his eyes from her in order to concentrate on the mission, she was that distracting. Did people even buy each other drinks nowadays? Maybe, but nobody should trust a drink that didn't pass from the bartender's hand right to theirs. Too many horror stories of drinks being spiked; heck, Lauren had narrowly avoided falling victim to the aforementioned rapist, and both of them had fallen victim to another spiking. It was odd that the latter incident had caused the two of them to become closer, but that was probably due to them bonding in the search for Rachel and Joe, who'd gone missing while they'd been unconscious. 

He took another sip of his beer, which he didn't usually drink, as he didn't care for the taste, but felt he had to drink or look like an idiot occupying a stool at the bar. When he looked up again, he found Joanie still at the bar, now in conversation with one of the men from the group that had walked in earlier, the one that had drawn Sunny's attention. This must be the one who'd taken the photos of Joanie and his partner and tagged them #hotcoplangley. Al had done a quick perusal of the sites carrying pictures and videos with that hashtag after Lauren had recruited them all to this mission, which he hoped they could complete before tomorrow because they had to fly to Kelowna in the morning. When he'd seen the vile things said about Joanie, he'd been reminded of the Twitter war Rachel had been involved in when he'd first reunited with her, and felt a burning shame for his gender. Sometimes he wished he had Joe's physical courage and could just walk up to the guy and deck him, but he knew his limitations. In any case, Joanie wanted them to be eyes and ears and, in Lauren's case, a camera, so they could document anything untoward that happened.

He looked toward the women's table and saw Lauren had turned toward Joanie and the man, but then noticed the man's fellows were taking the opportunity to approach the table, so that Lauren had to turn her attention back from the bar or risk looking like she was spying. Al looked to Joe and saw his focus was solely on Joanie, so he felt comfortable leaving Joanie to him and keeping his eye on the table.

He wished Sunny would come back inside and be a third set of eyes. He felt like two sets of eyes on two objects were spreading surveillance too thin. Not that he worried about the women; they could hold their own against the younger men. The goal was well defended. He focused on their drinks instead.

After a few minutes had gone by with him staring until he thought he was going to go cross-eyed, with neither the women nor the men feeling his stare and looking his way, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He had to answer it because it could be Logan or Emma. Logan was supervising his sister, Naomi and Tosh, but this night was going to go later than other nights when he was responsible for them, and the boy was resentful that he couldn't go out with his friends. It took Joe promising to teach him how to drive tomorrow, now that Logan had his learner's license, to make him agree; as Al predicted, Logan didn't want to go to Kelowna with them, seeing a wine festival where he wasn't allowed to drink as the height of unfairness. Joe had assured Al and Rachel he'd keep an eye on the boy and take him out for something he wanted to do after they did some driving. As irritated as Al was that Logan seemed to like Joe more than his adoptive father, he did appreciate that their adopted children felt the safe embrace of the wider family of the LSDC. As awkward as it might have been living under the same roof as the man who'd slept with his wife and whose wife had slept with him, he had a feeling he'd miss the family dynamic that had developed while they were living there when the time came for them to move out.

He checked his screen and saw that it wasn't either of the kids, who probably would have called Rachel first, he realized later. To his surprise, it was Mom. 

Immediately on the alert at this late call, feeling his heart hammering in his chest, he answered. "Mom? Are you okay?"

"Al?" Mom's voice was barely audible over the competing noises of people talking and country music. He must have stuck out like a sore thumb in this bar. He didn't like beer or country music, so what the hell was he doing here? Especially if his mom was in trouble?

"Mom? Can you talk a little louder? I can barely hear you."

"Where are you?" she asked a little louder, but he still pressed the phone harder against his ear and put a hand over his other ear to hear her better.

"At a bar with the friends," he said, not needing to clarify who his friends were.

"A bar?" she asked in disbelief. "Aren't you going away in the morning? You need your rest."

"I think we'll be going home soon. We have Logan babysitting and we don't want to put too much responsibility on him."

"I didn't even know you liked bars."

"I don't. We're helping Joanie with something." He knew mentioning Joanie's name would shut down any further questioning from his mother, who now considered the woman the daughter she never had. "Is everything okay, Mom? Aren't you normally in bed by now?"

"Well, normally I would be, but I'm afraid I've had to take Samson to the animal hospital. I'm there right now."

"What?!" he squawked, leaping from his stool, drawing eyes from other patrons at the bar. He looked around wildly, only barely registering that Rachel had noticed him and was looking at him in concern, ignoring the man who was attempting to chat her up while Lauren and Tej were exchanging polite but stiff conversation with the other two guys, who either didn't notice their body language that was telling them this far and no further, or were hoping to change their minds.

"I don't want you to be too alarmed," she said, but even her voice seemed shaky, like she was barely holding it together. "But I thought you should know because he's your cat."

He looked toward the entrance of the bar, wondering how badly he would balls up this operation if he made a run for the parking lot. No, he couldn't leave Rachel behind. Still, his cat needed him! "What happened?" he asked plaintively, voice cracking, fearing he was going to cry in the middle of a bar filled with testosterone.

Even Joe was looking at him now, which was bad, because Joanie was taking her drink back to her table, and the guy was following her. He turned away, hoping Joe would take the hint and snap back to watching Joanie.

"Well, Samson hasn't been peeing," Mom said. "I only started noticing when I didn't find any clumps in the litter box. Then I noticed him going in and out of the litter box and yowling in distress. I called the vet and he told me to take him right away to the animal hospital. They discovered he had a blocked urinary tract and a bladder full to nearly bursting."

Al thought his legs were going to give out on him. "Fucking hell," he breathed, forgetting to watch his mouth around his mother in his distress. "Mom, is he...?"

"They're operating on him right now," she said. "I'm not leaving until I know he's in the clear. They think they got it in time."

"Oh, Jesus." Now the tears were coming, and he didn't care who saw. He plopped himself back on the stool. His cat, his buddy, his only companion in those lonely years after Agnes moved away and before Rachel came back into his life, was in danger, and here he was, in a bar he didn't like, drinking bad beer and watching lecherous men make advances on his wife, when all he wanted to do was race home and be by Samson's side, because he couldn't help feeling like this was his fault, somehow; if he hadn't left Samson with his mother, this wouldn't have happened. Samson missed him, and it had expressed itself as a health emergency that nearly killed him. He knew it was stupid to think that way; he'd had to leave him with Mom when they went to Harrison Hot Springs last August, and then he'd had to stay because their previous house had burned down and they hadn't moved into their new one yet. It was just easier to leave him where he was, and Mom was happy to have him because he was the best cat who ever lived. Samson seemed happy whenever Al went to visit him and mow Mom's lawn. Maybe a little heavier because Mom spoiled him even more than Al did...

"They think it might have been his diet," Mom said, as if reading his mind. "It happens more with indoor cats, apparently. Crystals form in their urinary tract and block the flow of urine. The poor thing, can you imagine having to go and not being able to?"

He squeezed his legs together and looked around, noticing that Joanie was heading for the washrooms. The man was still at her table. "No, I can't," he said, looking for Rachel. She locked eyes with him, still looking concerned about his call, but he gestured with his head to Joanie's table. She looked, then leaned in and spoke in Lauren's ear. Lauren then leaned in and spoke in Tej's ear. He wished he could hear what they were saying.

"Wait," he said. "How did you get Samson to the hospital?"

"I called a taxi, dear."

"You didn't think to call me?"

"Well, I thought it would be quicker not to have you come all the way from Burnaby. I called Joanie because she lives close to me, but she didn't pick up. If there were the equivalent of a pet ambulance I would have called that. I'm calling you now, though."

"You called Joanie before me."

"Al, I couldn't wait, and what if you were busy with family?"

"Still, Mom, to think you had to do this on your own..."

"I'm not an invalid, Al."

"Jesus, I should be there..." He noticed Rachel, Lauren and Tej walking to the washrooms, now. "but I can't go yet..." 

"Don't go out of your way, Al. He's still in surgery. Once I find out how he is, I'll call you. Maybe, if you feel up to it, if Samson's out of the woods, you can visit him tomorrow morning before you go to Kelowna."

"I'll do everything I can to make it before we leave."

"Now, when you go to Kelowna..."

"Yes?"

"Be careful, please. You said Linda was going to be there. Do not make any noises about being Richard's son."

Al suddenly wondered if this was the real reason for his mother's call. It seemed so unimportant next to his cat's near-death experience, but he knew Mom was desperate not to make waves with Richard's family.

"Don't worry, I won't," he said. "Are you sure you don't want to come, yourself?" He had offered her one of the tickets, thinking Emma might want to stay home with Naomi, but Mom had refused.

"Definitely not," she said again. "I can't be in the same room as Richard with Linda there. I'm too worried my face will give the game away."

"All right."

"Besides, I'm not much of a wine drinker, and I don't want to fly in a small plane."

"It's fine, Mom, I just thought I'd ask again." He looked up again and felt his stomach drop when he saw an argument brewing between Lauren and the man at Joanie's table, Rachel and Lauren pointing at something on the table. Then he noticed the men who were chatting with the women back at their table were sidling over to see what was going on, and then he noticed Joe had risen from his stool in readiness to start busting heads if he had to. "Look, Mom, I think we're getting ready to leave, so I should probably go," he continued, "but call me once the vets tell you how he is."

"Will do. Bye, Al."

"Bye." He put his phone back in his pocket, stood from his stool and hurried forward to help. 

Uh-oh, things are getting tense. What did the women spot at Joanie's table? Will Joe lose his cool and start punching? You'll have to wait for the next chapter to find out. Thanks for reading this far! If you liked what you read so far, hit "Vote" to send this title up the ranks. If anything doesn't ring true about cat urinary health, leave a comment and let me know. I strive for authenticity.

To see if Joe keeps his cool, and what the gang discovers about Joanie's stalker, click on "Continue reading."