"I thought that was y'all's car outside," the stranger said in a soft, southern voice as he smiled at Matt and Slivie.
He wore a green wool cap even in this warm weather, and a button pinned to his suspenders that said 'save the Texas prairie chicken.'
"Hey Mike!" The boys greeted happily, Slivie offered the hand he had around my shoulder for a hand shake.
"How y'all doin'?" He asked, grinning at each of us in turn.
"Pull up a chair, man," Matt told him.
"Ah, thank you, thank you," he said as he pulled a chair from a nearby table and sat backwards on it, resting his forearms on the back of the chair. "Who are these nice ladies y'all are with? They look too good for likes of you."
Mike smiled at me to show he's teasing.
"That's true," Slivko agreed. "This is Maybelle, my girlfriend."
He said it so proudly it melted my heart, especially since it was the first time hearing him say it.
Mike looked vaguely shocked and covered his mouth with one hand while gingerly shaking mine with the other.
"Girlfriend! Oh my my. How has he swindled you into this?"
"Effectively," I answered with a grin as I leaned into Slivko's side.
Mike pulled an impressed face as Slivko then introduced Grace and Billy.
"Oh, we have another gentleman at the table, I did not see you there. How do you do?" Mike tipped an invisible cowboy hat at him.
"Good," Billy answered with a shy grin.
"Wow, so how long y'all been in town?" Mike asked Grace and I, scratching one of his impressive sideburns.
"Just got here today actually," Grace answered.
"How fortuitous that I run into you then, I can welcome you to good ol' Dee-troit Michigan!" Mike smiled broadly.
I liked this guy already. His accent reminded me of home and he had this hint of eccentricity to him that made him vaguely fascinating to me.
"So, what kind of trouble are you up to this evening?" Mike asked us with a glint of mischief in his dark eyes.
"It's been a fairly tame night, to be honest," Matt told him.
"Yeah just catching up with Maybelle and Grace," Slivko shrugged. "introduced them to Dad and Penny."
At the sound of Penny's name Mike turned a darling shade of pink.
"How is it you know each other?" Grace asked as curiosity got the best of her.
"Oh yeah," Matt rolled his eyes to himself for forgetting. "Sorry. Mike and Dad are best friends and he's got a massive crush on aunt Penny."
"I do not have a crush on Penny!" Mike contradicted completely red now. "I am in love with her."
I couldn't help the giggle that burst from my lips. I had not expected those straight forward words to follow his previous statement and I was quite taken aback. Mike looked at me with raised brows, wondering if I had really just laughed at him.
"I'm being serious," he told me.
"I know," I replied. "It just surprised me is all. Until recently I was not acquainted with so many straightforward men and it catches me off guard sometimes."
"Well, I forgive you," Mike brushed it off. "Now fellas, I got some itchy string fingers and it seems to me to be a good occasion to scratch em. Think your old man would mind a jam session?"
"I don't see why not," Matt shrugged. "We can order to go and head back to the house."
"Wait a second," I said, still mentally decoding what Mike had said. "You play- you're musicians?"
"Well, Dad and Mike are," Slivko squinted.
"Reg and I inherited ability but not talent I'd guess you could say," Matt finished.
"Wow, I didn't know that. I mean, I saw the guitars in your room, but we have a guitar at our house too and no one can play it," I said to Slivko.
All the sudden, the waiter reappeared at our table precariously carrying a stack of cups, a pitcher of water, menus and a ... bucket? It took a moment for him to disarm himself of all these things.
"There's menus for the ladies, water and cups, and our famous bait bucket, on the house," he winked.
"Awesome!" Matt and Slivko lit up as they dove for the bucket full of fries covered in various sauces.
I thanked the waiter before he left and then was greeted by a hot, tantalizing French fry right in front of my lips.
"Mae, you gotta try this, it's the best," Slivko said.
"No," Matt whined. "Don't do the feed your girlfriend thing in front of me."
"Do it, Mae!" Grace contrarily cheered.
I looked between them and then at Slivko who just nodded at me. Matt groaned as I opened my mouth and finally accepted the fry.
"Oh man, that is good," I told him as I chewed.
"I know right?!" He said happily as he ate three at once.
Matt glared at us as he slowly brought a fry to his mouth. Grace gave Billy some fries and then perused the menu.
"So," I turned to Mike. "Does Penny know how you feel about her? Like, did you guys da-"
Slivko popped another fry in my mouth while it was open.
"She is aware of my affections, but all I receive from her are rejections," he mystically rhymed at me with a sigh. "Still, my feelings are true so I try to prove it to her by staying the course."
"Well, that's been known to work," I said before receiving another fry.
"Dude, seriously," Matt complained.
"What?" Slivko protested. "With you shoveling them in I'm just making sure she gets some."
I giggled and turned to Mike again.
"See? There's all sorts of ways to say you love someone."
"True enough," he grinned back at me.
We ordered our food to go and left behind an empty bucket of fries. Grace, Billy and Matt decided to ride with Mike, which seemed sketchy to me but also meant I'd be alone with Slivko. So I didn't care much.
"Mike is really cool," I said to Slivko as he pulled away from the restaurant.
"Yeah, wait till you hear him play," Slivko smiled. "Hopefully Penny is still around because that is also fun to watch."
We pulled up to a red light and Slivko reached over and grabbed a belt loop on my jeans.
"We got 20 seconds," he declared as he pulled me across the seat to him.
"For what?" I giggled as I tried to keep my balance but ended up falling against him as i avoided hitting the gear shift with my legs.
He gently nuzzled my nose with his, getting me to turn my face up toward him before he captured my lips in a kiss. Behind us, Mike laid on his horn, making us smile but not pull apart. And just to give them the old 'neener neener' he kissed me once more, even deeper before the light turned green.
We did this at every red light, all the way home.