"Name one."
She opens her mouth. Closes it. Takes a long sip of coffee.
"Ruth…"
"I'm thinking."
"You can't name one because there isn't one. You told Mrs. Patterson her casserole tasted like revenge gone too far."
"It did." She doesn't even flinch. "She used too much oregano and not enough love."
"But Rome scares you?"
Ruth points a finger at me, her expression still playful but with an edge of genuine grievance underneath.
"Your brother doesn't scare me. He disappoints me with his face. There's a difference. That man walks into my diner looking like that and I can't even yell at him properly because I lose my train of thought. It's rude."
Erin hides her face in her elbow. I lean against the counter, loving this crazy woman. How could I not? Ruth looks pleased with herself, which is dangerous. A pleased Ruth is a Ruth who's about to change subjects at whiplash speed.
"Anyway." She picks up her coffee and remaining muffin half. "Did you hear about the Beckett boy?"
And we're off. Today's download: the Beckett boy was seen with the Miller girl behind the hardware store. Scandalous, because the Miller girl is supposedly engaged to someone from two towns over. Ruth has sources. Always has sources.
"How do you know all this?" I ask, never fully understanding how everything gets back to her.
"I own a diner, sweetheart." She says it like it's obvious. Like diners are naturally hubs of espionage. "People tell me things while they eat pancakes. Pancakes are a truth serum."
She stays the full forty-five minutes. Covers the Beckett boy, the Miller girl, the new help at the diner. The new helphas been downgraded from "too pretty to be trusted" to "pretty and possibly stupid, which is worse." Ruth's ranking system is cruel and comprehensive and entirely her own.
She kisses my cheek on the way out.
"She's unhinged," I say after the door slams shut.
"She's the heartbeat of this town and she knows it."
I guess she's not wrong.
Poppy breezes in later that afternoon, jacket half-off, phone pressed between her shoulder and ear.
"Babe, I know, but I'm at Erin's now so you're going to have to hold that thought."
She pauses, listens. "Mmhm. Yeah, you can do that when I get home. Yes, please. Love you, bye."
She hangs up, drops onto Ruth's stool like she hadn't just had that conversation in front of us.
"Hi." She beams. "How is everyone?"
Erin and I stare at her.
"What?"
"What was that?" I ask.
"What was what?"
"The phone call. The 'you can do that when I get home' phone call."
"Ramsey wants to try something new with the…"
