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“No, for a few years I was convinced he would come back to me, to what we had. We had a good thing. When he got married, I had to let that idea go. He wasn’t coming back to me. By then, I was settled into my rut, and I have stayed in that rut.”
“I am glad I am a part of that rut.” He smiled at her.
“Enough about my sad life. Tell me about Andy.” She laughed at the sound of his nickname. “Anderson.”
He winked at her. “What do you want to know, Angel?”
“Did you get to live with your girlfriend in your parent's house?” She was not getting into it about her nickname. Ignore it, and he will stop, she hoped.
“I never even got to stay in the same room when I brought a girlfriend home for the holidays in college.”
“A shame. Who did you bring home?”
When he didn’t say anything, she wondered if he would answer. Had she asked too much? She had told him so much about herself; had it been too much to ask?
“Her name was Noel, and I thought I loved her. It was during my senior year of college.”
“What happened?” She wanted to know who could still make him sound sad.
“How do you know something happened?” He raised one eyebrow in question.
“Because you have no spouse named Noel.”
“What happened was my brother decided that he wanted her, and he got her. They have been married for seven years.” Ruth knew that there was more to the story than that but didn’t want to push.
“Your own brother? I didn’t think brothers were like that.” How painful for him.
“Brothers are not supposed to be like that,” he agreed.
“How about Daphne? What happened there?” She bit her lip. She had been someone they barely talked about for years. Though he lived with her, he never talked about her, never brought her up. But then they weren’t this close before. And since he had informed her of the breakup months ago, she had been scared to ask but dying to know. Because who would actually dump Anderson? No sane person, that was who.
“I met Daphne when I was looking for a house about five years ago. She sold real estate. I didn’t end up buying a house because, within a few months, my father shipped me out here. But when I moved here, I moved some of my stuff to her place, and on the weekends, I would stay with her. At the time I was only supposed to be here for two years tops, but my dad doesn’t think that I would be good at this in a bigger market like Grand Forks. So, I get the Landstad branch.”
“Where is your brother?” she asked.
Anderson smiled turned brittle. “In the office right next to my dad. He was born ready for a larger market. In fact, he is my boss.”
“His name is Jonathan, right? The Jonathan that calls every once in a while?” How many times had he called, and she had just thought he was someone from his dad’s office? She never would have thought he was Anderson’s brother.
“Yes.”
“So, what happened with Daphne? You didn’t finish. You were supposed to be here for two years and...” She pulled her feet under her on the couch. Her head was still leaning against the back of the couch into his touch. She loved him touching her.
“And I asked her to marry me. I was tired of the long distance. If she would move, which she never wanted to, I would try harder to get back. Maybe if my dad saw that I was in a serious relationship, he would move me back.” His eyes were so sad.
“She said no?” Ruth couldn’t believe that there was a woman out there that would say no to Anderson.
“Yes, and then she told me that I was the second Miles brother to ask her to marry her that week. Apparently, she had been seeing Jonathan for a few months, and he was going to leave Noel for her. I didn’t tell her that my brother would never leave Noel—my father would disown him. Noel is the perfect daughter-in-law,” he finished bitterly.
“Your brother has stolen two of your girlfriends? Makes me glad my mother only had one child. Siblings don’t sound like as much fun as I had always imagined.” She hated that his brother would do something like that to him.
“I sometimes wish I had a sister instead of a brother,” he said.
“Do you still love her?” She didn’t want to know the answer right now.
“I miss what we had, what we could have had,” he said, though she noticed he didn’t answer the question.
Pushing aside her disappointment, she changed the subject to something less heartbreaking. “Are you still wanting to leave? Go back to Grand Forks?”
