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Mild-mannered, always-on-task Ruth. As far as he could tell, she had never done anything that even came close to getting into trouble. Even the woman out in the middle of a snowstorm didn’t seem like she was trouble.
“It was probably more Franky than Angel, I suppose. They were always getting caught being horny teenagers, and they must have started dating at around twelve.” Rafferty finally finished his eggs, to Anderson’s relief.
“Where is Franky now?” He could imagine seeing this new Ruth making out with a boyfriend, but the office-Ruth was harder to picture doing something like that.
“I don’t know. Wherever Frank Berg ended up. I think he moved to be closer to Franky and his family. He ended up being a jerk. Franky, not Frank. Frank was great letting her work over there for years, and then he made you hire her. He took care of her, and I respect him for that. Angel deserves everything she gets.” Rafferty looked past Anderson to where she must’ve been sitting. It seemed his buddy had a soft spot for the woman despite her feelings for him.
Frank Berg had been the man Anderson’s company had bought the insurance office from four years before. He had worked in Landstad for over thirty years when he retired, though as far as Anderson knew, he hadn’t returned, leaving his entire past behind when he left.
“So, you don’t hate her; she just hates you?” Anderson questioned, trying to get a handle on the relationship between the two.
“Yup, can’t blame her, though. I wish we could be friends. She was fun in the old days.” Rafferty once again looked in the direction she must’ve been sitting.
“Friends or friends?” Anderson said with an eyebrow raised, wishing he had chosen that side when they had come in earlier. He wanted another look at the woman, even if he could look at her all day, every day at work. Today was different.
“Gross, man. We’re related,” Rafferty said as Mia walked by with a tray of dirty dishes.
Anderson watched his friend reach out and slap the woman hard on her butt. She just kept going with her tray, not letting it get to her. Anderson watched Rafferty laugh, except within seconds, the woman was back, trayless, and had Rafferty’s head pushed into the window at the end of the booth.
She slammed it into the window again when she said, “If you ever touch me again, Rafferty Brooks, I will kill you. And you know that isn’t an empty threat. Nobody would even find your body.” She then yanked his hat off his head. With force, she threw it on the floor and walked away from the booth again.
Anderson was laughing when Rafferty sat up, his hair a complete mess. The previous cheerful attitude was gone. Straightening his hair as best he could, he finally gave a brittle smile as he said, “God, she wants me.”
“I think you are delusional, man,” Anderson said as he got up, throwing a twenty-dollar bill on the table. He wasn’t eating, and Rafferty was probably going to be kicked out of the cafe again.
“Nope. That, my friend, is Mia. She’s a feisty one.” Rafferty followed him and got up, adding his own money to the table. Zipping up their jackets, they walked out into the blowing snow. North Dakota winter storms were legendary, and this one was going to be a good one.
They waved goodbye, and Anderson climbed into his cold pickup. He quickly started it and waited for it to warm up a little. As he sat there, the café door opened, and two women came out: Tess Thorn from the bank and Ruth in her blue coat, zipped to her chin. Once the wind hit them, her white hair went flying everywhere. She was living up to the image in his mind of an angel.
Putting the car in gear, he pulled away from the curb as they walked by, neither of them looking his way. They seemed very different, and he wondered if they were friends. But then again, he was beginning to think he had no idea who Ruth really was. Based on what Rafferty had said, they were close to the same age. That made the woman around thirty and younger than Anderson was. He had to admit it was the hair that had made him think she was older. White hair on a twenty-something was odd, but in his defense, she always acted and dressed older than she was.
Nothing had ever pointed him in the direction of a troublemaking young woman. He would have to see if there was any of that left in her, see if she was still the angel she had been in high school.
