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After years of loving her and months of marriage, he could be heading straight into separation and loneliness. Except they were already separate, and he was lonely when she wasn’t around. Moving would just remove the possibility of seeing her at all.
“Maybe you want to talk to Mia first? I would hate for you to lose her because of not talking to her. Like I almost did with Ruth.”
Ignoring his words, because he and Ruth had been in a completely different spot than he was with Mia, he told the man, “Ruth is another reason I feel leaving is for the best. So, you can tell your wife she wins. Landstad is hers.” Rafferty got up and headed out of the office.
Rafferty headed for the house he had wanted to share for the rest of his life with his wife. Now he was just hoping to have that wife—who cared about the house? Without her it wasn’t a home.
CHAPTER32
The drunken chatteraround her was giving her a headache. Looking at the clock on the wall, she decided to give it one more hour and then head home. This year, there had been too many bachelorette parties, too many weddings, and Mia was over them. But at least this one was the last.
Ruth was the only one not married, or so everyone thought. It seemed like she wasn’t going to get married again, and if she did, Mia wasn’t going. At all. It had been months since they had said a civil word to each other.
Which was why next week at book club, she was going to resign. She was tired of it. She hoped to remain friends with everyone but Ruth. She would understand if they slowly drifted apart. That was what happened when your friends got married anyway, and Mia had it happen over and over again. Every time one of them asked her to be a personal attendant, she knew she was sending another friend out of her life. Tomorrow would be her cousin, Mandy.
And with her, they would all be married, though nobody knew she was. Nobody would ever know that secret.
“So, Anderson came home today and said Rafferty is moving to Grand Forks. Just like that. Rafferty’s contacting Anderson’s dad and getting a transfer to the office down there,” Ruth told everyone from across the living room, but her eyes were on Mia.
“Really? Why?” Mandy asked, her eyes also darting to Mia.
“Anderson didn’t say, but he knows. I just have to get him to tell me,” Ruth said with a smile.
Mia looked at her drink and tried not to cry. He was leaving. She was supposed to leave, not him. It had been months since she had thought she would leave this town, before the new year, in fact. But it didn’t hurt any less that he was the one leaving. Leaving her here alone. And soon to be friendless.
“Had you heard that, Mia?” Ruth said from across the room still, so everyone was looking at her.
Mia hated that she was hearing it from Ruth and not Rafferty. All she wanted was to rush to his house and demand he tell her why he was leaving her, but she knew she wouldn’t. She had no control over him, and he was over her. He was leaving her.
“It’s good that someone is getting out of this town.” Trying to sound cheery and she hoped she had succeeded. It helped that most of the people there had no clue she was hung up on Rafferty.
“Are you still thinking about leaving?” Hazel asked, turning her attention to Mia. Now she wished she hadn’t been so vocal about leaving for so long, because the failure hurt even more when everyone knew about it.
“No, I’m stuck here, I guess. Forever.” Again, faking a cheeriness she didn’t feel.
“I’m glad, I love you here.” Natalie leaned over and bumped her with her shoulder.
“At least someone does,” Mia said into her whiskey and drank it in one gulp, suddenly wanting to be drunk tonight. If only she could drink enough to forget about this entire conversation.
As the conversation turned to local gossip, she looked around the room at her friends who had changed during the last eighteen months. All were married or going to be tomorrow. Natalie and Hazel were friends again, as they had been able to get past that tragic day so many years before. It would always be on their minds, but it wasn’t the only thing they had anymore. They were back to being close like when they were young.
Tess and Mandy were now sisters-in-law and were so close. With each having a baby, they had so much in common, and they had married best friends, so they would always be closer than the rest.
Ruth had probably changed the most. She had gone from a near hermit to an outgoing member of society. This year, she had even gotten onto the city board and was making improvements to the entire town. Nobody had said a thing about her being there for years and not contributing until now.
Only Mia was stuck in the same groove she was always in: waitress and soon to be divorced. Rafferty would start the paperwork if he was in Grand Forks. It was supposed to have been her, but now it will be him. She had to just let him go.
“So, I have an announcement,” Ruth said above the small conversations happening around them. “Anderson and I have asked Tess and Math to be godparents once the baby is born. And they have said yes.” Again, she was looking straight at Mia when she said it.
This announcement was at least expected. No way was she being asked. No way would Rafferty be asked either. Ruth had said months ago she wanted a married couple, and Tess and Math were that. At the time, she had told her friend she would be married by this time. And she was, Ruth just didn’t know about it. Hopefully, she never would.
But what Ruth was really saying with her choice of Tess and Math was that she was rejecting Rafferty. As a friend and as a brother. There was nothing the man could do to get past her bitterness at him.
Everybody congratulated Tess, even Mia. She was happy for her friend. She remembered Tess when book club started, and she wasn’t the most popular member of the group, but look at her now.
Sitting there silently for another few minutes, she decided to make her excuses. Nobody argued with her leaving. They let her go. Just like that, she saw the end of her participation in book club. She didn’t think she would even attend the next meeting. There was no reason to.
* * *
