Irreplaceable
Chapter 2

Mia Lawson was being dumped, right in the middle of her own café in front of at least half a dozen people. It was a train wreck, and Rafferty Brooks couldn't look away. Because this train wreck was sure to turn into a train explosion.

As she started to hurdle food at the man, Rafferty barely got far enough away to not get covered himself. He quickly looked over himself, trying to replace any chunks or splashes of anything he was sure Mia had secretly wanted him also covered in. Seeing her eyes look him up and down, he knew she was disappointed he got away unscathed. "Get out," she said in a low voice, her hands reaching for the plastic-covered pies sitting on the counter.

Rafferty knew it was time to leave, but Damion wasn't as smart and started to argue with her. Grabbing his coat from the booth he had been sitting in, he was almost out the door when Damion wasn't only hit with a blueberry pie, but also the award-winning apple. Once outside, the cold hit Rafferty, and he quickly pulled on his coat. Now, what to do? He had gone to the café to get away from his dad and the bomb that was dropped on him today. The bomb wasn't a surprise in itself, just that it was happening already. This morning he had shown up to work, a job he'd had for years selling insurance alongside his dad. His dad showing up had never been a good thing, but today, his dad was actually happy to be there. Well, for a few minutes, at least. Because Howard Brooks was retiring as of today. No warning, no planning, just done.

On top of that, Howard had sold the building he had owned since before Rafferty had even been born. Rafferty had thought he would work at the place forever... until his dad sold it. According to Howard, he had gotten an offer he couldn't turn down. And it seemed he couldn't have run it by his son and successor before making the deal.

Now his whole future looked hazy. A few years ago, he had joined his dad's insurance agency in hopes of getting to know the man who hadn't done much to be close to his only son over the years. It hadn't worked, and today, Rafferty was reminded that his father was still a jerk.

Not that working with his dad had been the only reason he came home. He missed the town he had been raised in. He missed knowing everyone in the café when he went in. He missed the Fourth of July parade where so many people showed up just to watch that the town's population raise by ten-fold for a few hours. He missed that he could walk through the entire town and name the people in every house for the past twenty years. So, he came back, and he stayed.

Standing on the sidewalk on Main Street, the cold was seeping into his body as he debated what to do next. What he should do is go home and spend the day deciding what to do with the rest of his life.

Only the realization that Mia Lawson was single again had him rooted to the spot. Not that the woman had ever had a long-term man in her life; most were short flings, and a lot were nonstarters. But she was fun and popular, and it was a matter of time before she found the one, or the one she would settle for.

With his work life in shambles, he decided that he could try and get his love life in order. Suddenly, he thought he knew the way. He would get a friend of a friend to talk him up a bit, making him look good. Maybe convince Mia he was someone to take out for a test drive and kick the tires. Buy?

His friend Anderson Miles's personal assistant and Mia had recently turned into close friends during the last few weeks. Not that they didn't know each other before. They went to high school together and had both lived in town for years. As had Rafferty. But the woman hated Rafferty. Hated. She had a long list of reasons why, and she wasn't afraid to remind him of them. Or at least she would if she didn't spend all her time ignoring him.

Angel Johnson's name was actually Ruth Kennedy now, but she was always Angel in school. She became a Kennedy when her mom married when she was fourteen. He liked to think of Ruth with her old name. It suited her better. The woman was born with white hair and pale blue eyes. She actually looked like an Angel, and now she acted like one, but in high school, the name didn't fit her at all. Back then, she was known for getting into trouble and getting too handsy with her boyfriend.

The worst part about Angel's hatred of him was that he truly loved her. He kind of always had. They had a connection from the beginning. He must have met her on the first day of kindergarten if not earlier-it was a small town, and they were the same age. They connected that year when she was, of course, chosen as the angel in the kindergarten school play, where he was a shepherd and had to stare at the angel for almost the entire two hours.

Why he was the only one who noticed that she was going to fall, he didn't know. Why he thought he would be able to catch her, he didn't know either. They both ended up breaking their arms, and then they had actually been friends of sort the entire time they were in school.

Just friends, too. He had never been sexually attracted to Angel. By the time he realized what s*x really was, she was already dating Franky Berg, and she dated him from the time they were twelve until he dumped her during college.

Almost as soon as that relationship was over for her, she learned the secret her mom had been keeping from her for eighteen years: who her dad really was. That information is what had turned them into supposed enemies. He and Angel shared a dad. Angel was the product of his dad's fifteen-year affair with Sara Johnson. To this day, he had yet to acknowledge her as his daughter in any way. Sara had been the one to tell Rafferty, not his father. It was Sara who had asked him to be tested to see if he and Angel shared the same blood type. The woman was desperate and would do anything for her daughter. Sure enough, they did, and then came more tests. That was when he had found out Angel had actually lost function of her kidneys and needed a transplant. Today he had one kidney, and she had the other. She owed him, and he was about to ask for payment. Mia was worth far more than a kidney to him.

Rafferty walked across the street without looking for traffic. Traffic would stop for him; it was Landstad. Of course, there was no traffic to speak of since it was freezing outside.

Pushing through the door, Ruth was sitting at her desk and seemed happy until the moment she saw him. Then she was as cold as it was outside.

"Anderson, your friend is here," she announced in her best angry personal assistant voice.

Anderson quickly came out to her office area. "Rafferty, what can I do for you today? Come into my office. My personal assistant has some issues with you." He was trying to get him away from Ruth as fast as possible.

It almost made Rafferty laugh. His friend was suddenly smitten with his personal assistant, which for the past few weeks had been fun to watch and even more fun to tease the man about. Ruth had been working for Anderson for years, and now suddenly he was interested.

Rafferty looked over at Ruth, who was staring intently at her computer. "I want to talk with her for a minute."

"Nothing to say to you, Brooks." Ruth turned and was now shuffling through the papers on her desk, making a point not to look at him.

He grabbed a visitor chair, pulled it to the front of her desk, and plopped down in it. "I need you to talk to Mia for me. Talk me up."

"No, I don't want any of my friends talking to you. They deserve better." She didn't look up at him, but he kept staring at her anyway, which caused her to start blushing. She always blushed easily, and he liked to see that hadn't changed.

"You owe me, Angel," he mumbled quietly, hoping Anderson wasn't paying attention.

Standing up, she looked down at him with anger. "And this is what you want? Mia Lawson? What happens when you need a liver?" Her voice was just as quiet.

"I hear yours is getting quite the workout at book club." Their gazes didn't break as he got to his feet, the smile gone.

"Not nearly as much as yours always has," she countered, but he knew she had no idea. She never went out for fun. She was too much of a homebody for that.

"Could you just talk to her?" he asked, nicer now. Anger wasn't going to get him anything.

"No. If she wants to talk to you, she will. She knows you as much as I do." She picked up the pile of papers.

Which was exactly why he needed someone else to talk to her. They had too much of a past. It wasn't even all that had happened in the last few years. He had messed things up badly long before he came back to Landstad. "Come on, Angel," He begged.

"No, you can lord it over my head some more. It's nice when you drag it out like this. I would hate for that to stop." Whispering so Anderson didn't hear, Ruth sat down and turned her back on him. Only to stare at the wall, not even pretending to be doing anything productive.

Leaning against the door jam, Anderson folded his arms, his face set in slight annoyance. "Come into my office, Rafferty. She said no."

Rafferty shrugged in defeat. His work life was done, and his love life was done. Now he had nothing to keep him in town, which meant he would have to give up on Mia forever. But maybe it was for the best. Ruth was right-if Mia had wanted him, she knew where he was. She'd never wanted him.

In Anderson's office, he sat heavily in the chair across from his friend. "Dad just sold the building our office is in. Someone offered him way more than it was worth, and he took it."

"So now you have rent. I rent this place. It's not bad, and you don't have to worry about taxes and upkeep. When something breaks, you just call the management company, and it gets fixed." Anderson tried to make it sound like it wasn't the end of the world. "No, they want us out. They doubled the average rent price in the area. Dad is retiring, but I need the office. I don't want to leave town, but I might have to," Rafferty admitted. There was no way he could afford the rent. Any rent, really. His dad wasn't as well-liked in town as Anderson. So far less successful.

"Maybe somewhere else in town?" Anderson suggested.

"No luck. They own almost all the open rental space in town." Rafferty leaned back and rubbed his eyes hard.

What he hadn't realized until today was that for being a small town that should be having issues with keeping renters and replaceing buyers, Landstad was the complete opposite. The town was thriving for some reason. There were only a few homes and no businesses for sale in town, and it had been that way for years now.

"I rent from M Johnson Inc., and I haven't had any issues." Anderson leaned toward him across the desk.

"That's who bought the building. We've been there since before I was even born, and now we are going to have to move. Or I am," Rafferty said, trying not to sound as depressed as he felt about it.

"Well, if your dad is really retiring, maybe you want to join me over here," Anderson suggested from out of nowhere.

Ruth rushed into the room as if she had been listening to them, which he was sure she had been. Her hands were on her hips, and her voice unwavering as she stated, "No way is he working here. I'll be out that door if he comes in it. I won't spend my days with him." "Ruth, it was just an idea." Anderson turned his attention to Ruth.

Rafferty could tell that he didn't like that he had upset Ruth. He appreciated how much the man was into the woman. She had it for him just as badly, but for a lot longer.

"We could be co-workers, Angel. It would be fun. You, me, and Andy, a trio of insurance fun," Rafferty couldn't help himself from teasing her.

"I'll quit. In fact, why don't you just think about how my quitting would affect you because I'm leaving right now. Have a good weekend!" she yelled through the door at them as she walked out into the cold.

Anderson panicked at the woman leaving without her jacket on. It was, after all, freezing outside. Rafferty wasn't too worried about her. Within seconds of her angry exit, she'd be home in her apartment right above them.

Her retreat meant she wouldn't help him. And without Ruth, he had no way of convincing Mia of anything. There was no way she would give him the time of day without someone else's encouragement. He had to get Ruth to help him. She was his only hope.