Irreplaceable
Chapter 1

Winter

Mia Lawson was being dumped.

This wasn't the first time, and it obviously wasn't going to be the last time.

In fact, she even saw this one coming. For over a month, not that she was pushing to end it, because then she would be single ... again.

And what was worse than being in a dead-end relationship with Damion "bald at thirty" Paulson? Being single after you were dumped by Damion "asked his cousin to prom and got turned down" Paulson!

Not that she wasn't used to being single. She was twenty-nine, and her longest relationship had been six months, and that was years ago. Sadly, that guy had dumped her, too.

"... and I think we want different things, Mia." Damion was still talking even is she wasn't listening to him.

In reality, she was expecting him to dump her via text or ghost her like the last guy from Norden last summer. But not this guy. No. He did it in person while she was working. In front of people. Not that Bill and Carl cared one whit about her love life, but Rafferty Brooks was behind Damion "cries during Disney movies" Paulson, all ears. He was probably reveling in her embarrassment.

"What do you think I want?" glaring at him her arms were crossed and her eye was twitching. She hated when it did that!

Mia wasn't deep. Her wants were simple: she wanted to be married with kids, and she wanted it the day before yesterday. Mia Lawson was the kind of girl who a good man dated through high school and proposed to at prom after their first magical time together, married her one hot summer night a few months later, and by the time the snow started to fly that fall, had her knocked up with the first of two perfect kids and one accident that came along a few years later. That one was also perfect.

Then they would enjoy living in the small town they had been raised in, enjoying the little things, like the fall festival, Christmas festival, Fourth of July parade, and everything else that happened in this one-horse town. Oh, and their Christmas cards would have been the talk of the town. Simply gorgeous.

Was that asking too much? Apparently, it was because that wasn't what she got. Not even close. Instead, she was still here and still single ten years later. She had lost her virginity to the wrong guy on prom night. Had waited that entire hot summer for him to call afterward. That never happened. By the time the snow flew, she had forced herself to move on, to give up completely on him. Admit she had been used.

And all those festivals? She went alone. Every damn year.

Mostly because she dated jerks. Case in point, the one in front of her. The one who didn't walk away as she stared him down.

"Ahm, I just... You know..." the idiot stammered, unable to actually admit what he had been up to.

"You know what I want, Damion? I want a boyfriend who isn't drooling after some chick from seven miles away in Norden. What's her name? Sally? Sidney? Sylvia?" Mia tapped her finger against her temple as if she was really trying to remember. She knew the answer. It was, after all, her job to know what was happening around the area. She served the food, and her patrons gave her all the information they thought she needed-as well as the information she didn't want. "Donna," the man actually admitted. He was making this too easy.

"Donna Farley, you mean. Donna 'I'm not divorced from my fourth husband' Farley, Damion? Or is it Donna 'I cheated on my last four husbands' Farley, Damion? Or is it Donna 'I have an STD' Farley?"

Mia had only learned that one this morning, but it was nice information to have right now. At the time, she had only been relieved that their relationship hadn't gone beyond a few kisses, mostly because he wasn't exactly a good kisser. Wet, very wet. "She doesn't have an STD." Damion defended his new love. Not once had he defended her when they were together.

"You're right, of course, Damion," Mia said, her eyes twitching again. "She has two. Do you want me to name them? In front of Bill and Carl over there and Rafferty back there. Oh, and there is your aunt Candy and her sister, you're mom, in the back. Hi, ladies." She actually looked at the empty booth, which caused him to look that way. So maybe he wasn't the one, and maybe she knew that a long time ago. But the pickings were slim in Landstad, ND. Sometimes you had scrap the bottle of the pail.

Without spotting his mom, his eyes swung back to her. "Mia, be reasonable."

"There is no reasonable, Damion. How long have you been seeing her?" She tapped the order pad with her pen as she waited on the answer.

"Not long." His eyes were on the uneaten plate of food in front of him that was getting cold.

"Before or after Christmas? Did you go see her family for the holiday, or did she have to tell her mother that you were busy on Christmas? Did she have to tell her mother that you couldn't get time off from work? When everyone knows you're a government employee and don't even work on Christmas Day?"

Mia had spent the entire holiday making excuses as to why her new man wasn't there. Why he was too busy to spend the day with her. At the time, she had thought it was her five sisters that might have scared him off. Since everyone knew they were hard to take as a group. Then she started to hear things. A lot of things.

"I went to her place that day," Damien confirmed, something his own sister had admitted last week. Because his sister already knew it was over, and Mia wondered if Damion had asked his sister to break up with her for him. Mia wasn't letting that happen. "Surprise surprise. I would assume it's her bed you've been sleeping in because it hasn't been mine. Which is alright since you probably have more than one STD by now." Mia made sure to say it loud enough for the entire café to hear and secretly wished Bill and Carl were talkers. But she had long since realized they only talked to each other.

The fact that she and Damion hadn't actually slept together might be the reason he had jumped into Donna Farley's bed so quickly. But she wasn't ready to make that move with him. After all, a girl had to be picky about that sort of thing. Which was turning out to be smart, very smart.

"Damion, I think it's time to go." Rafferty Brooks was suddenly on his feet and grabbing Damion's shoulder, pulling him from his stool. Of course, Rafferty would try and protect his fellow man.

"I'm not done eating." The man pointed to the nearly full roast beef meal and mashed potato he'd thought was worth dying over. A meal she was sure he thought he wouldn't have to pay for since, when he ordered, they were still dating.

Before Damion even moved, Mia dismissed him and focused on Rafferty Brooks instead. "Let the man eat, Rafferty. He's right; we're done. Three months of my life for nothing. Nothing."

Before she even thought about what she was doing, she grabbed Damion's plate from in front of him as he stabbed at another piece of roast. The man barely had time to look up before the plate landed on his head, food side down. The plate had even slid from his head to the floor before his large glass of milk followed the path of the plate.

Her only hope was that it splattered on Rafferty-he always deserved to be splattered. Today his suit was the gray one she had always liked. He looked good in gray. She hated that he looked good in everything.

When she told them to leave-or one of them, and really, she didn't know which one-she grabbed a pie plate in each hand. Rafferty headed for the door, but Damion was still in shock and covered in mashed potatoes and gravy, sitting on the stool. Reminding herself to have Rafferty's bill ready for tomorrow because he hadn't paid, the door closed behind him. He could run, but she knew where to replace him. She always did.

Damion's bill was also due. "Get out of here, Damion. Before I do something I'll regret."

"You don't regret this?" He pointed to his head.

"I will never regret that. In fact, I'm proud of that. I'll regret giving you a black eye, though." She grabbed the counter to control herself from going over that very edge.

Damion finally got a clue and jumped up, heading for the door. Grabbing his coat from the coat rack as he went. Before she could stop herself, she threw two small glass pie plates at the man's retreating form. Both hit their mark but didn't do anything other than make the man yelp as he rushed out the front door, the bells tinkling as it slammed closed behind him.

Watching him nearly run to his truck through the glass windows, she once again wondered what she had ever seen in the man. He was right; they wanted different things. They wanted different people.

As the door closed, she took a deep, calming breath before turning to smile over at the old men who were looking at her. Neither said anything about what had happened, which was a good thing because both had full plates in front of them and she didn't know if she could control herself yet.. Shaking her head, she surveyed the mess she had caused. And what a mess it was. Sadly, her life was in even worse shape. She was trapped in this town with nobody who loved her and nobody she wanted to love her. She needed out. Now.