Archie watched her go. She had quite the ass, he thought, as he kept his eyes pinned on her curvy form. Then he felt bad for thinking it. He had no right to even be noticing women right now. His life – the love part and otherwise – had been a trainwreck lately. To notice her might put a curse on her.
‘The curse of Archie Rader,’ he said to himself softly.
‘Who?’ The old woman had a highly complicated bun that appeared to be long braids wound atop her head. Her hair was the colour of fresh snow.
‘What?’
‘Who were you talking to?’ she said.
‘Myself.’ He had to smile at her. She was so obviously nosy and unapologetic about it.
‘And you are?’
He stuck out his hand. ‘Archie Rader.’
‘Madeline Kline.’ She shook with a good amount of strength for a woman he was guessing to be roughly seventy. ‘That was Betsey Smith you were just ogling, by the way.’
‘I wouldn’t call it ogling,’ he said, lying.
‘Really? At eighty-one I’d definitely call it ogling. I’ve seen quite a few ogles in my life.’ She sipped her coffee. ‘What are you doing here in Deep Creek Adjacent?’
‘Pardon?’
‘What are you doing here?’
‘Eating. But I meant the Deep Creek Adjacent thing?’
‘Oh, we’re not the actual lake. And not ritzy enough for some of the lake folks to acknowledge us. Inside joke, we’re Deep Creek Adjacent. Of if you’re lazy like a lot of the locals, DCA.’
‘Oh. I see. I’m just passing through. I’m starving and the guy up at the last gas station said to come here to eat.’
‘Ah, that’s Gary. Gary sends everyone here because the owner is his cousin. I swear he gets a kickback.’
‘That’s fascinating, Mrs Kline,’ Betsey said. She set his coffee and orange juice down and cocked a thumb back towards the counter. ‘Go back to your seat.’
‘But Betsey, I was just getting to know Arch–’
‘Mrs Kline, we talked about this.’
The old woman sighed. ‘Fine, fine. I’m going.’
‘Saved by the Betsey,’ he said, studying her warm brown eyes. Her hair was the colour of light coffee with streaks of golden honey. It was a strange colour set off by her dark eyes. ‘Thanks.’
‘No problem. She’d make you unhinge your jaw so she could count your teeth if you let her get away with it.’
He doctored his coffee while she stood there. Then he asked. ‘Any cheap accommodations around here?’
‘Some. Up by the main road. Pay-by-the-night places. But they’re a little…’ She shrugged. ‘Is seedy a word we still use?’
‘We do.’
‘Good, because it is.’ She held out her hand. ‘Betsey Smith.’
‘So I heard. I’m Rader.’
‘That’s not what I heard.’
He put his head down and shook it. ‘Archie Rader, but I go by Rader when I can. I try to anyway.’
‘Why? Archie’s nice.’
‘Archie is a comic-book character.’
‘But he’s also a you.’
Archie sipped his coffee. ‘Who was named after a comic-book character.’
‘Oh.’ She shrugged and smiled. The smile amazed him. It took her already warm and friendly face and transformed it to stunning. ‘Back to the seedy motel then.’
‘Good choice. Change of subject.’
‘How long are you looking to stay?’
The bell dinged loudly and a man barked, ‘Order up, Bets!’
Betsey held up a finger. ‘Hold that answer. That’s your food. You look starved.’ Archie couldn’t help but watch her walk away again. There was a lot of swing on that back porch, as his grandad used to say. He smiled. Then he saw Mrs Kline watching him and witnessing that smile.
She grinned at him and he noticed she was missing a substantial number of teeth.
‘Behave, Mrs Kline,’ Betsey said on her way back to his table.
‘I’m not the one checking out your ass,’ Mrs Kline said.
‘Sorry,’ Archie said when Betsey set his plate down.
‘For her or for checking out my ass?’
‘If I lie and say I wasn’t looking would it earn me points?’ He bit into a piece of bacon and it only accented how hungry he was. He hadn’t realised.
‘No. But admitting you were would earn you some. I think it’s been a long time since someone’s checked out my ass.’ She leaned against the bench opposite him and watched him eat.
‘I doubt that. I think they’re just more skilled at hiding it than me.’
She smiled at that. ‘Anyway, how long you looking to stay?’
It was Archie’s turn to shrug. ‘I have no clue. I’m sort of rambling. Found myself suddenly without a home or a job or even a temporary place. So yeah…just the kind of guy you want checking out your ass, right?’
She crossed her arms over her chest and a small frown twisted her lips in the most adorable way. He wondered what it was like to kiss Betsey. And then reminded himself it was a dangerous thought to be having. Emotional ties to people weren’t exactly his thing right now.
‘Everyone has crappy times in life,’ she said. ‘If you have any interest in staying here I wouldn’t recommend the one-night-seedy-hotel route.’
‘No?’
‘No. I think you should come home with me,’ she said.
He almost spit out his coffee but settled on choking on it instead.
She held up her hands saying softly, ‘Put your hands up, put your hands up,’ as if he were a child. Another endearing quality of pretty Betsey.
When he could breathe again she laughed softly. ‘I know how that sounded. I meant to my trailer park. We’re not far from here and Mr Booth, he owns the place, is looking for a handyman. Our last one…well, he died.’
‘It’s not a haunted trailer park, is it?’
At the counter Mrs Kline snorted with laughter. She wasn’t very subtle with her eavesdropping, Archie thought.
‘No. It’s just he was old. Anyway, we need a new one and it comes with employee quarters.’ The last two words were accompanied by air quotes.
‘Air quotes make me nervous,’ he said.
She snickered. ‘They should. It’s an ancient trailer with bare necessities but it’s a paying job and it’s better than living in your truck, right?’
He eyed his truck. On its last legs, floor full of rust holes, running on fumes half the time and threatening to die the other half.
Then he looked at Betsey. Wouldn’t be so bad to have her as a neighbour. Not from what he could see.
‘What do you think?’ she asked. ‘Sounds like you could use a stroke of good luck. Even if it’s modest.’
He nodded. ‘Sounds good. What makes you so sure your trailer-park owner will hire me?’