“You know what I mean,” she said irritably. “I wasn’t thinking clearly. You were going to be in the area and it seemed like such a little thing. I should’ve known…”

“I’m grateful you asked me to do this,” Vaughn countered. “I’ve learned a whole lot.”

“No! No…this is all wrong.” Natalie sounded desperate now.

“Buffalo Valley is a nice town. The people here are worried about what’ll happen if Value-X moves in.”

“But they don’t understand that we—”

“They want someone to listen, and it’s clear the company isn’t going to do that.” The purpose of Natalie’s visit was to convince the people of Buffalo Valley that they needed Value-X.

“Of course the town wants us to listen, they all do, but what would happen to our jobs if we actually did?”

Natalie made her point without contradiction by Vaughn, although he doubted she recognized the real import of her words.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Natalie pleaded. “At least wait until I get there and we can talk this out.”

Her arrival was an entirely separate issue. “That brings up another…problem.”

“Now what?” she snapped. “I suppose you’re going to tell me you’ve met someone else and you want to dump me.”

Vaughn rubbed his hand along his thigh and said nothing.

“This has got to be a joke.” She gave a short, humorless laugh. “Talk about the Grinch stealing Christmas!”

“I realize my timing is bad—”

“Bad! You don’t know the half of it.”

“Natalie, listen, I’m genuinely sorry.”

“You asked me to be your wife.”

Technically, that wasn’t true. They’d talked about marriage, but Natalie had shown no great enthusiasm. Now, however, didn’t seem to be the time to argue the point. “If you’ll recall, you were pretty lukewarm about the idea. That has to tell you something about your feelings for me.”

“I was playing it cool,” she insisted, sounding close to tears.

Vaughn had never known Natalie to cry, and he experienced deep pangs of regret. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, but I had to say something before you showed up here.” He hoped she’d cancel the trip, although he figured that was unlikely.

“I wanted you to be thrilled when I finally agreed to marry you. Now you’re saying you don’t love me.”

“Not exactly…” He did hold tender feelings for her, but he knew with certainty that they were never meant to be together.

“You love me—but you love someone else more?”

Vaughn wasn’t sure how to respond. He hadn’t declared his feelings for Carrie, but the promise he felt with her outweighed his feelings for Natalie.

“I suppose she’s one of the crusaders against Value-X That would make sense, now that I think about it.”

Vaughn didn’t answer.

“I’m not giving up on us,” Natalie insisted, “not until we’ve had a chance to speak face-to-face.”

He’d already guessed she wouldn’t make this easy. “I’d rather you just accepted my decision.”

A painful pause followed. “Just what do you plan to do with your life if you resign from Value-X?” she demanded.

“I don’t know.” His future was as much a mystery to him as it was to her. All Vaughn could say was that he had no intention of remaining with the company.

“You’re not thinking clearly,” Natalie said.

“Actually, I’m thinking about settling here.” He wasn’t sure where the words had come from, but until he said them aloud the possibility hadn’t even occurred to him.

“In North Dakota,” she blurted out, as though he was suffering from temporary insanity. “Now I know this is all a bad joke. Who in their right mind would live there? You know the demographics as well as I do. No one lives in a place like that on purpose.”

“I would.”

“This is ridiculous! I wouldn’t believe it if I wasn’t hearing it with my own ears. You can’t be serious.”

Although he knew it was probably a waste of breath, Vaughn felt obliged to tell her about Buffalo Valley. He wanted her to know the people he’d met. She couldn’t begin to grasp what he felt unless she understood who and what they were.

“This farming community is small-town America at its best,” he said, and wondered if she was even listening. “They have a history of banding together in hard times—and there’ve been plenty of hard times.” He wanted to make her understand the depth of his respect for them, so he relayed to her the plot of the Christmas play.

“That’s all very interesting,” Natalie told him, her tone bored, “but that was then and this is now. Value-X will come into Buffalo Valley with or without you. With or without me. It doesn’t matter how many times you sit and watch a group of teenagers act out the town’s history, nothing is going to change.”

“It will,” Vaughn said.

“I’m not letting you quit. One day you’ll thank me.”

“Natalie, what are you doing?”

“First I’m going into corporate headquarters to make sure no one reads your resignation letter. Then I’m flying out on the twenty-seventh, just the way I planned, so we can talk this out.”

“I wish you wouldn’t. Let it go, Natalie.”

Her returning laugh sounded like a threat. “I don’t think so. You didn’t really believe I’d allow you to cut me loose with a simple phone call, did you?”

He didn’t bother to respond. What was the point?

“You see yourself as this hero, this knight in shining armor, and while that’s fine and good, it isn’t going to work.”

Vaughn could see the storm clouds gathering on the horizon.

Sunday morning while his parents attended church, Vaughn drove into Buffalo Valley. He’d made the trek so often in the past week that it seemed almost second nature to head in that direction.

Everything about the town appealed to him. It’d started when he’d first met Hassie and accepted the gold watch that had belonged to her husband. With the watch came an implied trust. He refused to be part of anything that would betray their relationship.

He hadn’t heard from Carrie, but he would once she was ready. He didn’t think it would take her long to come to terms with his confession. Because of her ex-husband’s betrayal, it was vital that he be as open and honest with her as possible. However…he still hadn’t explained Natalie’s role in his life. Poor Carrie was about to be hit with a second shock, but there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to prevent it.

He parked just outside town, at the twenty-acre site for the proposed Value-X. With the wind howling, he climbed out of the car and walked onto the property. Either he was becoming accustomed to the bone-chilling weather or it’d warmed up in the past twenty-four hours. He discovered he could breathe now without feeling as though he was inhaling ice particles.

He’d been there for several minutes when he saw a truck pull up and park next to his vehicle. Two men climbed out and started toward him. He instantly recognized them as Carrie’s younger brothers.

“Chuck and Ken, right?” he said as they approached.

Chuck, the older of the two, touched his hat. “Vaughn Kyle?”

Vaughn nodded.

“Did you have a falling-out with Carrie after the play?” Chuck asked. The man was nothing if not direct. His brow had furrowed and the teasing friendliness was gone. “You hurt her and you have me to answer to.”

“I have no intention of hurting her.”

“Good.” He nodded once as if to suggest the subject was closed.

“What are you doing out here?” Ken muttered.

Vaughn wasn’t sure what to tell him. He hadn’t asked Carrie to keep the fact that he was employed by Value-X a secret, but it was apparent that she had. If either Chuck or Ken knew the truth, they’d have him tarred and feathered and run out of town.

“Just looking,” Vaughn told him.

“Looking at what? Empty land?”

“If you had this twenty acres or any portion of it, how would you develop it?” Vaughn asked the pair.

“That’s easy,” Ken said. “This town needs a feed store—been needing one for years. Most everyone has to drive to Devils Lake for their feed.”

A feed store. Now that was interesting. “Why don’t you do it?” he suggested.

“No time. The hardware store keeps us busy. Dad needs us there, but if someone were to come along with enough investment capital and a head for business, they’d be guaranteed success.”

“Dad carries some of the more common feed, but he doesn’t have room for much.”

“We got to talking about a feed store just the other day,” Ken said, glancing at his brother. “Wondering who might be able to open one.”

This morning, Vaughn had casually told Natalie that he might settle in Buffalo Valley. A few days earlier his future was set, and now all at once he was cast adrift. His carefully ordered life was in shambles, and Vaughn didn’t like the uncomfortable feeling that gave him.

“It’d take someone with ready cash,” Ken told him, his expression pensive, “and that’s in short supply around here.” He kicked at the snow with the toe of his boot. “People in these parts invest everything in their land.”

“You interested?” Chuck asked him bluntly.

Vaughn looked in the direction of town, suddenly aware that this venture piqued his interest. He wanted to be part of Buffalo Valley, part of its future. It’d be a risk, but he’d never backed down from a challenge before and he wasn’t planning to start now.

“I don’t know a damn thing about running a feed store,” he said, meeting the other men’s eyes.

Chuck and Ken studied him for a long moment.

“You serious about this?” Chuck finally asked.

Vaughn nodded.

“Between Dad, me and my brothers, we could show you everything you need to know.”

“You’d do that?” Vaughn found it hard to believe that these men, who were little more than strangers, would willingly offer him their expertise.

“I saw a light in my sister’s eyes that hasn’t been there since her divorce,” Ken told him. “That made me decide you might be worth taking a chance on.” He stared down at the ground, then raised his head. “Now, I realize you moving into town and opening a feed store might have absolutely nothing to do with Carrie. Personally, I hope it does, but I want you to know that whatever happens between you and my sister is your business.”

“That’s the way it would have to be.”

Her two brothers shared a glance and seemed to reach the same conclusion. “You’re right about that.” Chuck spoke for the pair. “This has nothing to do with Carrie.”

“There are a lot of ifs in all this,” Vaughn reminded them. He could see that they were getting excited, but then so was he. Naturally, all of this depended on a dozen different factors. Right now it was little more than the glimmer of an idea. Little more than a possibility. But it gave him a glimpse of what he might do….