The door opened and Dennis Urlacher walked in with his three-year-old son. Little Josh might be named after Sarah’s father, but he was the spitting image of his own.
“I’m not late, am I?” Dennis asked, taken aback by the sight of all the children.
Leta was doing her best to keep up with orders, but she was obviously overwhelmed. As soon as she delivered one soda, she got an order for two more. Apparently Hassie was at the meeting over at Sarah’s shop, as well. The men stood in a small circle while the children sat at the counter. Their joyous laughter made all the fathers smile, none more than Matt.
“So, does anyone have any ideas?” Dennis asked.
“Did you get anywhere with the governor’s office?” Jeb asked Bob.
Bob shook his head. “I got the runaround. Reading between the lines, I could tell the politicians don’t want to get involved in this fight. Buffalo Valley is on its own.”
“Okay,” Matt said, “maybe the politicians don’t want to take sides in this issue, but there are plenty of other influential people who aren’t afraid of challenging Value-X.”
“Who?”
A flurry of names followed—writers and filmmakers and media personalities—along with a volunteer to contact each one immediately after the holidays. This was exactly the kind of pressure necessary to get the company’s attention.
Soon the men were talking excitedly, their voices blending with those of their children. Various ideas were considered, discarded, put aside for research or further thought. The women were right—they had to become a united front.
“Do you seriously believe anyone at the corporate level will listen?” Gage asked. “They’ve dealt with organized opposition before.”
Matt shrugged, although he suspected that if Margaret was the one doing the talking, those muck-a-mucks would soon learn she refused to be ignored. A smile formed on his face as he imagined Margaret standing before the conglomerate’s board of directors. They’d listen, all right.
“What’s so funny?” Brandon Wyatt asked.
“Nothing.” Matt shook his head, dispelling the image.
“Joanie’s been real upset about all this.”
“Maddy, too,” Jeb said. “I don’t think the grocery will be too badly affected, but that’s not the point. She’s worried about how everyone else will fare.”
“Value-X would ruin Joanie’s and my business,” Brandon said. “But I don’t think a bunch of suits in some fancy office in Seattle really care what’ll happen to a small video store in Buffalo Valley.”
The other men agreed.
“We could hold a rally,” Gage suggested.
“The women have already thought of that,” Leta inserted, speaking from behind the counter. “They figured it wouldn’t have enough impact unless we got major media coverage.”
Several of the men nodded; others seemed prepared to argue.
“Hassie’s probably got a few ideas,” Gage said next. “When she comes back from the meeting, we’ll—”
Leta broke in. “Hassie’s not with the others,” she informed them as she set a chocolate soda on the polished mahogany counter.
“She’s not?” The question came from two or three men simultaneously, including Matt.
“Nope. She’s at home this morning.”
This was news to them all.
“Hassie’s not with the other women?” Dennis repeated, frowning. “But...”
“How many of them are over at Sarah’s, anyway?” Matt wanted to know.
“They’re not at Sarah’s,” Dennis told them.
“Then where are they?” Matt had assumed that was where the women had met. Sarah had the most space for such a gathering.
“I think they’re over at the church with Joyce Dawson,” Brandon Wyatt said. “I’m not sure, but something Joanie said...”
Matt figured it wasn’t all that important where the women had congregated. The community was coming together, bringing forth ideas. Value-X might be a powerful corporation, but the men and women of Buffalo Valley weren’t going to submit humbly to this invasion.
* * *
Sleep had eluded Vaughn Kyle all night. The message of the Christmas play had stayed with him. A community standing together, enduring through hard times, its unique character created by that history of struggle and victory. Not a community, this community. Buffalo Valley.
His confession to Carrie after the performance had played no small part in his inability to sleep. Unfortunately Carrie wasn’t the only woman he needed to talk to, and the conversation with Natalie would probably be even harder.
He waited until eight, Seattle time, before calling her. His decision to resign and the reasons for it would infuriate her. And his plan to end their relationship—he didn’t even want to think about her reaction to that. He wasn’t convinced that she truly loved him, but the humiliation of being rejected would be difficult for her to accept. He sighed; he’d betrayed Carrie twice over and now he was doing the same to Natalie.
The house was still quiet when Vaughn brought the portable phone into his room. Sitting on the bed, he dialed Natalie’s home number and waited four long rings before she picked up.
“Hello.” Her voice was groggy with sleep. Normally she’d be awake by now. He’d already started off on the wrong foot, and he had yet to say a word.
“I got you up, didn’t I,” he said.
“Vaughn,” she said sleepily, then yawned. “Hello, darling.”
Vaughn tried to ignore the guilt that rushed forward. Mere hours ago, he’d been holding and kissing Carrie.
“This is a surprise,” Natalie cooed. “You must really be missing me.”
“I need to talk to you about Value-X,” Vaughn said, getting directly to the point. There was no easy way to do this.
“Now?” she protested. “You’re always telling me all I think about is work. I didn’t get home until after eleven last night, and work is the last thing I want to think about now. You know we’re under a lot of pressure just before the holidays. There’s so much I have to get done, especially since I’ll be leaving on this trip.”
“I do know, and I apologize.” He honestly felt bad about this. “I’ll be sending in a fax this morning.”
She sighed as if to say she was already bored. “Why?”
He hesitated, bracing himself for her angry outburst. “I’ve resigned.”
“What?” Her shriek was loud enough to actually startle him. “If this is a joke, Vaughn, I am not amused.”
In some ways he wished it was. He doubted this was one of those situations he’d look back on years from now and find amusing. “You asked me to check out Buffalo Valley.”
“So?” she asked. “You mentioned an aunt or someone you knew who lived there. What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal is that the town isn’t interested in Value-X setting up shop.”
Natalie didn’t so much as pause. “Honey, listen, we’ve already been through this. Few communities fully appreciate everything we can do for them. Invariably there’s a handful of discontented, ill-informed people who take it upon themselves to make a fuss. For the most part it’s a token protest. Rarely is it ever a threat.”
“If that’s the case, why did you ask me to report back to you on Buffalo Valley?” She’d been worried, Vaughn knew; otherwise she’d never have suggested he check the place out.
“After the bad publicity in that Montana town, I overreacted. That was a mistake,” she said quickly. “I see that now. A big mistake! I can’t allow you to throw away the opportunity of a lifetime because I sent you into battle unprepared.”
“Battle?”
“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 g
rateful 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.
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