Free High Plains Hearts by Janet Spaeth

cheaper than packing the machine up and freighting it to Minneapolis for warranty work. Besides, then I wouldn’t have it while it was on its way, being fixed, and sent back.”
    “I didn’t realize how competitive this business is.” She frowned. “To have your entire business revolve around a roaster …”
    “Well, I like to think it’s more than that. Panda’s offers some terrific food, too, especially desserts and now sandwiches. Speaking of which, are you ready for dinner?”
    “Thought you’d never ask.”
    Her sandwich was a masterful creation of sun-dried tomatoes, sprouts, and some interesting cheeses she’d never heard of before. He insisted that she try a new dessert, chocolate cake drizzled with pastel-blue mint syrup.
    He disappeared into the kitchen with it and came out a few moments later, bearing it as if it were a royal gift of gold.
    She smiled as she saw what he had done. Topping it was a sprinkle of those tiny white angel candies.
    “Give me your opinion, please,” he begged as she ate the first forkful. “Do the angels add anything to it?”
    She gave him her response, which was enthusiastic. He sat back in the seat, satisfied.
    “I’m glad you like it,” he said. “I hope now I’ll see more of you here.”
    “I’ll certainly try harder. But the problem is, I just don’t get down to this part of town very often.”
    “I know what you mean.” He crossed his arms over his chest and lapsed into unhappy thought for a while. “This is part of my problem.”
    “That I don’t get to this part of town?”
    “Well, sure, but I mean the way this town is divided into two clear business parts.” He motioned to the others seated around them. “I don’t know if I can give all of this up. I don’t know if I should. Panda’s is doing well here, but can it sustain itself? What if someone else gets a roaster?”
    “Oh, it can’t be as simplistic as that,” she protested. “There’s an ambiance here. And you said yourself that you’ve developed a clientele.”
    “Sure. But look at them. For the most part this is their section of town. Maybe the college students would follow me downtown since the university is as close to downtown as it is to the End. But maybe not.”
    He pushed his chair back and stood up. “But the fact of the matter is that it’s been a bright and beautiful winter day, and I’m with a bright and beautiful woman, and I don’t want to talk about anything that is not bright and beautiful. Let’s go!”
    She hastily swallowed the last of her coffee and wiped her lips. “Where are we going?” she asked as she shrugged into her coat.
    “Shopping!”

Chapter 7
    S he tried to object as he bustled her into the car. “But I don’t have any money with me. I’m not ready to do my shopping. I haven’t given it any thought. I don’t want to go to the mall on a Saturday.”
    The truth was that the last reason was the real one. She abhorred going to the mall on the weekend, especially when it was busy. And the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, the mall was going to be wild, especially as people began their Christmas shopping in earnest.
    He apparently didn’t hear anything she was saying, or he chose to ignore it. Instead he began singing “The Twelve Days of Christmas” as loudly as he could.
    “ ‘Six geese a-laying—’ ”
    “I said I don’t want to go sho—”
    “ ‘Five gooooooolden rings!’ ”
    She gave up and glared out the window. She hated the mall, absolutely, completely, totally hated it. She had to carry her coat because she was too hot with it on. And if she bought anything, then she had to carry that as well as her coat and her hat and her mittens and her purse. Her arms ached at the thought.
    And her feet got sweaty in the mall, and then she’d climb into her unheatable van where her toes froze into ice chunks on the way home because they’d been wet inside her boots.
    She couldn’t believe her eyes. He drove right past the