Free Buffalo Valley by Debbie Macomber Page B

talk it over with her, as though she had a solution to this perplexing problem.
    â€œI don’t like it,” Leta muttered, walking behind the counter of the soda fountain and pulling out a well-used teapot. “Want me to make you a cup?”
    â€œPlease.” Hassie had filled prescriptions all afternoon, between interruptions, and she was ready for a break. She’d known that Leta would come by at some point; fortunately, there was a lull just now, which made it a good time to talk to her dearest friend.
    â€œWhere’s Carrie?” Leta found two mugs and set them on the counter.
    â€œIt’s her day off.”
    â€œI heard she went to see Heath.”
    Hassie had heard about that, as well. Carrie had a good heart and cared about this community with the same intensity as Hassie did. Once Carrie received her Pharm.D., Hassie had planned to turn the business over to her. That was before the threat of Value-X, however. If that threat became a reality, Hassie couldn’t sell the pharmacy, not in good conscience. In all likelihood the place would be out of business within a year after the big retailer moved in.
    â€œIt’s a shame, you know,” Leta murmured. She dragged a chair closer to the counter and perched on the seat. Leaning forward, she braced her elbows on the edge, sighing deeply. “Who’d have thought something like this would ever happen?”
    Hassie shook her head helplessly. She’d worked so hard to save this town. And now, even if oblivion wasn’t to be its fate, a corporation like Value-X could make Buffalo Valley unrecognizable, could turn it into something that bore no resemblance to the place it had been. The place it should be.
    â€œWhat are we going to do?” Leta asked.
    Hassie sat next to her and assumed the same slouched pose. Leta was her friend and employee, and there wasn’t anything Hassie couldn’t tell her. But this situation with the conglomerate had her poleaxed. She was at her wit’s end. “I don’t know,” she admitted.
    â€œWe’ll think of something,” Leta insisted, and poured tea into the mugs. She set one in front of Hassie and then added a teaspoon of sugar to her own.
    â€œNot this time,” Hassie said as she reached for the mug, letting it warm her hands. She was too old and too tired. A few years back she’d fought for her town with determination and ingenuity, but this new war would have to be waged by someone else. She’d done her part.
    â€œThis was how we both felt when we learned Lindsay had decided to return to Atlanta, remember?” Leta prodded.
    As though Hassie would ever forget. At the last minute Leta’s son, Gage, had realized he’d be making the worst mistake of his life if he let Lindsay leave without telling her how much he loved her. Asa result, Lindsay had not only stayed on as a high-school teacher, she’d married Gage. Leta was a grandmother twice over, thanks to the young couple.
    â€œValue-X is too powerful for me.” A bit of research had revealed that the retailer was accustomed to exactly this kind of local resistance. They had their battle plans worked out to the smallest detail. Hassie remembered from the television exposé that the company had a legal team, as well as public-relations people, all of them experts at squelching opposition. Hassie knew the town council couldn’t afford any high-priced attorneys to plead their case. Even if they banded together, they were no match for the company’s corporate attorneys. They were cutthroat, they’d seen it all, done it all. According to the documentary, they’d won in the majority of their cases. Like it or not, Value-X simply overran a community.
    â€œWe can’t give up,” Leta insisted. She glared at Hassie, as though waiting for some of the old fight to surface.
    It wouldn’t, though. Not anymore. Slowly Hassie lowered her gaze, refusing to meet her