Page 2 of Love in the Details

He didn’t even flinch when he saw the amount on the check. “Don’t worry about two weeks. I’ll get your final check ready now.” No emotion, nothing that said he was sorry to see her go. If anything, that spurred her on even more. What a jerk! The fact that she’d ever had feelings for this guy made her skin crawl.

“If you’re still harboring anger because I broke up with you last Christmas, why wait until now to talk about it?” Kassidy folded her arms across her chest, waiting for his response.

He shrugged. “You left. And now you’re leaving the bank.” Giving her a fake smile, he said, “We wish you well on your future endeavors.” The smile dropped, and he glanced back down at the phone, dialing. When Rebecca picked up, he said, “I’m going to need a final check for Kassidy. She just quit.” Trace gave her a quick hand wave out of the office.

Grabbing the check from his desk, Kassidy dropped it in front of Elaine and said, “Looks like you’ll be helping this customer.” She made sure to say it loud enough that the man heard. His eyes were curious before taking the two steps to the left.

Kassidy stormed into the back room and grabbed an empty box. Normally, she might have cared who was witnessing this scene, but with all that had happened today, adding a little flair to her exit wouldn’t be the worst thing.

Once back at her desk, she started throwing her little trinkets into the box. She pulled the pictures off the short wall separating the fake cubicles where the tellers sat, placing them on top so they wouldn’t be damaged.

Trace still hadn’t come out with a check, so she sat in her chair, deleting off anything personal and logging out of her accounts on the computer.

“Tough day?” a deep voice asked, turning her attention to Dustin. The rich timbre of his voice confirmed that it was the heir to the Wakefield Mansion. Her fourteen-year-old self would have been doing flips that he was actually talking to her. Her twenty-five-year-old self was doing everything she could to keep her emotions from falling apart.

“Tough year,” she said dryly. The more she thought about it, the more it rang true. She’d stopped racing after the NFR last year and had been so excited for Walker and Lauren and Easton and Natalie to settle into their lives as married couples. She’d thought her chance for that would come soon enough, like she was next in line. But it seemed she just kept getting passed up time and time again, in love and in her career.

“Don’t worry. It’s not the end of the road.”Dustin flashed her that half-smile again as a small measure of comfort warmed her.

Elaine finished up his transaction, and Kassidy saw him glance back at her before walking out the doors. Was that pity in his eyes? She didn’t need pity, just applause at finally realizing the dead end her life had come to.

How had she let herself think that working at a bank was what she’d always wanted to do? A sense of relief that she was finally done there began mixing with the panic of how she would make money. There were only so many jobs in Coldwater Creek, and while she knew just about everything about horses and the rodeo, not many people offered to pay for that kind of stuff.

Her mind turned to the party she’d planned for Natalie’s baby shower tomorrow. Party planning would be the ultimate dream come true, but who would be willing to pay for them and how far in between would the work be? Patty McCall had retired from event planning last year because she claimed there wasn’t enough work to sustain her. She’d taken a job at the Wakefield Fabrication plant just up the road and looked like she was enjoying life more than when she ran her own business.

“Here is your final check. Thank you for the years you’ve been with us, and I wish you good luck.” Trace’s voice sounded like a robot, and Kassidy had heard those words before, said to the last loan officer who’d left for another branch.

“Why are you acting like I’m leaving town?” she said, lifting her box and walking to the door. “It’s a small town. It’s not like we’re never going to see each other again.”

She stormed out of there, finally able to breathe again.She’d have to take her final check and the rest of her money to the other bank in town. Setting foot into this one to make transactions would only score her pity or arrogance, and she didn’t need either.

Loading the box into her old Jeep, she glanced at the peeling paint and the numerous rock chips in the windshield. It would be a while before she’d be able to upgrade now. Where was she going, and why wasn’t there some big billboard to signal what she was supposed to do with her life?

Chapter 2

Nothing like an unexpected show in a small town.

Dustin Wakefield had fired a fair number of people, even watched a few of them go on their own terms, but something about the scene he’d just witnessed made him laugh, like it was straight out of a comedy. The woman who’d helped him initially looked like she was ready for war by the time Dustin had walked out of the bank.

Now, glancing to his right, he saw her throwing her stuff into an old beat-up Jeep. He studied her features, surprised at how attractive she looked while she stomped around the vehicle brushing the thin blanket of snow from the windows.

He should probably get out and help her. That’s the kind of person his grandmother had raised. But the warmth coming from the heater was thawing out the chill in his bones. He’d thought he wouldn’t have a problem coming back to this small valley after all these years. It took a minute for him to count how long it had been since he’d been here. Two years since his grandfather’s funeral. But he’d practically just flown into the airport in Jackson that time and then taken off again the next morning. The last time he’d really seen the valley was when he’d packed everything he could fit into his SUV and driven to LA eight years ago.

After another minute of hesitation where he sat rooted to the driver’s seat, he watched as the woman opened her door and got in, her cheeks bright pink from the cold. She turned in his direction, and her eyes widened like she was horrified he was still there. As she pulled out of the parking lot, he chastised himself for being so selfish.

And then he brushed it off. He’d be here for a grand total of four weeks, which was longer than he wanted to be back. But his grandmother had called, wanting him to come and throw the Christmas Gala at the Wakefield Mansion on Christmas Eve. And spend Christmas with her, just like old times, she’d said. There was only so much negotiating he could do when it came to Grace Wakefield, the woman who’d raised him.

As much as he’d tried to debate his need to stay in the city and work from the offices, as long as there was an internet connection, he could conduct business as the CEO for Wakefield Fabrication from anywhere around the world. He’d finally relented, and twenty-four hours later, he’d begun the thirteen-plus-hour drive to Coldwater Creek.

As he stared out at the snowflakes falling from the sky now, he couldn’t help but long for the scenery from the last few Christmases. Beaches, sun, the opportunity to travel.

He pulled out onto the main road, memories popping up from his childhood here. Pushing them away, he didn’t want to live in the past. He wanted to move on and keep going forward. His brain called up a mental image of the bank teller, and he smiled, wondering which of the handful of families who settled the valley she belonged to, or if she’d moved in since he’d left.

He was the owner of a Fortune 500 company, and all the women who usually gave him attention were only after one thing, maybe two: his money and a diamond ring on the right finger. It was tempting to pretend he was someone else, to give people in town a false name to avoid the kind of attention he usually garnered when he was introduced. But something always kept him from doing that. Probably his inability to keep a straight face when he lied.

Taking the turn that led up to the hill where the mansion sat, he put everything about the teller out of his mind. He had a job to do while he was here. Not one he particularly wanted to do, but one that had to be done to make the best decisions for the company as a whole.

The phone rang, his grandmother’s picture popping up on the screen. He pressed the connect button on the steering wheel and said, “Hello, Grandmother.”

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