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coffee pot and filled her cup. She walked
toward the hallway and paused as she was about to leave the
kitchen. “But, Matthew, I will be wanting those grandchildren, and
it is high time you take a wife.”
    “Mother, I assure you, I can manage my own
life.”
    “Yes, son, I know you’re a very capable man,
but that won’t stop me from dreaming. Sometimes our dreams are all
we have to get us through our days.” She turned and walked down the
hall.
     
    ***
     
    The snowplow cleared the road at three in the
afternoon. Melinda quickly packed her bag and prepared to leave.
Once she’d told Derrik and Sheila goodbye, she left with Matthew to
go to her car.
    When Matthew freed the car from the
snowdrift, he helped Melinda into the driver’s seat. He went around
the car and sat in the passenger’s seat.
    “Despite everything that happened in the last
couple of days, Melinda, I am very glad the snowstorm brought you
to us,” he said, smiling at her.
    She returned his smile. “So am I. I’ll never
forget any of you.”
    “Really?”
    “Really.” She shifted in her seat, turning
herself sideways so she could face him better. “When I’m back in
Kansas City with my head stuck under the hood of a car, I’ll
remember the wrench Sheila threw into our lives.”
    Matthew chuckled at her joke then sobered
quickly. “Did you say Kansas City?”
    “Yes.”
    “You live in Kansas City?”
    “Yes.”
    Matthew sat back and gave her an odd look. “I
don’t believe this,” he said, his eyes wide and bright.
    “What are we, seven, eight hundred miles from
Kansas City?”
    “Something like that. I know it seemed like
it took me forever to get this far.”
    “This is impossible.”
    “What is impossible?”
    “This is absolutely impossible! You realize
that, don’t you?”
    “Perhaps I’d be able to agree with what you
think is impossible if you told me what you were talking about,”
she said, puzzled by his unusual behavior.
    “I live in St. Joe. We’re practically
neighbors, and we meet hundreds of miles from where we live? In the
middle of Nowhere, North Dakota? Don’t you think this is
impossible?”
    “It certainly is,” she said, stunned by his
explanation of the strange coincidence.
    “Wow,” he said, his voice trailing the
word.
    “Wow, indeed,” she said in the same manner.
She took a few minutes to let the fact that he lived near her sink
in.
    “Why did you move so far away from home?
People need body repairmen everywhere. Surely you could have opened
a business in Fargo, Grand Forks or maybe over the border in
Minnesota.”
    “I could ask you the same thing. In fact, I
think I will.” He gave her a smug look. “Why did you move so far
from your family in Moorhead?”
    She smiled at him when the irony of the
answer she was about to give him struck her. “I wanted to get out
of the snow and cold.”
    He immediately began to chuckle. “Me
too.”
    They laughed together.
    “It is a lot warmer and less snowy in St.
Joe, but right now I wouldn’t trade a Northern Plains snowstorm for
a warm Florida beach.”
    “You wouldn’t?” Her heart began to beat
faster as she took in the implications of his declaration.
“Matthew,” she said hesitantly as she struggled to quell the rapid
rhythm of her heart, “why are you here now? The holidays are long
over. It isn’t your mother’s birthday. Why would you travel here in
winter to visit your family?” She’d wondered all along why he’d
come home, but she hadn’t asked him. She hadn’t wanted to pry.
    “Well,” he said, looking around at the
fallout from the storm, “I sure wish I didn’t have a need to come
home in winter beyond spending the holidays with my family, but Dad
couldn’t choose the time he died. He died on a cold winter night
six years ago. I came home because this week was the anniversary of
my father’s death.
    “I see.”
    Pain filled his eyes. It’s still pretty hard
on Mom. It seems to help her get through the hurtful