Tony had never seen a grain elevator before. In fact, he?d never seen grain, except in bags in the organic-foods section of his neighborhood grocery store. As he navigated his rental car through Riverbend, Diane pointed out the acreage to him, the fields breaking with the new crop, tiny dots of green poking out of the tilled soil.

The air carried a tangy scent, and when he asked her what he was smelling she laughed and said, "dirt."

He?d grown up in Queens, and now he lived in Manhattan. What did he know about the smell of dirt and the endlessness of a Midwestern sky?

"They irrigate mostly in the evenings," she was saying. "If you irrigate in the morning, the water evaporates too fast. In the evening, it has a chance to soak into the ground. They won?t be doing too much irrigating this year, though. We?ve had a pretty wet spring. It?s been wonderful."

"Wonderful?" He snorted. "People become cranky when it rains in New York." Cranky enough to get into fistfights over the scarcity of cabs. Cranky enough to curse at and shove each other, to elbow one another as they hurried down the puddle-filled sidewalks. A nastiness settled over the city when it rained. The homicide rate dropped, but the domestic assault rate soared when people were trapped indoors.

"I don?t think I?d like New York very much," Diane said.

"It?s a great city," Tony argued. "The capital of the world."

"I know it?s got good restaurants, and the theater. I?d love to see one of those big Broadway musicals. Other than that, though ? it just sounds awfully crowded. And noisy."

"There?s an energy in the city," he tried to explain, turning the car away from the grain elevator and steering in the direction of Diane?s outstretched hand. Somewhere at the back of his mind lurked the thought that he had a job to do. But as long as Diane kept gazing at him, he couldn?t seem to focus on his work.

"Riverbend has an energy, too," she said.

He grinned. "Enough energy to put an insomniac into a coma. This place is dead, Diane."

"It is not! It?s full of energy! There?s the energy of the rotating seasons, the cycles of life. And the energy of friendships. Everyone knows everyone here. We look out for each other. We help each other. Even on the coldest day of the winter, Riverbend is warm, because the people care about each other."

He was aware of another kind of warmth right in this car. It was the warmth of Diane?s passion, her convictions. She believed in her quiet rural town, believed in it so deeply he could only imagine how deeply she felt other things, how passionate she might be.

Her warmth heated him. It made him want to taste that passion. He imagined it would be a flavor as exotic as everything else in Riverbend.

They?d reached a stand of trees by the river, and he pulled off the road and killed the engine.

"This is a really pretty part of the river," she said. "Let?s get out and explore."

He got out of the car, but the river wasn?t what he wanted to explore. When Diane met him near the water?s edge, he gathered her hand in his and pulled her to him. Just one taste, he thought ? one small taste of Diane?s warmth, and then he?d take care of business.