Million-Dollar Maverick

She studied his face with what seemed to be honest interest. “You, living in Chicago? I don’t know, Nate. I’m just not seeing that.”

He thought, You don’t know me well enough to tell me where I might want to live. But he didn’t say it. She’d seemed sincere just now. And she was entitled to her opinion.

She wasn’t through, either. “I heard you ran for mayor last year—and lost to Collin Traub. They say you’re bitter about that because of the generations-long feud between the Traubs and your family, that it really hurt your pride when the town chose bad-boy Collin over an upstanding citizen like you. They say it’s personal between you and Collin, that there’s always been bad blood between the two of you, that the two of you once got into a knock-down-drag-out over a woman named Cindy Sellers.”

“Wow, Callie. You said a mouthful.” He actually chuckled.

And she laughed, too. “It’s only what I’ve heard.”

“Just because people love to gossip doesn’t mean they know what they’re talking about.”

“So none of it’s true, then?”

He admitted, “It’s true, for the most part.” Strangely, today, he was finding her candor charming—then again, today he wasn’t on his way to North Dakota to keep his annual appointment with all that he had lost.

She asked, “What parts did I get wrong?”

He should tell her to mind her own business. But she was so damn pretty and she really did seem interested. “Well, the mayor’s race?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m over that. And it’s a long story about me and Collin and Cindy, one I don’t have the energy to get into right now—and your cup’s already empty.”

“It was really good.” She smiled at him coaxingly.

He took the hint. “More?”

“Yes, please.”

Each pod made six cups. All he had to do was put her mug under the spigot and push the brew button. “You’ve collected a lot of information about me. Should I be flattered you’re so interested?” He gave her back her full cup.

She doctored it up with more sugar and milk. “I think about that day last winter now and then....”

He slid into his seat again. “I’ll just bet you do.” Especially today, when it’s time to collect.

Her big eyes were kind of dreamy now. “I wonder about you, Nate. I wonder why you had to get to Bismarck, and I keep thinking there’s a lot going on under the surface with you. I love this town more every day that I live here, but sometimes people in a small town can get locked in to their ideas about each other. What I think about you is that you want...more out of life. You just don’t know how to get it.”

He grunted. “Got me all figured out, don’t you?”

“It’s just an opinion.”

“Yeah, and that and five bucks will get you half a dozen cinnamon buns over at the doughnut shop.”

She shrugged, her gaze a little too steady for his peace of mind. Then she asked, “So, what about Bismarck?”

He was never telling her about Bismarck. And, as much as he enjoyed looking at her with all that shiny hair and that beautiful smile, it was time to get down to business. “Excuse me.” He rose and turned for the door to the foyer, leaving her sitting there, no doubt staring after him.

In his study at the front of the house, he opened the safe built into his fine wide mahogany desk and took out what she’d come for. Then he locked up the safe again and rejoined her in the kitchen.

“Here you go.” He set the two crisp one-hundred-dollar bills on the table in front of her. “I get it. You like it here. You’ve made some friends. They all say you’re an excellent nurse, kind and caring to your patients. You’re staying. I was wrong about you.”

“Yes, you were.” She sat very straight, those soft lips just hinting at a smile now. “I like a man who can admit when he’s wrong.” She glanced down at the bills and then back up at him. “And I thought I told you way back in January that money doesn’t do much for me.”

Okay. Now he could start to get annoyed with her again. “Then what do you want?”

She turned her coffee mug, slim fingers light and coaxing on the rim. “I’ve been staying in one of the trailers they brought in for newcomers, over on Sawmill Street.”

“I know,” he admitted, though he hadn’t planned to. Her pupils widened slightly in surprise. It pleased him that he’d succeeded in surprising her. “Maybe I think about you now and then, too.”

She gazed at him steadily for a moment. And then there it was, that hint of a smile again. “I’m tired of that trailer.”

“I can understand that.”

“But as I’m sure you know, housing is still kind of scarce around here.” So many homes had been damaged in the flood the year before, and they weren’t all rebuilt yet. “I really like the look of the empty house next door to you. And I heard a rumor you might own that one, too.”

The woman had nerve, no doubt about it. “You want me to give you a house just for sticking out a Montana winter?”

Her smile got wider. “Not give it to me, Nate. Sell it to me.”

Sell it to her....

The former owners of both houses had chosen not to rebuild after the flood, so Nate got them cheap. He’d been a long way from rich at the time. His plan then had been to fix the houses up slowly, starting with the smaller one next door. He’d figured he would put money in them when he had it to spare, getting his brothers to lend a hand with the work.

But after his big win, he found he could afford to renovate them both without having to drag it out. With everyone believing his cover story of a windfall on the stock market, he’d told himself it was safe to go for it. He could fix them up and do it right.

He should have been more cautious, probably. Not spent so much on the finishes, not redone both houses. Or at least, if he had to go all out, he should have had his lawyer advise him, maybe put them under the control of the trust he’d established to make sure he would remain an anonymous winner.

Callie kept after him. “Oh, come on, Nate. You can’t live in two houses at once, can you? I’m guessing you fixed that other one up with the intention of selling it, anyway.”

He thought again that she was one aggravating woman. But she did have a point: he’d bought both houses with the idea that he would eventually turn them around. And really, she didn’t seem the least bit suspicious about where his money might have come from. She just wanted to get out of the trailer park. He needed to stop being paranoid when there was absolutely nothing to be worried about. “Finish your coffee.”

“And then what?”

“I’ll give you a tour of the other house.”

Those fine dark eyes gleamed brighter than ever. She pushed back her chair. “I can take my coffee with me. Let’s go.”

An hour later, after he’d shown her the property and then gone ahead and fed her breakfast, Callie made him an offer. It was a fair offer and he didn’t need to quibble over pennies anymore. She stuck out her soft hand and they shook on it. He ignored the thrill that shivered along his skin at the touch of her palm to his.

* * *

On the first of July, Callie moved into her new house next door to Nate Crawford. The day before, she’d had a bunch of new furniture delivered, stuff she’d picked out in a couple of Kalispell furniture stores. But she still had to haul all her other things from the trailer park on Sawmill Street.

Emmet DePaulo insisted she take the day off from the clinic and loaned her his pickup. Then, being Emmet, he decided to close the clinic for the morning and give her a hand.

He got a couple of friends of his, Vietnam veterans in their sixties, old guys still in surprisingly good shape, to help load up the pickup for her. Then he drove it to her new house, and he and his pals carried everything inside, after which they returned to the trailer and got the rest of her stuff. With the four of them working, they had the trailer emptied out and everything over at the new house before noon.

In her new kitchen, Callie served them all takeout from the chicken-wing place on North Broomtail Road. Once they’d eaten, Emmet’s friends took off. Emmet told her not to work too hard and left to go open the clinic for the afternoon.

She stood out on the porch and waved as he drove away, her gaze wandering to Nate’s big house. She hadn’t seen him all day. There were no lights shining from inside and no sign of his truck. But then, it was a sunny day, and his house had lots of windows. He could be inside, and his truck could very well be sitting in that roomy three-car garage.

Not that it mattered. She’d bought her house because she liked it, not because of the man next door.

After living in a trailer for six months, her new place felt absolutely palatial. There were two bedrooms and a bath upstairs, for guests or whatever. Downstairs were the kitchen, great room, front hall and master suite. The master suite had two entrances, one across from the great room in the entry hall and the other in the kitchen, through the master bath in back. The master bath was the only bathroom on the first floor. It worked great that you could get to it without going through the bedroom.

Callie got busy putting her new house together, starting with her bedroom. That way, when she got too tired to unpack another box, she’d have a bed to fall into. She put her toiletries in the large downstairs bath and hung up the towels. And then she went out to the kitchen to get going in there.

At a little after three, the doorbell rang.

Nate? Her silly heart beat faster and her cheeks suddenly felt too warm.

Which was flat-out ridiculous.

True, she found Nate intriguing. He was such a big, handsome package of contradictions. He could be a jerk. Paige Traub, her friend and also a patient at the clinic, had once called Nate an “unmitigated douche.” There were more than a few people in Rust Creek Falls who agreed with Paige.

But Callie had this feeling about him, a feeling that he wasn’t as bad as he could seem sometimes. That deep inside, he was a wounded, lonely soul.

Plus, well, there was the hotness factor. Tall, with muscles. Shoulders for days. Beautiful green eyes and thick brown hair that made a girl want to run her fingers through it.

Callie blinked and shook her head. She reminded herself that after her most recent love disaster, she was swearing off men for at least the next decade. Especially arrogant, know-it-all types like Nate.

The doorbell rang again and her heart beat even faster. Nothing like a visit from a hunky next-door neighbor. Her hands were covered in newsprint from the papers she’d used to wrap the dishes and glassware. She quickly rinsed them in the sink and ran to get the door.

It wasn’t Nate.

“Faith!” Like Paige Traub, Faith Harper, Callie’s new neighbor on her other side, was a patient at the clinic. Also like Paige, Faith was pregnant. Both women were in their third trimester, but Faith was fast approaching her due date. Faith had big blue eyes and baby-fine blond hair. She and Callie had hit it off from the first.

Faith held out a red casserole dish. “My mom’s chicken divan. It’s really good. I had to make sure my favorite nurse had something for dinner.”

Callie took the dish. “Oh, you are a lifesaver. I was just facing the sad prospect of doing Wings to Go twice in one day.”

Beaming, Faith rested both hands on her enormous belly. “Can’t have that.”

“Come on in....” Callie led the way back to the kitchen, where she put the casserole in the fridge and took out a pitcher of iced herbal tea. “Ta-da! Raspberry leaf.” High in calcium and magnesium, raspberry-leaf tea was safe for pregnant women from the second trimester on. It helped to prepare the uterus for labor and to prevent postpartum bleeding. Callie had recommended it to Faith.

Faith laughed. “Did you know I’d be over?”

“Well, I was certainly hoping you would.” Callie poured the tea, and they went out on the small back deck to get away from the mess of half-unpacked boxes in the kitchen. The sky had grown cloudy in the past hour or so. Still, it was so nice, sitting in her own backyard with her first visitor. And it was definitely a big step up from the dinky square of back stoop she’d had at the trailer park.

They talked about the home birth Faith planned. Callie would be attending as nurse/midwife. Faith had everything ready for the big day. Her husband, a long-haul trucker, had left five days before on a cross-country trip and was due to return the day after tomorrow.

Faith tenderly stroked her enormous belly. “When Owen gets back from this trip, he’s promised he’s going nowhere until after this baby is born.”

“I love a man who knows when it’s time to stay home,” Callie agreed.

“Oh, me, too. I— Whoa!” Faith laughed as lightning lit up the underbelly of the thick clouds overhead. Thunder rumbled—and it started to rain.

Callie groaned. Already, in the space of a few seconds, the fat drops were coming down hard and fast. She jumped up. “Come on. Let’s go in before we drown.”

They cleared a space at the table in the breakfast nook and watched the rain pour down. Faith shivered.

Callie asked, “Are you cold? I can get you a blanket.”

“No, I’m fine, really. It’s only... Well, it’s a little too much like last year.” Her soft mouth twisted. “It started coming down just like this, in buckets. That went on for more than twenty-four hours straight. Then the levee broke....”

Callie reached across the table and gave Faith’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “There’s nothing to worry about.” The broken levees had been rebuilt higher and stronger than before. “Emmet told me the new levee will withstand any-and everything Mother Nature can throw at it.”

Faith let out a long, slow breath. “You’re right. I’m overreacting. Let the rain fall. There’ll be no flooding this year.”

* * *

It rained hard all night.

And on the morning of July second, it was still pouring down. The clinic was just around the block from Callie’s new house, and she’d been looking forward to walking to work. But not today. Callie drove her SUV to the clinic.

Overall, it was a typical workday. She performed routine exams, stitched up more than one injury, prescribed painkillers for rheumatoid arthritis and decongestants for summer colds. Emmet was his usual calm, unruffled self. He’d done two tours of duty in Vietnam and Cambodia back in the day. It took a lot more than a little rain to get him worked up.

But everyone else—the patients, Brandy the clinic receptionist and the two pharmaceutical reps who dropped by to fill orders and pass out samples—seemed apprehensive. Probably because the rain just kept coming down so hard, without a break, the same way it had last year before the levee broke. They tried to make jokes about it, agreeing that every time it rained now, people in town got worried. They talked about how the apprehension would fade over time, how eventually a long, hard rainstorm wouldn’t scare anyone.

Too bad they weren’t there yet.

Then, a half an hour before they closed the doors for the day, something wonderful happened: the rain stopped. Brandy started smiling again. Emmet said, “Great. Now everyone can take a break from predicting disaster.”

At five, Callie drove home. She still had plenty of Faith’s excellent casserole left for dinner. But she needed milk and bread and eggs for breakfast tomorrow. That meant a quick trip to Crawford’s, the general store on North Main run by Nate’s parents and sisters, with a little help from Nate and his brothers when needed.

Callie decided she could use a walk after being cooped up in the clinic all day, so she changed her scrubs for jeans and a T-shirt and left her car at home.

It started sprinkling again as she was crossing the Main Street Bridge. She walked faster. Luck was with her. It didn’t really start pouring until right after she reached the store and ducked inside.

Callie loved the Crawfords’ store. It was just so totally Rust Creek Falls. Your classic country store, Crawford’s carried everything from hardware to soft goods to basic foodstuffs. It was all homey pine floors and open rafters. The rafters had baskets and lanterns and buckets hanging from them. There were barrels everywhere, filled with all kinds of things—yard tools, vegetables, bottles of wine. In the corner stood an old-timey woodstove with stools grouped around it. During the winter, the old guys in town would gather there and tell each other stories of the way things used to be.

Even though she knew she was in for a soggy walk home, Callie almost didn’t care. Crawford’s always made her feel as if everything was right with the world.

“Nurse Callie, what are you doing out in this?” Nate’s mother, Laura, called to her from behind the cash register.

“It wasn’t raining when I left the house. I thought the walk would do me good.”

“How’s that new house of yours?” Laura beamed.

“I love it.”

“My Nathan has good taste, huh?” Laura’s voice was full of pride. Nate was the oldest of her six children. Some claimed he’d always been the favorite.

“He did a wonderful job on it, yes.” Callie grabbed a basket. Hoping maybe the rain would stop again before she had to head back home, she collected the items she needed.

Didn’t happen. It was coming down harder than ever, drumming the roof of the store good and loud as Laura started ringing up her purchases.

“You stick around,” Laura ordered as she handed Callie her receipt. “Have a seat over by the stove. Someone will give you a ride.”

Callie didn’t argue. “I think I will hang around for a few minutes. Maybe the rain will slow down and...” The sentence wandered off unfinished as Nate emerged through the door that led into the storage areas behind the counter.

He spotted her and nodded. “Callie.”

Her heart kind of stuttered in her chest, which was thoroughly silly. For crying out loud, you’d think she had a real thing for Nate Crawford, the way her pulse picked up and her heart skipped a beat just at the sight of him. “Nate. Hey.”

For a moment, neither of them said anything else. They just stood there, looking at each other.

And then Laura cleared her throat.

Callie blinked and slid a glance at Nate’s mother.

Laura gave her a slow, way-too-knowing smile. Callie hoped her face wasn’t as red as it felt.

Nate lurched to life about then. He grabbed a handsome-looking tan cowboy hat from the wall rack behind the counter. “I moved the packaged goods out of the way so they won’t get wet and put a bigger bucket under that leak.” He put the hat on. It looked great on him. So did his jeans, which hugged his long, hard legs, and that soft chambray shirt that showed off his broad shoulders. “I’ll see to getting the roof fixed tomorrow—or as soon as the rain gives us a break.”

“Thanks, Nathan.” Laura gave him a fond smile. And then she suggested way too offhandedly, “And Callie here needs a ride home....”

Callie automatically opened her mouth to protest—and then shut it without saying a word. It was raining pitchforks and hammer handles out there, and she did need a ride home.

Nate said, “Just so happens I’m headed that way. Here, let me help you.” He grabbed both of her grocery bags off the counter. “Let’s go.”

Callie resisted the urge to tell him she could carry her own groceries. What was the point? He already had them. And he wasn’t waiting around for instructions from her, anyway. He was headed out the door.

“Um, thanks,” she told Laura as she took off after him.

“You are so welcome,” beamed Laura with way more enthusiasm than the situation warranted.

Chapter Two

“My mother likes you,” Nate said as he drove slowly down Main Street, the wipers on high and the rain coming down so hard it was a miracle he could see anything beyond the streaming windshield.

Callie didn’t know how to answer—not so much because of what Nate had said but because of his grim tone. “I like her, too?” she replied so cautiously it came out sounding like a question.

He muttered darkly, “She considers you quality.”

Callie didn’t get his attitude at all—or understand what he meant. “Quality?”

“Yeah, quality. A quality woman. You’re a nurse. A professional. You’re not a snob, but you carry yourself with pride. It’s a small town and sometimes it takes a while for folks to warm to a newcomer. But not with you. People are drawn to you, and you made friends right away. Plus, it’s no hardship to look at you. My mother approves.”

She slid him a cautious glance. “But you don’t?”

He kept his gaze straight ahead. “Of course I approve of you. What’s not to approve of? You’ve got it all.”

She wanted to ask him what on earth he was talking about. Instead, she blew out a breath and said, “Gee, thanks,” and let it go at that.

He turned onto Commercial Street a moment later, then onto South Pine and then into her driveway. He switched off the engine and turned to her, frowning. “You okay?”

She gave him a cool look. “I could ask you the same question. Are you mad at your mother or something?”

“What makes you think that?”

She pressed her lips together and drew in a slow breath through her nose. “If you keep answering every question with a question, what’s the point of even attempting a conversation?”

He readjusted his cowboy hat and narrowed those gorgeous green eyes at her. “That was another question you just asked me, in case you didn’t notice. And I asked the first question, which you failed to answer.”

They glared at each other. She thought how wrong it was for such a hot guy to be such a jerk.

And then he said ruefully, “I’m being an ass, huh?”

And suddenly, she felt a smile trying to pull at the corners of her mouth. “Now, that is a question I can definitely answer. Yes, Nate. You are being an ass.”

And then he said, “Sorry.”

And she said, “Forgiven.”

And they just sat there in the cab of his pickup with the rain beating hard on the roof overhead, staring at each other the way they had back at the store.

Finally he said, “My parents are good people. Basically. But my mom, well, she kind of thinks of herself as the queen of Rust Creek Falls, if that makes any sense. She married a Crawford, and to her, my dad is king. She gets ideas about people, about who’s okay and who’s not. If she likes you, that’s fine. If she doesn’t like you, you know it. Believe me.”

“You think she’s too hard on people?”

There was a darkness, a deep sadness in his eyes. “Sometimes, yeah.”

“Well, Nate, if your mother’s the queen, that would make you the crown prince.”

He took off his hat and set it on the dashboard—then changed his mind and put it back on again. “You’re right. I was raised to think I should run this town, and for a while in the past seven or eight years, I put most of my energy into doing exactly what I was raised to do.”

“You sound like you’re not so sure about all that now.”

“Lately, there’s a whole lot I’m not sure of—which is one of the reasons I’m planning on leaving town.”

She shook her head. “I don’t believe that. I think you love this town.”

“That doesn’t mean I won’t go.” And then he smiled, a smile that stole the breath right out of her body. “Come on.” He leaned on his door and got out into the pouring rain. He was soaked through in an instant as he opened the backseat door and gathered her groceries into his arms. “Let’s go.” He made a run for the house.

She was hot on his tail and also soaked to the skin as she followed him up her front steps.

Laughing, she opened the door for him and he went right in, racing to the kitchen to get the soggy shopping bags safely onto the counter before they gave way. He made it, barely. And then he took off his dripping hat and set it on the counter next to the split-open bags. “A man could drown out there if he’s not careful.”

It was still daylight out, but the rain and the heavy cloud cover made it gloomy inside. She turned on some lights. “Stay right there,” she instructed. “I’ll get us some towels.”