Unexpectedly Expecting!

He hadn’t thought of that. “Good thing we’re going back to the office, then,” he said. “People will look for me there.”

She opened her mouth to reply, but before she could say anything, a pickup truck doing at least fifty rounded the corner. The vehicle nearly went up on two wheels. The driver spotted them and started honking, then slid to a stop in the center of the road.

“Doc, Doc, you gotta help!” An old man climbed out of the cab and raced around to the bed of the truck. “My boy. He’s cut real bad.”

Stephen was already running toward the tailgate. He climbed up and registered that Nora had followed.

A man in his late twenties lay stretched out on several blankets. His skin was blue-white, his eyes closed, and there was blood everywhere.

Stephen heard a faint moan from beside him, but couldn’t spare her a glance. “Where is he cut?” he asked.

“On the upper arm, by his shoulder,” the old man said. “I put pressure on it but the blood wouldn’t stop.”

Stephen saw the wad of bandages and lifted them. Blood spurted. He shoved the cloths back in place. There was no way to tell how much blood the man had lost. Too much, for sure. He was already in shock.

Stephen looked at the old man. “Drive,” he commanded. “We’ve got to get him to my office. Now!”

The father complied, hurrying to slide behind the wheel. Stephen opened the first aid kit he’d carried back and dug out several thick bandages. He replaced the soaked ones with a fresh one and ordered Nora to press down hard on the open wound.

The truck bounced through the center of town and screeched to a halt in front of the medical offices.

“Don’t move,” he instructed Nora as he jumped down and ran inside.

Less than a minute later he returned with two IVs—O negative blood and saline. When he had them hooked up, he traded places with Nora.

“I’m going to have to sew him up,” he said, looking at her for the first time since he’d climbed in the back of the truck. She was nearly as white as his patient. “Can you help me?”

She nodded, then swallowed. “I need about thirty seconds first.”

For what? he wondered. But before he could ask, she scrambled out of the truck, ran to a nearby trash can and threw up. As promised, in thirty seconds, she was back at his side.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“No, but that doesn’t matter. I’m not going to pass out and if I have to puke again, I’ll do it over the side.”

She pulled on the gloves he passed her, then listened while he explained the procedure. When he handed her more bandages and an irrigation solution, she gamely did as he instructed. She had to pause to throw up again, but otherwise was as calm and efficient as Nurse Rosie herself.

It was dark by the time the ambulance had pulled away to take the man to the hospital. Nora leaned against the wall of the medical office and told herself to keep breathing. At least her stomach had settled in the past couple of hours. She hadn’t thrown up so much since a bout with the stomach flu three years before, and frankly she could happily go a lifetime without having it happen again.

But despite feeling weak and shaky, she was also proud. Even though her medical training consisted of knowing how to apply a Band-Aid, she’d been able to help today. She’d aided her community in its time of need.

She looked at the now-dark Snip ’n Clip and thought about going over to put everything to right in the shop. Electricity had been restored around five, so she could sweep and vacuum and…She sighed. Not tonight. She was too tired.

“How do you feel?”

She looked up and saw Stephen Remington walking toward her. He’d removed his blood-spattered coat along with his tie. Before she could answer, he touched her forehead, then reached for her wrist and took her pulse. What was more annoying than him touching her was the way her heartbeat seemed to flutter slightly at the contact. Okay, the man was a halfway decent doctor, she thought grudgingly. That didn’t give him the right to examine her.

“I’m fine,” she said, pulling free of his fingers and summoning a weak excuse for a glare. “Say thank you and move along.”

“Thank you,” he said. “But I’m not moving along. You haven’t had anything to eat today, and what you ate this morning is long gone.”

“In more ways than one,” she said, smiling in spite of herself.

“My point exactly. So let me express my gratitude in a practical way. Let me buy you dinner.” He pointed to the diner open at the end of the street. “I’ve sampled most of what they have on the menu. It’s not half-bad.”

She planted her hands on her hips. “Thanks for sharing that but you do realize that I was born in this town and that I’ve lived here all my life? Chances are I’ve eaten at the diner more times than you, so I don’t need your commentary on the menu.”

“Why are you so crabby? Must be low blood sugar. You need food.”

He put his hand on the small of her back and urged her forward. Amazingly enough…she let him.

Chapter Two

She had not been thinking, Nora thought in disgust as she and Stephen Remington were led to a booth at the rear of the Lone Star Café. Normally the diner was full for breakfast and lunch, but fairly empty for dinner. However, with half the town still not having electricity and the diner being on the “have” side, families had come in to get a home-cooked meal and to talk about the tornado. Which meant there were plenty of interested parties to watch her sit down across from the doc and to make whispered comments that just happened to drift across the entire restaurant.

She made sure she took the seat that put her back to the crowd so she wouldn’t have to watch their intrigued expressions. She sighed. There wasn’t much to do in Lone Star Canyon but talk about the neighbors. Despite a couple of spectacular exceptions, she’d managed to stay out of the limelight. Tonight that had changed.

“Why the heavy sigh?” Stephen asked as he picked up a menu. But rather than studying the list of offerings, he gazed at her, as if her answer was the most interesting thing he was bound to hear all day.

“People will talk,” she said shortly. She didn’t have to look at the menu. She ate here enough that she could practically recite it by heart.

“About the tornado? Why not? Things like that don’t happen all that often.”

She was willing to admit he was reasonably good-looking and he’d worked hard to save several lives. She’d heard that he was a nice man, not that she was interested or looking, but he had to be about as thick as a board.

“Not the storm,” she said, wishing Trixie would hurry and take their order, or even better, that she hadn’t agreed to dinner in the first place. “About me being here with you.”

“Oh.”

There was a wealth of meaning in that single syllable. She wasn’t sure what, but she didn’t like it.

“Yes, oh. I don’t want the entire town speculating about my personal life.”

“Because…” His voice trailed off.

She leaned forward and lowered her voice. She also spoke slowly so he could understand her meaning. “Because people might think we’re on a date.”

“I’ve heard that you don’t date much,” he admitted. “In fact I was informed that better men than me have tried and failed in that department.”

“I do not appreciate being spoken about behind my back.”

“As you weren’t in the room it would have been difficult to have the conversation in front of you.”

“You could have not had it at all.”

He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “I didn’t start it, someone else did. I simply participated.”

She pressed her lips together but didn’t respond. There was no point in talking about this any further. However, Stephen didn’t share her opinion.

“So what’s the big deal?” he asked. “How come you don’t go out much?”

“Miss Nora hates men,” a voice announced cheerfully.

Nora held in a groan. Her wish for Trixie to appear had been granted, but she was sure the timing couldn’t be worse.

Stephen turned his attention to the pretty forty-something waitress with big hair the color of fire. Trixie gave him a flirtatious wink.

“Nora here is our Himalayan mountain range. You can look all you want and on a clear day she seems real approachable, but if you try to conquer her, you’re gonna freeze to death.”

“Thank you for sharing, Trixie,” Nora said dryly.

“Just trying to help,” the waitress offered with a big smile. “The meat loaf is great tonight, as always. So’s the fried chicken. I’d pass on the fish. It sat out a bit while the tornado ripped through town.”

Stephen touched his menu. “Why don’t you give us a minute. In the meantime, Nora, what would you like to drink?”

“Coffee,” she said, wishing there was a way to walk out of the diner and never be heard from again. She could feel the heat flaring on her cheeks. It was like being sixteen again and confessing to a girlfriend that she had a crush on Bobby Jones. Unfortunately his little sister had been lurking around the corner and had run off to blab the news to the entire school. Nora had endured an entire week of singsong chants of “Nora loves Bobby.” The fact that the object of her desire had asked her to go to homecoming with him had only taken away part of the sting.

It’s not that she was interested in Stephen Remington, but she didn’t appreciate being compared to a mountain range that could freeze a man to death.

“I’ll have coffee, too,” he said.

When Trixie left there was a moment of silence between them. Nora searched frantically for a neutral topic. Anything that didn’t involve her romantic past. Unfortunately her mind was blank.

“I heard that there was some damage on several of the nearby ranches,” Stephen said casually. “You mentioned you’d spoken with your family. They’re fine, right?”

She was so grateful, she almost decided she liked him. Almost. “Yes. My mom said that except for my brother’s house being totaled, the damage was minor.” She thought about Jack’s small two-bedroom structure. “He’ll be able to rebuild fairly easily. The hands were all accounted for. She told me there was more damage at the neighboring Fitzgerald place. The fence line was knocked down, but the great patriarch Aaron won’t let anyone help repair it, which is typical.”

Stephen leaned forward. A lock of his sandy brown hair fell across his forehead, giving him an oddly appealing look. Innocently devious, like a little boy about to pull a prank.

“That’s right. You’re a Darby, aren’t you? One part of the infamous Darby-Fitzgerald feud.”

Trixie appeared with the coffee. Nora quickly ordered meat loaf while Stephen picked the fried chicken. When the waitress left, he shrugged. “I know food like that is bad for me, but it’s a weakness. I allow myself to have it a couple of times a month. I figured I’d earned it today.”

She thought about the lives he’d saved, how he’d stayed so calm, despite all the injuries. While she’d been busy barfing her guts out, he’d been fixing the problem.

He took the coffee mug in his strong-looking hands. “So tell me about the feud. Why did it start, and when? And why are the fences Aaron’s responsibility? They’re shared between the two families, aren’t they?”

She raised her eyebrows. “You want me to squeeze a hundred and forty years of history into a five-minute recap?”

“Something like that.”

She sipped her coffee, feeling the jolt of heat as it hit her stomach. Suddenly she was starving. “Explaining about the fence is a whole lot easier. The Darbys and Fitzgeralds have nearly twenty miles of shared fence. About sixty or seventy years ago the families were in court about one thing or another. They did that a lot back then. Anyway, the judge was so tired of always seeing them in his court that he broke the fence up into five-mile sections. Each family is responsible for ten miles. If they don’t keep it repaired, they’re fined ten percent of the previous years’ income.”

Stephen had been drinking his coffee and nearly choked when he heard the amount of the fine. “Ten percent?”

She grinned. “We have a long history of not getting along. During the 1920s there were several fights about water rights. Things got so bad that a couple of cowboys were killed. The Texas legislature enacted a law saying that if either a Fitzgerald or a Darby interfered with water rights again, both families would lose their ranches.” She made an X over her heart. “I swear it’s true. You can look it up.”

“I believe you. I just didn’t realize there was so much bad blood between the two families. How did it start?”

“About a hundred and forty years ago two friends came to Texas and settled in Lone Star Canyon. Joshua Fitzgerald and Michael Darby were young, fearless and interested in making their fortune. They had neighboring cattle ranches, sharing everything from winter feed to bulls.”

Nora paused. She knew the history of the two families because she’d heard stories about them all her life. What would it have been like to live back then? she wondered.

“Joshua Fitzgerald decided it was time for him to settle down so he sent back east for a wife. A mail-order bride.”

Stephen raised his eyebrows. “A woman, huh? I can see where this is going. I’ll bet she made trouble.”

Nora leaned forward. “Don’t even think about going there, Dr. Remington. This feud wasn’t started by the women of the family, but by the men.”

Trixie arrived with their food and set the large plates in front of them. “You two seem to be getting along real nice,” she said speculatively. “Any chance you’re reconsidering your opinion on men, Miss Nora?”

“Not really, Trixie, but thanks for asking.” She smiled at the waitress, wished she were anywhere but here, then cut into her meat loaf. When she took a mouthful and started chewing, she noticed that Stephen was looking at her. Instantly, heat flared on her cheeks. No doubt he was learning a whole lot more about her than he’d wanted.

“You could eat,” she said after she’d swallowed. She pointed at his plate. “Your chicken is getting cold.”

He picked up his knife and fork. “Please continue with your story. I’m all ears.”

Unfortunately he was more than that. He was good-looking, in a nerdy way, and kind. He didn’t seem frightened of her, which was something she hadn’t experienced in a while. Most men she knew thought of her as a fire-breathing, man-hating dragon.

“Joshua’s mail-order bride wasn’t impressed with her groom. Unfortunately Joshua fell for her hard and fast. He tried everything he could to win her heart, but after a year she left him. They were divorced shortly after that.”

“Let me guess,” he said. “She married Michael Darby.”

“About three days after her divorce was finalized. It seems that she and Michael had fallen in love at first sight and the feelings had never faded. Joshua didn’t take kindly to being cuckolded by his best friend. From that time forward, the Darbys and the Fitzgeralds became bitter enemies.”

Stephen nodded when she was finished. “I can see how something like that would upset former friends, but not enough for a feud to last over a hundred years.”

“This is Texas,” she reminded him. “We don’t do things by halves out here.”

“But you don’t support the feud, do you?” He gave her an engaging smile. “After all, you’re intelligent and very much a part of the present. I can’t imagine someone like you caring about a silly family quarrel.”

Nora had been busy thinking that Stephen wasn’t such a bad guy after all and that maybe she’d misjudged him. But in one hot second, her opinion changed.

“It’s very easy to judge a situation from the outside,” she said calmly, which she didn’t feel at all. “You’ve been here a few months. I’ve lived in Lone Star Canyon my entire life. I can trace my family tree for over six generations. We have traditions that mean something to us.”

He finished chewing a bite of chicken and swallowed. “One of those traditions is the feud?” he asked.

“It’s not that simple,” she told him. She wasn’t about to go into detail. There were personal reasons why she wasn’t a huge fan of the Fitzgerald family.

“What about Katie?” he asked. “Do you hate her?”

Katie Fitzgerald was the oldest daughter and someone Nora had known since she started school. Katie was currently involved with Jack, Nora’s oldest brother, and showing signs of being in love with him.

At one time Nora would have said yes, that she didn’t like Katie very much, but now she wasn’t so sure. For one thing, Katie had a son, Shane, who was the most amazing boy ever born. He and Nora had become friends. Some of Shane’s charm and intelligence just might have come from his mother. For another thing, while they’d been growing up the Fitzgerald kids had seemed to have everything the Darby kids didn’t. Reason enough for a young child to dislike someone. But things were different now. The Darbys finally had enough money. There weren’t anymore worries about feeding and clothing seven kids. Besides, Nora had gotten to know Katie and had found out she wasn’t such a horrible person. And she did seem to make Jack happy. Nevertheless she was a Fitzgerald. Which made the situation confusing.

“Let’s talk about you for a change,” Nora said, glaring at him. “Tell me the deep, dark secrets from your past.”

He laughed. “You mean what’s a good-looking, unmarried doctor like me doing in a place like this?”

“I’ll accept the last part of the question.”

“Fair enough.” He set down his fork. “I was born and raised in New Jersey—the part that’s not close to New York City. I wanted to be a doctor from the time I was little and I made it into medical school. I had a vision of being a simple country doctor. I wanted to take my patients from birth to death.”

“Only if you’re not planning on them living very long,” she murmured.

“I’m talking,” he complained. “You’re supposed to listen attentively and then act suitably impressed. You’re not supposed to interrupt.”

For a second she thought he might be flirting with her, but that wasn’t possible. Men didn’t flirt with her—they ran in fear of their lives. “You don’t know me very well if you expect that,” she said.

“I know you well enough, Nora. I know you’re compassionate, brave, determined and beautiful.”

She blinked. He was kidding, right? Did he really think she was stupid enough to fall for a line like that?

“On what planet?” she asked, but her voice didn’t sound as strong or contemptuous as she’d hoped, and instead of looking embarrassed, Stephen only looked knowing. As if he sensed her secrets and made allowances for them.

“As I was saying,” he continued, “I wanted to be a country doctor. The old-fashioned kind of physician who takes care of every emergency, delivers babies and eases the suffering of the dying, along with everything in between. I got sidetracked with emergency room medicine for a few years, but now I’m here.”

He finished the last of his chicken and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Now you know my life history, why don’t you tell me yours? For starters, why does everyone assume you’re so unapproachable?”

Because she was, she thought, slightly confused by his curiosity. Most men found out about her reputation and went running in the opposite direction.

“I am unapproachable. I don’t suffer fools gladly, I don’t cater to male egos and I’m not interested in playing games.”

Stephen looked at the woman sitting across from him. She’d gone from looking like a confident companion to glancing around like a trapped animal. She wasn’t comfortable talking about herself and she wasn’t comfortable with him. He half expected her to bolt from her seat and race to the door. Except he guessed that Nora would rather die than let him see that she was rattled by their dinner conversation.

He studied her smooth skin, the glossy dark hair spilling over her shoulders, the way her mouth gave away every emotion. Her mother was his patient and adored talking about her children, so he knew that Nora was twenty-eight. What had happened in her young life to make her so wary of men? And why did everyone in town know her secret but him?

Nora wasn’t cold, he thought, remembering the waitress’s comment that she could freeze a man to death. His nurse had implied that no one got to Nora. What he wanted to know was, why?

His interest surprised him. In the past two years he’d managed to avoid feeling anything for anyone except his patients. Emotionally he’d been numb inside. While he wasn’t ready to care again—in fact he’d promised himself he would never fall in love with anyone else—he felt a stirring of interest that had little to do with the heart and much more to do with the mind…and the glands.

Nora engaged his brain and heated his blood. It was a tempting combination.

“You’re not married,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

She set down her fork and pushed away her plate. “I don’t actually think that’s any of your business. Nor am I comfortable talking about my personal life with you.”

“But you asked me all kinds of personal questions.”

“I asked why you’d chosen to open your practice here.”

He leaned forward and grinned. “Actually you asked about deep, dark secrets in my past. Sounds pretty personal to me.”

“Fine. You chose to answer and I didn’t.”

She was prickly, all right, he thought. A challenge. Maybe he needed a good challenge in his life. Imagining Nora yielding to him, hissing even as she purred, stirred more than his blood.

“I’d like to see you again,” he said. “How about dinner tomorrow night?”

She looked at him as if he’d suddenly sprouted purple horns and a tail. “You’re insane. I don’t date.” The word was laced with both incredulity and contempt.

“Why not?”

It was a simple-enough question. She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. Sound emerged, but it was more of a splutter than a reply. Finally she simply tossed her napkin on the table, slid out of the booth and hurried toward the door.

Stephen watched her go. He wasn’t looking for the love of his life. He’d had that once and lost her. But he was willing to admit that he was lonely. Maybe it was time to change that. As the ever-prickly Miss Nora Darby didn’t seem to be looking for anything permanent, either, maybe they could find a way to help each other.

Because he was willing to bet that if she didn’t date much, she didn’t get a chance to do other things. And just watching her move had told him she would probably do those other things very, very well.

Nora felt too crabby to sleep. She wanted to pretty up her emotions with words like angry or keyed up, but the truth was she was just plain crabby. Who was that man and what made him think that he had the right to…to…

She collapsed onto a sofa in her living room and sighed. Okay, all he’d done was ask her out. Was that so terrible? Didn’t men ask women out all the time?

Maybe, she thought, trying to hang on to crabby in favor of feeling wistful. But men didn’t ask her out. Not anymore. Not when she could verbally eviscerate them and frequently did. Not when she had a reputation of being difficult, stubborn and the kind of woman a man left at the altar.

She sighed and grabbed one of her floral-print pillows. She tucked the square against her chest and hugged it close. The worst of it was she’d been tempted to accept Stephen’s invitation. For one brief second she’d thought about saying yes. Which was crazy.

Except…Nora shifted until she was curled up on the sofa. A part of her had sort of enjoyed her dinner with Stephen. He didn’t seem intimidated by her. She didn’t get out all that much anymore. Not just because she didn’t date but because all her girlfriends had married and were starting families. They didn’t have time for dinners out and she was usually too busy to break for lunch.

“I’ll make new friends,” she told herself softly. “Friends who are single like me.” She vowed to start searching these mythical folks out the following day, despite the fact that most single females in Lone Star Canyon were either under twenty or over sixty-five.