Unexpectedly Expecting!

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.”