The Maverick's Christmas Baby. Victoria Pade

his sons—didn’t hold any animosity. And she was reasonably certain that Dallas didn’t bear her ill will at this point, either.

      Certain enough that she had no compunctions about showing up at his doorstep unannounced to surprise him with the tree. And some ornaments and some lights and just a bit of Christmas cheer that her brother didn’t know she already had loaded into the rear of her SUV.

      “Yes, I’m sure Dallas went to all the trouble of saving me only to turn around and shoot me today,” she said facetiously in answer to her brother’s comment.

      “I don’t like it, Nina,” Nate said then, seriously, solemnly, showing genuine concern. “You know how things are with the Traubs—they’re the enemy.”

      “In what?” Nina challenged. “Some stupid generations-old family feud? They’re the Hatfields and we’re the McCoys? Or vice versa? I’m beginning to think that that’s just plain dumb.”

      “You might not think it was so dumb if it was you who just lost that race for mayor to a Traub.”

      Nathan couldn’t seem to say the name without rancor—actually no one in her family ever could—but still Nina thought maybe she was being insensitive to her brother. Nate had poured his heart and soul into the campaign for the office of Rust Creek’s mayor and then lost. To Collin Traub.

      “I understand, and I don’t blame you for having hard feelings about losing the run for mayor,” she assured Nathan. “But this is something just between Dallas and me. Separate from any family squabbles or defeats or any of the rest of it. After all, he did me a great kindness separate from everything. Or would you have rather he had looked at the situation on Wednesday and left me to fend for myself because I’m a Crawford?”

      “No...” Nate admitted with clear reluctance. “I just don’t think you owe him anything for it.”

      “If it had been someone else who did what he did, would you feel the same way?” Nina reasoned.

      Her brother scowled again but refused to answer.

      Nina knew why and said, “No, you wouldn’t feel the same way. You and Mom and Dad would have rushed into the hospital room and fallen all over yourselves thanking him. And right now you’d have that tree tied to my luggage rack and you’d probably be telling me to tell whoever how grateful you all are that he helped me out.”

      Nate didn’t respond to that but he did hoist the tall pine tree up onto her luggage rack and reach down for the bungee cords to hold it there.

      After securing the cords and yanking on the tree to make sure it was held tight, Nate got down off her running board and returned to her, still frowning his disapproval.

      “It’s a good thing we’ve had nothing but sunshine since Wednesday and the roads are clear or I wouldn’t let you do this,” he said.

      As if he could stop her.

      Nina refrained from saying that and instead said, “But the roads are clear, there isn’t another storm in sight and thanks for that.” She nodded toward the tree now fastened to the roof of her SUV.

      Nate would only accept her gratitude with a shrug, letting her know he still didn’t approve of what she was doing or of her having contact with any Traub.

      But Nina merely kissed her brother on the cheek and sent him on his way.

      So that she could be on her way, too.

      Even as she tried to contain the wave of excitement that flooded through her at the thought that she was on her way to seeing Dallas again....

      * * *

      Dallas’s house was a large two-story that sat not too far back from the side road that bordered the Traub’s Triple T ranch.

      Nina was glad to see the glow of lights on behind the curtained windows when she pulled up in front of it. On the drive from Rust Creek Falls proper it had occurred to her that he might be having Sunday dinner with his parents, who lived in the main house on the property. But if the lights were on, he was probably there. Which meant she was going to get to see him again after all, and that made her happier than she wanted to admit.

      Turning off her engine, she got out of her SUV and went up the four steps onto the porch, crossing it to get to the front door.

      There were butterflies in her stomach suddenly, as the thought flitted through her mind that Dallas might not be happy to see her. What if she’d merely been enjoying a temporary truce?

      Or what if his parents or his brothers were here for Sunday dinner?

      Even if things were still okay between her and Dallas, Nina had no doubt that his family’s response to her would be as bad as her family’s response to him had been. And the thought of that put a damper on what she had planned.

      But she’d come to do this and she couldn’t let these last-minute concerns stop her. She had to at least find out what was going on inside that house. She couldn’t just turn tail and run because things might be different than what she’d envisioned. So she raised a finger to the doorbell and rang it.

      Holding her breath.

      Then the door opened, and Dallas was standing there—somehow looking even taller, more broad-shouldered and even more handsome, too, despite the fact that he was obviously in stay-at-home clothes that included faded, ages-old jeans and a gray sweatshirt with the sleeves pushed to midforearms.

      He also had a kitchen towel slung over one of those broad shoulders and a shadow of beard on the lower half of his face that gave him an extra-rugged appeal Nina tried not to notice. Instead, she focused on the fact that his expression showed shock, then pleased shock as his eyebrows arched and he gave her a glimpse of that lopsided smile of his.

      “Nina!”

      “Hi. I hope this isn’t a bad time.”

      His eyebrows arched higher, as if to ask, “A bad time for what?”

      She nodded over her shoulder at her car. “I was going to get you a fruit basket or something to say thanks, but after Friday I thought a Christmas tree, some decorations and a few other holiday things were a better idea. And if you’re up for it, I’d like to help you trim the tree and get some cheer going for your boys.”

      The arched eyebrows dipped into an almost-frown. “I can’t let you do all that,” he said.

      “You can’t let me say thank you?”

      “You’ve said thank you. A couple of times.”

      He seemed kind of down tonight and that only made Nina more determined to do this.

      “Still, what you did was huge to me, and I want to do this for you to show you how much I appreciated it. For you and the boys...” She added the boys at the end because for some reason there seemed to be an undertone of intimacy in her voice that she wanted to dispel.

      “Are you even supposed to be out? Let alone carting Christmas trees around and decorating them for people?” Dallas asked then.

      “I was back at work yesterday and today without any limitations, and I feel great. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be this way this close to the end, but I have a ton of energy—some to spare—and I’d really like to do this.”

      “Decorate a tree for me?”

      “For you and the boys,” she said, qualifying this time because there was a hint of intimacy in his voice now, and regardless of how excited she was to be looking up into his oh-so-handsome face she was also warning herself to keep things in perspective.

      After a brief moment of seeming to consider what she was offering, Dallas shrugged in a way that made her think he was shrugging off some of his low spirits. Then he laughed a little and said, “Well, okay, I guess. If you’re up for it.”

      “I am. If you’ll get the tree off the car, I’ll get the stuff out of the back—I brought a tree stand