The Maverick's Christmas Baby. Victoria Pade

stop, then rushing out of the truck’s cab into the storm again to return with her oversize hobo bag and her keys.

      “Thank you,” she said when he handed everything to her over the front seat. Then, a bit emotionally, she added, “Thank you for everything today....”

      “Let’s just get you to the hospital,” he said, putting the truck into gear and setting off cautiously into the still-blinding blizzard.

      Watching the back of his head as he drove, Nina couldn’t help marveling at the fact that she was continuing to be looked after by none other than Dallas Traub.

      Personable, kind, caring, strong, reassuring and more handsome than she’d ever realized before, he couldn’t know how glad she was that he hadn’t merely handed her off to the sheriff.

      And in that moment she couldn’t help wondering why it was that she was supposed to hate him.

      Chapter Two

      “Is anyone here for Nina Crawford?”

      Dallas got to his feet the moment he heard that. He was in the waiting area for the emergency room of the hospital in Kalispell, where he’d been since arriving with Nina and having her whisked away.

      “I’m Dr. Axel,” the woman introduced herself.

      Dallas wasn’t sure whether or not to admit he wasn’t family but before he could say anything the woman continued.

      “Nina and the baby are doing fine. The pains she was having were the result of hitting the steering wheel, not labor. There’s no indication that she’s about to deliver. We’ve done an ultrasound and the baby looks good, plus Nina is hooked up to a fetal monitor and there are no signs of any kind of distress.”

      “Great!” Dallas said, relief ringing clear.

      “As I’m sure you know,” the doctor went on, “Nina is at thirty-five weeks so birth at this stage—while inadvisable—would still likely not pose unusual problems for mom or baby should something change suddenly. But with the storm and the difficulties on the roads, getting her back here in a hurry might pose a problem and I’d rather err on the side of safety. So we’re keeping her overnight. That way we can continue to monitor things and watch them both, just in case.”

      “Sure.”

      “She’s being taken to a room now—if you check with one of the people at the desk they’ll be able to tell you the number.”

      Dallas thanked the doctor, then he went to the reception desk, gave Nina’s name and learned what room she’d been taken to.

      It was only after he had that information that he wondered if he should stay.

      After all, he wasn’t family.

      But while Gage Christensen had promised to notify the Crawfords of the accident and tell them Nina’s whereabouts, none of them had arrived yet. Despite the fact that the blizzard had stopped and only a light snow was falling, the roads still weren’t great, so there was no surprise there. And Dallas didn’t like the thought of Nina being alone, even if everything was okay.

      So he opted to stay. Just the way he’d opted to stay after getting Nina here, despite the sheriff pointing out that he’d done enough, that there was nothing more he could do now that she was in the hands of the professionals, and that he might as well go home to his own family.

      His family—his boys—were being well taken care of by his parents, all of whom he’d talked to while he was in the waiting room. Everything was going on as usual. But for now, without him, Nina had no one.

      And he just couldn’t bring himself to leave her.

      So he went to the elevator, got in and hit the button for her floor.

      The maternity floor.

      He knew it well. He’d been there for the birth of each of his three sons. With Laurel...

      That memory wrenched his gut. The way countless other memories had during the past year.

      The past year of hell...

      It just wasn’t easy.

      Not waking up to find his wife had left him.

      Not raising three kids on his own.

      Not dealing with his own anger and grief and sometimes rage and despair.

      Not dealing with his sons’ emotions, which were sometimes right on the surface and other times came out so subtly he missed them until it was too late.

      Not going on, living in the same town where they’d both grown up, being where almost everything in their life had happened, revisiting places like this hospital, where events had come about that were apparently not as meaningful to his ex-wife as they were to him....

      Yeah, hell pretty much described it. And he was just trying to work his way through the emotional muck, in much the same way that Rust Creek Falls was still working its way through the muck left from the flood.

      But he had confidence that Rust Creek Falls would get through its reconstruction and come out on the other end. He still wasn’t altogether sure about himself. Or about Ryder or Jake or Robbie.

      When the elevator arrived on the maternity floor, he found Nina’s room without a problem and breathed a sigh of relief. It was a private room on a different corridor than where new mothers were located.

      If he’d had to walk into one of the same rooms Laurel had been in with any of the boys he didn’t know if he could have done it. He could only push himself so far, even though he was doing his damnedest to get out of this hell he’d been in since Laurel had left.

      Just pretend you’re okay even if you aren’t—that was what he’d decided he had to do. And maybe if he pretended he wasn’t buried under the blues, he’d finally start to actually see daylight again.

      But one way or another, he’d already made an early New Year’s resolution—he was determined to spare his family and friends any more of what he’d been wallowing in for the past twelve months. No more telling everyone to beware of love, to avoid relationships. No more being the naysayer as he watched people couple up. He’d at least keep his mouth shut.

      The door from the corridor was open and the curtain around the bed was only partially drawn so he could see that Nina was asleep, and he reconsidered staying once again. After the day they’d had she was probably exhausted and she could well sleep until her family got there, or even until morning.

      But he really, really didn’t want to go yet. Just in case.

      So he went silently to the visitor’s chair and sat down, settling in to study Nina rather than thinking more about the other times he’d been on the maternity floor or about the misery of this past year.

      Nina Crawford...

      Jeez, she was beautiful.

      Her long, shiny hair was the color of chestnuts and it fanned out like silk on the pillow.

      Her skin was pure porcelain.

      Her nose was perfect, thin and sleek, and just slightly pointed at the end.

      Her mouth was petal-pink, her lips just lush enough to make a man want to kiss them.

      Her face was finely boned with a chin that was well-defined, cheekbones that were high and sculpted, and a brow that was straight and not too high, not too narrow.

      And even though her eyes were closed and her long, thick lashes dusted her cheeks, he had a vivid recollection of just how big and brown they were—doelike and sparkling, they were the dark, rich color of coffee.

      Yep, beautiful. Exquisitely, delicately beautiful.

      Without the doctor telling him, he would have never guessed that she was as far along as she was. By now, with all three of the boys, Laurel had not looked the way Nina did. Not that he hadn’t thought Laurel was beautiful,