Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Chapter Fourteen

      Chapter Fifteen

      Chapter Sixteen

      Epilogue

      Chapter One

      “Don’t even think about it, Dr. Remington,” Nurse Rosie warned. “Braver men than you have tried to scale that particular mountain and few of them have lived to tell the tale.”

      Stephen Remington glanced at his nurse and frowned. “What mountain? Texas is flat.”

      He knew that firsthand, Stephen thought. He’d driven across most of it when he’d moved to Lone Star Canyon from Boston six months before. Texas was big and flat and everything he’d hoped it would be when he’d left his job running an urban emergency room for the quiet of country doctoring.

      His petite nurse-receptionist gave him a knowing look. “I was using a metaphor,” she said with the patience of a woman long used to the frailties of the male mind. “I saw you staring out the window. It wasn’t hard to figure out what…or who…had captured your attention.”

      She pointed out the glass window that fronted his generous office space. Stephen followed the direction of her hand and saw that she’d assumed he was spying on his neighbors across the street.

      The Lone Star Canyon Medical Offices shared the downtown area with a couple of banks, three restaurants, a sporting goods store, several clothing shops and a hair salon known as the Snip ’n Clip. The latter establishment was directly across from his office. Normally tinted windows kept out prying eyes, but today, with the afternoon so dark and the shop so bright, it was easy to see into the salon.

      He could see two people clearly. One was an elderly white-haired woman in the process of getting her hair lacquered for the week. The other woman wielded the can of hair spray with great style and generosity. He guessed that she was the one Rosie had thought he was admiring.

      Stephen glanced at the tall brunette wearing tight jeans, boots and a cropped red T-shirt that exposed a strip of skin that included a very neatly tucked “inny.” Her dark hair fell in loose, sensual curls to the middle of her back. She moved with the sexy grace of a woman who can have any man she wanted without wanting a single one.

      “Her?” he said, well aware that if he could see into her place, she could see out to his. Fortunately the woman didn’t seem to notice him.

      “That’s the one,” Rose said. “Nora Darby. She might look all soft and sweet on the outside, but on the inside she’s about as friendly as a gut-shot mama bear. Nora doesn’t like men, and with good reason. I don’t want to burst your bubble, Doctor, but better men than you have tried and failed.”

      “I see.”

      Looking at Nora he could understand why they’d tried. She had it all—a great body with a pretty face. If she could speak intelligently on any subject, she would be perfect. Not for him, of course, but maybe for someone else.

      “I’ll admit that she’s very attractive,” he told his nurse, “but you don’t have to worry. I’m not in the market for a woman—gut-shot mama bear or not. Besides, she isn’t what I was looking at.”

      He pointed to the dark gray-green cloud that had been hovering on the edge of the horizon. Most of it was hidden behind the building across the street, but he could see the top of it, swirling closer and closer as they talked. It was almost as if a part of the sky had reached down to—

      Rosie screamed and grabbed his arm. “Tornado,” she yelled, and headed for the front door.

      Stephen frowned. He tugged free of his nurse’s insistent grip. “What are you talking about?”

      “We have to get into a storm cellar,” she said frantically. “Oh, supplies. There’ll be injuries.” She glanced out of the window again and shrieked. “It’s nearly here.”

      As she spoke, Stephen realized that the wind had picked up around them and that there was a peculiar heaviness in the air. Tornado? He’d heard about them, of course, but he was from the East Coast where phenomena like that occurred on the evening news, not in real life.

      But Rosie’s panic was real enough. His normally unflappable nurse ran for the front desk and jerked the emergency first aid kit from its rack on the wall. Stephen took it from her as she grabbed his arm again and headed out the front door.

      As they stepped into the street, he could hear the approaching sound of a train. Except there weren’t any train tracks in Lone Star Canyon. His gaze was drawn across the street. Not toward the very tempting Ms. Nora Darby, but to her elderly clientele, all of whom were going to have trouble making it to shelter in time. He shifted course and headed toward the Snip ’n Clip.

      “I love this song,” Mrs. Gelson said as she admired herself in the mirror.

      Nora tuned in to the sentimental song coming from the small stereo in the back of the shop.

      Mrs. Gelson sighed and patted her helmet of white hair. “Makes me miss my Bill. He used to sing this to me.”

      Right, Nora thought as she pasted a smile on