Karen Rose - Marrying Dr Maverick

“I asked you to marry me. I know you think I’m absolutely crazy.”

“No…” she started and didn’t know quite how to finish or where to go from there.

“This isn’t a joke, Jazzy. I’m not out of my mind. Really. But I need to solve this problem with my father. The only way he’s going to let me in on the practice, the only way he’s going to rest and stop wearing himself down, is if I’m really settled. I have to give him what he wants.”

“I don’t understand,” she said very quietly.

“He wants me to have a wife, so I need a wife. The way we’ve worked together the past week, I just know you’d be perfect.”

“So you really do want me to marry you?”

“It wouldn’t be a real marriage.”

When he said those words, she found herself amazingly disappointed. How stupid was that?

* * *

MONTANA MAVERICKS: RUST CREEK COWBOYS Better saddle up. It’s going to be a bumpy ride!

Marrying

Dr Maverick

Karen Rose Smith

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Award-winning and bestselling author KAREN ROSE SMITH’s plots are all about emotion. She began writing in her early teens, when she listened to music and created stories to accompany the songs. An only child, she spent a lot of time in her imagination and with books—Nancy Drew, Zane Grey, The Black Stallion and Anne of Green Gables . She dreamed of brothers and sisters and a big family such as the ones her mother and father came from. This is the root of her plotlines, which include small communities and family relationships as part of everyday living. Residing in Pennsylvania with her husband and three cats, she welcomes interaction with readers on Facebook, Twitter @karenrosesmith and through her website, www.karenrosesmith.com, where they can sign up for her newsletter.

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To my family and friends who love animals as much as

I do—my husband Steve, my son Ken, Suzanne, Sydney,

Liz, Jane, Ryan, Heather, Abby, Sophie, Chris. Special

thanks to my pet sitter, Barb, whose expertise allows

me to leave home with a free heart.

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

Epilogue

Chapter One

Brooks Smith rapped firmly on the ranch-house door, scanning the all-too-familiar property in the dusk.

His dad didn’t answer right away, and Brooks thought about going around back to the veterinary clinic, but then he heard footsteps and waited, bracing himself for this conversation.

After his father opened the door, he looked Brooks over, from the beard stubble that seemed to be ever present since the flood to his mud-covered boots. Tending to large animals required trekking through fields sometimes.

“You don’t usually come calling on a Tuesday night. Run into a problem you need me for?”

Barrett Smith was a barrel-chested man with gray hair and ruddy cheeks. At six-two, Brooks topped him by a couple of inches. The elder Smith had put on another ten pounds over the past year, and Brooks realized he should have been concerned about that before today.

There was challenge in his dad’s tone as there had been since they’d parted ways. But as a doctor with four years of practice under his belt, Brooks didn’t ask for his dad’s advice on animal care or frankly anything else these days.

“Can I come in?”

“Sure.”

Brooks entered the living room where he’d played as a child. The Navajo rugs were worn now, the floor scuffed.

“I only have a few minutes,” his father warned him. “I haven’t fed the horses yet.”

“I’ll get straight to the point, then.” Brooks swiped off his Stetson and ran his hand through his hair, knowing this conversation was going to get sticky. “I ran into Charlie Hartzell at the General Store.”

His father avoided his gaze. “So?”

“He told me that when he stopped by over the weekend, you weren’t doing too well.”

“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” his dad muttered, not meeting Brooks’s eyes.

“He said you carried a pail of oats to the barn and you were looking winded and pale. You dropped the bucket and almost passed out.”

“Anybody can have an accident. After I drank a little water, I was fine.”

Not so true according to Charlie, Brooks thought. His dad’s longtime friend had stayed another hour to make sure Barrett wasn’t going to keel over.

“You’re working too hard,” Brooks insisted. “If you’d let me take over the practice, you could retire, take care of the horses in the barn and help out as you want.”

“Nothing has changed,” Barrett said angrily. “You still show no sign of settling down.”

This was an old argument, one that had started after Lynnette had broken their engagement right before Brooks had earned his degree in veterinary medicine from Colorado State. That long-ago night, his father had wanted to discuss it with him, but with Brooks’s pride stinging, he’d asked his dad to drop it. Barrett hadn’t. Frustrated, his father had blown his top, which wasn’t unusual. What was unusual was his warning and threat—he’d never retire and turn his practice over to Brooks until his son found a woman who would stick by him and build a house on the land his grandmother had left him.

Sure enough...

“Your grandmama’s land is still sitting there with no signs of a foundation,” his dad went on. “She wanted you to have roots, too. That’s why she left it to you. Until you get married and at least think about having kids, I can handle my own practice just fine. And you should butt out.”

He could rise to the bait. He could argue with his father as he’d done before. But he didn’t want his dad’s blood pressure to go any higher so he stuck to being reasonable. “You can issue an ultimatum if you want, but this isn’t about me. It’s about you. You can’t keep working the hours you’ve been working since the flood. You’re probably not eating properly, grabbing donuts at Daisy’s and potato chips at the General Store.”

“Are you keeping track of what I buy where?”

“Of course not. I’m worried about you.”

“Well, don’t be. Worry about yourself. Worry about the life you don’t have.”

“I have a life, Dad. I’m living it my way.”

“Yeah, well, twenty years from now you just tell me how that went. I’m going out back. You can see yourself out.”

As his father turned to leave, Brooks knew this conversation had been useless. He knew he probably shouldn’t even have come. He had to find a way to make his father wake up to the reality of his deteriorating health. He would...one way or another.

* * *

Jasmine Cates—“Jazzy” to her friends and family—stood outside the Ace in the Hole, Rust Creek Falls’ lone bar, staring up at the wood-burned sign. She glanced around at the almost deserted street, hoping she’d catch sight of her friend Cecilia, who was tied up at a community meeting. They were supposed to meet here.