got a couple of friends of his, Vietnam veterans in their sixties, old guys still in surprisingly good shape, to help load up the pickup for her. Then he drove it to her new house, and he and his pals carried everything inside, after which they returned to the trailer and got the rest of her stuff. With the four of them working, they had the trailer emptied out and everything over at the new house before noon.
In her new kitchen, Callie served them all takeout from the chicken-wing place on North Broomtail Road. Once they’d eaten, Emmet’s friends took off. Emmet told her not to work too hard and left to go open the clinic for the afternoon.
She stood out on the porch and waved as he drove away, her gaze wandering to Nate’s big house. She hadn’t seen him all day. There were no lights shining from inside and no sign of his truck. But then, it was a sunny day, and his house had lots of windows. He could be inside, and his truck could very well be sitting in that roomy three-car garage.
Not that it mattered. She’d bought her house because she liked it, not because of the man next door.
After living in a trailer for six months, her new place felt absolutely palatial. There were two bedrooms and a bath upstairs, for guests or whatever. Downstairs were the kitchen, great room, front hall and master suite. The master suite had two entrances, one across from the great room in the entry hall and the other in the kitchen, through the master bath in back. The master bath was the only bathroom on the first floor. It worked great that you could get to it without going through the bedroom.
Callie got busy putting her new house together, starting with her bedroom. That way, when she got too tired to unpack another box, she’d have a bed to fall into. She put her toiletries in the large downstairs bath and hung up the towels. And then she went out to the kitchen to get going in there.
At a little after three, the doorbell rang.
Nate? Her silly heart beat faster and her cheeks suddenly felt too warm.
Which was flat-out ridiculous.
True, she found Nate intriguing. He was such a big, handsome package of contradictions. He could be a jerk. Paige Traub, her friend and also a patient at the clinic, had once called Nate an “unmitigated douche.” There were more than a few people in Rust Creek Falls who agreed with Paige.
But Callie had this feeling about him, a feeling that he wasn’t as bad as he could seem sometimes. That deep inside, he was a wounded, lonely soul.
Plus, well, there was the hotness factor. Tall, with muscles. Shoulders for days. Beautiful green eyes and thick brown hair that made a girl want to run her fingers through it.
Callie blinked and shook her head. She reminded herself that after her most recent love disaster, she was swearing off men for at least the next decade. Especially arrogant, know-it-all types like Nate.
The doorbell rang again and her heart beat even faster. Nothing like a visit from a hunky next-door neighbor. Her hands were covered in newsprint from the papers she’d used to wrap the dishes and glassware. She quickly rinsed them in the sink and ran to get the door.
It wasn’t Nate.
“Faith!” Like Paige Traub, Faith Harper, Callie’s new neighbor on her other side, was a patient at the clinic. Also like Paige, Faith was pregnant. Both women were in their third trimester, but Faith was fast approaching her due date. Faith had big blue eyes and baby-fine blond hair. She and Callie had hit it off from the first.
Faith held out a red casserole dish. “My mom’s chicken divan. It’s really good. I had to make sure my favorite nurse had something for dinner.”
Callie took the dish. “Oh, you are a lifesaver. I was just facing the sad prospect of doing Wings to Go twice in one day.”
Beaming, Faith rested both hands on her enormous belly. “Can’t have that.”
“Come on in....” Callie led the way back to the kitchen, where she put the casserole in the fridge and took out a pitcher of iced herbal tea. “Ta-da! Raspberry leaf.” High in calcium and magnesium, raspberry-leaf tea was safe for pregnant women from the second trimester on. It helped to prepare the uterus for labor and to prevent postpartum bleeding. Callie had recommended it to Faith.
Faith laughed. “Did you know I’d be over?”
“Well, I was certainly hoping you would.” Callie poured the tea, and they went out on the small back deck to get away from the mess of half-unpacked boxes in the kitchen. The sky had grown cloudy in the past hour or so. Still, it was so nice, sitting in her own backyard with her first visitor. And it was definitely a big step up from the dinky square of back stoop she’d had at the trailer park.
They talked about the home birth Faith planned. Callie would be attending as nurse/midwife. Faith had everything ready for the big day. Her husband, a long-haul trucker, had left five days before on a cross-country trip and was due to return the day after tomorrow.
Faith tenderly stroked her enormous belly. “When Owen gets back from this trip, he’s promised he’s going nowhere until after this baby is born.”
“I love a man who knows when it’s time to stay home,” Callie agreed.
“Oh, me, too. I— Whoa!” Faith laughed as lightning lit up the underbelly of the thick clouds overhead. Thunder rumbled—and it started to rain.
Callie groaned. Already, in the space of a few seconds, the fat drops were coming down hard and fast. She jumped up. “Come on. Let’s go in before we drown.”
They cleared a space at the table in the breakfast nook and watched the rain pour down. Faith shivered.
Callie asked, “Are you cold? I can get you a blanket.”
“No, I’m fine, really. It’s only... Well, it’s a little too much like last year.” Her soft mouth twisted. “It started coming down just like this, in buckets. That went on for more than twenty-four hours straight. Then the levee broke....”
Callie reached across the table and gave Faith’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “There’s nothing to worry about.” The broken levees had been rebuilt higher and stronger than before. “Emmet told me the new levee will withstand any-and everything Mother Nature can throw at it.”
Faith let out a long, slow breath. “You’re right. I’m overreacting. Let the rain fall. There’ll be no flooding this year.”
* * *
It rained hard all night.
And on the morning of July second, it was still pouring down. The clinic was just around the block from Callie’s new house, and she’d been looking forward to walking to work. But not today. Callie drove her SUV to the clinic.
Overall, it was a typical workday. She performed routine exams, stitched up more than one injury, prescribed painkillers for rheumatoid arthritis and decongestants for summer colds. Emmet was his usual calm, unruffled self. He’d done two tours of duty in Vietnam and Cambodia back in the day. It took a lot more than a little rain to get him worked up.
But everyone else—the patients, Brandy the clinic receptionist and the two pharmaceutical reps who dropped by to fill orders and pass out samples—seemed apprehensive. Probably because the rain just kept coming down so hard, without a break, the same way it had last year before the levee
