Chapter 23
The next morning, the waiting room at Blue Ridge Hollow Pediatrics was busy. Every chair was taken. A basket of board books sat in the corner. A fish tank hummed quietly beside the check-in desk. Cartoons played on a TV hanging in the corner.
Naomi sat facing the window with Grace in her lap. The baby was awake, dark eyes drifting lazily around the room. A toddler two chairs down waved at her. Grace stared back, unimpressed.
Naomi almost smiled.
Micah sat beside her, dressed casually today. He’d told her it was his day off. She’d insisted he should relax, but he wouldn’t hear it.
He’d picked her up and had driven her here, just as promised. The truth was, she felt better having him at her side. He brought her a sense of security that she treasured more than she wanted to admit.
Just then, his phone buzzed, and he glanced at the screen. “I need to take this. Just give me a minute.”
Naomi nodded. “Of course.”
He stepped toward the front door, phone already at his ear, and pushed outside. He disappeared around the corner where she couldn’t see him anymore.
Life in the waiting room continued. A baby screamed from somewhere in the back. A mom carried a pouty toddler out with a Band-Aid on the boy’s bicep.
Everything felt normal and safe.
Naomi shifted Grace in her arms and looked out the window.
Main Street stretched on the other side of the glass, the town’s storefronts lined up neat and familiar. A few cars drifted past. A woman with a stroller moved along the sidewalk.
Her gaze stopped at something on the other side of the street.
A man stood near the mouth of the alley between the hardware store and the feed shop. He didn’t move. He didn’t look at his phone or check his watch or do any of the things people did when they were waiting.
He simply stood there, hands in his pockets as he looked forward.
At the window.
At her.
At least, that was how it felt.
Or was she being paranoid?
Naomi didn’t know. She only knew that tension stretched across her back, tightening by the second.
Who was that man?
The distance was enough that his face remained shadowed. The alley behind him swallowed the light, and the angle of the morning sun made it worse.
Naomi couldn’t make out his features or get a clear read on his build or his age.
But something about the way he stood tugged at something in the back of her mind.
Had she seen him somewhere before? She felt like she had. She just had no idea where.
The hair on the back of her neck lifted.
Grace made a small sound, and Naomi’s hand tightened beneath the baby’s back. She kept her gaze on the window.
The seconds stretched by.
A toddler shrieked with laughter somewhere behind her and a mother chuckled. The receptionist called a name. Playful, childish voices sounded from the TV.
She watched the man and memorized everything she could.
The man’s shoulders. His height. The way he held himself patient and unhurried, like he had all the time in the world.
Finally, the door opened, and Micah stepped back inside. He did a quick sweep of the room before starting toward her.
Naomi glanced back at the window.
Her breath caught.
The alley was empty.
The man was gone.
But . . . how? Where?
Micah sat back down beside her. “Sorry. That was Deputy Knox.” He paused, catching something in her expression. “What?”
“There was a man. Outside. Watching me.” She shook her head. “But he’s gone now. He just . . . he just left me shaken, I guess.”
“Where?”
She nodded at the area where the man had been standing. “There. In the alley.”
His jaw hardened as he stood again. “I’ll be back.”
Micah rushed outside and stood on the sidewalk.
He scanned left, then right.
Nothing and no one appeared out of place.
He looked at the alley between the hardware store and the feed shop.
It was empty.
Who was that man? Where had he gone?
He paced the street, looking for signs of anyone suspicious.
But he saw no one.
He also checked the alley and walked between the buildings.
Still no one.
Whoever that man was, he’d either gotten away or blended in.
He needed to ask Naomi more questions about who the guy might have been. He hated the idea that someone had been watching her. But who was he?
She would have recognized the Hendersons.
So who else could it have been?
One of the Henderson’s cronies? Someone connected with Richard?
There were too many possibilities for his comfort.
He returned to the clinic.
When he stepped inside, Naomi and Grace were gone, their chair empty.
The receptionist called to him. “Ms. King said you could go on back. Room three. Down the hall, last door on the left.”
A flutter moved through his chest, though he couldn’t pinpoint why.
Instead, he nodded. “Thank you.”
The hallway was short with a strip of fluorescent light overhead. A mural ran along one side: animals in bright colors, the sun with a lopsided smile, puffy clouds that somehow looked cheerful.
He reached room three and knocked.
When he heard the “come in” from the other side, he pushed the door open.
The room was small. Pastel-colored walls, an exam table with navy blue padding and an overlay of sterile white paper, a rolling stool in the corner.
Naomi was seated on the edge of the table in her jeans and sweater, her feet dangling over the side. Grace lay in the crook of her arm.
Naomi looked up when he walked in and smiled. “I thought you might want to hear what the doctor says. But it’s okay if you’d rather stay in the waiting room. No pressure.”
Something in his chest shifted.
He froze and looked at them. Naomi with her arms around the baby. Grace with her fist clutching the front of Naomi’s sweater. The way Naomi’s thumb moved, slow and without thinking, in small circles against the baby’s side.
Such small things. Such ordinary things.
Yet the image hit him like a punch.
At once, he envisioned a room he’d never been in. A future that had never happened.
He could hear Caroline’s laugh, open and unguarded. He could picture her smile and bright eyes—a smile and eyes that should still be here. A smile and eyes that would have continued—if Caroline had lived long enough to hold their baby.
His heart thudded in his ears at the thought.
She’d been five months along when she’d been killed.
Micah had been working a case. The people he was investigating had threatened him. They’d told him to back off—or else.
He didn’t heed their warning.
Because of that decision, two people had paid the price: his wife Caroline and the daughter they’d never named.
He swallowed hard. Blinked back unshed tears.
The room came back into focus. Naomi watched him with her alert, careful eyes.
She must have noticed his flash of pain. She always saw more than he meant to show.
But she didn’t ask.
“If you’re not comfortable being in here . . .” she murmured.
“No, I’ll stay.” Thankfully, his voice came out steady, despite the emotions battering him.
He closed the door and crossed the room. He leaned against the examination table and peered at Grace. The baby turned her head and looked at him, dark eyes unblinking as if she were trying to figure him out.
“Did you see him?” Naomi asked, her voice low as if Grace might hear and understand.
He met her gaze and shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t. You didn’t recognize him?”
“Something about him seemed familiar. But no, I couldn’t see him well enough to make out his features.”
“I’m glad you told me.”
She frowned but nodded.
Micah peered at the baby. “She really is cute.”
“Do you want to hold her?”
His eyebrows flew up. “Me? Oh, no. That’s okay.”
“Are you sure? It’s really not that complicated.”
He glanced at Grace again, his heart rate kicking up a beat.
He considered it a moment. She was so tiny. So vulnerable.
And his emotions were too raw.
He shook his head. “Maybe another time.”
But he silently vowed to do everything in his power to keep this child—and Naomi—safe.