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.
