Starke and explained the situation. The sheriff had arranged protection on her room for the remainder of the night and promised to be at the hospital first thing this morning. She’d been waiting for him when he’d walked in.
“What’s the story behind this?” Joshua asked. “Catch me up.”
Clay nodded and Kaylee sighed. “I had a stalker,” she said. “Three months ago, he broke into my home and tried to kidnap me. He is currently in custody and awaiting trial. He was a former ER patient—one of those in-and-out kind of things. I didn’t remember him until the detectives put it together during the investigation. I don’t know why he focused on me. Before he was caught, I thought the gifts and notes and were from a different patient but—”
“Wait a minute,” Joshua said. “You keep talking about patients? What’s your occupation?”
“I’m a trauma nurse.” She gave a half-hearted laugh. “You’d never know it by the way I freaked out giving birth, but I’m actually a good nurse. I now work at the Wrangler’s Corner clinic in town with Dr. Anderson.”
Joshua smiled. “You didn’t freak out, you were just in a new situation and needed a little help.”
“You’re kind.”
Clay shot Joshua a look that said, “Be quiet.” He turned back to Kaylee. “Go on. Why would you think it was this other patient?”
“He’d been involved in a hit-and-run by a drunk driver. His wife and unborn child were killed and he was hurt pretty badly. But he lived and was soon transferred out of ICU to a floor. I visited him occasionally just to check on him. He was there for two months while he recovered and I seemed to be the only one he responded positively to. He was grieving his wife, the loss of his baby...” She shrugged. “I would talk to him. Encourage him. Hold his hand while he wept. I told him about my own failed marriage and how my husband had deserted me and the baby. It made him angry on my behalf.”
Kaylee rubbed her eyes. “I cared about him. I wanted to help him. And he says I did. That my visits kept him sane.” She shook her head. “In the end, the police investigated him and it wasn’t him. A neighbor saw Patrick Talbot break into my house and called the cops. They arrived as he was trying to drag me out of my house to his car.” She swallowed. “He ran, but they caught him. I was stunned. Like I said, he’d been a patient in the ER.” She held her hands up in a helpless gesture. “So many patients come through that ER, I can’t remember them all.”
“Of course not,” Clay said.
“Did he say why he targeted you?” Joshua asked.
“No.” She frowned. “Not really.”
“So, the guy that tried to grab you in the street yesterday,” Joshua said. “No idea who that was?”
“No. I’ve never seen him before.”
Joshua frowned.
“What about the baby’s father?” Clay asked. “Would he come after the baby?”
“He’s dead,” Kaylee said. “He was killed about a month after I told him I was pregnant. And he kicked me out when I told him. Trust me, even if he was alive, he would be the last one to come after me.”
Clay frowned, compassion in his eyes. He nodded. “All right. I’ll look into this stalker of yours. Patrick Talbot, right?”
“Yes. I tried calling the detective who handled the case, but he’s not answering or calling me back. And I tried calling Patrick’s lawyer, but again, no answer or call back.”
Clay made a note of the names and their numbers. “I’ll get these flowers to the lab in Nashville and have them see if they can pull any prints.” He walked into the bathroom, came back with one of the bath towels and wrapped the box in it. “Did you touch the box?”
“I lifted the top with my fingernail.” She shivered. “Once I realized what was in there, I didn’t touch anything else. The note was sitting on top, so it was easy to read.” A wave of nausea hit her. When would the drama stop? She was tired of everything, the constant emotional roller coaster, the daily battle life had become.
“Where did you live after your husband kicked you out of your home?” Joshua asked. “That’s a big gap of time between then and now.”
“I stayed with my sister-in-law, Marla, and her husband for about two weeks, but it was just too awkward. In spite of being told I was welcome to stay, I moved in with a friend and fellow coworker from the hospital. Since the justice system moves so slow, and there’s no telling when Patrick’s trial will be, I decided to come back to Wrangler’s Corner. Even though I had some good friends and support there, I just couldn’t handle being in Nashville anymore.”
“I understand.” Clay tapped his notebook against his chin then nodded. “All right, I’m going to look into all of this and see what I can find out. In the meantime, be careful and take care of your little one.”
She nodded. Clay picked up the towel-wrapped box and left, his phone already pressed to his ear.
Joshua took Duncan from Kaylee and cuddled him against his chest. “He’s a cute little thing.”
“Yes, he’s a sweetheart.”
“You need a ride home?”
She bit her lip and glanced at her cell phone on the table. She’d left a message for her father, but he’d not returned her call. He was probably at the office and not paying attention to his phone. “I guess so.” She gasped. “I left the car seat in my car.”
“I know. I saw it yesterday and grabbed it a little while ago on my way over here. It’s in the back of my SUV—and I had your car towed to your father’s house.”
She stared. “Really? That was incredibly thoughtful. Thank you.”
He shrugged. “You’re welcome.”
Kaylee couldn’t believe how this man kept coming to her rescue. “Have you talked to your mother about her decision to marry my father?”
“I have. A little.”
“And?”
“Let’s just say, we’re running out of time.”
* * *
Running out of time. Yes, that was an apt description. He had slightly less than three weeks to talk his mother out of her crazy plan to marry Kaylee’s father—and to keep Kaylee and little Duncan safe from the stalker before he had to return to Nashville. He hadn’t saved them both just to let them fall prey to a crazy man.
With Kaylee at his side, Joshua carried the baby in the car seat, the handle fitting comfortably in his grip. Kaylee had dressed in a pair of loose, linen pants and a long, light blue T-shirt that brought out her eyes. Eyes he felt he would enjoy seeing on a daily basis.
The thought made him pause.
“What’s wrong?” Kaylee was looking at him with those blue eyes.
He cleared his throat. “Ah, nothing. The elevator’s at the end of this hall.”
She nodded and walked ahead of him and yet, he still pictured her face. Her beautiful eyes, slightly turned up nose and that dimple in her left cheek.
He didn’t need to notice any of that. He was there to watch over her and Duncan. Period.
Kaylee pressed the Down button then leaned over Duncan to make sure his little blue blanket was tucked around his chin. He yawned and settled back into sleep.
“When did you start working at the clinic in town?” Joshua asked.
“The second day I was here.” She smiled at him. “When I got here, I had a horrible sinus infection. I walked in and Doc Anderson was there. I couldn’t believe he was still working. When I asked him about retiring, he said he hadn’t found the person he could