“It ended up being fine, but I have to admit that I was freaked out there for a minute or two.”
Waiting for the crosswalk, she smiled. “Only for a couple of minutes?”
“Yeah, because after I made a fool of myself, she gave us some excellent news. Kimber, we have a court date for adoption.”
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense. When is it?” she asked as she turned down a far quieter side street.
“January seventeenth.”
She was now grinning ear to ear. “That’s excellent. Wonderful!”
“It really is.”
She could practically see him grinning too. “So other than that, how’s Jeremy?”
“He’s good. He asked a girl to the Christmas dance and she said yes. I don’t think anything would have bothered him after that. It’s all he wanted to talk about with Melanie.”
Kimber smiled. That boy sounded so cute. “See? It’s all good.” She stopped, then started walking a little faster. It was probably her imagination, but she thought she’d heard footsteps behind her.
“I think Bethany and him are all good. I just hope nothing happens to make Melanie change her mind or anything.”
Reminding herself that Gunnar was overthinking because he loved the boy and didn’t want to jeopardize their future together, she said, “We’ll just have to stay positive.”
“And hope nothing happens between now and January seventeenth.” He took a deep breath. “I know I keep worrying about the same stuff, but . . .”
Gunnar started talking about some work issues, and some things at Jeremy’s school. Kimber tried to listen but she was now distracted.
Half-certain she heard something crackle nearby, she quickly glanced behind her. But beyond a pair of men walking half a block back, she didn’t see anything. Still unable to shake the feeling that she was being followed, she picked up her pace.
“So what do you think, Kimber? Should I be worried about that?”
She had no idea to what he was referring to. Feeling even more uneasy, she said, “I think I better get off the phone.”
“You okay? You sound a little out of breath.”
“I’m okay, it’s just that I took a shortcut, but things don’t seem quite right.” Her voice drifted off. She not only didn’t want to worry him, but she was afraid to give voice to the fears that were threatening to overtake her.
“What do you mean by that? Are you in trouble? Is someone bothering you?”
“I don’t know. I mean, probably not.”
“I’m not letting you get off the phone if you’re scared.” His tone turned even more serious. “When can you get back to a busier street?”
“In about a half a block.”
“Then you’ll hail a cab?”
She didn’t appreciate his bossiness but she knew it stemmed from concern. “Yes.” Still practically running, she said, “Hold on, I’m almost there.” She rushed to the intersection, practically cheering when she saw all the people. “I’m okay now.”
“I wish I was there with you.”
Thinking about the dinner with Brett, she murmured, “I wish you were too. I had a heck of a dinner. It was awful.”
“I’ll take you out to dinner when you get back.”
She smiled. “You’re quite the sweetheart. First you volunteer to pick me up, now you’re promising to feed me too.”
“Stick with me, sugar. I’ll spoil you rotten.”
She laughed. She knew he was joking, but what he didn’t realize was that those things counted for her. She’d dated so many men who either only wanted to be seen with her or wanted to talk about themselves. Gunnar Law was reminding her that all men weren’t like that.
After checking her surroundings again and finding nothing but a whole lot of uninterested New Yorkers, she said, “When you say things like that, I wonder how all the women in West Virginia let you slip through their fingers.”
“I guess I was saving myself for a certain woman in Bridgeport,” he teased, warming her insides. “So where are you now? Are you about to grab a cab?”
Noticing that every taxi that passed was occupied, she knew that wasn’t about to happen anytime soon. But there was no way Gunnar needed to know that. “Yeah, probably in a sec or two—” Her words cut off as she felt someone pull her arm. With a gasp, she turned, her phone clattering to the ground.
But all she could see was the quickest glimpse of a meaty hand reaching out for her with a stream of profanities.
Before she could get her bearings, she was thrown to the ground. Then kicked.
And then she wasn’t aware of much at all.
Except for the faint echo of Gunnar Law’s voice through the speaker of her phone. Over and over again he called her name.
CHAPTER 26
“Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson,
“Winter Time”
Never had he wanted to both throw his phone and hold it close at the same time. It was serving as his lifeline to Kimber, but it was currently giving him close to nothing.
Nothing except a ton of background noise and a heart attack.
“Kimber?” Gunnar yelled yet again. “Kimber? Kimber!” But all he heard was a clatter of feet, then a couple of exclamations. Hoping that someone had stopped to take care of her, he called out her name again. “Kimber? Kimber, can you answer me, honey?”
After he heard another set of clattering, he heard a rustle of a jacket.
“Ah, hello?”
It was an unfamiliar voice with a New York accent. “Yeah. Hi. This is my girlfriend’s cell. Are you standing next to her?”
“Yeah. I was about a block away and saw her go down. Some guy hit her good. I couldn’t believe it! I yelled at the guy but he took off.”
Gunnar had never been so freaked out. “Wait. Is she okay?”
“I don’t know. She was moving a second ago. Hey, what’s her name? Oh, hold on!”
“Wait—”
“Miss? Miss, someone called the police and an ambulance,” the man said in a gentle voice. “There’s someone on this phone for you. What do you want . . . ? Oh! Okay. Here you go.”