She bolted into the front door. She had checked on him earlier, but, knowing that the damn stalker was loose again, she couldn’t let her guard down now for sure. She cried out in relief when she saw Danny, still in his bed. She walked over and sat down, reached out to touch him with her shaking hand. “Dear God,” she whispered, “this nightmare needs to end.”
Hearing footsteps on the stairs, she twisted around and saw Greyson standing in the doorway, his hand to his chest and his eyes closed.
“Thank God,” he whispered. “You worried me when you didn’t come back.”
She realized then that he thought something had happened to her son—or to the both of them. It had all been too much. She couldn’t help herself as she got to her feet and bolted toward him. He opened his arms, and she flung herself into them, never more grateful when they closed around her, keeping her safe.
“It’s been a hell of a night,” Greyson said, as he held her close.
“I’m sorry,” Jessica said. “I don’t know what’s come over me.”
She tried to step away, but he held her gently and tucked her back in. “Just relax,” he said. “You’ve had successive shocks,” he said, “and, if you don’t need a moment, I do.”
She giggled with laughter at that, and he grinned. He looked down at the dog, who had been sitting in the corner. Then Kona sniffed around, got up, and wandered toward the bed. Greyson looked over at Jessica and asked, “Is it okay if Kona checks on the boy?”
“If you think it’s safe.”
“I suspect it’s your boy who brought Kona into your life and kept her here,” he said. He let the dog come closer. The dog gave several long sniffs up and down the sleeping boy, but, apparently satisfied that Danny was fine, she sat down, turned, looked at Greyson, and then slowly laid down.
“Oh my,” she said. “What does she want?”
“To stand guard, from what I can see,” he said. “But, as much as that might be a good idea, I’m not quite prepared to do that yet.”
She nodded. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea yet either.”
He nudged the rope and called the dog toward him. Kona hopped up and walked over willingly. They closed the door partially and went back downstairs to the kitchen.
“The cop car is still there,” she said.
He nodded. “As soon as they leave, I’ll go out and hunt for your stalker.”
“Won’t it be too late by then?”
He shrugged. “Obviously the earlier, the better. But I don’t want to draw any attention from the cops or be tagged for interfering in their hunt.”
She winced at that. “They should be happy to get any assistance,” she said.
“They might be, but I’m an unknown factor. And remember. Somebody attacked two cops, and we were the only ones here,” he reminded her. “They’ll look at us sideways for quite a while.”
“I didn’t do anything,” she said. He watched as she walked over to the teakettle and quickly filled it and put it on. She turned and looked at him. “I could make coffee if you prefer.”
“Tea is fine,” he said. “It’s almost five o’clock in the morning. Good thing I let my Grandparents know I was not going to be going back home last night.”
She stared at him in shock, checking the clock on the stove. “Oh, boy. It’ll be a rough day with Danny having lots of sleep and me having none,” she said in a wry tone.
He nodded. “Toddlers are a handful in the best of times,” he said with a laugh. “But, when you don’t have any sleep, I imagine it’s much worse.”
“Do you have any children?” she asked in an open, frank way that he liked.
“Nope,” he said. “Never been married, never had a family, but have tons of friends with toddlers.”
“Well, the next line should be, what exactly is wrong with you then?” she teased.
“Meaning all the good guys are married?” he said, enjoying the banter.
“That’s one of the lines,” she said. “Most guys I meet these days are divorced.”
“That’s because divorce is so prevalent in our society now.” He walked over with the dog and said, “Do you have a bowl I could put some water in?”
She gasped. “Oh, my gosh, I should have thought of that.” She quickly pulled a mixing bowl from her cupboard with a decent-size flat bottom, then filled it with water and put it on the floor off to the side.
Kona had several slow drinks and then glanced around at him.
“I think she’s looking for food,” Jessica noted.
“Sorry, Kona. I doubt any dog food is here.”
“There’s not,” she said. “I have some ham and cheese though.”
“Not exactly the food we want to get her accustomed to having,” he said with a smile, “but I’m sure Kona deserves it after the morning she had.”
“That she does.” As Jessica spoke, she was already hauling out a chunk of a home-cooked ham.
He looked at it, and his mouth watered. “Did you bake that yourself?”
She nodded. “I like to cook. A ham like this gives me lots of leftovers,” she confessed. “It gives me a great finger food for Danny, and it’s economical to buy when on sale too.”
“I’m sure Kona wouldn’t object to those nice fatty chunks there.”
“If you want to work cleaning bits off the bone, I’ll cut her up some cheese.”
He got up, walked over, and dropped the leash, so Kona was free to wander, giving her just enough rope to see what she’d do. He picked up the small paring knife and cleaned the bone up as much as he could. “Are you making soup out of this?”
“We’ve had it rather often lately,” she said, “so I’ll probably just freeze it for now and make a soup later.”
“That works too,” he said cheerfully. He bagged it up for her and cut up the rest of the ham, separating the better slices for her and Danny from some of the
