Stork Alert by Delores Fossen Page B

he’d finished that task before she caught his arm. So did Joseph. And he giggled when Nick smiled at him and goosed his belly. It was a tender, light moment at a time when her situation seemed pretty dark.
    Since Nick hadn’t responded to her hint, she decided to go with the direct approach. “I want to see William,” Kelly said.
    He didn’t answer her right away, but she could see the debate stirring his jaw muscles. “Later. Right now I have to make some calls. Get settled in, and I’ll be back to take you to the nursery.”
    Kelly hadn’t thought she could get even more emotional, but that did it. She had to blink to fight back the tears, and her heart seemed to swell with the anticipation of finally being able to see her child. Not on a monitor this time.
    “Thank you,” she whispered.
    Nick looked at Joseph, mumbled something under his breath and made a hasty exit.
    Kelly welcomed the reprieve. She hadn’t had a moment to herself since the attempted kidnapping. Plus, she had her own phone call to make. She sat on the thickly carpeted floor so that Joseph could crawl around, and she took her phone from her diaper bag. She dialed Denny Spencer’s number.
    He answered on the first ring and obviously saw her name on his caller ID. “Kelly, where the heck are you?”
    She avoided answering that. “Someone tried to kidnap Joseph and me.”
    “Yes, I know. When I went to your house, the police were still there, and I talked to them. They said you’d left with Nick Lattimer.”
    Oops. Denny knew. So there wasn’t any way to avoid this. “I did. He saved our lives.”
    Denny made a sound to indicate he didn’t believe that. “Are you sure he wasn’t the one who sent those gunmen after you?”
    Kelly was more than a little surprised with that particular question. “Why would he do that?”
    “To get you to trust him.”
    “Again—why would he do that?” Kelly didn’t wait for an answer. “Look, I don’t trust him, Denny. Not completely. But I believe he’s capable of protecting Joseph. Right now that’s my main priority.”
    “I can protect Joseph as well as he can,” Denny insisted. His insistence had a territorial ring to it. She was aware that Denny cared for her on much more than a professional level, but he was also aware that nothing personal could ever happen between them.
    Kelly pulled in a deep, weary breath. “The ranch has security, Denny. We’ll be safe here until I can figure out what’s going on.”
    “And you’ll get to see William,” he fired back. “That’s the real reason you’re there. Kelly, what if he’s not yours? What if all of this has been some dangerous wild-goose chase?”
    She didn’t believe that. “That’s why I need the DNA tests done.”
    “I know. I’ve already taken the glass and the swab with William’s DNA to the lab. I picked them up while I was at your house.”
    “Oh, God. I can’t believe I left the swab there.” But then, she hadn’t exactly been thinking straight after the confrontation with those gunmen.
    “I also took the lab some of Joseph’s hairs that I got from his brush,” Denny continued.
    Kelly’s heart sank, and she put her hand on her chest to steady it. With Joseph’s DNA, the lab could compare it to Nick’s. And that could be a very bad thing. “The results have to stay confidential,” Kelly warned.
    “They will. The lab tech is a friend and will put a rush on all three tests. You’ll get preliminary results in a day or two, but if you want something that’ll stand up in court, you’ll need to wait for a different set of tests.”
    “The preliminary ones are fine for now,” Kelly insisted. She only hoped she could live with the consequences of what she’d already set into motion.
    “You can thank me by getting away from Nick Lattimer,” Denny countered.
    “Soon, Denny. I promise. Once I have the lab results, I can clear up a lot of things.”
    And she could muddy the waters beyond belief, too. But she’d