She clasped his hand tighter. “Da?”
Nothing.
“Da?”
“Any change?”
Rocky jumped at the question and bit back a groan of disappointment. “Uncle” Pat stood in the doorway. His Irish lilt and deep voice were similar to her father’s. Her father had grown up with Patrick Brady in Ireland and they’d immigrated to America back in the early 1980’s. Pat was her father’s best friend, their business partner, and her ex-father-in-law. As a young woman she had bought into the dream her father and Pat had had, of her and Collin Brady running McKenna Construction together. That hadn’t worked out at all and there were still after-divorce potholes that made the road bumpy for everyone.
“Were you just talking to someone in the hall? I heard my mother’s name and some other words. I thought Da had spoken.”
Pat looked shocked and moved to her father’s bedside, studying him closely then shook his head. “Wasn’t me talking, but it doesn’t look like Rory has either. Ya sure ya heard something, lass? Was it wishful thinking?”
Rocky frowned. She and Pat had argued whether or not to keep her father alive via a feeding tube. Pat didn’t want to see her father in this state of limbo forever and she’d wanted to do everything possible to keep him alive. She’d gone with the feeding tube and with every other measure that could be taken to keep him alive. She wanted her father back.
Had she imagined the words? If she had, she wouldn’t have imagined the words she’d heard. Her mother’s death was too painful for him and they’d avoided taking about her.
Tears stung her eyes as she clasped her father’s hand tighter. “Da had to have spoken, Uncle Pat. This is an answer to prayer.”
Pat called the nurse who came and checked her father. Barely able to breathe, Rocky waited while the nurse made a neurological assessment and took her father’s vital signs.
After finishing, the nurse shook her head. “I’m not seeing any change in his condition, Miss McKenna. But I’ll make a report on the chart that he spoke to you and let the doctor know in case there are any tests he wants done.”
“Thank you,” Rocky bit her lip as the nurse left. She’d hoped for an additional indication that her father’s condition had improved. She almost felt let down and close to tears.
Pat set his hand on her shoulder. “If he spoke, he’ll speak again. I’m worried about you, lass. All you do is work.”
She shook her head. “There’s no ‘if’, Uncle Pat. He spoke. He’s been trying to tell me something important. I’ve felt it every time I’ve come.” She clasped her father’s hand again. “Da, what do you mean Keira Unforgivable? Stop pray? Why would mum be unforgivable? Why would you stop praying?”
Pat inhaled and coughed, drawing her attention. She’d known him all of her life, but their relationship had become business only in the three years since the divorce. Still, she could tell from his flushed cheeks and wincing frown that he was guilty of something. “What are you not telling me?”
Pat looked sadly at her father. “I don’t know what to do. Rory had secrets that he wouldn’t even share with me and he made me swear upon my mother’s grave not to tell ya until he was gone. After the construction office was broken into last month, he gave me a box to keep. He said it was Keira’s wish for you to have the box after Rory died. I also know your father’s attorney has stuff he’s supposed to give ya, too, but not until Rory passes on.”
Rocky stared at her him as she held onto her father’s hand. A surreal tingling crawled over her. Something her mother had left for her that’s been sitting hidden for five years? Why? Why would her father withhold anything about her mother? Why wait until her father dies to tell her? “I’ll call the attorney in a minute. What’s in the box?”
“That man is not going to be happy with me. I don’t know what is in the box, Lass. It’s sealed. I put it in a safety deposit box at the bank. I can bring the box to you tomorrow afternoon. I have a meeting with the concrete suppliers in the morning.”
Rocky wanted immediate answers and she wasn’t getting anything but frustration. “Why haven’t you said anything before?”
“I swore to Rory I wouldn’t. I’m still not sure I’m doing the right thing. I don’t think he expected that he’d end up like this though. So if he is trying to tell you something about your mother, maybe the box will help.”
Confusion and hurt warred with her love for her parents. She didn’t understand why they would have done this. Why the secrets? Why leave her things to be opened only after their deaths? Why would her mother be Unforgivable and beyond prayer?
“I knew something was wrong,” she said, almost angry. “Da was frantic when he walked in and saw the office had been ransacked. He went immediately to the safe and appeared relieved until he opened it and went through the contents several times. After that, he seemed distracted and worried. A week later he ended up like this. Did he lie to the police when he told them nothing was missing?”
Pat shrugged. “I don’t know what all was in the safe. Since Collin was cut from the company, there are some business matters that I just leave for you and your father to handle. Less tension all the way around.” He sighed and studied her sadly.
“Don’t say anything about him.” Rocky stiffened her back. Here it comes again. His apology for Collin’s behavior. How he wished things were different. How Collin was different now. She didn’t care how long Collin Brady had been on the wagon. And she didn’t care how sorry he was. Everyone thought her hard and unforgiving because she’d forced Collin from the company and she let them think that. She didn’t have the heart to tell his father or her Da the “real” man beneath Collin’s charm.
Pat sighed. “I won’t. I’ve realized you and Collin are a burned bridge. I still think of you as my daughter, lass. I’m sorry my son hurt you.”
She could see that Pat was still hurting from the split. “I’m sorry things are the way they are.”
“I know you are and I’m worried about you. You’ve cut yourself off from everyone since the divorce. You need to get out and be young again. The crew’s throwing a birthday party for Mack at Sally’s tonight. It couldn’t hurt for you to stop by for a few minutes on your way home.” He chuckled. “And it would do the new boys good for you to take them down a notch or two, if you’re still queen of the eight ball, that is.”
Rocky bit her lip. She hadn’t played pool since she’d come home from a job early and found Collin and some bar hussy in the pool room, and it wasn’t the billiard balls in play either. She’d moved out the next day, but not before she’d disassembled the pool table and burned it in the backyard. “I’ll be staying here. Seeing if Da speaks again.”
The weight of the world settled on Pat, his shoulders slumped. “Don’t answer now, lass. Think about it at least. You know Mack and your dad got on pretty good as of late. Maybe he might have an idea about what had Rory so worried.”
Rocky nodded and swallowed hard. Her divorce from Collin and her father’s help in forcing Collin out of the business had put a rift between her father and Pat. Pat turned to leave, but then swung back. “I mean it, lass. You’re young and beautiful. Life is too short. Don’t waste any more of it on hurts from the past and us old geezers. Rory will either heal or pass in God’s own time and there’s not much you can do to change that.”
Pat left before she could respond. Part of her realized that he was right. Seeing her father was important, but being at his side every spare moment wasn’t necessarily going to make him recover faster. If he did recover.
Stepping to the window for good reception, Rocky called Steve Vance, her father’s attorney. She received a voice mail that said he was away on business until Tuesday. As directed, she left a message for him to call her back. She let him know that she knew her father had things for her. She told him that her father had tried to tell her something important and couldn’t. Then she suggested that knowing what her father wanted her to have after his death might help him now.
Rocky stayed with her father throughout the day and by evening time, there had been no change. She went over and over in her mind what her father was referring to, trying to remember some point in her parents’ lives where there’d been a rift great enough for her mother to be Unforgivable and beyond prayer, but came up blank. The more she thought about it, the less sense her father’s words made. Her father had loved her mother deeply until her dying breath. There was nothing unforgiven between them. By the time dark descended, her gut was a knotted mess of questions with no answers. She decided to take Uncle Pat’s suggestion to see the crew at Sally’s Roadhouse, hoping Mack could tell her something.
CHAPTER THREE
“It’s never been this bad before,” Jared said under his breath, as he sat on the picnic bench next to James. The condemnation and tension hanging in the air was thicker than the BBQ smoke and choking the life out of the “after ceremony” celebration. “Why in God’s name did you go and pass out? I didn’t realize you were that fried or I would have left your ass with the planking Aussie.”
White-faced and more wretched than ever, James continued to stare at his untouched plate. “It wasn’t that. Swear to God himself,” he whispered, voice raw. “I don’t know what in the hell happened, Jare. I was standing there, looking at everyone. You holding Jake and Jason, Alexi next to Jesse and Nan beside Jackson, and vowing on my life that I’d do whatever it took to care for the tykes, when all of a sudden Jesse and Jackson disappeared as if Scotty had beamed them up to the Enterprise. Something bad is going to happen to them, Jare.”
Jared couldn’t believe his ears or his eyes. James’s hands were shaking and he’d turned from white to a sickly shade of green. “James, bro. You’re losing it. You’re tripping after the night we had, a hallucination brought on by extreme pressure and you’re blowing it way out of proportion.”
James turned and stared at him head on, his blue eyes bleaker that Jared believed possible. “No. I’m not. It’s happened before.”
Jared leaned in close. “What do you mean, it’s happened before?”
“Our graduation party? Remember we were all standing there getting ready to have our picture taken? Do you remember who was with us?”
“Of course, Cal...Tyler, and Steve... and you passed out a second after the picture was taken.”
James nodded. “The same thing happened then. Tyler and Steve completely disappeared from my vision. They died that night in a car accident.”
“Surely you don’t believe that.”
James nodded.
“You’ve never said a word.”
“What the hell was I supposed to say? I see future ghosts? It all sounds so impossibly insane, but I’ve always wondered if it wasn’t some sort of premonition.”
Jared shook his head and glanced across the yard to where Jesse and Jackson were grilling more chicken with their dad, John Weldon, who’d declared himself to be “Gramps” the day Jake was born. All three men were laughing, eyes bright and smiles confident. They were clearly on top of the world and seemingly invincible. Jared thought what James had said was beyond the realm of believable and, like he said, totally insane. Jared knew that in his head, but seeing his twin so shaken and burdened brought the sharp edge of doubt cutting through his mind.
Hell. James did not scare easily. But to believe him just wasn’t something Jared could wrap his mind around. Yet now that the seed had been planted, he couldn’t blow it off either. There was only one thing to do – tackle this thing head on.
He made sure Alexi and Nan were occupied. Emma Weldon, now known as “Grams,” had Jason and Jake in her lap. She sat in the middle of a baby pool she’d bought, laughing at the boys splashing up a storm. Alexi and Nan stood ready to lend a hand should Emma need it.
Jared grabbed James’s arm and hauled him up. “Come on.”
“What?” James pulled back.
“We’re telling Jesse and Jackson and Dad. That way everyone can make up their own mind.”
“But...”
“But what? If they think you’re crazy, it’s better than them thinking you’re drunk. And if they don’t quite think you’re crazy, it’s better for them to be forewarned. Wouldn’t you want to know if someone thought you were going to be in trouble?”
James exhaled as if sucker-punched. “I guess.”
All three men stopped laughing at their approach. The glare in their eyes meant there was still hell to pay for this day’s events. Jared jumped in the deep end, headfirst. He kept his voice low. “James has one hell of a problem that you three need to know about. The reason he passed out this morning wasn’t because he had a hangover or cancer and is going to die tomorrow, but because he thinks he had a premonition that Jesse and Jackson are going to die.”
Everyone stood frozen, which was saying a lot. Between Jackson’s medical experience and Jesse’s military, there wasn’t much they hadn’t seen or faced in life. James gasped for air and bent over as if he was going to pass out again. Jared caught his twin’s arm in support. “Go ahead and tell them about what happened before.”
James stammered out his story, staring at the ground.
Jared watched as his older brothers’ expressions turn from skepticism to concern. Not necessarily for themselves, but because they realized James really believed in his promotion. Their father sat in a nearby lawn chair as if his legs had given out from beneath him. All eyes turned his way.
John grabbed a handkerchief from his shirt pocket and dotted his brow then rubbed his chest as if he had a sudden gas attack.
“What is it, Dad?” Jackson leaned in, scrutinizing as if a patient just walked into his office. “You can’t think this is for real. James has made a connection in his mind between an incident and a tragic accident. That’s all.”
John shook his head. “My grandfather died when I was ten. I don’t remember much about him, but I remember he came from Dublin, he could drink whiskey with the best, and he knew when a man’s time was up. One day he’d say God bless so-and-so and keep them in His care. Then the next day the man would up and die. Happened three times that I know about.”
James collapsed on the ground with a groan.
Jared ran a harried hand through his hair, seriously worried about everyone. Jesse and Jackson were bouncing their gazes between James and their dad, clearly trying to decide who was more insane.
What started out as a way to solve a problem had suddenly mushroomed into a disaster. Jared couldn’t believe it. “Christ, you never mentioned this before. You were supposed to tell him he was off his rocker and there was nothing to worry about.”
“James is off his rocker and there is nothing to worry about,” Jesse said forcefully as he glanced over at the women and boys. “And not a word of this gets repeated to anyone. Are we all clear on that? We’ll discuss this another time and meanwhile, Jackson and I will—”
“Proceed with every caution,” Jackson muttered.
Everyone nodded, grasping onto Jesse’s firm line of sanity.
This morning Jared didn’t believe the world could get any more off kilter than it was. He was wrong.
Jackson continued. “Meanwhile, it looks to me as if James has come down with a bug, so you need to take him home to rest.”
It was clear to everyone that James wasn’t capable of keeping it together a minute more. Their father’s revelation had pulled the rug of reasonable doubt out from under James and he looked as if he was free falling into a black abyss.
Jared hoped to God that nothing did happen to Jesse and Jackson, because Jared knew James wouldn’t survive it. The next little bit passed in a blur as he shouldered James out to the Porsche, with their mother fussing and dishing out advice for the flu.
Somehow, as he headed back into town, the financial problems they faced seemed almost insignificant.
“I can’t go back and sit in the condo,” James said. He sat staring at the road, horror fixed in his eyes. “I need a drink.”
It was on the tip of Jared�
��s tongue to say booze was the last thing either of them needed, but he clamped his mouth shut. Maybe now wasn’t necessarily the minute to turn over a new leaf. “What do you want to do?”
James shrugged. “Got a text from Dan that some of the McKenna crew will be hanging out at Sally’s Roadhouse. Might as well checkout the competition.”
“Good idea. It’s early yet. Why don’t we go visit McKenna’s last job site. See what kind of work they did then head over to Sally’s?”
James agreed; his relief to have something besides his premonition to think about was evident. They didn’t speak during the rest of the drive. Nor did they say much upon arriving at the job site. The stone, three-story office building was impressive, a combination of stylish design and expert craftsmanship.
“When did they finish this job?” Jared asked as they got out of the car.
“Two days ago according to the social media buzz.”
Jared shook his head. You couldn’t tell that it had just been built. There were no telltale scraps of building materials, or a coke can, or a hamburger wrapper anywhere in a seeable radius. As they walked around the building, Jared became more and more impressed with what he saw. “I have to say the workmanship appears to be top-notch. Of course, only time will tell if the material used was sub-par or not.”
James grunted. “And there was no way to know if illegal labor had had a hand in the construction unless we’d been on the site.”
“True. That has to be how they’re cutting us out of the market.”
James turned a three-sixty. “I think I’m ready for that drink now.”
They left the job site no longer riding the same high-horse they’d arrived on. Jared headed to Sally’s Roadhouse with a worried frown that he soon shook off. They’d find out how McKenna was cutting corners soon enough. After a day like today, he needed to relax.
It had been a while since they’d hit the peanut-shelling beer joints. It would be a good change from the swinging, upscale clubs of late. They pulled into a full parking lot and walked into a hoppin’ place. Seemed as if every nobody in town was out tonight. He and James got the usual double-take as they settled at the bar.
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