Page 46 of Cruel Expectations

When they located the room, she entered first. Walking straight up to the bed, she looked down at her father. He was resting, eyes closed. The vitals displayed on the screen seemed steadier than they were the previous day.

She settled a hand on the back of his worn one. Those rough fingers knew hard work for his entire life, and it showed. His long fingers were tanned from the time he spent in the sun day after day. And they bore more than a few scars too.

Most of his scars were internal—all the Graceys’ were.

Meadow moved to the other side of the bed. Her and Ivy’s gazes met over their sleeping father.

At that moment, he stirred and opened his eyes. His machines beeped steadily.

“Ivy.” He croaked her name.

“Meadow’s here too, Daddy.” She pointed at her sister. Their father let his head loll on the pillow as if he hardly had the energy to do more.

She took his other hand. “How are you feeling?”

“Been better. Been worse too. I have a cup of water around here somewhere.”

“It’s right here.” Meadow reached for the cup on the sliding table and held it up for him to sip from the straw.

“I can do it. I’m not a damn baby.” His grumpy attitude sure sounded like the father Ivy knew, and she stifled the smile that tried to perch on her lips.

Meadow put the cup in his hand and pulled up a hard chair.

“Would someone find my phone for me?”

Ivy looked at him. She wanted to see that phone too. “Do you have it here at the hospital?”

“Yes.” His sullen response had her and Meadow exchanging a questioning look.

“I’ll look in the bag of your belongings.” She moved to rummage around in the closet. His cowboy boots sat at the bottom side by side, and a plastic bag filled with the clothes he’d been wearing when he was brought in hung off a hook.

She searched the bag. “I don’t see it in here.”

“That’s because they took it from me. Bastards.”

Her brows shot up. “Who took it?”

“The nurse.”

Meadow’s eyes widened. “Why would she do that?”

“I’ll go ask at the nurse’s station.” Ivy moved toward the door. As she walked down the hall to the nurse’s desk, her mind was spinning.

One of the nurses looked up from the computer screen with a smile. “Can I help you?”

“Yes. Sean Gracey is my father, and he said one of the nurses took his phone.”

She gave her an apologetic look. “That’s true. After we settled him in his room, we saw that his blood pressure was shooting up and his heartrate got too high. We went into the room and saw him on his phone. He looked really upset by something he saw there.”

Stunned by this information, Ivy blinked.

“We asked him to put it away, but when he refused and got visibly more upset, we took it for safekeeping.”

“Can I have it? I won’t give it to him.”

“Of course. Let me get it for you.” She got up and went off to another area. When she returned, she handed over the device to Ivy.

Ivy took it with a word of thanks. Then she drifted slowly away from the desk to inspect the phone.

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