Hard Irish Read Online Free Page A

worried about?”
    His breathing increased, as if he were suddenly running a race.  Rocky’s heart squeezed with concern.  “Da?  What’s wrong?”  She felt his pulse.  It was steady but his skin seemed hotter than usual.  He coughed.
    She was in the middle of praying he wasn’t coming down with pneumonia or something when she heard the words. “Keira.  Unforgivable. Stop. Pray.”
    It took a moment for her to realize her father had spoken.  At least she thought he had.  As she studied him, looking for evidence, she began to think she’d imagined it.  His gaze had become unfocussed again and his expression slack.  His breathing had slowed to normal.
    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