The Way of Grace (Miller's Creek Novels) (52 page)

He perused it with an occasional snort. Something about him reminded her of pictures she’d seen of Winston Churchill, though
Mr. Thomas
was much less noble-looking.

The phone shrilled from her
desk
.
“Thomas Law Firm.
May I help you?”

The same rough voice she’d hear
d yesterday on at least two occasion
s
sounded again
. “Let me talk to Thomas.”

She decided against asking for a name, since yesterday’s attempts had proved futile. “Just a moment please.”

Grace held the phone toward Mr. Thomas. “It’s
for you.
The same gentleman who
called twice yesterday.”

His eyes flickered with some indefinable emotion as he uttered a curse and moved into his office.

Thankfully,
he
left a few minutes later, with a comment that he’d be out the rest of
the day
.
She finish
ed
the work he’d given her
by mid-afternoon
and
spent the
remainder of her time
cleaning up around the office.
When the day ended
, the front windows
were clean enough to see out
, but her clothes now needed washing, a task she’d have to do by hand
.

A few minutes after five, s
he headed
upstairs to
her apartment to change clothes
and then
walked
a couple of blocks
to purchase a few groceries
with the small amount of money she had left
.
Hopefully Mr. Thomas would pay her on Friday so she’d have enough money for next week’s food.
As she made
he
r way back
,
a small
mew sounded from
behind her
.
She turned to see a
scrawny yellow
kitten
following
. He
looked up at her and mewed
again, a strangled plea
for help.

Her memory flew to Millie. To take on a new pet somehow felt like high treason.
Besides, she barely had enough funds to feed herself.
“Shoo, cat.” She lunged toward it and waved her hand.

The cat
sat back on his haunches and
continued to mew piteously.

Frustration pushed the air from her lungs. “Oh,
all right
.”

A few minutes later she shar
ed a can of tuna with the cat, which only
stopped
eating long enough to scratch.

A sudden wave of loneliness passed over her.
Right now it felt lik
e her only friend in the
world was a
flea-bitten,
scrawny yellow cat.

A
pounding th
rob pierced his skull
.
Matt
groaned and forced his eyelids apart
. A
fraid t
o
turn
his head for fear of intense
pain, he
kept it immobilized and
moved his
gaze
around the unfamiliar sp
ace
.
W
as he
in a hospital
?

“Hey,
b
ro
, glad to see you
’re
awak
e.”
Andy stepp
ed into
his line of vision
, his
eyes
concern
ed, his voice
comforting. “How
you feel?”

“Like someone tried to beat my brains out with a crowbar.” The
whispered
words
made
his throat
feel
like he’d gargled with
acid
. “What happened?”

“You
mean you
don’t remember the fight you had with a tower speaker?”

Matt tried to shake his head,
and immediately winced at
wave
s of pain
.
“I’m guessing
the speaker won?”

“Good assumption.
Let
me
call the nurse.”
His brother
punched a red button
on the bed
.

“
I’m in a hospital?”
Where
at
and for how long?

“Yep.
That’s what happens when you pick a fight with
a speaker
bigger than you.”

“And t
he band
?
Did they
go on to the next concert?”

A wry expression crept
across
Andy’s
features.
“And a few after that.”

Matt’s
eyes
opened
wide
,
and he struggled to sit up
, in spite of
searing
pain
and wooziness
. “What day is it?”

Andy gently
pinne
d his shoulders to the bed. “Whoa there, bucko, take it easy. You’ve had a nice three-day nap.”

Gracie! Thou
ghts of her exploded in his mind
. “I’ve
gotta
get to Gracie.”

“I already told you. She’s fine.”

Too weak and
tired
to overcome his brother, Matt stopped struggling
a
nd
laid
back against the bed. “What about your work?
”

“
Everything’s
on hold until you’re better.”

The door swung open, and a
tall dude
dressed in a white coat
entered with an electronic table
t, a young woman in scrubs
behind him. “Our guy’s awake, I see.”
He
laid down the computer,
retrieved
a
pen
light
from the
breast
pocket of his coat
,
and leaned
in
to check Matt’s eyes
,
the scent of his
cinnamon
gum wafting
in the air
.
“I’m Dr. Stevens. I’
d ask how you’re feeling, but I’m pretty sure I know.
Major headache, right?”

“If that’s all you learned in med school, I sure hope you got a tuition break.”

T
he dark-haired man
laughed
. “Glad to see that
knot
on your head
didn’t take away your sense of humor.
Thirsty?”

Matt nodded, slowly this time.
“Like I swallowed the Sahara.”

“Melissa, let’
s get our new friend
some water
.”

Her
brown hair pulled back in a bounc
ing pony tail, the nurse whisked to the counter
, poured
water
into a plastic cup,
and brought it
to
Matt
. “Hold on.
I’m
gonna
raise the bed
so you can drink
without taking a bath
.” She reached below the side of the bed
, and the top
whirred to a slight incline.

He guzzled the lukewarm liquid. Never had warm water tasted so good.

She
pull
ed the cup away. “You might
wanna
slow down a bit. T
ake small sips.”

“Don’t
wanna
lose it as soon as you drink it, do you?”
The doctor used a stylus to punch
the
tablet screen
and then
raised his gaze to Matt. “I don’t
know how much your brother
told you, but
you came
here by ambulance late Mo
nday night with a concussion
and a huge gash
. N
o fractures, but you were unconscious and had quite a bit of swelling.”
He
pocketed the stylus
. “Sometimes swelling can cause seizures, so we kept you in a medically-induced coma to let the swelling go down.”

“W
hat day is it?”

“Thursday.”

His throat constricted
.
What if something terrible had already happened to Gracie? He once more struggled to sit up, the pain i
n his head
like
a
white-hot icepick plunging through his ear.

The doctor and nurse immediately held him down, with the former getting most irate. “
This
ai
n’t
gonna
work
, Mr. Tyler.
If I have to tie you to the bed, I will.
We
need to
obser
ve
you
for the
next few days
. Your
motor skills,
memory
, and
verbal skills
all
seem to be
intact,
but
we need to run a battery of tests to make sure.”

Tears welled
in Matt’s eyes and slid down his cheeks as he
relaxed the weight o
f his head on the pillow.
Nor
mally he’
d have whisked the tears
away, especially in front of other people, but at the moment
nothing mattered except
getting to
Gracie
.
Lord Jesus, watch over her and protect her.

Dr. Stevens
tucked the electronic pad under one arm
and
turned his gaze to Andy.
“Depression’
s
pretty
common after
this type of brain trauma. K
eep an eye on him and let us know
if it gets worse
. If
necessary, I’ll prescribe
medication to help him sleep.”

Sleep? He’d been asleep
for three days
,
and they wanted him to sleep some more?

“He might also experience
confusion,
so
what he says
might not make sense
.”
Now t
he doctor
faced
Matt. “You can have sips of water in small quantities
,
and I’ll have the
nurse bring you some
broth. Only liquids for a
while to make sure you
can k
eep food
on your stomach.
I’ll be back
later this afternoon
to check on you, okay?
”
He
strode from the room,
his
tennis shoes squeak
ing against the
tile floor
.

Andy
re
filled the cup
and brought it to Matt’s lips
.
“Here’s
some more
water.
”

“I can do it
.”
T
he words
erupted
in a growl
, but
he
didn’t care. “Can you
at least help me sit up
so I don’t drown myself?”