Page 84 of Grumpy

“Keys is here,” she explained to Grumpy after he gave no sign of having heard Keys at the door. “He’s asking if he can come in.”

Grumpy squeezed her hand once, his nonverbal approval.

Smiling, Kelly leaned down to run her fingers through his hair, extremely happy they hadn’t had to cut it during surgery. She’d just helped a nurse wash it and give him a sponge bath prior to Maddie’s arrival, so she hadn’t braided it yet today. Maybe after Keys left.

“Come on in,” Kelly told Keys. On the nightstand next to her were ice chips, lip balm, and glucose packets she used to help care for Grumpy, along with her own drink, a note pad, and the cell phone Ghost had paid some stranger eighteen hundred dollars for to replace hers. She reached over and put a small amount of chips on a spoon for Grumpy. His dry mouth was even worse now, but the doctors said that would pass once he was up and moving around, as well as off the heavier pain medication.

Keys headed inside the room. Kelly saw others in the hallway, but they didn’t enter behind the young club brother. He’d been nineteen the first time Ghost and Ranger brought him into the diner, and though five years had passed since then, sometimes it was hard not to think of him as anything but that clumsy, wide-eyed, awkward teenager. Hell, he was engaged and a dad now! Yet, Kelly knew she wasn’t the only one who struggled to remember his true age.

The fact that he wore a Minecraft t-shirt under his cut did not help.

Keys stopped by Splinters’ bed first. “Any changes?”

Kelly shook her head. “The inflammation hasn’t gone down enough yet to risk taking him off sedation. They’re going to try again tomorrow.”

Keys nodded once, still staring down at Splinters. If Kelly didn’t know any better, she’d think he was stalling. But Keys didn’t have any reason to stall… Did he?

The club’s tech scuffed his boot against the linoleum floor, which only made Kelly’s suspicions stronger. From the way Grumpy squeezed her hand, Kelly knew without looking at her man that he was thinking the same thing.

“What’s going on, Keys?” Kelly asked, fearing an eternal delay if they waited for Keys to speak first.

“I, uh, I may have done something.”

Kelly blinked. Seeing as it wasn’t like Keys could declare revenge against Mother Nature for Grumpy and Splinters’ conditions, her mind went to the next logical conclusion. “Against Colton? Maddie’s ex?” When Keys shook his head, still looking down at his boots, Kelly asked, “Against her stepfather?” She didn’t recall his name. Roger, maybe?

Keys shook his head. “After Grumpy told us about his mom and the way she manipulated his life, it got me thinking. Sometimes I can’t help it. I get a thought in my head, and I get obsessed. I can’t let it go. I started digging into Grumpy’s past.”

Kelly looked forward again at Grumpy. His eye was narrowed on Keys. To protect his empty eye socket and to keep from having to put his prosthetic in and out each day, the hospital had taped his left eye lid closed and covered it with gauze.

“I’m assuming there’s a reason you’re telling us this?” Kelly inquired on Grumpy’s behalf. “Did his mom do something we’re not aware of?”

“Well, I’m not sure.” Keys finally looked at Grumpy. “Are you aware no father is listed on your birth certificate?”

Grumpy licked his lips and croaked out. “She never…” He tried to form another word but only a single sound like a hiss came out. Kelly reached for more ice chips, but Grumpy shook his head. “Told,” he managed to get out. “Me… His name.”

Kelly put the spoon up again, and this time he accepted the chips.

Keys approached Grumpy’s bed. “I couldn’t find any record that your mom was ever married, widowed, or divorced. Every tax return that she’s ever filed has listed her as single as well. But I talked to Dr. Rutenberg,” the club’s unofficial psychologist. “With the obsession your mom had with keeping you from turning into your dad, there had to be something, right? Like cheating in her relationship with him or something? So I kept digging. And, man, let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. I mean, how did you guys function without computers? Jigsaw and I actually had to travel up to Maine to look at newspapers and yearbooks and, like, talk to people to figure out who your mom was with forty-two years ago.”

Kelly had never felt so old in her life. The way Keys spoke about analog investigating was like how others spoke about the rudimentary tools used in the Stone Age. “Keys,” she warned, “I will ground you and take your phone away if you don’t get to the point.”

He actually blanched at the suggestion and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “All I’m trying to say is that I found him,” he rushed out to say, eyes flicking between Kelly and Grumpy. “I found your father.”

CHAPTER 17

It took some persuading before Grumpy allowed Johnathan Morris into his hospital room. Kelly offered to speak to him first out in the hallway, but that would involve her moving from his side, which was not an option.

“Oh my God,” Grumpy heard Kelly say as shadows crossed over his bed. Another chair was placed next to Kelly, though Grumpy wasn’t all that comfortable with Morris being so close to Kelly. What did any of them really know about this man?

Then again, Keys wouldn’t have brought him if he believed Morris was a danger to Kelly, Grumpy, or the club.

The second Morris came closer to the bed, Grumpy understood Kelly’s reaction. It was like looking in a mirror. Though Morris’ hair was stark white, he had the same nose, eye coloring, and features as Grumpy. As Kelly stood, her hand still firmly gripped in Grumpy’s, he also placed Morris’ height to be roughly the same as his own. He was clean shaven with short, thick hair.

“Mr. Morris.” With her sling, Kelly didn’t have another hand to offer the man.

“You must be Kelly.” Morris’ tone was softer than Grumpy’s gruff speech, and he had a very distinctive Canadian accent. “It’s so good to meet you.” Though he spoke to Kelly, his eyes were fixed on Grumpy’s. “And you, Jesse. You have no idea what it means to be meeting you.”

Grumpy placed Morris’ age as mid to late sixties. He was well dressed in a suit, tie, and long overcoat.