Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (60 page)

“No worries,” the
man returned with a shrug.  “I deliver babies for a living.  It’s not a full
day until somebody tries to rip off my balls.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t rip
them off, Hot Doc.  I’d treat them with kindness and care,” Patience promised
as Abel snarled at her.

“Thank you for the
assistance, Nice Sister.  I’ve got in from here.   I’ll have Crazy Sister fixed
up in no time.  Cain, perhaps you’d escort Nice Sister, Sweet Sister and your
wife to the waiting room.  I assume your twin will be staying?”

“He is,” Abel
confirmed, glaring at the other man.

“Excellent, then
let’s clear the room and get this done.”

Shaking her head at
the turn their afternoon had taken, Harmony brushed a kiss against Patience’s
head before hurrying toward the waiting room to find Jake and her daughter. 

Two hours later,
Harmony leaned heavily against Jake’s side as she shifted her dozing daughter
in her lap.  Her eyes drifted around the mostly full waiting room, and she felt
her shoulders slowly relax as she did a mental inventory of her family, finding
them all present and accounted for.

In one corner, Zeke
sat with his arm curled around Honor, and for once, her youngest sister wasn’t
spitting and clawing at the Sheriff’s proximity.   No, instead Honor had her
uninjured cheek pressed against the side of his chest with her eyes closed as
the always-strong Zeke protectively curved one hand around the nape of Honor’s
neck.  Despite the situation, Harmony involuntarily smiled at the sight.  With
Honor in his arms, Zeke looked as close to blissful as she’d ever seen him
look.  Her sister, on the other hand, just looked exhausted, as if the day had
sucked every ounce of energy from her.  The cut on Honor’s face had required a
couple of stitches, and she’d finally given into Zeke’s demand and allowed one
of the doctors to take care of it an hour ago.  Now, she dozed against his
side, opening her eyes every now and again to take her own inventory of the
room.  

In the opposite
corner, Faith and Cain sat in much the same position, except Cain’s hand rested
possessively over her sister’s still flat belly.  About once every half hour,
Faith sent Cain back to check on Patience’s condition, but as of an hour ago,
the drugs had finally lulled her other sibling into sleep.    Abel remained in
back, keeping a vigilant eye; the doctor had assured them that she could be
released in a couple more hours after a full course of antibiotics was
delivered through her IV.

Aunt Orla sat on
the opposite wall from Harmony and Jake with Uncle Jethro on one side of her
and Seth Turner, Cain and Abel’s dad, on the other.  Ice flipped distractedly
through some outdated sports magazine in one of the chairs in the center of the
room, while their cousin Slade stood by the door, silently drinking another cup
of coffee.  Various employees from the diner had been in and out since they
arrived, checking on their employers – and their jobs, but Honor had assured
each one of them that they were still employed and they’d be replacing the
glass windows and doing clean-up tomorrow.

Yawning, Harmony
glanced at Jake when he tightened his arm around her.  Glancing up into his
face, she whispered, “You okay?”

“I was going to ask
you the same thing.  You’ve gone completely quiet on me,” Jake replied quietly,
massaging the stiff muscles in her neck with one hand. 

“Just thinking about
the sheer amount of work that we’ve got ahead of us.  I didn’t get a really
good look at the café before we left, but I know it was a mess.  I heard one of
the deputies tell Zeke that all the glass at the front of the building will
need to be replaced.”

“Yeah, and you also
heard Slade say that he’d have a crew on that tonight, darlin’.  Look at it this
way, you said that you and your sisters have been thinking about doing a
remodel on the restaurant for a while now.  It’s just coming a little earlier
than you anticipated.  Slade was pretty confident he’d have y’all operational
again in a week at most.”

“Never expected the
reason the remodeling would happen would be because my ex-husband was trying to
kill us all,” Harmony muttered under her breath.  “Does insurance even cover
this kind of thing?” she asked worriedly.  “I wonder if our policy has a clause
for the hazards of psychotic assholes.”

“Harmony…”

“Thank God it was
only family in the café at the time Tanner struck,” she continued to whisper. 
“I can’t begin to imagine the lawsuits if we’d had any employees or customers
that were hurt.”

“Darlin, stop,”
Jake ordered, his arm contracting around her shoulders and pulling her tightly
against him.  “You’re runnin’ yourself ragged with what could have been.  The
important thing is that Patience is gonna be right as rain, and everybody is
safe.  The café can be repaired.  Glass and such can be replaced.   Human life
can’t be.  Focus on that.”

Harmony sighed and
looked down at her sleeping daughter, her loose ponytail askew and her little
mouth hanging slightly open as a thick ribbon of drool slipped from her slack
lips.  She looked innocent as a lamb resting in her arms.  Luckily, none of the
ugliness had touched her today.  “You’re right.  Everything that’s important is
right here around me.  I need to get a grip.”

“Honey, you’re
entitled to feel any way you wanna feel.  I just want you to focus on the
positive instead of the negative.  Give your mind a break.  You want me to get
you a soda or something?  You haven’t had anything since we got here.”

Shaking her head, Harmony
smiled.  “No, but I need to stretch my legs a bit and I could use a trip to the
bathroom.”

Nodding, Jake
shifted beside her.  “Let me take the Princess,” he murmured, slipping his
hands underneath Heaven and shifting her easily onto his lap.

“Thanks,” Harmony
murmured gratefully as she stood.  “I won’t be gone long.  You’ll take care of
her?”

“Always,” he
agreed, flashing her a sexy grin. 

Why was a man never
hotter than when he was holding a sleeping child against his chest?  Staring
down at Heaven being held against Jake’s body, his strong tattooed arms
cradling her close, something shifted in her chest and she had to blink back
tears.  They looked perfect natural together – like he’d been holding her baby
like that all her short life.

“Darlin’?  You
okay?” he asked, his eyes never straying from her face.

“I’m fine,” she
whispered.  “Just enjoying watching you two together for a second.”

“Well, you’ve got a
lifetime to see that.  Go on and freshen up.  It’ll make you feel more human,”
he suggested softly.

Nodding, Harmony
turned to find Honor rising from her own chair. 

“I’ll go with you. 
I wanna splash some water on my face anyway,” Honor offered, one hand rubbing
her back as she walked toward Harmony.

Both women walked
into the hallway and grinned as they found Margaret bearing down on them as she
strode quickly down the hallway.  “Maggie,” Harmony greeted the other woman
with a smile and a hug.  “What’re you doing here?”

“That idiot boss of
mine just called me!  He called me and told me to bring Patience a change of
clothes,” Maggie explained, returning Harmony’s hug before reaching one arm out
to embrace Honor.  “I can’t believe what happened.  Are you both alright?” she
asked, scanning both sisters from head to toe.  “Tell me that bandage on Honor’s
cheek is the worst of it.”

“Other than the
hole in Patience’s arm, yes,” Harmony replied tiredly.  “All in all, we were
pretty lucky.”

“After getting a
look at the café when I drove by, I tend to agree with you.  It’s definitely a
miracle,” Margaret said with a sigh.  “Do either of you need anything?  I’m
supposed to hand these off to The Cross Dresser, but then I’m at your service,”
she offered, holding up a plastic bag of clothing with the hand not holding her
elegant briefcase.

“The Cross Dresser?”
Harmony asked, canting her head to the side.

“I think she means
Ice,” Honor murmured, chuckling as she stared at Maggie with amused eyes. 

“Yes, I’ve decided
The Cross Dresser has a nicer ring to it than Mountain Man.  Although, I
thought about testing out Nancy Boy with him, too.  I can’t wait to share how
divine I thought he looked in pink feathers.  Although, he and I need to
discuss his manicure.   Red is definitely not in his color wheel.”

Harmony laughed,
grateful for the tension reliever. “How did you know about that?”

“Abel sent me the
picture as a belated Christmas present,” Maggie returned with an evil grin. 
“It’s now my screensaver at work.  A photograph of the supposedly unflappable
Ice Monroe decked out in a pink feather boa
and
bejeweled tiara is
entirely too delicious not to use,” she informed them both with a devious smile. 
“I’ve been doing my research on him.  He’s something of a local legend. 
Everything I’ve read says that he’s quite the rough and tough type.  I’m
tempted to send that snapshot to be published in our local paper with a
suggestion for an article.  Something like, ‘Come See the Softer Side of
Snipers’.  It’d make an excellent article, I think.”

“Maggie!  You
wouldn’t!” Honor hissed, her eyes widening.

“You know me better
than that, dear,” Maggie returned brightly.  “Of
course
I would!   I bet
he’ll think twice before he ruins another woman’s favorite outfit,” she
continued, her bright green eyes flashing as she spoke.   “I warned that
insufferable man that there’d be payback.  He should have never invited me to
do my worst.  Abel warned him I’d see it as a challenge so he’s really only got
himself to blame.”

“Mags, you are a
piece of work.” Harmony giggled, eyeing the woman with no small amount of
admiration.  Dressed today in an elegant teal pantsuit that very probably cost
more than her monthly car payment, Maggie exuded confidence.  “I hope you know
what you’re doing with Ice.  I have a feeling that he’ll give as good as he
gets.”

“He started it,”
Maggie retorted.  “One way or another, I’ll finish it.”

“Well, good luck
with that,” Harmony chuckled.  “Everybody’s in the waiting room still.  We’ll
be back in a few minutes,” she remarked, taking Honor’s arm and pulling her
sister down the hallway.    

As they moved down
the corridor, Honor offered Harmony a sidelong glance.  “How are you hanging in
there, sis?” she asked as they found the door and walked inside the empty
lavatory.  “Are you okay?”

Walking to one of
the three porcelain sinks on the wall, Harmony stared at Honor’s reflection in
the mirror.  “I think I should be asking you that,” Harmony returned quietly,
locking eyes with her sister in the mirror. “For the second time in your life,
Tanner hurt you… because of me.  I don’t know how you don’t hate me, Peanut.”

“Stop that,” Honor
retorted, rolling her eyes as she stomped toward her sister.  “I’ve
never
blamed you, Harmony.  I don’t blame anybody other than the men that hurt me. 
Not you.  Not Zeke.  Not anyone.  You all think I do, but I don’t.”

Turning to face the
other woman, Harmony stared at her for a long moment.  “How can you not?  I
brought him into your life, Honor.  I’m the reason he ever laid eyes on you. 
How can you not resent me for that?”

Lifting her chin,
Honor glared at her Harmony.  “If you’d known what was going to happen to me,
would you have stopped it if you could?”

Jaw dropping,
Harmony sagged against the sink.  “In a heartbeat.”

“If you could have
taken my place, would you?” Honor asked without missing a beat.

“Absolutely.”   Any
of them would have done anything to spare Honor that pain; even if it meant
taking her place.  She would have done it without question.

“
That’s
how.  That’s why I’ll never resent you.  That’s why I could never, ever hate
you!  You’d sacrifice anything for me, Harmony.  And it’s not just me; you’d do
it for either of our sisters.  My God, you thought Tanner’s only sin was that
he didn’t pick me up before I was kidnapped.  The night I was found, you left
the hospital and went home to confront him, determined to exact retribution for
putting me in that position.  He nearly killed you.  He nearly killed your
unborn baby.  All because you were determined to get justice for what you
thought happened to your baby sister.  You knew he was violent, and you went home
to take him on anyway.  Even after he’d been beating you for months.  Even
though you knew you were putting yourself in danger.  You didn’t care.  You did
it anyway.  For me!  You’re without doubt the most unselfish woman I know.  You
actually think I could
hate
you?   You were fighting my battles for me
long before even I realized the truth, Harmony.  Long before I remembered that
Tanner was one of my rapists, YOU tried to make him pay for his crimes.  You
tried to exact justice, and you got hurt for it.  Even while I was locked in my
own pain, I saw what he did to you.  I remember what you looked like.  And you
still
sat by my bedside and took care of me.  When I was locked in that dark,
airless place in my mind after the attack, YOU came in and dragged me out of it. 
You and Zeke!  Why you two are determined to blame yourselves when you’re the
ones that
saved
me, I’ll never understand, but it’s getting really
irritating.”  Honor let out a loud puff of air as she rolled her eyes. “You’re
both morons and your guilt complexes are driving me insane!”