Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (8 page)

Sure, he had that
whole bad boy, dominating alpha male vibe about him that a woman instinctively
gravitated toward because it made her feel safe and sexy, but there was
something more, too.  It was some unnamed quality that drew her to him when
normally she shied away from men…especially the handsome ones.  She just
couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was that made her feel so
comfortable with him.  Even though a blind woman could see that he had an
invisible danger sign hanging above his head, he made her want to take a risk.

And that exact
point was exactly how she fell into the trap that her precocious daughter had
laid for her last week and accepted a date with him.  Faith’s droning words
interrupted her drifting thoughts, and Harmony found herself jerked back to the
present. 

“…and seriously,
anybody that would put himself between a woman he doesn’t even know and another
man’s fist is a man we should
all
want on our side,” Faith preached, now
pulling church dresses from the closet and discarding each one quickly.

Exchanging an
amused grin with Patience, Harmony bit her lip to stifle a chuckle.  Yep, her
newly married sister was in fine form.  Of course, Faith had good reason to
think so highly of Jake.  He’d saved her ass a month ago when a bar brawl had
broken out in their café.  The man could do no wrong in her eyes.  And since
the middle McKinnon was happily immersed in marital bliss, she naturally wanted
to help all her sisters achieve the delightful union, too.

Unfortunately, though,
Faith had decided to start with poor Harmony, who had been the one that had
organized the wedding ceremony and helped make all her wedding dreams into
realities.  Honor and Patience were too busy being thrilled that they weren’t
her first project to be of much help.  A quick look at Patience confirmed that
she, too, was trying her best not to laugh at Faith’s diatribe.

“Are you listening
to me?” Faith asked over her shoulder as she shoved another skirt back into the
closet.

“Every single
word,” Harmony confirmed tiredly, yawning as she mentally reviewed her to do
list for the next day.  Between her shift at the bar, her online class in the
early afternoon, and the invitations she needed to finalize for the Trammell
wedding, she might have just enough time to take a bubble bath before she
picked Heaven up from Aunt Orla’s house.  It was a busy time for her, but she
finally felt like she was making progress in her life.  For that, she really
ought to think nicer thoughts about Faith.  Thanks to her sister and Cain, she had
a thriving second career going as a wedding planner.  In the short month since
her sibling had taken her vows, she’d already been hired to manage four occasions
over the next two months.  The income from her little enterprise was
contributing a nice chunk toward a down payment on a much-wanted home of her
own for her and her daughter. 

“The man on the
moon hears you, Faith,” Patience added, pushing lavender streaks of hair off
her face. 

Frowning, Harmony
stared at her sister, trying to determine what was suddenly different.  “Wasn’t
your hair pink this morning?”

Patience shrugged
as she glanced in the nearby mirror.  “I needed a change.” 

Huffing out an
irritated breath, Faith looked between her two sisters who were obviously
intent on ignoring her.  “Could you please focus on something other than
Patience’s fashion faux pas of the moment, please?  It’s not like we won’t have
another one in a week’s time.”

“Hey!  I thought
the lavender really softened up my face,” Patience yelped indignantly, touching
her soft hair gingerly.  “And I only dyed my hair
once
last month.”

“Twice,” Harmony
corrected from her position on the bed.  “You had those unfortunate streaks of aborigine
for a week, remember?”

“Oh, yeah,”
Patience muttered, her lips twitching with a smile.  “But, this actually looks
good, doesn’t it?” she asked, fluffing her hair.

“Abel is right.  It
makes you look like Rainbow Brite,” Faith pronounced, easily dodging the pillow
that Patience threw at her.  Turning her gaze back to a giggling Harmony, she
propped her hands on her hips.  “So, you’re going to agree that you should give
Jacob a fair shot, right?” Faith questioned with a stern expression.

“I’m going tonight,
aren’t I?”

“Even if I’ve got
to put a gun to your back,” Patience declared brightly, nodding her approval. 
“While I’m not quite as enthusiastic as our little sis here,” she said, jerking
her head toward Faith, “I do think you need to get out more.  If Jake isn’t
your bag, try another guy.”

“Men aren’t toilet
paper, Patience,” Faith mumbled, never ceasing to be amazed at her sister’s
thoughts.

“Says you,”
Patience returned with a smirk.  “I say use ‘em until you find one that feels
just right,” she cooed in a sultry voice.

Harmony raised both
hands to stall what was sure to be a sisterly squabble of epic proportions.  “Has
it escaped the notice of either of you that this isn’t my first time climbing
up on the proverbial horse?  It’s been a while, but I have been to the rodeo
before.”

“Yeah, and that
wild stallion threw you to the ground and stepped all over you,” Patience
growled bitterly.  “It’s why you haven’t gotten your ass back in the saddle
again.”

Well, Harmony
couldn’t argue that.  Until recently, she was pretty sure that Tanner Suarez
had robbed her of the ability to even enjoy the company and attention of
another man after the hell he’d put her and her family through.  After him, she
hadn’t been anxious at all to test the relationship waters.

Until a tall,
muscular, tattooed hunk of masculine virility had saved her sister’s bacon and
subsequently wandered into a booth in the restaurant the next day.

Now, she wondered
if a walk on the wilder side of the street wasn’t exactly what she needed –
especially if she was gonna be accompanied by a man that even a prizefighter
would think twice about challenging.

Uncertainty about
the man that was taking her out tonight swamped her as she watched her sisters
continue to raid her small closet.  On one hand, when she was with Jake, he
made her feel alive and important.  He asked intelligent questions and actually
listened to her answers.  His deep voice was a rumble that she found comforting. 
He might not say much, but he said what he meant and his words – few as they
were - meant something.  He’d asked her about her hopes and dreams and seemed
genuinely interested in what she wanted for herself and her daughter.  He even
seemed fascinated by her stories about Heaven.  While most men only tolerated
hearing about her daughter in order to get on her good side, Jake seemed to
hang on every word, and Heaven was often a favorite topic of conversation. 
Where most men she’d encountered were selfish and wanted the world to revolve
around them and their needs, the fact that she was a busy single parent to a
young child hadn’t seemed to concern him at all.

If there was a
downside to knowing Jake, it was that she really didn’t
know
much about
him at all.  No matter what they were talking about, he turned the focus on
her, revealing little about himself in the process.  Oh, he’d shared the basic
information.  She knew he was 42 years old, hailed from Georgia, and his mom
was still alive.  She knew he was the younger of two children, though he hadn’t
confided anything at all about his sibling.  She didn’t even know if he had a
brother or a sister.  As for his job, he was tightlipped about it, only
revealing that he worked in the security sector and was headed toward an early
retirement.  He planned to open his own consulting business and was considering
settling in the area.  He’d shared that his favorite movie was Die Hard, his
favorite actor was Bruce Willis, and he was a country music fan.  He owned a
Harley and a Dodge truck.  He preferred the motorcycle, but kept the truck for
nasty weather.  And lastly, he had a weakness for the cherry pies that Honor
made on Wednesdays.

And that was it.

No matter how delicately
she’d probed, his life before coming to Paradise had remained in the sealed
vault that was Jacob Stone.

It was equal parts
mysterious and scary – and the scary was edging out the mysterious the longer
she knew him.  This was mostly due to the fact that she could feel herself
falling for a man she knew next to nothing about. 

Although, she
shouldn’t judge him too harshly, she supposed.  She might have shared small
things with him, but it wasn’t like she’d opened up her emotional closet and
shown him the skeletons rattling around in there.

Pulled from her
thoughts by a sound knock on her closed bedroom door, Harmony quickly pulled
her blanket in front of her.  Faith moved to open the door and grinned as her
Aunt Orla appeared on the other side.

“Well, now!  What
are you still doin’ sittin’ around in your skivvies when you’ve got a gentleman
caller comin’ to pay his respects?” her elderly aunt huffed and puffed as she
tottered into the room, her wrinkled face creased with a smile toward Harmony. 
“Why ain’t y’all got Barbie all gussied up for her Ken yet?” she asked
impatiently, dropping her heavy black pocketbook beside Harmony’s hip on the
bed.

“We can’t come to
an agreement about what she should wear,” Faith reported over her shoulder as
she tugged another dress, heather grey this time, from the depths of her
closet.  Holding it up for Aunt Orla to see, she asked, “What do you think,
Auntie?”

“I think she’ll
look dull as dishwater in that rag,” Aunt Orla replied, shaking her white
head.  Making a shooing motion with her hand, she hurried to take Faith’s place
in the closet.  “Let me see what I can find.”

Exchanging an
alarmed look with Patience, Harmony swallowed.  Still spry at 71, her aunt
could still do many things, but coordinating an outfit wasn’t among them. 
Eyeing the old woman’s orange skirt and purple shirt only reinforced what she
already knew.  If she wasn’t careful, she was gonna walk out of this room
dressed like a clown on crack.  She’d have to… she wouldn’t hurt her oldest
living relative’s feelings for anything in the world.

Holding her breath,
she waited as her aunt turned with a dress in her hand. 

“What about this
one?” Orla asked, holding up the hanger to a sapphire blue wraparound dress in
one hand.

“Oh, I forgot I had
that,” Harmony murmured, reaching out to touch the silky material of the dress
she’d purchased on clearance last fall.  At the time, she’d worried over
spending the money on something she really didn’t need, but suddenly she
thought she’d made her smartest purchase ever.  Paired with her cream colored
cardigan, it’d work perfectly.

“How’d I miss that
one?” Faith asked herself, blinking as she stared at the dress.  “It’s
gorgeous, Harm!”

“Now, that’s one
hot little number,” Patience approved, nodding her head.   “You’ll have Jake
pantin’ all over you in that one.  And I think I saw a matching clutch in your
bureau,” she said, turning to pull open one of Harmony’s drawers.

“You did.  I bought
it at the same time as the dress.  It was on clearance, too,” Harmony returned,
watching as Patience pulled the little purse from the dresser.

Shaking the dress
at her, Aunt Orla tapped her foot against the aging beige carpet of Harmony’s
bedroom.  “Well, shake your tail feathers and get it on.  He’ll be here soon. 
Faith, you do her hair.  Pull it up in one of those French twerks you always
do.”

“Twist, Auntie. 
It’s a French twist,” Faith replied patiently, already moving to grab the
hairbrush from Harmony’s vanity.

Rising to stand by
the side of the bed, Harmony took the new dress Aunt Orla held toward her. 
Quickly pulling it on and cinching the gold clasp at her waist, she turned to
look in the cheval mirror in the corner of the room.  Smoothing her hands over
her hips, she twisted to see her ass in the mirror.  “Uhmmm… I’m not sure about
this.  Don’t you guys think it’s a little tight?” she asked as she tried to tug
up the deep vee of the plunging bodice.

“Stop that, Harmony
Pearl!” Aunt Orla ordered, slapping at Harmony’s nervous fingers.  “Your girls
are still flying high and proud and your bottom looks firm as a Georgia peach! 
That dress says ‘I’m limber, not loose!’”

Harmony closed her
eyes as her sisters laughed behind her.  “Thank you, Auntie,” she mumbled,
sitting when she felt Faith pulling her toward the vanity.  Sinking down on the
upholstered bench seat, she tried not to moan when her younger sister began running
the brush through her chin-length blonde hair.  Opening her eyes, she caught
Patience stuffing the small purse with something.  “What in the world are you
shoving in there?” she asked as she tried to look over her shoulder only to
have Faith forcefully turn her head back toward the mirror.

“Just a few
supplies that you might need tonight,” Patience answered.  “It never hurts to
be prepared.” She offered with a wink, holding up a handful of condoms for
Harmony to see in the reflection of the mirror.

 Harmony’s jaw
dropped.  “Are those….”

Patience nodded
eagerly, stuffing a few more packets in Harmony’s purse. “Rubbers?  Yep, sure
are!”