Man of Honor (Passion in Paradise Book 4) (34 page)

“Oh, sweet Jesus,”
Honor muttered weakly as her eyes scanned the short handwritten list.  “What in
the world is ‘Love Amidst the Pear Trees’?  I swear, Bree!  This better be a movie
on somebody’s fondness of farming pears or we’re gonna have a problem!”

“Actually, it’s a
short erotic vid that a few of my former patients have found especially
freeing.”

Honor closed her
eyes and silently counted to ten while she reminded herself of all the people
that would miss Aubrey Daniels if she gave into temptation and knocked her over
the head with the heavy paperweight she kept on the corner of her desk.  It
really wasn’t very smart of her to goad her patients into a homicidal rage and
then leave handy murder weapons just sitting in plain view.

“Honor?  Honor are
you listening?”

“Yes,
unfortunately I can still hear you, Dr. Daniels.”   

“Good.  That means
I’m still getting through to you.  Honor, I’ve already called my friend, Shay,
and had her pull your items from her stock.  All you’ve just got to do is drive
up there and tell her who you are.  I won’t even ask that you peruse the store
on this trip.”

“On this trip?”
Honor echoed suspiciously.  “You say that like you think I’ll be making more
than one.  Bree, after this, I’m never darkening your friend’s door again.”

“Never say never,
Honor.  That’s just asking for trouble,” Bree said with a smile as the timer on
her desk buzzed.  “Well, that’s our session.  I’ll see you on Friday, Honor.”

“Not if I figure a
way out of it first,” Honor grumbled under her breath as she bent and collected
her purse from the floor next to the sofa.

“What was that?”
Bree asked pleasantly, her green eyes twinkling.

“I said have a
nice week,” she lied sweetly as she waved at the doctor and closed the door
behind her.

~***~

Honor was jarred back
to the present by a horn blaring loudly behind her.  A quick glance in the
rearview mirror confirmed an irritated driver behind her.  Seeing the irritated
face of one of her regular customers, Big Mike Danson, staring daggers at her
bumper, Honor groaned.  There was no doubt the local insurance agent would
report to Zeke that she’d been driving distractedly, holding up traffic this
morning.  Hopefully she could coax the guy into keeping quiet with a piece of
one of the chocolate silk pies she’d made for the lunch rush when she’d arrived
to work just after dawn this morning.  

It had been a stroke
of luck that Zeke had even let her drive herself to her appointment today. 
Usually, he or one of his deputies escorted her, but with a couple of his
officers on vacation, the department was currently understaffed and everyone
else had other business to attend to this morning.  Throwing up an apologetic
hand at the still honking driver behind her, she quickly steered her car into
the gravel parking lot of the café she ran with her sisters and aunt as Big
Mike gunned past, still blowing his infernal horn.

“Jerk,” she muttered
as she glared at his big white diesel truck, her nose curling as it emitted a
stinky black puff of smoke.   Purposefully putting Big Mike and his impatient
lead foot out of her mind, Honor’s small smile was automatic as she pulled into
her normal parking slot beside her ancient aunt’s newest impulse purchase, her
shiny red sports car.   Glancing at her oldest relative’s new ride, she groaned
out loud as she remembered last night’s dinner conversation with Zeke when he’d
come in the back door from work.

~~***~~

June 26, 2015

7:20 pm

Hearing the back
door open behind her, Honor turned from where she stood in her bare feet at the
stove, stirring a pan of simmering pasta sauce and watched as an unsmiling Zeke
let himself into the house.  “Hey,” she said carefully, gauging his mood.  Well
over half an hour later than his usual time in arriving home, the sheriff had
looked both disgruntled and exhausted as he stepped inside the kitchen. “Bad
day?” she asked when he tossed his Stetson on one of the pegs that hung by the
back door.

“You could say
that,” Zeke growled.  “You’re probably gonna get a phone call in a few minutes,
but in my defense let me just say that she had it coming.”

“Who had what
coming, Zeke?” Honor asked, quickly flipping off the stove and removing the hot
pan off the heated burner.  “Oh, God, is Patience in jail again for not paying
all those blame parking tickets?  I told her a dozen times that the city wasn’t
gonna back down and her taxes do NOT count as dues for parking meters!   Judge
Simmons finally just put out a bench warrant for her arrest, didn’t he?   
She’s married to an attorney for heaven’s sake.  I swear, she’s Abel’s problem
now,” Honor fumed, wiping her hands on a dish towel before dropping it beside
the sink.  “Of course, she does have three little babies so if you could see it
in your heart to conveniently leave her cell unlocked so she could…”

“Oh, it’s not your
sister.  At least not this time,” Zeke returned with a long-suffering sigh. 
“Although, that bench warrant may not be far off.  Remind me to talk to Abel
about those tickets.”

“Then what?”

“It’s your batshit
crazy aunt,” Zeke retorted grumpily, running a hand through his thick black
hair.  “That damn woman’s determined to either kill herself or somebody else in
that tin can on wheels she’s drivin’ around like it’s her own personal lethal
weapon!  Seriously, patrol clocked her going ninety in a forty-five around a
fuckin’ CURVE, Honor.”

“Oh, my,” Honor
murmured.

“Oh, it gets
worse.  Your insane kinfolk then proceeded to lead two of my deputies on a five
mile high speed chase!  The old woman actually thought she could OUTRUN them. 
And when she finally decided to give up and pull over, do you know what she
asked my men?  Do you?”

“No,” Honor denied
with a cringe.  “What?”

“She said, and I
quote her directly, ‘Did y’all have as much fun as I did?  How ‘bout we go do
it again?’”

Hanging her head
in defeat, Honor fought a hysterical laugh.  “Oh, Lord.  What happened next?”

“Oh, I had them
arrest her for reckless driving and attempting to evade arrest.”

“What?!”  Honor’s
head jerked upright as her widened gaze found Zeke’s.

“I briefly
considered charging her with assault of a police officer, too, since she took a
swing at me with her pocketbook when they finally got her into the station, but
then I remembered how much I love YOU and decided against it.”

“Zeke, so help me
if you left my positively ancient auntie in the pokey after all she’s done for
me…” she began to threaten as she nailed him with a panicked look.  Thinking of
her seventy-five year old second mother sitting on one of those filthy narrow
cots behind solid metal bars was enough to send her nearly through the roof. 

Rolling his steel gray
eyes, Zeke crossed his arms over his chest.  “She had it coming, Honor!  On the
open road, that woman’s a menace to the residents of Paradise!”

“Ezekiel Kinkaid
Monroe,” she began sharply, “That is my favorite Auntie that you’re
slandering.”

“It’s not slander
if it’s completely true.  It’s just a statement of fact, Honor Grace McKinnon! 
Besides, Miss Orla is completely safe and sound.  I didn’t have the heart to
lock her up.  At least not yet.  I just dropped her off at home and had the
deputy following us park that damn Camaro in the barn, where it should stay
until such time as you and your sisters convince her to part with it.   That’s
what took me so long.  In lieu of jail time, I managed to get old Judge Simmons
to do me a favor and suspend her driver’s license until such time as she gives
up that damned sports car.  But so help me, woman, if I see her in it again, I
WILL lock the crazy bat  up and throw away the damn key.”

“You let her go
home?” Honor questioned softly, uncertain she’d heard him correctly, her heart
softening when she saw his answering nod. 

“I let her go
home.  But if I see that car anytime soon, bad things are gonna happen,” he
warned before pressing a kiss to Honor’s forehead.  “Now, what’s for dinner?
I’m starving.”

~~***~~

The I Don’t Care
Café

10:30 am

Seeing her obviously
insane aunt’s gleaming sports car sparkling underneath the rays of the morning
sun, Honor hotfooted it in the back door of the café, her eyes already darting
around the hot kitchen to locate her aunt.  “Aunt Orla!” She called out as she
smiled a pleasant hello toward Edgar, one of the fry cooks that had worked for
them for years as she reached for her pink apron hanging beside the back door.

“Right here, m’dear,”
Aunt Orla declared with a wide smile and twinkling eyes as she bustled through
the swinging kitchen door, her arms laden with dirty plates.  “Oooohhhhwweeee!
But we’ve had a busy morning.  The football team came into eat before heading
out to their first practice of the year.  The coach was payin’ so those boys
put it away like men, I tell you!”

“Aunt Orla, WHAT is
that sports car doing in our back parking lot?  And please for the love of
buttered biscuits, tell me that you did NOT break the law AGAIN by drivin’ in
here today!  I know you came in late, but I assumed that Uncle Jethro was going
to bring you in here in his truck!  You KNOW Zeke is gonna put you under the
jail if he catches you out and about in that thing, and I don’t care how fond
he is of me, that won’t save you!”

Orla blew a raspberry
at her niece before putting her hands on her ample hips and frowning.  “I don’t
know WHAT has that sheriff of yours in such a dither.  I was just going a few
miles faster than I should.”

“Yeah, actually it
was 45 miles.  You were goin’ double the speed limit, Auntie!”

Orla snorted.  “If
you ask me, Zeke’s got a nightstick wedged right up his tight….”

“Auntie!” Honor said
sternly, facing her kin with a hard look of her own.  “First, Zeke’s not mine.
Second, I wouldn’t mention his nightstick to him at all if you don’t want him
to club you over your hard head with it,” she warned.  “Now, tell me you didn’t
drive here!”

“Yes, please tell
her,” a deep voice ordered from behind Honor’s back.  “Otherwise, you’re going
to get very acquainted with the feel of handcuffs, Miss Orla.”

“You’re lucky you
look good in those old Levi jeans of yours, Sheriff, otherwise there’d be nothing
to enjoy at all about seeing your tight ass,” Orla criticized, crossing her
arms across her plump middle. 

Honor watched as Zeke
bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing, but she couldn’t suppress
her own tiny giggle.

Arching one inky
eyebrow, Zeke’s gaze drifted to Honor.  “Oh, you find that funny, do you?”

Swallowing her
laughter, Honor shook her head quickly and schooled her face into a suitably
chastised expression.  “No, of course not,” she returned smoothly. 

“Uh huh,” Zeke
grunted, turning his attention back to the aged woman.  “Alright, Miss Orla. 
Tell the truth.  You get behind the wheel of that deathtrap?” Zeke grilled her
stoically.

“No, she did not,”
another voice breezily announced.  “She called me this morning and asked me to
drive her.  I wanted to take the Camaro so that I could see what all the fuss
was about,” Maggie Winstead announced, her heart shaped face staring at the
sheriff through the order window.  “It handled like a
dream. 
Totally
thinking about buying myself one of those pretties now.”

“Oh, God,” Zeke
groaned.  “Maggie, you’re worse than Aunt Orla behind the wheel!  You need a
Camaro like I need a hole in my head,” he informed the red-haired wealthy woman
gruffly.  “I swear to Christ, you women are all trying to collectively kill
me,” he accused, offering each woman a reproving look.

“We ain’t broke none
of the po-po’s laws today, so you can just shove your shackles where the sun
don’t shine, Sheriff,” Orla challenged.  “Just take your gun and grumbles and
go someplace else,” she informed him reproachfully as she finished sliding the
dirty dishes into the sink and wiped her hands on her apron before glaring at
him and shuffling back out to the dining room.

“You’re in
trouble,
”
Maggie chided, wagging a finger at Zeke as Edgar pushed an omelet into the
heated window. 

“You will be, too, if
I catch you jetting around my town in Orla’s car.  I mean it, Mags.  Speed
limits
aren’t
just suggestions.  They’re the
law
.”

“Blah, blah, blah,”
Maggie mocked, grabbing her omelet and offering Edgar a grateful smile.  “I’ll
see you later, Lawman.”

Laughing softly as
Zeke shot Maggie an unamused look as she turned her back on him, Honor
murmured, “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but what
are
you doing
here?  I thought y’all were short staffed this week?”

“We are, but I wanted
to swing by and check on you after your appointment.  I just got sidetracked
for a minute when I saw your aunt’s damn vehicle in the lot,” Zeke explained as
he dropped one hand to her hip.  “You got a minute to talk about something?”