“…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 impa
tiently, 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!”
“Patience McKinnon! You take those out of my bag right now!”
“Don’t you dare,” Faith ordered Patience over her own shoulder. “You know the saying, sis. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” she proclaimed, tugging on Harmony’s hair as she swept it off her sister’s neck into an easy updo.
“You’re both nuts!” Harmony almost whimpered, cringing as Faith’s tugs became almost painful. She made a mental note to thank Honor for keeping Heaven occupied baking cookies in the kitchen. There’s no way in hell she’d want her baby girl witnessing this circus. At least one McKinnon sister had enough sense to know how to behave!
“Put a clean pair of underwear in there, too,” Faith advised, ignoring Harmony’s cringe as she leaned down to whisper in Harmony’s ear, “Doin’ the walk of shame in dirty underwear wouldn’t be any fun at all.”
Swatting at her sister and missing, Harmony snapped, “I am NOT sleeping with Jake tonight. Why in the world are y’all suddenly pimping me out to the first man to take an interest?”
“First of all, he ain’t the first man to come sniffin’ around you, Harmony,” Aunt Orla pointed out as she fussed with her own pocketbook. “He’s just the first one we liked well enough to make an effort. Second, I’m not advocatin’ that you offer the man your entire milk supply, but givin’ the poor, thirsty dear a drink is just the Christian thing to do. Speakin’ of which, put this in her bag, too, Patience,” she directed, finally locating a clear plastic baggy from her purse and handing it over to her niece.
This time, Harmony managed to turn completely around in her seat and watched as Patience took the mystery bag from their aunt. “Do I even wanna ask what you’ve put in there, Aunt Orla?” she asked, growing more anxious when her aunt’s smile turned positively wicked.
“That there has been my saving grace for the last ten years, girl,” Aunt Orla pronounced with a satisfied smirk.
Craning her neck to see what they were talking about, Faith asked, “What is that?”
“One of your Uncle Jethro’s little blue pills,” Orla informed the girls primly. Aiming an understanding look in Harmony’s direction, she shrugged. “Like mine, your man is quite a few years older than you are, darlin’. He might need a little assistance to get his flag flyin’ high and proud. Think of it as a little grease to oil his pole.”
Harmony nearly swallowed her tongue as she realized what the old woman was saying. Uncle Jethro was 86 and deaf as a post. And they were still active?! There were no words for a moment like this.
“Yeah, and just remember, if the flag won’t lower after four hours, don’t bother tryin’ to turn it upside down. Seek medical attention,” Faith added with a wide grin, patting her sister’s head. “Just don’t call Cain, okay? We’ve got plans that don’t include your man’s unmentionables.”
Turning back toward the mirror, Harmony stared numbly at her reflection as her sisters and aunt continued to cackle behind her. Just how badly would she be hurt if she made a break for the window?
Chapter Five
As Jacob withdrew his tall body from behind the wheel of his gleaming black truck and looked toward the front of the white two-story McKinnon farmhouse, his chiseled jaw hardened and he frowned at what he saw. Grabbing the flowers and gifts he’d picked up earlier, he slammed the truck door, all while keeping one eye on front door of the house. The ordinary wooden door stood wide open for anyone who might choose to walk inside. Only an insubstantial screen door that had seen better days stood between him and the women that lived inside the house. A quick glance around confirmed that at least they had a couple of strong-looking security lights installed at the two front corners of the house. That screen door obviously would be the first improvement he was making for Harmony.
Climbing the solid steps to the wraparound porch, he could hear Heaven’s giggles and the soft, serene voice of her Aunt Honor from somewhere within the home. Knocking with a firm fist on the screen door, he heard pounding feet head toward him and smiled as he watched Heaven skitter around the corner, h
er long blonde hair flying behind her.
“Mistah Jake! Mistah Jake is here, Auntie Honor!” the happy looking little girl war cried, throwing her sturdy little body at the screen door and knocking it open as she ran headlong into Jacob’s legs.
Bracing as her tiny body plastered itself to his legs, he bent to lift her in one arm, crossing the threshold and closing the front door behind him. He was relieved to find that it at least had solid deadbolt locks attached to it. He imagined he had the good sheriff to thank for that safety measure. “Well, hello there, Princess. How are you doing today, Miss Heaven?” he asked, brushing a kiss against her flushed cheek.
“I maked cookies,” the child chirped enthusiastically as she bounced in his arms. “Two kinds,” she chortled, popping up two pudgy fingers beneath his nose.
“You did?” he rumbled, shifting the energetic little girl against his chest. “What kinds did you make?”
“I maked chockie chip and peanut buttah,” she informed him eagerly, swinging one leg as she perched on his hip. “Dey is my Momma’s favorite kind. What your favorite kind, Mistah Jake?”
Laughing softly, he looked at the little girl he held in his grip. “My favorite kinds are whatever kind you make for me, Princess.”
“Den you like chockie chip da best,” she decided for him with a pat to his cheek. “I putted da eggs in dem.”
Honor chuckled softly as she walked into the room. “And only a little bit of the shell made it into her batch. Hello, Mr. Stone,” she greeted him quietly, inclining her head slightly toward him before smiling at her niece. “I see Heaven showed you inside. I’m sure Harmony will be down in just a few minutes.”
“No hurry at all and it’s Jacob, Honor. Or, Jake if you prefer,” he returned with a nod to the young woman. Bending to put Heaven back on her feet, he pulled the pink stuffed teddy bear from the plastic bag around his wrist. “Got you something, Peanut,” he murmured with a grin as he held out the toy to her. “I thought this guy could keep you and Aunt Honor company while I take Momma to eat tonight.”
Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) Page 6