Grabbing her expensive handbag out of the desk, Maggie smiled slightly. “Fine. Just remember that the Wicked Witch of Atlanta is still in there, okay?”
“Her evil holds no power here,” Patience stated serenely.
“Atta girl,” Maggie declared with a nod. “Go get them!”
Chapter Nine
Patience remained still until she heard a car start outside. Glancing out the window, she watched as Maggie peeled out of the parking lot, her red Mercedes flying down Main Street as Diego’s SUV followed behind her. Knowing she was alone in the office except for Abel and Angie, she approached his office door on silent feet and grimaced at what she heard through the thin wood.
“You need a woman that can be your equal, Abel,” she heard Angie declare, her voice high and desperate. “Someone that fits into your world. Nobody could ever do that as well as I could, baby. We were the golden couple once upon a time, honey. We can be again!” the woman continued almost shrilly.
Making a face, Patience pushed open the door in time to see Angie dive for Abel, clinging to his shoulders as she tried to climb him like a tree. Repulsed, she fought the urge, yet again, to hurl. Instead, she cleared her throat. Loudly. “I’m sorry. Am I interrupting something?” she asked sweetly from the now open doorway. “Maggie said it would be just fine if I scooted in here for a quick word.”
“You!” Angela shouted furiously. “You’re always interrupting things that are none of your business. Did you not see the closed door, you stupid girl?”
Before Patience could open her mouth, Abel shoved Angie away from him. “Enough! Both Margaret and Patience know that door is permanently open to either of them. Unlike you, Angela. I told you. We’re done here. You’re only making a fool of yourself now. Get the hell out of here and start acting like a fucking professional before I report you to the Bar Association,” he threatened sharply.
“But, Abel….” Angie began as two perfect teardrops fell from her eyes. “Baby, you just have to let me try and show you how much I’ve changed!”
“I said, enough! I don’t care if you’ve changed or not. For your sake, I hope you have, but it really doesn’t affect me in the slightest.” Abel bit out as Patience’s jaw dropped and she looked between the two of them. “I don’t want you, Angela. We’re done. I don’t know how much clearer I can be, but I’ll try. You disgust me and there is absolutely zero chance for us again.”
Whirling, Angie’s eyes narrowed to slits as she stared at Patience. “This is all your doing, you bitch! You and those lies of yours.”
“Excuse me?” Patience retorted. “I fail to see how it’s MY fault that your legs have opened more times than the sliding doors down at the Shop n Save. It’s not on me that your ex-boyfriend finally saw the light and moved on with his life. I never told him a single lie. You did. That’s on you, sweetie.”
“Fuck you, Patience. You couldn’t wait to run and tell Abel all you knew about me two years ago. You purposefully and maliciously devastated my relationship with my fiancé. You ravaged us, you fucking whore! And for what? A couple of interludes in his bed?”
Patience face blanched as her eyes went to Abel’s. “You told her?” she whispered, horrified that Abel would share anything about their night together.
“No!” Abel exploded furiously. “I didn’t.”
“Oh, please, nobody had to tell me anything. It’s written all over your face,” Angie snapped, taking another step toward Patience. “But you should know, he’ll never love you. Not the way he loved me.”
“And all I have to say to that is a resounding ‘Thank GOD’!” Patience retorted, her own blue eyes flashing dangerously as she stared at the other woman. “Because I don’t know if you noticed, but he doesn’t seem too awfully thrilled with you right now,” she said in an exaggerated whisper as she nodded toward a red faced Abel Turner.
“Angela, either leave my office right now or I can call the authorities and have them assist you out the door. As of this moment, you’re trespassing,” he warned in a low growl.
“You heard the man,” Patience said with a careless shrug and a happy smile. “If I were you, I’d get gone because I know at least one cop that would love to arrest you.”
Lifting her chin defiantly, Angie met Patience’s glare with one of her own. “You should know that I’m not giving him up. Certainly not to a little redneck nobody like you. He was mine once,” she said with a fond look at Abel. “And he’ll be mine again.”
Patience stared into Angie’s wild eyes and felt a cold shiver run down her spine. “Listen, girl,” she said softly, “I don’t say this lightly because, honestly, everybody around these parts is a little crazy, but you need some help. Some serious psychological help.”
“All I need is Abel,” Angie returned with a slightly psychotic smile.
“You really are deranged,” Patience murmured to the other woman, unable to break her gaze away from Angie’s eyes. “Like scarily unbalanced in the head.” Forcing herself to look at Abel, Patience shook her head. “Dude, you’ve got a real problem here,” she told him with a nod toward Angela.
Abel gave Patience a look that clearly said he was aware of the crazy flooding his office. “Angela, you need to leave,” Abel repeated firmly, protectively sliding his body in front of Patience. “Don’t make me do something you’ll regret in the long run.”
“Abel, we have to work together on the Fuentes case. Without your help, Esteban could get away with everything that’s happened around here and the cartel will gain a stronghold in Paradise. Diego is already risking his life. You don’t want it to be for nothing,” Angie reminded him.
“No, I don’t. I think, however, it might be wiser for me to work more closely with Ms. Miller. You can forward any questions you have for me through her in the future,” he returned calmly, watching as Angie stiffened.
“That’s ridiculous,” Angie huffed. “We work well together.”
“That’s the only offer you’re going to get from me, Angela. Take it, and be grateful that I’m even willing to make it,” Abel spat impatiently.
“I can see we’ll have to discuss this later when you’ve calmed down, honey,” Angela replied as if she hadn’t just heard his ultimatum, bending and picking up her purse and briefcase. “I’ll check in with you later, all right, darlin’,” she simpered sweetly, lifting a hand and patting Abel’s cheek before sauntering out of his office, closing the door behind her.
“Alright, Abel, tell me,” Patience demanded with one hand on her hip. “What in the world possessed you to allow that crazy lunatic off her chain? Thanks to you, nobody in town is safe now! If she drops a house on somebody’s head, it’s all on you, buddy.”
Abel’s eyes twinkled as they met Patience’s. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll be her the house gets dropped on. C’mon. Why don’t you try channeling the dark arts and make it happen?”
“Ha ha. Very funny,” Patience returned. “I’d say you’re closer to Satan than I am. After all, you’re the lawyer.”
Abel winced. “Damn, that was unnecessary, don’t you think? Attorneys have feelings, too, you know,” he chided, trying to keep the smile off his face. For Patience to willingly enter his turf, he knew her reason had to be important, but damn if he didn’t love the hell out of their easy banter.
“I’m sure they do, I’m just not sure you do. I have a feeling we’re gonna find out that information quickly, though,” she offered with a nervous look in his direction.
“Patience?” Abel questioned as he caught the worried glint to her eyes. “Hellion, what’s wrong?” he asked, tensing.
Licking her lips, Patience gulped. “I got shot,” she remarked, seemingly out of the blue.
“Uh…. Yeah. Over four months ago. What’s that got to do with anything? Is your arm giving you trouble? I told you that I thought you ought to do some form of physical therapy, but you called me a pansy-ass worrywart. Guess the worrywart was right, huh? It’s hurting you, isn’t it?” he ranted wi
th a hard frown as he gingerly reached out to take her arm gently in his hand. “I’ll call the doc and we’ll….”
“Abel,” Patience called, cutting him off as she jerked her arm out of his grip, “My arm is fine. That’s not where I was going with this,” she said, blowing her hair out of her face. “Just…sit down, okay?”
“Why?” Abel asked suspiciously.
“Why, what?” Patience snapped.
“Why do you want me to sit down? People generally only say that when they’re getting ready to give bad news. And you’ve already mentioned getting shot. That’s already enough to put me on edge given the fact that when I close my eyes at night, I still see you bleeding on your back in the café while I desperately try to staunch the flow of your blood. So, yeah, I wanna know why you want me to sit because, frankly, you’re starting to scare the shit out of me,” he continued to bluster.
“I’m not dying, Abel,” Patience returned dryly even as she silently thought that compared to parenthood, death might not be such a bad fate for her. At least death would be quiet. Based on her experiences with her sister, Harmony, and her niece, Heaven, parenthood was gonna be a very loud walk on the wild side. Taking a deep breath, Patience looked up and saw Abel watching her with concerned grey eyes. “Listen, Abel, I’m trying to ease you into this. Just hang with me for a few minutes, okay?”
“You have two,” Abel returned, naked fear shining in his eyes as his gaze met hers.
“Two what?” Patience returned.
“Minutes. You have two minutes and then, I’m going to shake you until you tell me what’s going on, woman. I mean it.”
Rolling her eyes at his theatrics, Patience pursed her lips. Why the hell couldn’t he ever make anything easy on her? Wouldn’t most men just wait patiently until she was able to bare her soul? Her mind ran through the men she knew fairly well. Zeke would have waited as long as it took. Zeke’s brother, Ice…yeah, he’d be pissed, but he’d let her take her time. Even her brother-in-laws, Jake and Cain, would give her the time she needed to…
“Patience!” Abel roared. “You’re terrifying the crap out of me right now. You’re never fuckin’ quiet. What the hell...”
Later, Patience would recall that as the exact moment she snapped and lost control of the situation.
“I’m pregnant!” Patience yelled over Abel’s deep voice, her hands curled into fists at her side. “You freaking went and killed my rabbit in cold blood, you hare-brained murderer! Are you happy now?” she screamed at the top of her considerable lungs.
Chapter Ten
Patience had always heard that old saying, ‘the silence was deafening’, but she’d never really knew what it meant until now.
Now, she understood. As she stood there staring into Abel’s dazed face, she finally got it.
Completely.
“Dear God,” Abel finally managed to croak, staring with slightly glazed eyes at Patience’s still-mostly-flat belly in stunned awe.
“Oh, please, don’t bother talking to Him,” Patience huffed with an irritated look at the man responsible for her waking nightmare. “I’m pretty sure that God forsook us both the second I decided to let you slip your dipstick in my engine, Abel. God, my dimwitted friend, has abandoned us both and left us at the mercy of the demonic force that is the unplanned pregnancy.” Really, how did he think calling upon the Almighty was gonna help them now. They’d committed a sin, for crying out loud. The last time she checked it was one of the big ones, too. And it was a double whammy as far as she could tell -what with the sex before marriage sin AND the baby out of wedlock sin. Couldn’t Abel see that the good Lord was madder than a wet cat at them both?
“Did you just call my future child demonic?” Abel asked on a growl, taking an involuntary (and somewhat unwise) step closer to Patience, his hand reaching out to touch her stomach before he could realize that touching her was a really, really bad idea.
Hissing in an inward breath as his fingertips made contact with her cotton tee shirt, Patience’s eyes narrowed to dangerous slits much like a cobra right before it struck its victim dead. “Unless you’d like to lose all future use of that hand… Do. Not. Touch. Me,” she warned, lowering her head to glare at the offending hand that now appeared to be stroking her belly. Waiting until he’d removed his palm from her, Patience lifted her head and was shocked to see Abel smiling.
No, not smiling.
Fucking beaming. What. The. Hell. Was. THAT?
“Is this some kind of weird pregnancy fetishism, Abel?” Patience asked slowly. “You get turned on by poor, knocked up women?” she asked irritably when his eyes never wavered from her stomach. Snapping her fingers in his face, she growled, “Hey, eyes up here, Abel Turner! We need to talk about this.”
When he just kept smiling goofily, Patience felt her blood pressure surge.
“Why the hell are you grinnin’ like you found the cure for cancer or somethin’?” she bit out a tad bit defensively, her hands falling to her hips – an age old position that had been used for centuries to warn men everywhere to beware the maddened woman before them. It was a helpful sign that women gave men which clearly indicated said man should be wary and careful at this crossroads in life.
Turns out, Abel Turner was shit at reading the signs.
“Because you’re pregnant!” Abel war cried, his smile nearly blinding her. “With my baby!” he whooped, reaching for Patience and spinning her around in a circle.
“Abel, put me down,” Patience yelled as he spun them in a circle and the world moved around her at warp speed. “I mean it, you moron,” she growled as the spinning continued and her stomach nosedived. “I’m gonna be sick!” she tried to warn one last time as she swallowed hard and squeezed her eyes shut, praying that if she did toss her cookies, they’d land all over Abel’s big, fat head. Thankfully, she found herself being abruptly dropped to her feet and steadied by Abel’s strong hands.
“I’m sorry. I guess I got a little excited by the news,” he admitted with a self-deprecating grin at her. “But, you can’t blame me, honey. We’re pregnant, Patience,” he virtually squealed, dropping to his knees to stare at her belly again. “We’re pregnant.”
Blinking slowly, Patience silently counted to ten. She couldn’t rip out his eyeballs for his excitement, could she? Of course, he could afford to be pleased; it wasn’t him that was going to suffer heartburn, nausea, and unexplainable horniness if that stupid book Faith had was to be believed. Personally, she doubted the horny thing…. Honestly, who could feel turned on when an alien passenger was hitching a ride with your uterus?
“We’re pregnant?” Patience echoed his earlier words, suddenly feeling an overwhelming rush of anger toward the man that helped push her into these uncharted pregnancy waters. “Which part of this unplanned pregnancy from hell are YOU gonna handle, huh? The morning sickness? The evening sickness? How ‘bout the fifty pounds of weight gain? You wanna handle that one. Because honestly, this body,” she shouted, gesturing up and down her torso, “It was not meant to carry babies. It was meant to be treated like the temple it is, dammit! But, I digress. What about the boob tenderness? You might like that. Everybody knows how much you love a pair of great tits! Or maybe you’d like to tackle the stretching of your hoo hah to unimaginable proportions? No! I know! The hemorrhoids,” she shrieked. “Are you gonna handle the hemorrhoids for US, Abel?”
“Now, Hellion,” Abel began to ty and calm her. “Let’s just take a deep breath here.”
“Don’t. Don’t you dare use that conciliatory tone with me! And don’t tell me how to breathe, Abel Turner. You shoved this bun in my oven and now I’M the one that has to bake it! Alone. By myself. While I get more fat and moody by the day,” Patience accused shrilly, smacking one hand against his broad chest.
Capturing her hand against his chest, Abel cupped the side of Patience’s face. “Patience, calm down. You’re getting hysterical.”
“Hysterical? You think THIS is hysterical?” Patience babbled, her blue eye
s wide and troubled. “Not even close, Cowboy! Hysterical will happen at three tomorrow afternoon when Dr. Daniels confirms that I’m carryin’ your Satan spawn.”
“Really appreciate if you didn’t call my son the Spawn of Satan, Hellion,” Abel chuckled, swiping his finger against the apple of her cheek.
“Of course he’s already decided it’s a boy,” Patience mumbled, jerking out of Abel’s arms and glaring at him. “The only thing worse than a girl would be a boy. I don’t know anything about boys. Well, other than to stay away from the penises. Of course, that’s a lesson I learned entirely too late, isn’t it?” Tilting her head, she wailed at the ceiling as if to call down the Almighty. “Why is this happening to me? Compared to most, I’ve been a relatively good Christian girl, Lord!”
As if it had only just occurred to Abel, he shook his head and stared at where Patience now stood with tears streaming down her face. “Wait a minute,” he said softly. “You really aren’t happy about this, are you?
Spinning to face her current nemesis, Patience’s jaw nearly hit the floor. “Are you kidding?” she hissed, her eyes flashing ominously. “You’re actually brave enough to ask me that question? Have you even been listening? I’m PREGNANT, Abel! Me!!! The woman who kills PLANTS by looking at them is going to be responsible for keeping a tiny innocent human alive! So, no, I am NOT happy about this. I never wanted to be a mother! I’m not even mother material. I like to drink. I like heavy metal music. I like to stay up late and party all night,” she cried desperately, wiping at her wet cheeks with the back of her hands. “For God’s sake, even house pets flee when confronted by my presence. I have no business being ANYBODY’s mother!”
“Hellion,” Abel said steadily. “You’re overreacting, baby.”
Patience took a stumbling step backward as his words registered with her, striking at the heart of her. Who was he to judge her? She was doing the best she could here. And if he couldn’t see that, then to hell with him. “Fuck you, Abel,” she whispered. “You’re dramatically underreacting.”
Ready, Willing and Abel (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnon Sisters Book 3) Page 16