Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (24 page)

Tossing a half
dozen hot dogs on the metal grill, Jake raised an eyebrow at the pretty woman. 
Patience was thin and petite like her other sisters, but she carried a wariness
in her deep blue eyes, a world-weary sadness that no amount of makeup
concealed.  “That so?” he asked her, mildly interested to hear her take on
him.  Of all the McKinnon girls, Patience was the straightest shooter, and it
was no secret that she was jaded.  He had no idea why, and honestly, he was a
guy that minded his own business.  She loved Harmony and Harmony loved her. 
For that alone, he wanted to stay on her good side.

Hell, he’d even go
as far as to say he liked her.  A lot. Patience said what she thought and meant
what she said, and woe be unto the son of a bitch that crossed her.  He’d seen
her bring many a man to his knees with that barbed tongue of hers.  She might
look as sweet as spun sugar, but when a guy pissed her off, all that sweet
could turn sour on a dime.  He could definitely respect a woman that had that
kind of self-assurance.

Swallowing her
beer, she nodded.  “Don’t take this the wrong way, Jake, but a guy that is
badass-scary biker-cool isn’t exactly who I imagined Harmony getting involved
with.  Can’t deny that it seems to be working out for her though.  Bonus is
that my niece also seems happy,” she noted, tipping the bottle toward a
giggling Heaven.

“They’re both easy
girls to…” he trailed off, frowning as he realized what he’d been going to
say.  He’d be damned if he admitted that he loved Harmony and Heaven aloud to
Patience before he’d told
them
.  Christ, he really needed to get a
handle on this shit.

“Love, Jake.  I
think the word you dropped there was
love
, wasn’t it?” Patience asked
with a coy smile. 

“I care deeply
about them both, Spitfire.  Don’t push your luck,” he growled, using the
nickname he’d been using for her since he watched her wrestle a drunk frat boy
to the ground a couple of weeks ago before either he, Abel or Zeke had been
able to intercept her.  She’d taken the poor bastard out with a pool cue and a
bad attitude after the dick had fondled one waitress too many under her watchful
eye. 

Snorting, Patience
rolled her eyes and took another deep sip of her beer.  “Uh huh,” she grunted. 
“You know, she likes you, too, Biker Boy.  So much so that after church my
oldest sister asked me if I’d keep Heaven overnight at my place tonight,” she
added, wriggling her eyebrows suggestively.  “I do believe that tonight’s the
night she’s gonna make it happen with you.”

Jake choked on his
own beer as the little imp laughed at him.  “Pardon?” he coughed, wiping his
mouth on the back of his hand as he stared at Patience with dazed eyes.

“Oh, you need me to
be clearer?” Patience asked with raised eyebrows.  She hummed, tapping her pink
lips with one finger as she pretended to think it over.  “Okay, I think I can
put it in terms you’ll understand.  Jake, I do believe that Harmony’s finally
ready to meet your great big pet snake.”

Of course at that
moment, they would have company.  “Jake!” Heaven yelled excitedly.  “You gotta
pet snake?  I wanna see it!  Lemmee see!” she shouted, barreling toward him.

“I may have to kill
you,” Jake hissed through his teeth at Patience as the woman burst into
laughter.  Turning his attention to the little girl wrapped around his legs, he
smiled.  “I don’t have a snake, sugar.  Aunt Patience was…”

“…talkin’ ‘bout the
snake in the grass that Uncle Abel is, lovebug,” Patience said, saving Jake a
potentially embarrassing conversation with her niece.  “You know how I think
he’s a slimy, cold-blooded nasty old snake.”

“Aunt Patience,
you’s mean to Unca Abel.  I think he’s nice,” Heaven informed her aunt with a
stern look.  “He not a snake.”

“You’re right. 
He’s….” Patience began.

“He’s standing
right here,” Abel announced, interrupting them as he stood behind her with
hands propped on his jean clad hips.  “Thank you for defending my honor,
Princess,” he said with a wink at Heaven.  “I’m glad somebody appreciates my
finer qualities.”

“I’d appreciate your
finer qualities if you had any, asshole,” Patience retorted under her breath,
keeping her voice low so Heaven didn’t hear as she glared at Abel over her
shoulder.  “I’d forgotten how good attorneys are at insinuating themselves into
things that aren’t any of their business.”

Ignoring the
grown-ups, Heaven lifted wide eyes to Jake.  “Well, if you don’t got a snake,
can we get ya a puppy?  I love puppies!”

Bending, Jake
dropped a kiss against Heaven’s warm forehead.  “I like puppies, too,
sweetheart.   Let me talk to Momma about it and we’ll revisit the idea later,
all right?”

“’Kay!” Heaven said
with a happy nod.  “Can I go jump on the tram’line?” she asked hopefully,
pointing toward the trampoline Jake had bought for her when he’d gotten the
swing set.  “P’ease!”

“I’ll watch her,”
Abel offered, holding out his hand to Heaven, ignoring the scathing look
Patience focused on him.

Watching the
interplay between the couple, Jake resisted the urge to shudder.  Jesus, if a
look could kill, that one would have speared Abel in the heart.  “Okay,
Sweetness.  Only for a few minutes though.  Momma will be here soon,” Jake
warned, turning the hot dogs with a spatula as Patience watched Abel and Heaven
walk away.  Glancing at her, he shook his head.  “You two ever gonna make peace
with each other?” he asked Patience as he jerked his head toward Abel.

“They will be
servin’ ice water in Hell before that ever happens, Biker Boy.  You can take
that to the bank,” she retorted sharply, her face tightening as she met Abel’s unflinching
steady gaze.

“None of my
business, but there seems like there’s a lot of water runnin’ under that
bridge,” he replied, keeping his voice low.

“Oh, yeah, there’s
a whole lotta water, Jake, and a man could drown real easy with how deep it
is,” Patience agreed, finally turning her attention back to him.

“You wanna talk
about it?” Jake asked carefully.  Hell, it was none of his business, but
Patience was Harmony’s sister.  If she was hurtin’, he wanted to do what he
could to help her.  “Do I need to kick his ass?” he questioned softly, offering
her a sidelong glance. 

“Oh, if I ever
decide Abel Turner needs his ass handed to him, I’ll be the one kickin’ it,”
Patience returned with a cold smile.  “Appreciate the offer, but I’ve been
handlin’ that bastard for years, Jake.  Don’t worry about me.”

“Oh, I’ve got no
doubt that you can handle yourself, Spitfire.  Been watchin’ you do it since I
got to town.  Half the boys ‘round here would give their left nut to take you
on and the other half are scared spitless of you.  That’s some kind of power
you’ve got, if you ask me.”

“Yeah, I’ve been
cultivating it for years.” Patience shrugged with a small grin.  Sighing, she
took another pull off her Budweiser.  “So, you and my sister….”

Removing the
grilled hot dogs from the grate and placing them on a paper plate, Jacob
glanced at her.  “I sense there’s something you wanna say to me, Patience,” he
acknowledged softly. 

“Yeah, I’m just
trying to figure out how I wanna approach this,” she returned slowly, picking
at the wrapper around her beer bottle.  “I’m not real good at sugarcoating
shit, so I’m just gonna go with blunt truth that cuts clear through all the
bullshit and say my peace.”

Jake nodded as he
held back a grin. “That’s one of my favorite things about you, Patience.”

“I don’t think it’s
a secret to anyone that I don’t trust men.  Oh, I like ‘em fine …I’ll drink
with them… date ‘em if they’re cute even, but I don’t trust ‘em at all.  Well,
all ‘cept one.  I trust Zeke.”

“Zeke’s a good
man,” Jake replied evenly.

“He is, but more
than that…he’s proven himself to me and my family.  Besides my father and Uncle
Jethro, he’s the only truly decent, honorable man that I’ve ever known.  See,
the men I’ve known haven’t given me much cause to be impressed by them.  Abel…
I don’t wanna go into that story, but I’ve got my reasons for how I feel.  He
might not be a bad man, but he ain’t my idea of a hero, either.  Then, there’s Cain
over there,” she said, gesturing toward where her brother-in-law cuddled Faith
against him as he leaned against a tree. “He’s what I like to call a recoverin’
asshole.  He put my sister Faith through hell before he finally pulled his head
out of his ass this last year.”

“What happened?”
Jacob asked, glancing toward the couple that had always seemed so happy and in
sync to him.

“Over a year ago,
Cain sent her a ‘Dear John’ letter while he was in Afghanistan, breaking their
engagement.  Granted, his head was all fucked up from war at the time, but he
nearly broke Faith with what he did.  They worked shit out in the end, but
still he’s in an asshole-recovery program as far as I’m concerned.  I love him
like a brother, but he’s on a ten-year probation with me for the stunt he pulled
before he married my sister,” she explained, slowly peeling the wrapper off her
beer bottle as she spoke.

“Damn,” Jacob
murmured as he eyed the happy pair now.  In the end, their shared love had
triumphed, he told himself.  He had to believe that could be true for him and
Harmony, too.

“With Harmony, the
only man she ever had was Tanner, her ex, and we’d all have been better off if
that bastard had been nothing but a cum stain on his Momma’s nasty sheets.  I
know you’ve already heard all about him, but that asshole put my family through
hell, but none worse than Harmony.  Then, there’s Honor.    Poor Honor… my baby
sister was mauled by a pack of wild animals before she even got a shot at her
future.  Those bastards robbed her and Zeke of something that could have been
beautiful.  What happened to her… let’s just say it’s a wonder that I don’t
walk around with a loaded gun pointed at the dick of every man I speak to.”

“Why are you telling
me this, Patience?” Jake asked gently, studying Patience’s set face as she
tucked a violet strand of hair behind her ear.  Her chin firmed as she turned
her diamond hard gaze on him.

“It’s simple.  You
need to understand some things and it’s up to me to educate you.  Honor’s too
shy, and Faith is too sweet.  That leaves me.  The women in this family have
had more than their fair share of bad luck with men, Jake.  Up until Faith got
married, I was fairly certain we must have all been cursed.  Now, my sister is
fallin’ for you.  The last time she fell for a man, he hurt her real bad.”

“I’m not going to
hurt your sister,” Jake countered quietly.  “It’s the last thing I
ever
want to do.”  Christ, the thought of causing Harmony pain tore him to shreds. 
He knew he was bound to cause her to shed some tears when he told her the
truth, but he hoped like hell she’d understand why he’d made difficult choices. 
He had to believe that all the good they had between them would outweigh
whatever betrayal she might feel.

She took a long
draw on her bottle.  “Good. That’s real good, Jake.  Because as much as I like
you, I don’t trust you.  See, you’re not Zeke.  We don’t have history.   I
don’t know you at all other than what very little you’ve told us about yourself. 
You’re a mystery…an unknown… a big ole question mark in terms of what manner of
man you are.   So you need to understand that if you hurt either Harmony or
Heaven, I’ve got no trouble with the thought of dismembering your admittedly
amazing body and dropping the pieces up and down the Smoky Mountains for the
buzzards to fight over,” she informed him cheerfully.  “So, we on the same page
about all that?”

“Same chapter, same
page, and same paragraph, Spitfire,” Jacob returned softly, meeting her eyes
without fear.  “Consider me warned.”

“Well, good.”
Patience grinned with a wink.  “Don’t fuck this up, Biker Boy.  Bein’ loved by
one of my sisters is about the best thing that could happen to a man.  They’re
fierce and funny and loyal.  And as an extra bonus, you get a little bonus
McKinnon thrown in the mix with Harmony,” she said, shooting a fond look toward
her niece. 

Following
Patience’s gaze, he smiled at Heaven.  “I’m gonna do my best.  The one vow I
will make you right now is that I’ll die before I allow them to be hurt again
the way they were in the past.”

“Those are pretty
words, but I’d rather see you back them up with actions.  Oh, and do me a favor
and make me one more promise.  Rock my sister’s world tonight.  After being
married to the world’s biggest, most selfish douche on Earth, she deserves a
good lovin’ touch.”

Lips twitching as
he saw Zeke’s SUV turn in the driveway and slide into the slot behind his
Harley, Jacob nodded.  “That’s one promise that I’ll be happy to keep,
darlin’.”

“Yeah,” Patience
chuckled, clearly amused as she followed his line of sight to her sister
climbing out of Zeke’s vehicle.  “I gotta feelin’ that you’ll be
all
over keepin’ that promise, Biker Boy.  Just remember, a condom a lay keeps the
babies away,” she sang as she sauntered away from him.

It was over an hour
later before Jake was able to come up with a way to get Zeke and the rest of
the men alone without being overheard by any of the women.  Thankfully, each of
them were now consumed with either the task of cleaning up after the meal or
organizing the rest of their afternoon.  They had unanimously decided over
lunch that this was the perfect afternoon to paint his kitchen, not that he
cared much.  He fully intended that that room would eventually be Harmony’s
domain anyway, and deciding whether canary or sunshine yellow was the more
appropriate choice wasn’t exactly his idea of a good time.  Besides, he could
tell by the dark look that the Sheriff had carried on his face throughout the
meal that the other man had something he needed to share.   Sparing a moment to
brush Harmony’s damp lips with his, he grinned.