Man of Honor (Passion in Paradise Book 4) (19 page)

“Stop it!” she
yelled.  “I didn’t ask for any of that.  I might have allowed it to happen,
but….it didn’t mean anything, Zeke.  Or, maybe I should say that it can’t mean
what you WANT it to mean.  I’m sorry, but it can’t.  It just can’t!” she
shouted, running from the room.

A few moments later,
he heard her bedroom door slam closed and he hung his head in defeat.  It was a
constant dance of two steps forward and three steps back with Honor. He’d
always known that it was going to be an uphill battle to earn her love.

He had just never
anticipated that it would hurt so much.

April, 2016

Present Day

Zeke’s thoughts
crashed back into the then and there as someone dropped a metal tray somewhere
outside Honor’s cubicle. The harsh sound echoed down the cavernous hallways and
startling the normally unflappable lawman.  Gripping the armrests of his chair,
his concerned gaze automatically went to Honor’s face.  Feeling deflated when
she didn’t so much as flinch at the racket outside her door, he sighed.  He
knew that damn drug – that Seconal, he mentally amended – would take a while to
leave her system, but it had been hours already. 

He wanted her to wake
up and yell at him for hovering over her like an irritating old biddy.  Then,
he wanted to do some yelling of his own – mainly of the
I-don’t-care-if-this-WAS-an-accident-you’re-getting-some-fucking-help variety.   
It was true, too.  If he had to sit on her to make it happen, she would find
somebody to talk to and unleash some of these damn demons riding herd on her
soul. 

Because he couldn’t
watch her disappear any longer.  He couldn’t sit by and watch as the woman he
loved just faded away before him.

Fuck that.

“Zeke?” he heard
someone softly call his name as the comforting aroma of freshly brewed coffee
assaulted his dulled senses.  Glancing over his shoulder at the doorway, he
forced himself to smile at Honor’s nurse, Millie Daniels.  Hell, he owed her
more than a smile since she was holding a steaming coffee cup in one hand and a
thermos in the other.  He might just have to overlook her penchant for going
ten miles over the speed limit for the next few days.

“Millie, if I wasn’t
head over heels for Honor, I think I would have given your husband a run for
his money,” Zeke offered, his eyes glued to that fragrant cup of joe she held
out to him.  “Seriously, how’d you know I was desperate for a hit of caffeine?”

“Sheriff, you’re a
cop, and I never met a cop that wasn’t looking for his next cup of coffee and a
donut.  Now, I might not be able to do much about one of those things, but when
Marge brewed a fresh pot out at the nurse’s station, I decided that this was
one thing I could help you out with.  Besides, the way I hear it, Honor’s gonna
be here for a bit.  You’re gonna need something to keep you going,” she
explained, carefully handing over the hot mug and dropping the silver thermos
on the rolling table beside Honor’s hospital bed.

“Yeah, I figured
she’d be here a day or two, if not the rest of the week.  Your husband
mentioned that it would take at least a good twelve to sixteen hours for the
effects of that drug to leave her system and that we’ll have to hold on for a
while,” Zeke mumbled, taking a sip of the coffee and letting the familiar
flavor soothe him. 

Millie nodded.  “I’m
going off duty in the next few minutes, but the girl coming on after me is good
and experienced.  Cain was already scheduled to be here overnight, but Aubrey
is going to stay, too, until at least Honor can wake up and talk to her a bit. 
Aubrey is good, Zeke, and I’m not just saying that because she’s Mack’s
sister.  I’ve seen her credentials.  If anybody can help Honor out of this dark
place that everybody says she’s been hiding in, it’s Bree.  Trust her, okay?”

“Millie, it’s not me
you’ve got to convince,” Zeke returned quietly, his eyes steady on Honor’s
still face.  “Honor isn’t too keen on letting people she doesn’t know in on her
innermost thoughts and feelings.  And when it comes to psychiatrists and
therapists, she’s about as open as a sealed vault.”

Millie offered him a
look of understanding.  “So, to sum up, Honor isn’t gonna be thrilled that
she’s gonna be forced to talk to a mental health professional when she wakes
up.”

“That might be the
understatement of the year,” Zeke informed her dryly.  “It’s more likely that
she’ll either clam up and refuse to talk or she’ll scream the joint down about
how her civil liberties are bein’ violated.  Either way, I’m pretty sure she’ll
find a way to blame me,” he chuckled, shrugging.  “And that’s fine with me… as
long as she gets the help she needs.”

“Well, there are a
few folks still in the waiting room that will be happy to offer back-up should
the need arise,” Millie noted with amusement. 

“Is the whole family
still setting up camp in the chairs out there?” he asked as he tilted his neck
from side to side to work out the kinks that come with sitting too long.  He
wasn’t getting any younger and these plastic seats were absolute hell on a
man’s spine.

“Harmony finally
managed to convince Miss Orla and Mr. Jethro to let Slade and Faith take them
home for the night.  I think they all had to swear on a stack of Bibles that
they would call if anything changed in the slightest, but they finally agreed
to go.  Diego took that young woman that works for Honor– Sunshine, I think her
name was – to get some of Honor’s personal things for when she wakes up.  Faith
said she was gonna stay home with Annabelle and help Abel with the triplets. 
Mack and I are gonna take Heaven home with us since my Paisley has been cravin’
a playdate with her anyway.  So, I think that leaves Jake, Harmony, Patience,
Ice and Maggie holding down the fort in the waiting room for now.”

“Ice and Maggie are
together in a confined area?” Zeke murmured with a faint smile.  “This won’t
end well.”

“Oh, there’s already
been a few skirmishes over things like the television remote and the thermostat
in the waiting room that involved more than one threat to your brother’s
continued safety.  I do believe his parentage was questioned by more than one
person at a few critical points during the course of the day.  Last I heard,
Patience believes that you had to have been adopted by the Monroe family and
that there’s no way you could actually be related to someone as ornery as Ice. 
Meanwhile, Maggie contends that your older brother was more than likely
abandoned by a wild animal in the woods, and your parents must have wandered
across the squalling animal, felt bad for him and took him home.”

Zeke closed his eyes
for a moment and prayed for patience.  “That’s my brother, making friends
wherever he goes,” he grumbled sarcastically.  “I’ll talk to him about not
provoking the ladies.”

“The hospital staff
would probably appreciate it,” Millie replied with a gentle smile and a pat on
his hand as an orderly wearing white scrubs appeared in the doorway.  “Hey,
Jeff.  Do you guys finally have my girl here a bed ready upstairs?   We’ve been
waiting all day for it.   I think both my patient and her loved one would like
to get settled somewhere a whole lot more comfortable for the night.”

“Sorry it took so
long, Miss Millie.  That flu bug has been filling up our floor pretty quickly
with elderly patients, but we’ve got a private room cleaned and ready for your
admission,” the young man returned apologetically, looking down at the orders
he held in his hand.  “Is this Miss Honor McKinnon?”

“Sure is,” Millie
said with a nod toward the sleeping woman.  “She probably won’t even stir
during the shift.” 

“Great.  I’ll just
get her ready and transported upstairs.”  Turning toward Zeke, the younger man
continued, “Sir, if you’ll give us fifteen minutes or so, she’ll be all set up
in Room 405 and you can come sit with her.”

The next minute was
filled with Zeke flashing his badge, the orderly rapidly agreeing to the police
transport, and Millie agreeing to keep the waiting family updated on the
change.   A mere twenty minutes later, Zeke was relieved to sink into one of
the hospital issue recliners that sat beside Honor’s hospital bed.  It wasn’t a
LazyBoy, but it was a hell of a lot better than that torture device he’d been
calling a chair down in Emergency.  Honor still hadn’t woke up, but she had
stirred briefly when he and the orderly had shifted her body into the bigger
stationery bed in the center of the room.

Now, all he could do
was wait for his gorgeous unconscious woman to open her pretty eyes and pray
that when she did, she’d be willing to be reasonable and listen to logic.  He
was fully aware that when dealing with a McKinnon female, words like reason and
logic weren’t necessarily in their daily vocabulary, but he had to hope that
God would smile on him this one freaking time.   Deciding to close his eyes for
a few minutes and catch his breath, it was a soft knock on the open door that
pulled him from his cat nap less than half an hour later. 

Turning his head
toward the sound, he found his brother’s rangy body leaning against the
doorframe as Honor’s favorite waitress, Sunshine, stood nervously behind him,
her small hand tightly clutching the handle of a duffel bag.  “Ice?  Sunny?” he
remarked, getting to his feet as he crossed the room to where they stood in the
doorway.  “What are you two…”

“Bro, we hate to
bother you, but Sunshine, here, needs to have a few words with you,” Ice
informed his sibling grimly, jerking his head toward the cowering young woman
behind him.  “Seems there’s some things that’ve been going on around the café
that Honor didn’t want any of us to know about,’ he continued softly, keeping
his voice low and for his brother’s ears alone.   “Sunshine’s here to fill you
in.”

Zeke’s confused gaze
went to the soft spoken, petite woman that Honor had developed an almost
instant attachment to after she’d been hired to work at the restaurant. 
Bellamy Graves, or Sunshine as everyone at the cafe called her, had lived a
difficult life over the past couple of years.  With a dead mother, an abusive,
often drunken stepfather, and a half-sister that was less than a year old, the
poor girl had her hands full.  For all intents and purposes, Sunshine was the
only parent her young baby sister had, and since she was barely out of her
teens herself, the girl struggled.  Barely twenty years old, Sunshine worked
hard at two jobs, one at the McKinnon café as a waitress in the mornings, and
in the evenings she was employed as a cashier at the new store in town, Hooks
and Books.  The determined woman was also taking a few classes at the community
college in the afternoons - an undertaking that the McKinnon sisters had
insisted upon and demanded to fund.  To say that he, Honor, and the rest of the
McKinnon clan were close to the shy woman was an understatement.  Other than
little Zara, they were probably the closest thing to a genuine family that
Sunshine had ever had.  So, the fact that Sunshine had been keeping secrets for
Honor shouldn’t have shocked him.

Except, it did.

Because he knew that
Sunshine would rather chew off her own arm than risk losing either Honor OR him
as her friends.

“Sunny?” he
questioned, staring at the girl with hard eyes.  “What’s Ice talking about?” 

Reaching up to fist
her long black hair in a ponytail, Sunshine looked up at him with wide, watery
eyes.  “I swear, Sheriff Zeke, I only
just
put all the pieces together
when Mr. Fuentes carried me back over to the diner, and I talked to Verlena and
Bale.”

Frowning when the
woman mentioned two more of Honor’s employees, Zeke exchanged a look with his
obviously aggravated brother.  “Maybe you and I should talk privately,
sweetheart,” he suggested to Sunshine softly, not wanting to expose her to his
brother’s bad attitude.  Her grateful nod was all the indication he needed that
she’d be more forthcoming without Ice glowering at her.  Looking over his
shoulder and seeing Honor still asleep, he momentarily debated leaving her, but
he reasoned that he’d only be a few minutes and the conversation would go
faster without Sunshine worrying about why his brother couldn’t stop glaring at
her.  Facing Ice, Zeke murmured, “Honor will sleep for a while yet, Ice. 
There’s a waiting room just down the hallway. Can you sit with her while I take
Sunshine down there and she explains what’s going on?”

Ice sighed irritably,
but nodded. 

“If she wakes up…”

“Jesus, she’ll be
fine with me, Zeke.  Just go,” Ice stated abruptly.  “I think you’re little
hothouse flower can survive my dark skies for the few minutes you’ll be away
from her.”

“Won’t be long, Ice. 
But, you and me,” he growled, gesturing between them, “We’re gonna have us a
long overdue conversation real soon about your treatment of my woman,” Zeke
snapped off sharply, glaring at Ice as he gestured for Sunshine to begin
walking down the corridor. 

“Looking forward to
it, Sheriff,” he heard Ice lazily drawl behind him.  Rolling his eyes, he
placed two impersonal fingers on Sunshine’s back and gently guided her a few
doors down until they reached a small waiting room.  Waiting until she preceded
him inside, he nodded at one of the wooden chairs.  “Sit down, Sunny, and tell
me what’s going on that’s got you lookin’ pale as a ghost.”

Sunshine nodded
slowly as she bent at the waist to take one of the scattered chairs in the
room, dropping the duffel bag at her feet before looking up to meet his gaze
with sorrowful eyes.  “Is Miss Honor gonna be okay?  Please tell me she is,
Sheriff Zeke.  If something happens to her because I didn’t say anything,” she
rambled anxiously, “I’ll just never forgive myself.  But I swear to you, I
thought it was just the one time.  I never knew that it kept happening and she
was keeping it to herself.  Maybe I should have what with the way she’d been
actin’ lately, but I didn’t!  I promise you, I didn’t!” she said, her big dark
eyes begging him to believe her.