Man of Honor (Passion in Paradise Book 4) (44 page)

“I know.  I’ll have
to tell him.  Tonight,” Honor said decisively.  “But I’d really like to tell
him who I’ll be seeing for these stupid outings.  Bree says I have to go out
with a total of three men, one date each.  And since I know beans about men… I
was hoping you girls would hook me up with someone tolerable.”

All the sisters
exchanged looks with each other before Patience slowly grinned at Harmony. 
“We’re gonna need reinforcements.  I’ll call Maggie.”

“I’ll call Melody. 
Maybe she could take a break from Hooks and Books and come have a cup of
coffee,” Harmony returned, eagerly picking up her phone.

“I’ll pass this
little one off to her Uncle Jake and go grab our menu chalkboard,” Aunt Orla
said, rising with a sleeping Harri in her arms.

“Why?” Honor asked
with a glower at her Auntie.

“Oh, Sweet Girl,
we’re gonna need a list.”

And just like that…
Honor watched with slightly stunned eyes as she lost control of her life.

~~~***~~~

“Alright!  Who erased
Cort Aaron’s name?” Faith’s aggrieved voice complained as she stood in front of
the old chalkboard propped on top of the table against the wall.

“I did,” Patience
returned.  “Maggie told me to do it,” she said, pointing toward her red-haired
best friend.

“Why?” Harmony
questioned as she refilled both her and Melody’s coffee mugs. 

“Yeah, why,” Faith
challenged, propping her hands on her curvy hips and cocking her head at
Maggie.  “He’s got nice eyes and a gentle way about him.  He’s a veterinarian,
for Cripes sake.  Even animals love him.”

Studying her
manicured nails, Maggie shrugged daintily.  “Let’s just say that I have it on
very good authority that the lovely vet is lacking in the lower regions of his
body.”

Faith squinted her
eyes at Maggie.

“Tiny dick,” Patience
supplied to her clearly clueless sister.

“Microscopic, or so I
was told,” Maggie said sadly.  “Otherwise, I’d agree with Faith’s personality
assessment.  Cort is always lovely with my Maltese furbaby.”

Raising a timid hand,
Honor stared at the blackboard.  “Add him back. I’m not interested in his manly
parts.  I just want to be able to get through a meal with him.”

Beaming, Faith
snatched the chalk from Patience’s hand and quickly scrawled Cort’s name back
on the board.  “Okay, so our candidates include, but are not limited to, Cort
Aarons, Melody’s brother RJ,” she said with a nod at the bookstore and yarn
shop owner.  “Wrath McKay…”

“Ooohhhweeeee,
lawman’s gonna love that one,” Aunt Orla chortled, popping a bite of her
chocolate bar between her lips.

“There’s Hunter
Quaid…” Faith continued.

“Who’s he?” Melody
whispered to Honor and Harmony as Faith continued to drone out names. 

Honor smiled at the
curvaceous woman seated across from her.  Melody had moved to town after she
inherited her grandmother’s house not too long ago and had gone on to open a
successful book and yarn combo store on the town square.  She was currently
engaged to another new Paradise resident, Cal Valentine, and they shared her
granny’s old house with her brother, RJ, and their dog, Goose.  Cal and RJ were
due to open their gym any day now so Honor was mildly surprised when Melody had
volunteered her brother as a dating tribute.  But that’s the kind of generous
girl Melody was.  Always ready to lend a helping hand.

“Hunter Quaid owns
that tattoo studio, Skin.  It’s a few blocks down from the bookstore.  He’s a
nice guy.  A little scary looking, but sweet as pie when you get to talkin’ to
him.  Patience briefly dated him before she and Abel finally took their
blinders off and realized they loved each other,” Honor shared softly as Faith
and Patience continued to bicker over the names on the chalkboard.

“Y’all don’t forget
to put Aiden James on that board,” Harmony called from the corner of the
booth. 

“Why does that name
sound familiar?” Honor asked out loud, stifling a yawn as she leaned back
against the booth.  God, they’d been on the hunt for what felt like hours going
over the dating prospects Paradise had to offer.  It was exhausting and she
wanted a nap.

“He’s the new fire
chief,” Harmony grinned.  “And that man is
yummy
.  He came to visit the
kids at school the day I volunteered in Heaven’s class.  Dear heaven, I know I
have a delicious man of my own, but that guy…wow! 
And
, he asked if I
had any unmarried sisters that day.”

“Wait?  Aiden?  Aid? 
Absolutely not,” Honor denied, shaking her head.   “He and Zeke sometimes run
in the mornings together. They’re friends, Harmony!”

“Sweets, your
roommate is the freakin’ Sheriff,” Maggie reminded her.  “He’s pals with one
half the town and he’s put the other half in the clink at least once.”

Honor could only
groan at that.

“And that leaves us
with Holden Carson.  He owns that used car lot over on Route 47.   Dusty
Fairchild…”

“My insurance agent?”
Honor yelped.  “Have you lost your mind?”

“Yep.  He’s got a
steady job and a nice square jaw.  You could do worse,” Faith pointed out.

“He’s also got the
nastiest breath this side of the Smoky Mountains,” Maggie countered with a
shake of her coiffed head.  “Erase him.”

“Fine,” Faith
muttered, sweeping the eraser across the board.  “Hayes Elliot, David Greene,
Henry Watson and Parker Masterson.,” she concluded on a sigh.

“Cheap, bore,
asshole, and biggest bore ever.  Lose the last four,” Patience returned,
crossing her arms over her breasts as she studied the board.

“And with that,
ladies, I give you our final contenders,” Faith declared, waving a hand at the
messily written list with a flourish.  Looking over her shoulder at her baby
sister, Faith winked.  “Any of these names give your body a tingle?”

“There will be no
tingling on these dates!” Honor announced sternly.  “This is an assignment ONLY
and I’m doing it under extreme duress and against my better judgment.”

“What’s happening
under extreme duress and against your better judgment,” a deep familiar voice
asked curiously.

Turning startled eyes
to where Harmony’s husband and today’s bodyguard-de-jour stood behind the table
looking from the women to the blackboard, Honor swallowed hard.  “Uh….well…”

“What the hell is
that?” Jake asked with a frown at the chalkboard.  “I don’t know who the hell
half these guys are.”

“Those are potential
dates,” Harmony informed her husband as she slid out of the booth.  “Honor’s
therapist is insisting she try going on some dates over the next week, and
we’re helping her choose some suitable gentlemen.”

“What?” Jake barked,
his face clouding as he looked from his wife to Honor.  “Honor, does Zeke know
about this?”

“Not yet,” Honor
sighed.  “Tonight.  I’m telling him tonight.”

“Oh, Dios Mio,” Diego
mumbled. “Is that
mi
nombre?” he blustered, his tan face paling.  “Take
it off.  I want no part of this.  I have only just convinced the sheriff that I
am not El Diablo.  You are lovely, Honor, but I’d like to stay in this town as
a free citizen.  Would you have the sheriff jail me, Preciosa?” he asked Honor.

“Of course not,”
Honor snapped.  “I told Faith to erase your name!”

“Well, excuse me…. I
was trying to be culturally diverse!”

“I’m not proposing
closing the borders, Faith!  Just take Diego off the list.  For heaven’s sake,
the poor man looks like he’s going to pass out,” Honor huffed, waving a hand
toward where Diego stood.

Scanning the list,
Jake growled.  “Jessie Hart needs to come off the list.  That bastard came up
on my radar a month ago.  Can’t tell you for what, but I can tell you that
Honor isn’t getting near him.  And Mark Waters needs to drop off, too.”

“Why?  I like Mark,”
Maggie complained, frowning at Jake.

“Cheats at cards. 
Don’t need cheaters around the family,” he returned evenly, shaking his head as
he looked toward Honor.  “You know that Zeke’s never gonna allow this, right?”

“He doesn’t have a
choice.  It’s my life,” Honor retorted.  “And anyway, he’s the one that
insisted I needed therapy.  So, really, I think it’s safe to say that he only
has himself to blame.”

Softly chuckling,
Jake grinned.  “I’ve got ten bucks that says he locks you up before you go on
the first date.” 

“I’ll take that
action,” Aunt Orla cackled, raising her hands.

“I want in, too,”
Patience announced.

And just like that…
Honor McKinnon’s love life became the most wagered bet in town.

~~~***~~~

“Ezekiel Kinkaid
Monroe, this is NOT the slightest bit funny.  Let. Me.  OUT!!” Honor shouted,
gripping the metal bars in one of the six jail cells the Paradise Sheriff’s
Station had to offer.  Glaring at where the stubborn man stood, leaning
indolently against the wall with one leg bent at the knee with his booted foot
propped against the wall, Honor fumed.  When Jake had bet that Zeke would lock
her up to keep her from seeing other men earlier this afternoon, she’d thought
he was joking.  She never in a million years imagined that when she’d brought
Zeke a covered dinner plate at the station since he was working late that the
insufferable fool would lift her over his shoulder and drop her butt in a holding
cell.

“Oh, believe me,
Honor.  I’m not laughing,” Zeke returned, his voice pitched low. 

Inhaling deeply,
Honor stared through the bars at the man currently responsible for her
splitting headache.  “Zeke, I’ve had a really
long
day.  I want to go home,
take a bath, and go to bed.  Now, let me out of this cage right this instant!”

“I can do that. 
Well, at least I can once you agree to drop this fucked up idea you’ve gotten
in your head to date other men.  Do that and I’ll unlock the door and let you
out.  I’ll even drive us both home,” Zeke reasoned easily.  “However, until
you’re ready to concede to my better judgment, get comfy, Kitten.  You aren’t
going anywhere.”

“For the last time,
it’s not
MY
idea!  It’s Dr. Daniels bright idea.  Take your argument up
with her,” Honor retorted tersely, settling her hands on her hips as she gave
Zeke the evil eye. 

“Then tell her NO,”
Zeke snapped.  “You’ve gotten enough experience using the word with me.  Use it
with her!”

“You know, I truly
hoped you’d be more levelheaded than this.  Abusing your power is beneath you,”
Honor lectured, dropping her hands from the bars as she began to pace back and
forth in her narrow cell.

“Honor, you pranced
that pert butt into
my
station to inform
your
man that you intend
to step out on him without so much as batting an eyelash.  Locking you up WAS
the levelheaded option!  When you compare it to the spanking my hand is still
just
itching
to deliver to your pretty ass, I’m fairly convinced that
I’m the most judicious son of a bitch in the state of Tennessee!”

“You’re
not
my
man, Zeke,” Honor denied, shooting him a dirty look even as her heart
recognized that she wasn’t exactly telling the truth.  She wasn’t actually
lying either, but she knew they were
something
to each other.  Something
important.

“Had my tongue in
your mouth and my hands all over that delectable body both this morning and
last night, Honor.  Trust me, baby, I’m your fuckin’ man,” his deep voice
rumbled as his eyes glinted underneath the overhead lights.  “You need that
further proven to you, though, and I’m more than willin’ to oblige.”

Honor shivered at the
smooth threat in his words.  Did she want him to prove he was hers?  Heaven
knew she’d enjoyed the way he’d made her feel when she’d been in his arms.  Her
body still quivered with the remembered pleasure.    Lord, she needed to focus
here before she did something silly like invite him inside the cell with her to
christen the thin cot behind her.  Pointing a finger at him, she fixated on her
righteous indignation that he’d gone so far as to lock her up like a common
criminal.  “You’re punishing me for a crime I didn’t orchestrate, Zeke.  As I
recall, it’s you that insisted therapy would be good for me.  These dates are
homework that Bree deems necessary.  It certainly wasn’t
my
idea to
traipse around town with men I barely know.”

“Then refuse to do
it, Honor,” Zeke demanded sharply.

“Aren’t you the one
that told me I needed to give counseling a fair shake?”

“Yeah, but this isn’t
counseling, woman.  This is a bad episode of the Redneck Mating Game!”

Honor closed her eyes
and silently counted to ten, reminding herself that Zeke yelled because he
cared.  He cared a lot.  “None of the three men that agreed to accompany me out
and about are rednecks.”

“Wait a second. 
You’ve already
chosen
these
three assholes?”

Pressing her lips
together hard, Honor bit her tongue.  Why hadn’t she just kept her mouth shut? 
By the violent flash in Zeke’s eyes, he was more likely to spontaneously
combust than he was to open her cell door.  “C’mon, Zeke.  This is only gonna
take a few hours and then it’s done.  Three dates.  That’s all.  Then, I can
prove to Bree once and for all that you’re…” she trailed off, clamping her
mouth shut before she overshared again.