Hard as Stone(14)
Straightening from his perch, Jacob squared his shoulders as he wondered how the hell much worse it could get. “Then we better order the bottle because interested is a mild term for the attraction I feel toward Harmony. I want to know everything, Zeke. I want to know it all.”
Chapter Three
Jacob followed Zeke inside the restaurant, frowning as the bell above the door drew the curious stares of several patrons inside the bar. He’d never liked being the object of attention, but in the small town of Paradise, new people tended to garner interest. Ambling in with the Sheriff in tow only seemed to add to his mystique, and he felt the stare of several pairs of curious eyes on him as he moved toward his normal table. He nodded to the pretty waitress headed their way as he shifted his bulk into the high-backed booth opposite Zeke.
“Well, two fine ass men are sittin’ in my station this evening. I need to check the calendar and see if it’s my birthday,” the woman, whose nametag declared her to be Sherri, greeted them with a flirty wink in Jacob’s direction. “What can I get you tonight, sugar? Beer? Bourbon? A little taste of me?” she asked lightly, dropping her slim hand to the back of Jacob’s neck and rubbing her palm slowly as she canted one rounded hip to the side and rested it against his shoulder. Glancing at the sheriff, she giggled. “I know better than to offer the good Sheriff Monroe here anything extra again,” she remarked to Jacob with a wink. “I do believe he still has both his heart and all his other important manly parts on hold for another lucky lady, aren’t they, Zeke?”
Jacob took uncharacteristic mercy on the man across from him and cut the flirty waitress off abruptly. Clearly Zeke was in no mood for the woman’s antics and truthfully, neither was he. “Neither one of us is interested in what you’re tryin’ to offer, babe. Just do us both a favor and cut the idle chitchat and get us both have a couple of fingers Jack Daniels. Neat,” he ordered in a surly tone that made the woman’s eyes widen slightly.
“Anything else?” she asked sharply, her face hardening as she narrowed her eyes on him and withdrew her hand from his neck.
“No,” Jacob returned flatly, watching as the woman nodded before scurrying back toward the bar. Meeting Zeke’s amused eyes, Jacob shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t think either of us is in the frame of mind to be hit on, do you?”
“Can’t deny that, but not many men are brave enough to put a stop to Sherri when she’s on a roll. For payback, she’ll have it all over town by mornin’ that you’re as gay as Liberace.”
Jacob snorted. He’d seen Sherri around the bar during the past month, and had already labeled her as a harmless flirt. “There’s only one woman that I give a shit what she thinks, Zeke, and it ain’t Sherri. Besides, that woman knows damn well that I’m seeing Harmony tonight. She was standing there when little Heaven arranged our ‘date’ for me. And any fool with a working set of eyes knows how you feel about Honor. Well, everybody with the exception of Honor, that is. She’s free to try and do her worst to me. I won’t be leaving Harmony with any doubts about my masculinity.”
“You have impressed her; I’ll give you that much,” Zeke conceded, slouching into the corner of the booth with the ease of a man who had been there many times before. “The fact that you got Harmony to agree to go out with you tonight might go down in Paradise history as a genuine miracle.”
“That was more Heaven’s doing than mine,” Jacob replied evenly as Sherri returned with their drinks, sliding them in front of each man without a word or a backward glance as she walked away.
Glancing at the waitress, Zeke smirked. “Yeah, you’ve made a real friend there,” he chuckled as Sherri shot a glare in their direction.
“Don’t give a shit. Sherri doesn’t matter to me and Harmony does,” Jacob dismissed him unapologetically. “I’m surprised that Patience didn’t fire the woman last week when she insulted that customer by sitting in the woman’s husband’s lap. Now, can we move past the horny waitress and focus on what’s important? Tell me about what happened, Zeke,” Jacob demanded, reaching for his glass and lifting it to his lips.
Zeke slowly took a long sip from his own glass before fixing his pale gray eyes on Jacob. “Harmony and Tanner dated all through her high school years. Nobody liked him, but everybody loved Harmony, and Tanner was smart enough to see it. Even if people couldn’t stand him, they’d tolerate being around him for her. I’ve never been quite sure what she saw in the guy, but not even her parents’ dislike of him was even to sway her from being with him. God, her daddy hated that boy. I couldn’t blame him. Everybody, except Harmony, could see he was using her. He sure as hell wasn’t in love with her – not with the way he fucked around behind her back. Of course, at the time, Harmony didn’t have a clue. She thought the boy was as wrapped up in her as she was in him.”