Frowning, Harmony stared at her sister, trying to determine what was suddenly different. “Wasn’t your hair pink this morning?”
Patience shrugged as she glanced in the nearby mirror. “I needed a change.”
Huffing out an irritated breath, Faith looked between her two sisters who were obviously intent on ignoring her. “Could you please focus on something other than Patience’s fashion faux pas of the moment, please? It’s not like we won’t have another one in a week’s time.”
“Hey! I thought the lavender really softened up my face,” Patience yelped indignantly, touching her soft hair gingerly. “And I only dyed my hair once last month.”
“Twice,” Harmony corrected from her position on the bed. “You had those unfortunate streaks of aborigine for a week, remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” Patience muttered, her lips twitching with a smile. “But, this actually looks good, doesn’t it?” she asked, fluffing her hair.
“Abel is right. It makes you look like Rainbow Brite,” Faith pronounced, easily dodging the pillow that Patience threw at her. Turning her gaze back to a giggling Harmony, she propped her hands on her hips. “So, you’re going to agree that you should give Jacob a fair shot, right?” Faith questioned with a stern expression.
“I’m going tonight, aren’t I?”
“Even if I’ve got to put a gun to your back,” Patience declared brightly, nodding her approval. “While I’m not quite as enthusiastic as our little sis here,” she said, jerking her head toward Faith, “I do think you need to get out more. If Jake isn’t your bag, try another guy.”
“Men aren’t toilet paper, Patience,” Faith mumbled, never ceasing to be amazed at her sister’s thoughts.
“Says you,” Patience returned with a smirk. “I say use ‘em until you find one that feels just right,” she cooed in a sultry voice.
Harmony raised both hands to stall what was sure to be a sisterly squabble of epic proportions. “Has it escaped the notice of either of you that this isn’t my first time climbing up on the proverbial horse? It’s been a while, but I have been to the rodeo before.”
“Yeah, and that wild stallion threw you to the ground and stepped all over you,” Patience growled bitterly. “It’s why you haven’t gotten your ass back in the saddle again.”
Well, Harmony couldn’t argue that. Until recently, she was pretty sure that Tanner Suarez had robbed her of the ability to even enjoy the company and attention of another man after the hell he’d put her and her family through. After him, she hadn’t been anxious at all to test the relationship waters.
Until a tall, muscular, tattooed hunk of masculine virility had saved her sister’s bacon and subsequently wandered into a booth in the restaurant the next day.
Now, she wondered if a walk on the wilder side of the street wasn’t exactly what she needed – especially if she was gonna be accompanied by a man that even a prizefighter would think twice about challenging.
Uncertainty about the man that was taking her out tonight swamped her as she watched her sisters continue to raid her small closet. On one hand, when she was with Jake, he made her feel alive and important. He asked intelligent questions and actually listened to her answers. His deep voice was a rumble that she found comforting. He might not say much, but he said what he meant and his words – few as they were - meant something. He’d asked her about her hopes and dreams and seemed genuinely interested in what she wanted for herself and her daughter. He even seemed fascinated by her stories about Heaven. While most men only tolerated hearing about her daughter in order to get on her good side, Jake seemed to hang on every word, and Heaven was often a favorite topic of conversation. Where most men she’d encountered were selfish and wanted the world to revolve around them and their needs, the fact that she was a busy single parent to a young child hadn’t seemed to concern him at all.
If there was a downside to knowing Jake, it was that she really didn’t know much about him at all. No matter what they were talking about, he turned the focus on her, revealing little about himself in the process. Oh, he’d shared the basic information. She knew he was 42 years old, hailed from Georgia, and his mom was still alive. She knew he was the younger of two children, though he hadn’t confided anything at all about his sibling. She didn’t even know if he had a brother or a sister. As for his job, he was tightlipped about it, only revealing that he worked in the security sector and was headed toward an early retirement. He planned to open his own consulting business and was considering settling in the area. He’d shared that his favorite movie was Die Hard, his favorite actor was Bruce Willis, and he was a country music fan. He owned a Harley and a Dodge truck. He preferred the motorcycle, but kept the truck for nasty weather. And lastly, he had a weakness for the cherry pies that Honor made on Wednesdays.