Ready, Willing and Abel (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnon Sisters Book 3)

by Sarah O'Rourke

  “Abel, settle down,” Dr. Daniels admonished him calmly. “Getting angry with her will only make her blood pressure higher,” he chided, laying a hand on the other man’s shoulder. “Yell at her after we deliver two healthy babies.” Shooting Patience a no-nonsense look, he continued. “What about headaches, Patience. Nausea?”

  “No nausea,” Patience stated quickly, relieved there was at least one symptom that Abel wouldn’t be ready to tan her ass for hiding. “But headaches…” She hedged, making a face.

  Abel’s jaw flexed. “What about headaches, Patience?” he growled, his grey eyes narrowing on her face in such a way that she knew there’d be hell to pay later.

  “A few, Doc. Just a few,” she repeated, turning pleading eyes on Abel. “I didn’t think that it was anything to worry over, I swear, y’all.”

  “Normally, it wouldn’t be,” Dr. Daniels replied evenly, “But, when you factor in these blood pressure numbers, it’s cause for concern.”

  Gripping Abel’s hand with one of her own, she rested the other over her swollen stomach. “Are my babies okay?” Patience questioned apprehensively, biting her lip as she felt Abel’s hand tighten reassuringly on her own. “What can I do to fix it? I’ll do whatever you want – just tell me the babies will be okay!” Patience begged, her voice growing more and more desperate as she stared at the doctor as though he held the key to the universe hostage. Which, he did, if you asked her. He had all the knowledge. And right now, knowledge was power, and power had always been her currency of choice.

  Keeping his hand wrapped around hers, Abel rested his other hand on her shoulder urging her back until she lay on the table again. “Babe, just let him talk. He’ll answer all our questions,” Abel assured her before lifting his own gaze to meet the physician’s. “Or I’ll kill him.”

  “At least you aren’t threatening to sue me,” Mack muttered before turning his attention toward the mom-to-be. “Patience, listen to me. So far, I’ve got absolutely no reason to doubt that your twins are healthy, but blood pressure is one of the many things we need to watch closely with a multiple pregnancy. Today, we’re gonna take a quick peek with the ultrasound and verify that both Baby A and Baby B are doing okay in utero. I’m going to prescribe a medication called Aldomet for your elevated blood pressure. I’m also going to strongly recommend bed rest for the foreseeable future. And you’ll need to refrain from intimacy for the time-being.”

  “Bed rest?” Patience echoed incredulously. She felt perfectly fine right now, she thought a touch desperately. How did she go from feeling perfectly fine to being confined to her bed in the space of mere minutes? It didn’t make any sense to her. “Is that really necessary?” she asked while Abel glared at her.

  “He wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t think it was necessary,” Abel bit out as he scowled down at her. “Seriously, Patience, that damn bar can survive without you. We need to put our babies first.”

  “Of course we need to put the babies first, you dumbass! I’m not stupid,” Patience snapped back at him, furious that he was implying that she wouldn’t do exactly what was needed of her to keep their unborn children completely safe. “I was just surprised. Cut me some slack here, Abel. This is all coming out of left field,” she retorted, shooting him a look that clearly challenged him to open his mouth again.

  Of course, Abel was an idiot.

  “Maybe it wouldn’t be if you’d have listened to me any of the eight thousand times I told you that you needed to slow down,” he grumbled, keeping hold of Patience’s hand when she would have jerked away from him.

  “Alright, stop it, you two. Turning against each other isn’t going to accomplish anything. Abel, you’re gonna have to practice being supportive, and Patience, my dear, you’re going to actually have to try and be an obedient patient,” Dr. Daniels interrupted as Patience’s face turned blood red. “There’s some facts here that you both need to be aware of. First off, bed rest isn’t uncommon during twin pregnancies. Neither is high blood pressure. But as a standard course of treatment, I handle the increased blood pressure by ordering increased bed rest.” Shifting his gaze from Patience to Abel, he slowly carried on with his warning. “That doesn’t mean total bed rest. You can get up and go to the bathroom, shower, bathe, eat your meals. Hell, you can lie on the couch and watch television. The important thing is to decrease your activity level and take every dose of your medicine. I’m not going to lie to either of you. High blood pressure is a symptom of a condition called preeclampsia which is common during pregnancies involving more than one fetus. I don’t think you’re there yet, and I’m hoping we can keep it from happening, but in order to do that, Patience, you’ve got to follow my directions.”

  Patience nodded as she watched Millie roll the ultrasound machine toward the exam table. “This preeclampsia… how dangerous is it to the babies?”

  “And what about Patience? What are the risks to her?” Abel added, leveling the doctor with a concerned look. “I think I speak for Patience and me both when I say no detail is too small to share.”

  “The biggest risk both mother and children face with a diagnosis of preeclampsia is pre-term labor. We want to prevent that from happening as long as we can. Patience is also at risk for some serious seizures if the condition goes untreated or gets out of control. If it comes to that, there are also some medications that I can offer for that, but it would be in a hospital environment.

  “Hospital?” Patience repeated, growing more and more panicked the longer she listened to what the doctor had to say.

  “About five percent of all moms experience the condition. It usually makes itself known somewhere after the twentieth week of pregnancy. I won’t say it’s routine, but it is common. And treatable. And what I’m doing for you is the treatment. You just have to be willing to do it,” Dr. Daniels declared with a hard look at a frightened Patience.

  “I’ll do it,” Patience whispered with a nod, her eyes shining with terrified tears poised to fall down her cheeks. “Whatever it takes to keep them safe is what I’ll do.” Turning her face toward Abel, her breath hitched in her throat. “I swear, Abel, I’ll keep them safe,” she promised shakily as the first teardrop spilled over and rolled down the side of her face.

  “Hey, no crying, Hellion,” Abel chided gently, cupping her damp cheek and leaning down to kiss her trembling lips. “We’re gonna handle this the same way we do everything else. Head-on. You heard the doc; this can be treated and controlled. It’s just gonna take some getting used to, babe, and I’ll be right beside you the whole way.”

  Sniffling as she wiped her wet cheeks, she looked up to find him gazing lovingly down at her. “You gonna lie in the bed with me?” she asked as Dr. Daniels made notes in her chart and Millie prepped Patience’s swollen tummy for the ultrasound.

  “Every possible second I can,” Abel vowed, dropping a lingering kiss against her forehead. “And when I’m not with you, I’ve got a feeling some member of our crazy family will be.”

  “Sign me up for a few evening shifts,” Millie offered with a smile. “You and I need to catch-up on gossip anyway.”

  Patience nodded, grimacing a little as Millie squirted cold jelly on her belly.

  “If it makes you feel any better at all, we’ll reevaluate everything at your next appointment in two weeks. You might be able to get up and move around more by then; we’ll just have to see,” Dr. Daniels shared as he placed the ultrasound wand against her flesh and pushed lightly while staring at the blurry images on the machine’s monitor.

  “Two weeks?” Abel questioned curiously. “Are we going to have more frequent appointments because of the blood pressure?”

  “That’s part of it,” Millie replied as Dr. Daniels tapped on a few keys before moving the wand again on Patience’s stomach. “But honestly, in twin pregnancies, this is the point where a doctor will have you start to come in more often anyway.”

  “Does everything look alright?” Patience asked, ignoring everything but Dr. Daniels impa
ssive face. She tried to read his expression, but the man had perfected the art of the ‘blank face’. If this doctor thing fizzled for him, he had a future as a cop. He had that unreadable thing down frickin’ pat.

  “Everything I’m seeing here looks great, Patience,” Dr. Daniels replied with a nod, turning the monitor so that Patience and Abel could see, too. “I was just trying to get a good angle to see these two peanuts.”

  Patience released the breath she’d been holding as she looked at the two distinct images on screen. Both babies still looked like little aliens, but they were her little aliens, and God help the person that said they were anything less than perfect angels. “Look, Abel!” Patience choked, tears stinging her eyes again as one baby lifted a hand to their mouth. “I think that one’s sucking its thumb.”

  “That’s exactly what that baby’s doing,” the doctor agreed, studying the monitor. “Still uninterested in knowing the sex? Because I’ve got a perfect shot of both these kids.”

  “No!” Abel and Patience shouted in unison, completely united against knowing what they were having until the babies arrived – safe and whole. They both shook their heads. “We haven’t changed our minds,” Patience declared firmly, squeezing Abel’s fingers.

  “Alright, then,” Dr. Daniels chuckled. “Clear enough,” he said, tapping a few more keys as a paper printed out. Picking the sheet up and holding it out to Abel, the doctor grinned. “A few more pictures to add to your growing collection, Dad. I hear you’ve been showing them to anyone who’ll look.”

  “Don’t tease him,” Millie huffed, smacking Mack’s arm with the back of her hand. “It’s sweet, Abel.”

  “It is sweet,” Patience remarked supportively, smiling at Abel as he dropped his gaze to her. “Abel is gonna be a wonderful daddy to our babies.” Privately, she hoped to be half the mother that he already was as a father. From the second Abel had learned about the babies, he’d wanted them. There’d never been a single second of doubt or fear for him. It was something she both admired and hated about him – his ability to conform to anything life threw at him. She wished she could be so versatile and easily confident.

  “Hey, I’ve got the easy job right now,” he replied quickly, almost as if he could sense the dark direction her thoughts had taken her. “You’re doing all the heavy lifting, Little Momma,” Abel murmured, stroking Patience’s cheek as Millie wiped the goo on her belly away.

  “What have I told you about calling me that? It’s almost as bad as calling me Little Buddha,” she complained, groaning as Abel helped her sit up on the table.

  “Hey, I thought that one was cute,” Abel complained, helping Patience pull down her maternity shirt. “What was so wrong with rubbing your belly for luck?”

  Tuning Abel out, Patience looked toward Millie and asked, “You’ll call in my medicine to Paradise Hometown Pharmacy?”

  “It’ll be in the system by the time you get there,” Millie decreed with a nod as she moved to the computer in the corner. “Is Friday after next okay for your next appointment? Say, 1:15?”

  “That’s fine,” Patience consented softly, carefully moving off the table to stand beside Abel.

  “If you have any problems before your appointment, call us, Patience,” Dr. Daniels instructed from the door as his nurse offered the patient an appointment card. “No worry is too small when you’re pregnant with twins. If you have any other questions, Cain has my home number. Don’t be afraid to use it. Either of you,” he said, looking between his Patience and Abel.”

  “We will,” Abel agreed, taking Patience’s arm and following the doctor toward the door.

  “Alright then. We’ll see you in two weeks,” the doctor said, opening the door to usher his client out into the hallway. “Have a good day, and get some rest, Patience.”

  “Okay. Thank you,” Patience returned, allowing Abel to ease her down the corridor and out the door of the office. Taking a deep breath as they reached the car, she stared at Abel as he opened her door and helped her inside, her mind going a million miles a minute.

  She waited until Abel was seated behind the steering wheel before whispering to him. “Do you think this is my punishment, Abel? Am I getting what I deserve?”

  Abel tilted his head to the side as he turned to look at the woman beside him with a confused expression on his face. “What the hell are you talking about, Hellion?”

  “N-nothing,” Patience stammered, suddenly embarrassed. Twisting to stare sightlessly out the window, she shook her head. “It was stupid,” she muttered dismissively as her cheeks reddened.

  “You started it. Now, say it,” Abel ordered. “What do you mean by asking if this is your punishment?”

  Patience felt the familiar guilt taking hold of her again. It wasn’t the first time; it certainly wouldn’t be the last. And it was what she deserved – feeling this way. It reminded her that when she wasn’t careful, she could be a selfish, self-centered Grade A bitch.

  “Patience!” Abel growled. “Talk to me,” he ordered, reaching across the seat to grip her hand. Pulling her around to face him, he frowned as he noted the tears leaking down her cheeks.

  “I didn’t want them,” Patience confessed softly, her voice riddled by remorse and regret. “God heard me say that, Abel. He heard me thinking about killing our babies, and this is His retribution.”

  “Hellion, that’s nuts,” Abel said, attempting to dissuade her of her foolish assumptions. “God wouldn’t do that.”

  “Don’t you see, Abel? Now, He’s threatening to take them from me. From us. All because I was stupid and scared and selfish; I wasn’t thinking about anybody but me. What kind of mother does that make me? I said things that I can’t ever take back – no matter how untrue I realize they are now. He heard me, Abel. The babies heard me say that I didn’t want them. They heard me deliberate murdering them,” she admitted on a low scream, her voice cracking as a sob caught in her throat as she curved her hands around the mound of her belly.

  Hauling Patience against him as the dam holding back her tears broke entirely, Abel held her tightly, willing some of his heat into her suddenly freezing body. “Hey,” he murmured against her ear as her tears soaked his dress shirt, “Baby, you gotta take a deep breath for me,” he begged against her temple. “This isn’t good for either you or our babies. C’mon, get control of those tears for me,” he pleaded as her sobs gradually ebbed, her breath hitching every minute or so as she slowly calmed in his embrace and leaned more heavily against his chest.

  Her grip on his shirt slackened as he drew his head back to peer down at where her head rested against his damp shoulder. “Better?” he murmured when her tears had fully stopped and her breathing had regulated.

  “Yeah,” she said hoarsely, closing her eyes. “I’m sorry, Abel. For everything. Please forgive me.”

  “Patience, I’m not sorry for anything you did or didn’t do, darlin’. Every decision you’ve made, for the better or the worse, has led us right here to where we are and I wouldn’t trade this for anything.”

  “But…”

  “Enough,” Abel cut her off curtly. “Nobody, including God, is punishing you and you didn’t cause this.”

  “Yes, I did,” Patience denied thickly. She was blinded by her own pain and refused to see the truth in Abel’s argument.

  “No. When you found out you were pregnant, you were single and alone. You had no idea that the father of your unborn children was already in love with you. Hell, you thought he was screwin’ around with his ex and you had a heap of evidence to support your theory. You were confused. And nervous. And scared. Nobody on earth – not me, not your family, not even the Lord, Himself – could blame you for having some momentary panic and considering all your options. I certainly don’t. In the end, you chose our children’s lives over a quick trip to an abortion clinic. That’s what matters - the result! Not the test. And honey, I can’t forgive you because you didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Patience turned her face into his chest
and closed her eyes, letting Abel’s words soothe the jagged pain cutting through her heart. “What if something happens to them, Abel? I don’t think I could survive if anything happened to either one of our babies.” While she might not have initially wanted to be a mother, the fact was she was one now. And with that responsibility came this incredible, all-encompassing love for her children. She’d literally do anything to protect either one of them.

  “Our babies are going to arrive in this world safe and whole with two parents who adore them. That is the only outcome I’ll even consider, Patience. For once, I’m gonna have to insist you leave the negativity here. There’s no room for it where it comes to our kids.”

  Lifting her head, Patience caught Abel’s eyes with her own. “But, Abel, what if…”

  Abel shook his head and lifting his hand to press a finger to her lips. “No. We’re going to follow every direction that Dr. Asshole in there gives us,” Abel interrupted, nodding at the building they’d just left. “We’re going to make sure you eat right, get enough rest, and take your medicine like a good girl. As hard as it’s gonna be – no pun intended – I’m gonna keep my dick out of your sweet body. We’re gonna take each day as it comes while we follow every single stinkin’ directive the doc gave us to the letter. And as a reward, in a few months’ time, we’re gonna get two tiny little miracles delivered to us. You just gotta carry the load a little longer, sweetheart.”

  Patience nodded, her cheek dragging against the soft material of Abel’s shirt. “I can do that. Especially if it means we get to take home two healthy babies,” she replied, still worried but feeling slightly better.

  “It’s a temporary condition, Patience,” Abel reminded her. “I’m betting that with a little rest and medication that we can resolve this. We both know that you’ve been driving yourself too hard for too long.”

  “I’m not doing anything different than I ever did, Abel,” Patience whined, her shoulders sagging as she heard the mild rebuke in Abel’s tone.