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

by Sarah O'Rourke

  As soon as Patience’s back touched the soft padding of the backboard, she screamed when another contraction gripped her body. “Abel, it hurts,” she shrieked, gasping for breath as she felt another slower gush of fluid between her legs. “Abel?” she called out again as she noted her boyfriend’s whitening face as he stared down between her legs. She tried to lift her head to see what he was looking at, but one of the paramedics began to strap her down for transport while another slipped an oxygen mask over her head. “Abel?” she asked urgently, her voice muffled by the mask. “What’s wrong?” she asked, clutching his hand like a lifeline as another surge of wooziness overtook her. “What’s happening?” she asked, turning her head to ask a nice looking man wearing a jacket declaring him an EMT.

  “Your blood pressure is dropping and you’re bleeding, ma’am. We’re getting you prepared for transport. Just try to relax. Things are probably gonna start to move pretty quickly,” he explained patiently, strapping her arms down to the gurney.

  Patience heard a cheer echo in the night as she tried to pull her hand from Abel’s death grip. “What was that? What’s happening over there, Abel? Can you see Honor?” she questioned as Abel turned to look over his shoulder.

  Abel turned back toward Patience and tightened his fingers around her freezing hand. “They got Honor out of the car, sweetheart.”

  “They did?” Patience asked, her eyes starting to feel heavy as she stared up at Abel. Her vision swam while her head began to pound. That couldn’t be good. Her head hadn’t hurt before, had it?

  “They’re gettin’ her settled on her gurney now, honey, and Zeke’s got ahold on her hand just like I do yours,” he reassured her as he and the paramedics started to climb the steep incline, carefully carrying her backboard up the hill.

  “That’s good,” she whispered, closing her eyes for a moment before opening them again and staring at the man she loved. “Abel,” she said, trying to keep her eyes focused on his rapidly blurring face, “Pick the babies.”

  “What?” he asked, helping the paramedics maneuver the backboard over some rocks.

  “If there’s a choice to be made, you choose our children,” Patience restated and even though her words were muffled she could tell by the tears clouding Abel’s eyes that he’d heard her just fine that time.

  “No,” he barked at her, shaking his head furiously. “I love our kids, Hellion, but I can’t lose you. I won’t! I can’t live without you, darlin’. You should know that by now. I love you,” he ground out.

  “My choice, Abel,” Patience said before gasping as another contraction built in intensity. “I want them to live. Promise me,” she begged, her blue eyes pleading for the answer she needed to hear.

  “I promise that you’re all gonna come through this, damn it,” she heard him vow, his beautiful, beloved face etched in a mask of misery as the paramedics jostled her into an ambulance and covered her with a warm blanket.

  She could hear the agony in his voice and knew that she was the one making him sound like that. It wasn’t fair to any of them. This wasn’t what they’d had planned for tonight. They were supposed to be enjoying their family before sliding into bed together at the end of the night. She was supposed to be wrapped in his strong, protective arms. She wasn’t supposed to be in the back of an ambulance fighting for her and their babies’ lives.

  “Patience, baby, open your eyes for me,” she heard Abel’s deep voice command, but try as she might she just couldn’t do it. “You fight for our babies, Hellion, and you fight to come back to me. I swear to God, I’ll follow you if you don’t. I meant what I said. I love you. Can’t live without your smart mouth giving me hell. Not anymore.”

  She couldn’t open her eyes, but she found she could still speak. “Abel,” she murmured hoarsely. “I do, too, ‘kay? I lo-…” She felt him slide one finger beneath her oxygen mask to press against her lips.

  “Nuh uh. You don’t get to finally tell me that now. Not when it’s gonna sound too fuckin’ much like goodbye. You tell me later – after we hold our kids in our arms, hear me?” his deep voice ordered firmly. “You’re gonna give me those words, Hellion. You’re gonna open those pretty eyes and tell me you love me real soon,” Abel vowed, his voice breaking.

  She wanted to comfort him, but she couldn’t find him in the fog that suddenly surrounded her. Distantly, she heard the ambulance doors slam and felt the vehicle begin to move, but then, she knew no more.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Leaning against the white brick wall just outside the OR where he knew the love of his life was fighting not only for her life, but that of their babies as well, Abel Turner realized that he’d never experienced fear in its rawest form before tonight. Oh, he’d thought he’d known it. When he’d sat beside the bed and watched his mother die…. when he’d been worrying about his brother, Cain’s, sanity after he’d come home from the war… hell, he’d even thought he felt it when he’d watched Patience get shot last year. But none of that, not a single bit of it, had even come close to the terror paralyzing him now. No, when he’d watched them roll Patience’s gurney past him, the nurses and orderlies moving so quickly that they were a mere blur, he’d recognized this feeling for what it was.

  Pure, unadulterated, pulse pounding fear.

  Scrubbing one hand down his jaw, the rough stubble of his five o’clock shadow abrading his hand, he knew he should walk down the hall to the waiting room where the rest of their collective families were gathered and waiting for word on Patience, Honor, and the babies’ conditions. He just couldn’t convince himself to move; the idea of taking one step further away from the woman he loved was just too much to bear. Instead, he chose to stare at the closed thick metal door that they’d wheeled Patience through just minutes ago.

  It was locked; he’d already checked. Twice.

  So, unfortunately, busting into the operating room and demanding to stay there was out of the question.

  A few footsteps down the hallway, Abel could see that Zeke was positioned the exact same place as he was… standing in front of the OR where the doctors were operating on Honor. He noted that Zeke’s eyes hadn’t wavered from that all-powerful door either.

  They were two men locked in place, enduring a hellish stalemate where they were unable to move forward without the women they loved by their side.

  “It’s like being trapped in a fucking nightmare where we can’t open our damned eyes and wake the hell up,” Abel said out loud, his voice rough from the shouting he’d done earlier.

  “Yeah,” Zeke acknowledged softly without moving his eyes from the door.

  Abel grimaced as he realized that, for Zeke, this was a repeat nightmare. Sighing, he reached up and grabbled the back of his neck, gripping the nape and squeezing hard as he began to pace.

  Six steps to the left. Turn. Six steps to the right. Turn. Repeat.

  On and on, it went.

  Six steps to the left. Turn. Six steps to the right. Turn. Repeat.

  Thankfully, no one bothered either man, allowing them to maintain their silent vigil.

  Until one hour and forty-three minutes later, the door opened in front of one of them.

  Abel jerked to a stop as Patience’s obstetrician stepped into the hallway. Abel held his breath as he watched Dr. Mackenzie Daniels reach toward his head and grasp his dark red scrub cap and pull it off before the other man offered him a faint smile. “You’re a daddy, Abel. Your babies are safe, my friend. They were born almost an hour ago,” he informed the stunned new papa slowly.

  Abel barely felt Zeke’s hand as it slapped his shoulder in congratulations. “An hour?” His mind raced as he did the math. They’d waited sixty minutes to tell him the fate of his family? That didn’t sound right. “Wait a second, why are you just telling me this now? Are the babies okay? Healthy, I mean! And what about Patience? Where is she? When can I see her? She’s gonna be okay, too, right?” Abel fired off his questions quickly, desperate to hear the answers.

  “Abel, s
low down. There’s a lot to go over, okay? Let’s go into the waiting room and talk,” Dr. Daniels urged the new dad, gesturing down the hallway.

  “No,” Abel denied sharply. “Half the town is down there waiting to hear good news. You tell me and Zeke what there is to know first,” he demanded, his hands fisting at his side. “And talk fast, Mack, because I’m about to come unglued if you don’t tell me that my family is still whole.”

  Gripping one of Abel’s arms as he placed his other hand on Abel’s shoulder to steady him, the doctor nodded. “Your family is whole, Abel. Maybe a bit more crowded than you expected, but whole,” he pronounced with a grin.

  “Doc, just a warning. My patience is waning. Fast!” Abel snarled, his big body tensing as it braced for bad news.

  “Abel, your first child, a son, was born via emergency C-section at 8:23 this evening. He was 4 pounds 5 ounces. At 8:27, your daughter arrived the same way. She weighed 4 pounds 1 ounce. Both babies entered the world screaming at the top of their lungs. Now, here’s where the story gets…interesting. At 8:28, Patience delivered a second son,” the doctor shared softly as Abel gasped, weaving momentarily on his feet.

  Zeke grabbed Abel’s arm and steadied him as the brand new daddy of three asked in a whisper, “Are you serious?”

  “Yes, man, I’m serious. Seriously surprised. Seriously amazed. Your second boy weighed in at 4 pounds 2 ounces. All the babies were born both breathing on their own and screaming at the top of their lungs’ capacity, Abel.”

  “Triplets,” Abel choked on a sob as grateful tears ran unchecked down his cheeks. “Patience gave me triplets,” he whispered to no one in particular, hardly able to believe what he was being told. “My God, we’re blessed,” he laughed, leaning heavily against Zeke.

  Dr. Daniels nodded before holding up a hand. “The last little guy was hiding behind his brother and sister. Ultrasound never picked up his image for that reason, and the heartbeats of his siblings and his momma drowned out his own when we were listening for them. It’s uncommon for this to happen, but not unheard of,” he continued to explain to the beaming new father. Pausing a moment, the doctor shifted uncomfortably before continuing. “Abel, we did encounter some complications though,” Mack shared, the timber of his voice changing from celebratory to solemn quickly. “After we delivered the third infant, Patience did code on the operating table.”

  Abel’s laughter quickly died. “What? Coded,” he echoed faintly, his gut twisting with cold, unforgiving fear. “Coded, as in my Patience died?” he roared brokenly as his world suddenly came to a crashing halt.

  “She flatlined on the table, Abel.”

  “No. No, God damn you! You said my family was still whole!” he shouted, his deep voice echoing down the corridor as he lunged toward the doctor, completely grief-stricken. If not for Zeke quickly sliding between the two men and restraining Abel, he wasn’t sure that he wouldn’t have killed Mack Daniels where the man stood.

  “Abel, listen to me!” Mack shouted at the enraged father above Abel’s shouts. “She’s alive, man! We got her back and she is ALIVE!”

  Abel blinked as he took a stumbling step backward and his back met the wall. Sliding down the cement blocks, he landed in a heap on the floor, his shaking legs no longer able to hold him upright. “She’s alive?” he repeated, almost afraid to believe the doctor’s words as his heart hammered inside his chest.

  “Yes,” Dr. Daniels acknowledged with no rancor clouding his voice. The good physician must have been accustomed to terrified fathers that went for his throat when given bad news because he appeared unfazed by Abel’s outburst. “She’s alive. She coded due to blood loss and we had to shock her heart to get her back into the land of the living, but she was back with us quickly.”

  “How long?” Abel breathed, his jaw clenching as a life without Patience flashed before his eyes. No sassy mouth. No sweet sighs. No soft touches. No! Fuck that. He couldn’t imagine it.

  “Less than a minute, but long enough to give us a good scare. We got her back and immediately began transfusing her. I’ll warn you though, when she wakes up, she’s gonna be ticked at all of us.”

  “Why?” Abel asked, staring at the other man as he lifted trembling hands to wipe his wet cheeks.

  “Because, right before we sedated her, she made sure to remind my nurse, Millie, that I was not to forget to tie her tubes after the babies arrived. As you can imagine, that was not a priority once the situation began to deteriorate. We delivered what turned out to be triplets and then launched into damage control when Patience began to bleed out. There was no way we could stay inside her long enough to take care of her tubal ligation. The only thing I was concerned with was preserving her life, man.”

  “Thank you,” Abel whispered hoarsely. “Thank you, Mack!” he repeated, rising from the floor and engulfing the obstetrician in a man hug.

  Patting Abel’s back a couple of times, Mack nodded. “I was glad to be there, Abel. I gotta caution you, Patience is gonna be facing a pretty good recovery, man. In addition to delivering triplets and losing all that blood, she’s also got a pretty good concussion, various contusions and abrasions and a sprained wrist that we’re gonna have to watch. She’ll probably be in the hospital about a week if everything goes well.”

  “And the babies?” Abel asked, his hands still trembling as he ran them through his already disheveled hair.

  “That will be up to the pediatrician and neonatologist. I will say that even if all three babies are in peak condition even in the absolute best case scenarios, it will still probably be about a week before they’ll be able to go home. The hospital won’t dismiss them from the hospital to go home until we’re all sure that each baby is ready.”

  Abel nodded, more than willing to move into this hospital if it meant Patience and his kids would be healthy and safe. Fuck, he was thinking about just setting up house right where he stood. “When can I see them?” Abel asked, his voice raw with emotion.

  “Well, Patience is in recovery and will be there a couple of hours to make sure there aren’t any further complications. We tend to shy away from allowing visitors back there, but I think you’ll feel a lot better once you lay eyes on her. Why don’t you go upstairs and meet your sons and daughter while I go back and smooth things over for you with the charge nurse. The nursery is on the third floor with the labor and delivery ward. By the time you get back, you can visit Recovery and see Patience. When she wakes, we’ll move her into a private room on the third flood anyway. You won’t have so far to run between the babies and the wi-… I mean the girlfriend,” Mack said, correcting himself.

  “Don’t worry, Doc. I plan on making it legal as soon as she says yes,” Abel stated, pulling the black box he’d picked up at the jewelers earlier in the day and cracking the lid, showing the ring to both Zeke and Mack. He’d intended to propose after he picked her up tonight. It had been a great plan, too. He had been going to pick her up early from Honor’s house tonight, but instead of taking her back to her tiny loft apartment over the diner, he had been going to take her to their new house. And that house was fully furnished with all their belongings, thanks to the moving company he’d paid an astronomical fee plus a bonus for working late into the night. He imagined they were still in the process of setting the furniture up now. After he showed her their newly furnished home, he’d meant to drop to one knee and pledge his love and devotion to her. Then he’d been going to ask her that magical four word question. After that, he’d anticipated much begging in his future, but he remained positive that eventually she’d give into his pleas.

  Now, after almost losing her in a very permanent way, he didn’t intend to give her any choice in the matter. His Hellion was going to make an honest man out of him if it was the last task he managed to complete on this Earth.

  Nope, screw that, too. He was just gonna slide the diamond ring on her finger while she slept and tell her she already said yes. With the sedation she’d been under, she’d never be able to prove she had
n’t said yes to him. Yeah, it was sneaky, but all was fair in love and war, right.

  “Well, congrats, man!” Dr. Daniels grinned. “You are a braver man than I,” he added under his breath.

  “Doc, you don’t happen to know anything about Honor, do you?” Zeke asked worriedly from Abel’s side. “I know you were in with Patience, but…”

  Holding up a hand, Mack nodded. “I looked in on her surgery after I finished with Patience. You know that Cain is in there with her, right?”

  “Yeah, he said he’d give us updates as he could, but we haven’t seen him yet,” Zeke returned gruffly, clearly unhappy that he was still in the dark regarding the McKinnon woman he loved.

  “They’ve been pretty busy in there, Zeke,” Dr. Daniels shared softly. Clearing his throat, he frowned and stared down the corridor, obviously torn over something. “Look, technically neither of you are Honor’s fam-….”

  “Don’t you fuckin’ say another word!” Zeke spat.

  Abel winced as he heard Zeke’s angry voice shout. Looking at the sheriff, he watched as the other man’s eyes flashed dangerously as they bored into the doctor. It wasn’t often that the even-tempered sheriff’s control snapped, but when it did, it was an event of legendary proportion. “Zeke, stand down, man. He’s just trying to…”

  “All due respect to what you’ve been through, Abel, but fuck that!” Turning to address the doctor, he growled, “No, you asshole, I’m not technically family. You’re right about that. But, you should know that I’ve been in love with that woman in there since the day she turned eighteen fucking years old. That was the day that she looked up at me with those wide blue eyes of hers that still manage to break my heart every fuckin’ day and told me for the first time that she was just too broken to ever be fixed. That was the first time I ever held her, too.” Seeing Mack flinch, Zeke kept talking. “Yeah, I held her while she cried into my chest and cursed me for not lettin’ her die the night those bastards stole away her innocence, Mack! She stole my motherfucking heart that afternoon, Mack. I knew right then – in that fuckin’ moment - that there’d never be another woman that would hold my heart. So, for the sake of your safety and my sanity, do NOT tell me that I’m not Honor McKinnon’s family. Because I may not be hers, but she is damn sure MINE!”