Silverbacks and Second Chances

by Raines, Harmony

  Hank nodded and leaned forward, his head resting on hers as he held her close. They stood still, unmoving, each lost in their own thoughts. “After work, will you come with me to meet them?”

  “Do you need me to hold your hand?” she teased affectionately.

  “No.” He chuckled self-consciously. “You are my greatest achievement, and I want him to see you and be proud of me.”

  “Hank.” She prodded him in the chest. “Are you making fun of me?”

  “No.” He caught hold of her hand. “I mean it. Out of everything I’ve done, having you as my mate is my proudest moment.”

  “I’m going to cry again.” She wiped her eyes.

  “I’m going to work. Then, after I’ve buried the hatchet with my dad, you and I are going to put on the best music festival Bear Creek has ever seen.”

  “It’s the only music festival Bear Creek has ever seen,” she reminded him as he walked to the door in his faded jeans and tight-fitting T-shirt that hugged his body in just the right places.

  He waggled his eyebrows. “It’ll be a night the town never forgets.”

  Elise leaned against the doorframe and watched him until he disappeared from view. Her head filled with the sound of his voice.

  Only you can make me feel, the pain inside is much too real. Tell me, baby, promise me, you’ll meet me beneath the Wishing Tree.

  “I’ll meet you wherever and whenever, Hank Rivera.” With a sigh, she went back to work.

  Chapter Eighteen – Hank

  “Hey, Jenny, can you run this over to Elise? She’s over at the catering tent.” Hank handed Jenny a microphone.

  “Sure.” She looked down at it and tapped the top. “Is it on?”

  “It’s not plugged in, dummy,” Jason told his sister.

  Hank leaned down and flicked a switch. “Try it now.”

  “Is it on?” Jenny’s voice boomed over the PA system.

  Hank laughed at Jason’s shocked face. “It’s wireless, dummy.”

  Jason laughed. “Can I have a turn?” Jenny held the microphone out to him, and he stared at it. “What do I say?”

  His voice carried across the grounds of the hotel and Jenny giggled. “Do you have stage fright?” Hank joked.

  “No.” Jason rolled his eyes. “Let’s take this to Elise.”

  They ran off across the perfect lawn, laughing and giggling together. One day the twins, Elise and Delia, would be laughing and playing together. He couldn’t wait to share those days with them. And Elise. Every day of his life would be dedicated to his mate.

  “How is everything going, son?” Lewis Rivera, top record producer, asked. Yeah, it was still going to take some getting used to, but Hank had established a friendly relationship with his father. Although not perfect, it was a start.

  “I think everything is under control. Thanks for loaning us this equipment. Things sure have moved on since I last got on stage.” He looked down at all the speakers and amplifiers. Not to mention the microphones all set out, ready for the festival to begin.

  “Don’t mention it. This is the most fun I’ve had in ages.” His dad chuckled, a dry cackle reminding Hank of his dad’s age.

  “Really? You must have attended some swanky parties in your time.” Hank watched as Jenny and Jason skidded into the catering tent.

  “I have. But they didn’t have the same heart. This festival has really brought people together. You have good friends.” Lewis approached his son. “That’s something all the money in the world can’t buy.”

  It was a compliment, and Hank took it as such. These last few weeks, Hank had gotten over being inferior to his father. He’d learned to step out from the shadow cast over a nineteen-year-old young man. It helped that Lewis had changed, and found humility, surprisingly from his relationship with Pamela.

  Elise had summed it up one evening as they lay in bed, with the window open and the soft mountain breeze filling the room with the scent of damp forest and pine resin. They were all better people because of what happened. Their lives had been changed by lies, but in the aftermath, they had learned their own truths.

  “I wouldn’t swap this life for the world. Particularly the showbiz world,” Hank told his father.

  “Not even for a record contract?” Lewis was serious. “I’ve played your song to a few of my contacts. It’s there for the taking.”

  “Is this a test?” Hank asked.

  “No, son, it’s your decision. I just want to make it up to you.” Lewis looked up as Pamela appeared in the distance. He loved her. It shone through in the way he spoke to her and about her. She’d been his guiding light, his north star when he was lost and alone.

  “There’s nothing to make up for.” Hank turned to his father. “I’m glad you’re happy. I mean that. I like Pamela.”

  “You do?” Lewis asked, his voice choked. “She’s not your mother.”

  “No, she’s not. But she’s never tried to be. And I appreciate that. She has a big heart.” Hank turned away and found something to rearrange while he composed himself.

  When he looked up again, Pamela had nearly reached them. But there was someone else with her, too. Hank’s heart faltered, and his palms sweated as he realized he was about to meet his brother.

  “This is Milo.” Lewis looked nervous. “Milo, this is your big brother, Hank.”

  “Milo. Good to finally meet you.” Hank hugged his brother. It was like looking at himself at nineteen at the height of his fame.

  “Wow, man, I had no idea we were so similar.” Milo hugged him back warmly.

  “You both inherited your father’s looks, what can I say?” Lewis looked relieved and Pamela couldn’t keep tears from falling.

  “Mom, you’re such a sap,” Milo said, hugging her. “It’s good to finally be together. Dad talks about you all the time.”

  “I don’t,” Lewis said gruffly.

  Milo rolled his eyes. “Hank, you’ve been in my life since I remember. Dad used to tell me stories and sing your songs.”

  “He did,” Pamela agreed shyly.

  Hank ran a hand through his hair. “I wish we’d found each other sooner.” He looked up. “Hey, Elise.” He waved, and Elise ran across the grass toward them.

  “You need to get changed, the show is starting in an hour. People are arriving.” With flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, she reached them. His heart swelled with love for her.

  “This is my brother.” Hank introduced them.

  “Oh my goodness, you look the spitting image of Hank.” She hugged Milo, leaving Hank with a twinge of jealousy, which he soon shook off. This was a day of celebration, and he knew better than to ever think Elise would look at another man. After all, she lost her heart to her true mate thirty years ago.

  “I’ll see you all later.” Hank took Elise’s hand as they walked toward the hotel.

  “Don’t worry, Milo is going to help me with this.” Lewis indicated the sound equipment.

  “Thanks, Dad.” That word still felt awkward on his tongue. But Lewis liked to hear it, and Hank wanted everyone to be happy, just as happy as he was, if that was possible.

  “Here are Lauren and Thor.” Elise waved to the couple walking toward them. “You look amazing.”

  “Thanks.” Lauren did a twirl, she wore a thigh-skimming skirt and long boots that came just over her knee.

  “She might have meant me.” Thor touched his fingers to the cowboy hat he wore on his head.

  “Have you been working out?” Hank asked, squeezing Thor’s biceps.

  “No teasing,” Thor told him, slapping his hand away.

  “I’m not. You look buff.” Hank was totally serious. The audience was going to love these two.

  “You are such a cute couple.” Elise took a photograph of them. “That one is going straight on our Facebook page.”

  “After tonight, you two are going to be famous,” Hank warned.

  Thor paled. “I hope I don’t puke on stage.”

  “You’ll be fine, just reme
mber you are the God of Thunder,” Hank roared.

  “That’s never gonna sell,” Lewis said from behind them. “But I have passed your recording onto a few of my contacts, and they are willing to talk.”

  “Really?” Lauren asked. After recovering from her illness, she now looked the picture of health. She also wore Thor’s engagement ring on her finger, which she showed off at every opportunity.

  “Come on, Hank. You really do have to get ready.” Elise threaded her fingers through his and led him away from the others.

  “You don’t think I’m too old for all this?” Hank asked as they continued toward the hotel, where the restaurant had been converted into a dressing room.

  “Cold feet?” Elise asked.

  “No. I’m just…” Hank stopped and took hold of her hands. “Now that it’s here, I don’t feel the same excitement.”

  “That’s because it’s not the most important thing in your life. I am.” She giggled like a teenager. “Or maybe it’s because I’m excited enough for both of us.” She jumped up and down on the spot. “This my first Hank Rivera concert, you know. I expect an autograph.”

  “Tell me you’re my number one fan.” His breath caressed her cheek as he leaned forward.

  “I’ll always be your number one fan.” She pressed her lips to his. “I just want you to be happy. We’ve already raised a lot of money from the hits on your YouTube videos.”

  “What?” he asked.

  “I might have uploaded your rehearsals.” She laughed mischievously. “They were too good not to. The world is at your feet, Hank.”

  “But my whole world is here with you.” He looked up at the mountains in the distance. “I don’t know where my path will take me, but it will always lead back to you. I’ve decided to write songs again, but for other people. I have an album planned for Thor and Lauren. What comes after that, who knows?”

  “Just remember my heart will be, forever waiting beneath the Wishing Tree.”

  “It’s time we wrote our own song,” Hank told her.

  “As long as it has a happy ending.” Elise stopped outside the door to the hotel. “We did it.”

  “We did.” And he lowered his head and kissed her lips. He didn’t need a wishing tree. Because right here, with Elise, all his wishes had come true.

  Epilogue

  “Hey, come here.” Hank enveloped Elise in his big, strong, arms and she buried her face in his chest.

  “I’m okay. Just relieved we’ve got our first transplant out of the way.” She smiled up at him.

  “And nobody died.” Hank dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

  “And nobody died.” Elise took his hand. “Two shifters, bonded by fate. Who knew their tissue would be compatible too?”

  “So, the doctors took a kidney from her and put it in him.” Hank didn’t know their names. Patient confidentiality was stronger than the mating bond.

  “Yes.” They walked out of the hospital and got into his truck. “Recovery will take some time. But they’ll be there for each other.”

  “You look as if you need a good sleep.” Hank turned the key and started the engine. A song came on the radio and they looked at each other, big smiles on their faces.

  “They sound amazing.” Thor and Lauren’s duet filled the cab of the truck.

  “Maybe we should ask them to sing at our wedding.” Hank gave her a sidelong look. “I was going to save this for later. But it’s burning a hole in my pocket.”

  “Hank.” Elise put her hands over her mouth as he pulled out a small box and opened it, revealing a stunning diamond, surrounded by rubies. “That must have cost a fortune.”

  “I can afford it, with the royalties I received for writing their song.” He turned to face her. “I’ve put a large chunk of the cash into the hospital fund too.”

  “You didn’t have to.” Her heart swelled with love and pride.

  “I wanted to. Who needs money? I trade it all for love.” He leaned forward. “Elise, will you marry me?”

  She nodded. “Yes.” Her smile widened. “As long as it’s under the Wishing Tree.”

  Hank pushed the ring onto her finger and then kissed her softly. “I love you.”

  “I love you too, and I always will.” She hugged him close. When she’d fallen for Hank as a young teenager, her love for him had been overwhelming. But it was nothing compared to the real love she had for him now. It filled her heart and overflowed. It was real, it was joyful, and at last, Hank Rivera truly was hers.

  Blind Date Bear

  Silverbacks and Second Chances

  (Book Five)

  Tiana is resigned to her life as a single woman after her husband left her years ago. Who has time for a relationship when you have a child to raise and elderly parents to care for? Not to mention her ex-husband who lives in a trailer at the end of the garden.

  Then she's set up on a blind date by her best friends and her world changes forever. Because her date is a bear shifter and she's his mate.

  His mate for life and he doesn't intend to ever let her go.

  When Mason agrees to go on a blind date, he never expects to meet his true mate. But here she is in front of him. Now all he has to do is convince Tiana she has room in her life, and her heart, for a bear shifter in love.

  Chapter One – Tiana

  “You’re standing up a blind date?” Tiana asked Sorcha as she took her order to the kitchen. The Mountain View Restaurant was full, for a weeknight, keeping the three waitresses busy, but not busy enough that they couldn’t snatch a few minutes here and there to chat.

  “Yes.” Sorcha looked unrepentant. “It was a stupid idea. You never know who you’re going to hook up with on a blind date. What if he’s an axe murderer?”

  “And you didn’t think about that fact before tonight?” Tiana kept her voice level, but this was typical behavior from Sorcha.

  “No, she didn’t,” Haley joined in the conversation as she headed to the bar. “Because up until an hour ago Sorcha was on the rebound.”

  Tiana pressed her lips together to stop herself from saying something she would later regret. “You got back together with Karl?”

  Sorcha swayed her hips and pouted. “We got back together in every sense of the word.”

  Haley rolled her eyes. “And now some poor, desperate guy is doomed to sit in a restaurant waiting and wondering if his date is gonna show up.”

  “He might meet someone else while he’s there,” Sorcha suggested. “A lonely female might happen upon him and feel sorry for him. I might have done him a favor.”

  “You’re not even going to tell him?” Tiana asked without covering her disapproval.

  “Can’t, I don’t have my phone with me.” She arched her eyebrows at Tiana. “If you feel so bad about it, you go and tell him. He’ll be waiting at The Catherine Hotel at 8:00 p.m. Maybe he’ll sweep you off your sensible-shoe-wearing feet.”

  “Ouch!” Haley hissed and grinned. “The sass meter sure goes up when she’s with Karl.”

  Tiana rolled her eyes. “And her concern for others goes down.” Tiana smiled at Bobby, the chef, as he placed a couple of hot plates on the counter for her tables.

  “There you go, Tiana. And might I say you are looking good today.” He gave her a sexy smile, while his eyes stripped every item of clothing off her body. She might be offended if it were anyone but Bobby. But Bobby wasn’t into a middle-aged woman in sensible shoes, unless she modeled naked for his art.

  I like to paint women who have a certain maturity, he’d told her when he first started working at The Mountain View Restaurant. Each line on your face, each crease in your body has been earned. Your faults show me your experience.

  “Thanks, Bobby.” She flashed him her smile, the one reserved for people she never let in. Which encompassed most people she met. Only her close family and her best friends, Haley and Sorcha, got a peek behind her wrinkled façade. She smiled to herself, she might look creased to the outside world, but inside she was still th
e same naïve young woman who fell in love with an unsuitable man.

  “He’s watching your ass,” Haley leaned across and whispered to Tiana as they walked away.

  “Of course he is.” Tiana resisted the urge to sway her hips. That boy needed no encouragement. Although Sorcha had other ideas and was vocal about them.

  “You should just do it. Pose naked for him. Then bone him.” Sorcha had never lost the fierce bravado of youth. She was in charge of her own sexuality and not afraid to try anything once. Or twice. Or in the case of serious rebounder Karl, five times.

  “I am not boning Bobby,” Tiana told Sorcha resolutely. “He’s only a couple of years older than Rhett. It would be weird.”

  “Not as weird as not having sex for how long?” Sorcha gave her that look. The one that insinuated Tiana was scared.

  Her jaw tightened, a sure sign of tension in her body and she forced herself to relax. But there was something else. A sense of excitement. The need to prove herself surged inside her. Then she let it go. She didn’t need to prove herself and she didn’t need any more problems in her life.

  “Not long enough,” Tiana retorted.

  Sorcha rolled her eyes. “You don’t know what you are missing.” With a flick of her hair, she flounced off, wriggling her hips evocatively.

  “Is that what you think?” Tiana asked Haley. “That I should just sleep with a man for the sake of sex?”

  “You know what I think. You should do what you want to do. But meeting a new man, flirting a little, it wouldn’t hurt.” Haley smiled and winked. “Love ya, T.”

  Tiana paused, her heart racing as she stood in the middle of the crowded restaurant with someone else’s dinner in her hands and no hope things would ever change. Panic fluttered in her chest, this was it, this was her life. She wasn’t in charge of her sexuality, she wasn’t in charge of her time, she wasn’t even in charge of what she watched on TV when she got home after a night of waiting tables.

  “Get over yourself,” Tiana mumbled and fixed her smile on her face. She had so much to be grateful for. Including a young man who wanted to strip her clothes off and paint her. So many people had it worse. Like the guy sitting in a restaurant all alone waiting for the chance that his true love might walk through the door and have dinner with him.