Table of Contents
Copyright
Free Book Offer
Foreword
Chapter One – Tiana
Chapter Two – Mason
Chapter Three – Tiana
Chapter Four – Mason
Chapter Five – Tiana
Chapter Six – Mason
Chapter Seven – Tiana
Chapter Eight – Mason
Chapter Nine – Tiana
Chapter Ten – Mason
Chapter Eleven – Tiana
Chapter Twelve – Mason
Chapter Thirteen – Tiana
Chapter Fourteen – Mason
Epilogue
Also By Harmony Raines
Get In Touch
More about Shifters in Love - Fun & Flirty
Blind Date Bear
Silverbacks and Second Chances
(Book Five)
***
All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written consent of the author or publisher.
This is a work of fiction and is intended for mature audiences only. All characters within are eighteen years of age or older. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, actual events or places is purely coincidental.
© 2018 Harmony Raines
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Blind Date Bear
Silverbacks and Second Chances
(Book Five)
A Second Chance Shifter Romance
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 the 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.
“Not my problem.” Propelling herself forward, Tiana made her way to the most romantic table in the restaurant. Tucked away in an alcove, it provided privacy for any couple wanting
to spend the evening staring into each other’s eyes, without being watched by those around them.
It was also the number one proposal spot in the restaurant. And she would put money on that happening tonight. This guy looked nervous enough, and the way he kept touching the small bulge in his pocket was a sure giveaway. Unless he was some kind of pervert who liked touching himself in public.
Nope, this was a proposal just waiting to happen during the dessert course. It was always during dessert, as if the profiteroles sweetened the deal.
The death of her marriage and the subsequent fallout had robbed her of every romantic bone in her body. One day she hoped a man might sweep her off her feet and make her fall in love with falling in love all over again.
That thought also scared her to death. What if she made the same mistake again?
“Is there anything else I can get for you?” Tiana smiled politely and watched the young couple exchange glances. So much in love, so in tune with each other. If Tiana was a romantic she’d say these two would stay together for the rest of their lives. But, she wasn’t a romantic, she reminded herself. Life had taught her romance was for the movies, for the people who played make-believe, not for those who lived in reality.
“No, thank you, we have everything we need.” The young man spoke and took his dinner date’s hand, gazing at her adoringly.
Yep, impending proposal heading their way.
“I’ll leave you to your meal.” She backed away and glanced around the room, checking to see if any of her tables needed her. No. But table ten’s meals were probably ready, so she headed back to the kitchen.
“Why don’t you go?” Sorcha asked as Tiana approached.
“Go where?” Tiana asked, reaching for the plates of food for her table. She inhaled the wonderful aroma and wondered if sex with Bobby would be as good as his food.
She inhaled the delicious scent of garlic and chicken and her stomach rumbled. She’d had an early dinner before her shift started, but as the evening wore on, she was starting to tire. Her feet ached, even in her sensible shoes, and she couldn’t help fixating on her comfortable sofa just waiting to be collapsed into.
“To the hotel and meet my blind date,” Sorcha spoke as if it was the most obvious decision.
“Because blind dates aren’t my thing,” Tiana said bluntly.
“No dates are your thing,” Haley came up behind them and placed a pile of dirty plates on the counter.
“Thanks for being so supportive,” Tiana said, backing out of the kitchen.
“I am being supportive.” The sympathy in Haley’s eyes made her heart break.
“I can’t. I’m working until ten,” Tiana said, expecting that to end of the conversation. She turned around and walked away, to deliver more meals to the seated diners. Diners who lived normal lives, something she hadn’t lived for nearly twenty years.
Tiana skirted around the tables, collecting empty plates and taking orders while avoiding Haley and Sorcha. However, the two waitresses kept catching her eye in a way that made it obvious they had hatched a plan. A plan that no doubt meant trouble.
“We’ve fixed it so you can go,” Sorcha said excitedly as they met at the salad bar.
“Go where?” Tiana asked innocently. She knew only too well what Sorcha meant.
“To meet my blind date,” Sorcha said. “Come on,” she added when she saw Tiana’s expression. “He sounded like quite the catch.”
“If you wanted to catch a man.” Tiana sighed. “I like my life. It’s uncomplicated.
“Uncomplicated? I’m sorry, did you wake up one morning and take on another woman’s life?” Sorcha hissed, keeping her voice low.
Tiana’s jaw tightened, and she looked down at the wilting lettuce leaves, no longer crisp and pert, but limp and past their best. Whoever would have thought she’d one day compare herself to a lettuce leaf?
“Listen, Tiana. If nothing else, go and have a free dinner and talk to someone new. Flirt a little, even if that’s as far as it goes. Do you remember how it feels to have fun on a date?” Sorcha cocked her head to one side in that way she had of seeing inside Tiana and telling it like it was. No matter how hard the words were to hear.
“I don’t have anything to wear.” She looked up at the clock. “And I don’t have time to go home and change.”
“Oh, you are not going home to change. If you do, you’ll never go.” Sorcha looked at Tiana critically. “You’ll look fine. Just pull your shirt out and let it hang loose, it hugs your boobs just right, and let your hair down and shake it up.” She put her hands up to her head, pretending to ruffle her hair as if Tiana needed a lesson in shaking it up.
“Ladies,” Mr. Monroe, the restaurant owner, appeared from his office. “I said Tiana can go early, but only if you keep our wonderful diners happy. Which means feeding them.” He ushered them back to work.
“So you’ll go?” Sorcha asked.
No. Tiana should have shut this conversation down. She should have made it clear, with no room for ambiguity, that she wasn't interested. Instead, she heard herself say, “Yes.”
And just like that, her fate was sealed.
The next half hour ticked by as if someone had given the hands of the clock some steroids. Somehow, she managed to keep her cool and work her tables, earning some good tips, which all went in a jar to be divided up equally at Christmas.
Unless someone was in desperate need—like the time Sorcha needed a plane ticket to go see her sick mom. Or the time Tiana’s fridge broke in the middle of summer. Or the time Haley’s husband punched her in the face and she needed to stay somewhere safe for a few days with her two kids.
“Okay, time to go.” Haley slid up beside Tiana as she finished clearing the plates from her tables and stacked them in the washer.
Tiana shook her head, her forehead creased as she tried to get herself out of this absurd situation. “This is a terrible idea.”
“No, it’s not. It’s a great idea.” Haley took the plates from Tiana and set them down on the counter before pointing at the door. “Go.”
“Haley, I don’t know the first thing about dating,” Tiana protested. “You know how long it’s been since I went on a date with anyone.”
“That’s the point.” Haley placed her hands on her hips and sighed. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do this.”
“Oh god, not the mom speech?” Tiana groaned.
Haley arched her eyebrows. “Do you want me to go there? Do you want me to tell you all the reasons why this is a good idea? How you are too stuck in your ways and how Sorch and I want you to find a good man, a decent man. It’s time.”
“Wait.” The breath left her body. “This never was a date for Sorcha, was it?”
Haley pressed her lips together. “He’s a friend from my college days. A self-made man. He’s kind and sweet and needs a little company. You two have a lot in common, believe me.”
“I can’t go.” Tiana shook her head and put her hands to her face, the heat from her cheeks warming her palms. “He’ll think I’m desperate. Or ugly. Or a lonely old cat lady.”
“You do have three cats,” Haley reminded her. Then her face became serious and she reached for Tiana’s hands and held them tight, so tight she might cut off the blood circulation. “Do this. For me, if for no one else.” Her eyes brightened as tears threatened. “Do this for all the times you’ve held other people and didn’t let them fall. For getting me and the kids through hell. For raising that kid of yours alone. And for helping that no-good father of his back on his feet even though he broke your heart into a million pieces.”
Tiana sobbed and looked away. “That doesn’t make me anything other than a decent human being.”
“And that is why you need this.” Haley pushed her out of the kitchen into the area where the staff lockers were lined up along one wall, and empty bottles stacked in crates along the other. “It’s your choice, T. Your shift is over. Go home to your normal life or take a chance and go meet this guy. His n
ame is Mason Tennant.”
With that, the door shut in her face and she was left alone. With a choice.
Undecided, Tiana opened her locker to retrieve her coat and purse. As the door swung open, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Is this who she wanted to be for the rest of her life? Rhett’s mom. Quentin’s ex-wife.
“For you, Haley.” She pulled her shirt out of her skirt waistband and let it hang loose. “For you, Sorcha.” She dragged the scrunchy out of her hair, out of its smooth ponytail and let it fall loose before she plunged her fingers into her long auburn locks. When she looked back in the mirror her tousled hair hung around her shoulders, with soft tendrils framing her face.
“One more thing.” She went to Sorcha’s locker and opened it, there were no secrets between the three friends, and whatever the other had they shared, no questions asked. “I bet you never thought I’d share this.”
Tiana took out Sorcha’s favorite bright red lipstick and carefully applied it to her lips. Seconds later, she shut both lockers and went out to her car, ignoring her rapid heartbeat. She didn’t expect anything more from the evening than a good meal and a glass of wine.
“What’s the worst that can happen?”
Chapter Two – Mason
Love. The kind other people experience. The kind of love he read in many of the people seated in the dining room of the hotel. Love for a girlfriend or a spouse. Love for a child.
The only love he’d ever experienced was for his parents. The rest of it was a mystery to Mason Tennant. A mystery he was determined to solve.
Is that the reason we’ve lowered ourselves to a blind date with a friend of Haley’s? his bear asked.
Haley thought we’d get along with Tiana. She thought there was a chance we might click. Mason sipped his beer and looked at his watch then at the door of the dining room.
Haley obviously never told Tiana how much you value punctuality, his bear said with a huff and walked off to lie in the corner of his mind. Having already dismissed their date as a waste of time, his bear wanted no part of the rest of the evening.
Blind Date Bear Page 1
