Octo BEAR fest (Renaissance Shifters #1)

Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

H er father was still howling, "That bitch broke my nose!" when the cops took him away less than an hour later. Gwen was almost certain she hadn't actually broken it, and the officer on duty apologetically told her that she might be up on a misdemeanor assault charge whether she had or hadn't.

"But," the officer said almost cheerfully, "it's a first offense, and you can probably get a defense for heat of passion to knock it down to a fine, if the judge even goes that far. I'd have punched the son of a bitch, too. Not that I told you that."

"I didn't hear anything," Gwen promised in a whisper. She hadn't wanted to come back out for the arrest, but she was the victim in the larger crime, so she kind of had to. Bill's family had absorbed her into compassionate silence when she'd explained what was going on, and in the aftermath of her father's arrest, Bill wrapped her in his arms. He didn't ask, or even say anything, and after a long, shivering moment, she whispered, "I'm okay. I think."

His arms tightened around her. "Wanna go back inside?" At her nod, he walked her slowly back into the building, and spoke over her head to his family, who were all still clustered in the events room. "Could somebody get Gwen an Irish coffee?"

"That sounds amazing," Gwen whispered. Half his family immediately headed out to the bar, and the rest backed off, giving her, and Bill, space. Gwen couldn't help a very quiet laugh. "I'm going to have a whole lineup of Irish coffees, I guess. I'm okay," she said a little more strongly to the remaining family. "Thank you for…" She trailed off, looking at the four tall people in the room, and found an actual smile. "For all being so large and reassuring. Honestly I thought Bill was going to?—"

She broke off, suddenly unsure of how open she should be about his ability to turn into a bear, but Bill picked up with a rumbling laugh. "It's a good thing you punched him. I was about to shift and knock him into the mountains."

"Part of me really wanted you to," Gwen admitted in a soft rush. "But I'm glad you didn't. It would have been more trouble for you than it was worth."

"I knew him," Heather, Bill's mother, said in distress. "Not well, but he used to come into the pub sometimes. I'm so sorry, Gwen."

"He changed his name," Gwen pointed out. "There's no reason you could have guessed. It's all right. He just…" She wanted to sit down all of a sudden, and Bill, as if sensing it, led her to the couches. Gwen collapsed, face in her hands until there was a faint thunk on the table in front of her, and the scent of whiskey-flavored coffee rose to her nostrils. "Oh, God, thank you." She lifted the drink and sipped, wincing at the heat, but the combination of caffeine, alcohol and sugar was honestly soothing right then. "That's good. Thank you."

Someone made a pleased noise in response, and Gwen had another couple sips before feeling fortified enough to look up at Bill's nervously gathered family. A giggle broke from her chest. "Look at you all, looming."

"What's going on ?" Penny's voice rose over the gathering, and the Torbens parted to let the arriving band members see Gwen on the couch. Penny's entire body radiated worry. "Somebody out front told us that Gwen's dad showed up? Are you okay, hon? What the hell is happening? Did he really show up? Did you kick him in the fucking nuts?"

"I punched him in the face," Gwen offered.

A huge grin split Penny's face. " Amazing. Excellent. That's perfect. What the hell happened?" She crowded through to sit next to Gwen, opposite Bill, who still had his arm around her. "Are you okay?"

"I am. I think I am. He's been living here for years under an assumed name," Gwen said with a nod toward Heather. "I'm almost sure it's going to turn out he's burned through everything he stole. I think he saw the ads for the shows this weekend and decided he'd come back and get more money out of me."

Penny, blankly, said, "But you don't have any money," which made Gwen laugh.

"He doesn't know that, though. And if things go well with this album…"

"Then he still won't have any money. I hope he rots in jail for the rest of his miserable life. Do people do that for stealing money these days?"

"If they're not really rich to begin with, yeah," someone else muttered, and a low grumbling chuckle went around the whole group. Bill's family began to filter out of the room, heads ducked together so they could gossip quietly. Gwen figured they'd be gossiping forever about this, and made a face.

"Oh, God. This is going to hit the news in a big way."

Myles cleared his throat. "The album's ready."

The whole band looked at him, varying degrees of confusion on their faces, although Gemma started to smirk even before he shrugged. "I'm just saying. We don't have to wait until next year to release it. It's ready now. And you're about to be a news story."

Sandy, after a pause, said, "You mean there's no such thing as bad publicity. Here's Gwen Booker, AKA Emma Hart, whose dad stole her life savings and drove her into retirement at age eighteen?—"

Gwen mumbled, "That's not really what I did," but Sandy was gaining steam and ignored her.

"—and now he's been arrested for fraud or embezzlement or whatever it is, and Gwen's back with a new album, and everybody is going to want to interview her. It's a gold mine for publicity. We couldn't pay for that kind of publicity."

"We also can't get physical media ready for release that fast!" Gwen protested. "We could release it digitally, yeah, but even if we fulfilled physical orders ourselves we don't have anywhere to print or warehouse it!"

"We don't," Gemma said with a sharkish grin, "but Mike Piccolo does."

Another startled silence swept the band before Penny cackled. "Soooooo we're signing with a label, then?"

All eyes, including Bill's, turned to Gwen. "Oh my God. This is not a me-alone decision!"

"Let me, I don't have an oar in this race," Bill said. Everyone stared at him, and he cringed, although he did so with a laugh. "Horse in this race. Oar in this boat. Something! I don't have one, anyway! Hands up, all in favor of signing with Harlequin Renaissance Records?"

Four hands shot into the air, and Gwen, grinning so hard she thought she might cry, lifted hers, too. "Yeah," she whispered, completely overcome. "Yeah, let's do this thing."

A cheer almost knocked her over, and then Penny did knock her over with a hug. All at once there was a dogpile of hugs and cheers and tears, everybody sort of squishing Bill, who had ended up at the bottom of the pile and who said, "It's okay, I'm big, I like bear hugs, I can take it," in a distant voice that made the whole band break down into giggles.

"You better be able to," Gwen said, trying to steal a kiss. "I don't think I can do this without you."

Gemma, somewhere in the dogpile, said, "Oh, gross. You can obviously do it without him. You can't do it without us. We're the band!"

"Right, right, my mistake." Except Gwen knew it wasn't a mistake. In just a few days, Bill Torben had changed her life. Maybe she could do this without him, but she absolutely didn't want to. Still oof ing and grunting as people tried to extract themselves from the dogpile of a hug, she murmured, "So if it's okay I might just stick around this week, instead of heading back to Denver and coming over to Renaissance for the weekend?"

"What about the day job?" Bill's smile was right there, kissable and bright.

"Told you they'll let me work remotely sometimes. I'm sure they'll understand. I mean, how often does somebody find the love of their life and get a breakout album in one weekend?"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Love of your life? What? You're breaking my heart?" Penny demanded as she squirmed out of the hug with an injured-enough expression that Gwen saw terror flash across Bill's face before Penny began to laugh. "Oh my God, your face. No, I'm sorry, I'm just kidding. We've been watching you two make starry eyes at each other all weekend, so I'm glad you've made it official after, what, seventy-two hours?"

Gwen, with some effort, dug her phone out of her jeans pocket and checked the time, which was just after two in the afternoon. "Yep. Three days, pretty much to the minute."

"I need three days like that," Penny announced. "You and Bill, Gemma and Myles…" She trailed off and eyed Sandy. "I guess that leaves you and me, kid."

Sandy wrinkled her nose and, delicately, said, "Ew. No offense, but ew. All of that stuff is ew."

Penny flopped dramatically on the couch. "Gwen and Bill, Gemma and Myles, an ace guitarist, and pooooooor Penny all on her own."

"Poor Penny is going to be fighting off the fans in a few months," Gemma promised without a hint of sympathy. "Suck it up until then."

"Man, with these kinds of friends, who needs enemies?"

The band kept bantering as Gwen tucked herself up against Bill's side. "You know it's not just going to be my life that gets a little crazy," she said quietly. "You sure you want to be neck-deep in this? Trust me, I know how weird celebrity life can be."

"If it gets too much for me on the road I've got a brewery to run here." Bill smiled down at her. "I've got a brewery to run here anyway. If you end up touring, I do want to come along for as much of that as I possibly can, but I don't think I'm constitutionally capable of just dumping all my responsibilities here to become a roadie."

"I wouldn't want you to," Gwen admitted with a smile of her own. "I think I like this responsible streak you've got. It makes me feel grounded, and that feels good."

"Then I'd say we'll work it out." Bill dipped his head to kiss her, and Gwen sighed happily as he added, "Crazy is fine, as long as it ends up with us together. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all goes."

"Me too. As long as it goes to, like, Madison Square Garden along the way. I've always wanted to play there."

Bill laughed out loud. "Great. I don't think I can afford to buy a sponsorship there, though, so you're going to have to drink whatever beer they've got on hand instead of the good stuff I could sell there."

Gwen laughed, too. "Let's cross that bridge when we get to it, shall we? And until then…" She stole another kiss. "Thank you. For dealing with my dad today, for this whole weekend. For everything."

"No, thank you . You turned my life upside-down and I had no idea how badly I needed that."

"We could do this for the rest of our lives, couldn't we? Just sit here going 'no, thank you ?'"

"Not if you're going to go do the rock star thing, no. Or if I'm going to do the brewmaster thing, for that matter."

"Never mind," Gwen said. "The responsibility thing? That's gotten old now."

Bill laughed again, startled, and kissed her again. "No, it hasn't."

"No. And it's never going to." Gwen sighed happily, then got up and gestured to the band. "C'mon, everybody. Let's go talk to Mike Piccolo, and get the future started."