A superhero ever after, p.1
A Superhero Ever After, page 1
A Superhero Ever After
Superhero Romance Project #2
H. L. Burke
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Copyright © 2023 H. L. Burke
All rights reserved.
Cover art by K. M. Carroll
Cover layout by Jennifer Hudzinski
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Author’s Note: | The Supervillain Rehabilitation Project (AKA SVR-Verse or DOSA-Verse) is a multi-series superhero universe (currently) consisting of four separate series.
Once upon a time, Matt had just returned from Iraq and we were walking around downtown Portland, getting our PDA in. We stopped at a crosswalk, and he pulled me against his chest while we waited for the signal to change. | At that moment, some random lady walking by stopped, looked straight at Matt, and said, “Never let her go.” | Matt said, “I won’t,” and we never saw that lady again. | He has never let me go, either. | This book is dedicated to you, Random Portland Lady, for proving that romcom moments sometimes happen in real life.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
ABOUT H. L. Burke
Also by H. L. Burke
Author’s Note:
The Supervillain Rehabilitation Project (AKA SVR-Verse or DOSA-Verse) is a multi-series superhero universe (currently) consisting of four separate series.
Series One: Supervillain Rehabilitation Project
The first series from a timeline perspective, this series follows superheroine, Prism, as she attempts to redeem her late father’s legacy by helping his disgraced protege get back on the hero path.
Relapsed (Short Story Prequel)
Reformed
Redeemed
Reborn
Refined
Reunion
Series Two: Supervillain Rescue Project
This Young Adult spin-off takes place after the main series when Prism and Fade start a camp for at risk superpowered teens and follows three new superpowered characters, Jake, Laleh, and Marco.
Power On
Power Play
Power Through
Power Up
Series Three: Supervillain Romance Project
This series follows the Park family, a separate superhero clan, as they fight villains—and sometimes date them. This series can be read independently, though later books feature crossover characters from the YA and Original Series.
Blind Date with a Supervillain
On the Run with a Supervillain
Captured by a Supervillain
Engaged to a Supervillain
Accidentally a Supervillain
Series Four: Superhero Romance Project
While there are some cameos from other series, this is a series of standalone romantic comedies featuring other superpowered characters from the universe and can be read independently.
A Superhero for Christmas
A Superhero Ever After
Coming Soon:
Second Chance Superhero
Once upon a time, Matt had just returned from Iraq and we were walking around downtown Portland, getting our PDA in. We stopped at a crosswalk, and he pulled me against his chest while we waited for the signal to change.
At that moment, some random lady walking by stopped, looked straight at Matt, and said, “Never let her go.”
Matt said, “I won’t,” and we never saw that lady again.
He has never let me go, either.
This book is dedicated to you, Random Portland Lady, for proving that romcom moments sometimes happen in real life.
—Heidi
Chapter One
Henry Nichols, AKA Glint, peered through the windows of the airport lobby at the rain hammering against the pavement of the municipal airport. His flight on a small commuter plane had been hair raising. Even knowing that if the plane broke apart he’d have a good chance of flying to safety, he’d spent the whole turbulence plagued flight gripping the arms of his seat and counting his fellow passengers, wondering how many of them he could scoop up and carry if the worst case happened and the damn bird broke apart in the sky.
Thankfully they’d managed to land on schedule, a little jostled, but no need for any dramatic, emergency superheroing.
Though that would’ve been quite the story to tell Lara.
The thought of his fiancé made him smile. He needed to call her and let her know he’d landed. He fished in the pocket of his jeans—the only pair he owned. As a superhero, he spent most of his days in a flight-suit style uniform, complete with forest green cape. When he absolutely had to, he’d wear business casual, often polos with the DOSA logo on them, stamping him as an employee of the Department of Super-Abled—at least before Lara.
Since he’d met her, he’d been trying to spend more time as “just Henry” instead of the flashy superhero and DOSA committee member Glint. Now he wore a pair of nice but, for him, casual jeans and a pale blue button up. Maybe not the T-shirts and pajama pants a lot of his fellow travelers were sporting, but it was a start. He still got appreciative glances from a few ladies, though. Even when dressed as a normie, Henry knew his sable—a slang term for super-abled—genes gave him an advantage as far as keeping in good shape went. Though at almost forty he was on the upper end for an active superhero—it tended to be a young man’s game—he lacked any gray in his golden brown hair, and could pass for a man ten years younger in a pinch. Of course, it was also possible some of the glances were just trying to verify if he was or wasn’t who they thought he was.
Outside of DC, where he worked and was fairly well known, people didn’t always put it together when he was out of uniform. No one on his connecting flight had asked him if he was “that superhero,” which was a nice change. Maybe he was finally starting to get a handle on this normal life thing.
Not wanting to have a phone conversation in the middle of the lobby, he slipped into a nook with some benches and charging stations before taking his phone off airplane mode. Several text message notifications immediately popped up. More than he’d expect to have after such a short flight.
He navigated to the one from Lara first, Call me when you land, please.
Well, that he could do.
He dialed, and she picked up almost immediately.
“Henry! Did you make it?”
“Uh, yeah.” He laughed. “I mean, flight was a little bumpy, but we landed about fifteen minutes ago. Sorry I didn’t call sooner.”
“No, that’s fine. It’s just—” She let out a breath that whistled through the phone. “Have you checked the news and weather? This storm is not letting up and flights are getting canceled and rerouted all over the place. Half our wedding guests are stuck in Chicago and my great uncle Bill somehow got rerouted to Miami—don’t ask me how that makes sense.”
“Well, that’s a bummer.” Glint swallowed. “Are you okay?”
He didn’t have a lot of family—or non-work friends really either—but Lara’s extended clan, college friends, and former work acquaintances had been a lot to juggle when sending out invitations for their intentionally small wedding. He didn’t want her big day ruined because of the weather.
“If you make it, nothing else matters,” she said, her voice softening.
“You know nothing would stop me. If they canceled my flight, I’d just fly there myself. What do they say? Neither snow nor rain nor heat—”
“That’s the post office, dear.”
“Still applies.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I guess it does. I’m just glad you’re here.”
Something in her voice gave him pause. “You sound tired. Are you all right?”
“Yes, stressed, but not unbearably. We were supposed to have an outdoor venue, but the weather—well, you see it. Thankfully there’s a backup plan, this old barn they have on the property. They redid it as an event venue, and it’s so rustic and quaint and homey and ... I might actually like it better than the pavilion we were going to use.”
“That’s good.” Henry had tried to get his head around most of the wedding planning because it was obviously important to her, but the whole idea of “farm chic” or “barncore” or whatever it was people called it went right over his head. Apparently old wood and hay bales were very “in” right now.
“Yeah, it is, but the venue is shorthanded and having to move everything inside because of the weather takes a lot of hands, so me and my parents are helping—Oh, no, don’t stack those so—”
Something crashed in the background.
Lara groaned. “I told you, the milk jugs can’t go on the hay bales. They aren’t steady enough—”
Glint cleared his throat. “Maybe I should let you go?”
“Yeah. I need to deal with this. Drive carefully, okay? The roads are really bad right now, and I’d rather you get here late than—”
“I’ll be fine. I love you, Lara, all right?”
“I love you too, Henry. Can’t wait to see you—and for, well, you know.”
“Yeah.” A quiet wa
“I’ll wait up.”
Henry purchased an umbrella from an airport shop before making his way over to claim his rental car, a newer model that the salesman gushed about having the latest in technology including a foolproof self-driving mode, satellite WiFi, voice controls, and surround sound. Henry didn’t plan to spend much time in the car, just driving back and forth from the wedding venue to the airport. The day after the wedding he and Lara would leave for their honeymoon in Paris—her choice. Henry liked to travel, but for this particular trip would’ve been happy anywhere with a bed. Still, he made sure to act impressed for the salesman since he was so proud of this new toy, and Henry didn’t want to come across as dismissive.
As he pulled out of the airport onto the highway, the water splatted on the windshield, causing the wipers to work double time. He’d only been on the road for a little bit when the dashboard flashed and a smooth, feminine voice announced, “Incoming call. Would you like to take it on speaker?”
“Uh, yes please.” Henry swallowed. Yeah, DOSA generally had the most advanced tech on the market, but he tended to avoid that side of things, preferring more old school methods. Talking to robots always made him a little nervous. Like, did he have to be polite? It felt weird saying please and thank you to a hunk of metal and circuits, but he felt guilty when he didn’t.
“Speakers engaging in twenty seconds. Before I start your call, I would remind you that distracted driving causes around three thousand human deaths per year. If you would like to engage the self-driving mode while you take this call, I would be happy to ensure your safety.”
“Sure,” Henry said, even though he wasn’t.
“Engaging self-driving mode. Enjoy your conversation.”
The dashboard changed from blue to green.
“Uh, hello? Glint, you there?” A woman’s voice rose from the speakers.
“Sorry! I didn’t know it had picked up,” Henry said quickly. He thought for a moment before he recognized the voice. “Fleet?”
“The one and only.”
Fleet was a speedster sable who had served as his second-in-command back when he worked as the head of DOSA’s LA branch, before he’d accepted the promotion to sit on the committee in DC. Since he’d left, she’d taken over the LA branch and apparently done a bang-up job leading it. Henry didn’t have a lot of close friends, but he’d worked with Fleet the longest of any sable, and asking her to be his “best person” had been a no-brainer.
“Did your flight land all right?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m actually on the road to the resort.” He squinted through the rain. Was this stupid car even staying between the lines? Maybe this self-driving thing was a bad idea.
“That’s good. I’m afraid I’m not so lucky. My plane was supposed to take off a half hour ago, but they grounded it.”
“That sucks.” Henry glanced at the phone.
“Yeah, it does, but I’ll work around it. I’d wanted to take a red eye so I could down a few of those tiny airline bottles and sleep, then cruise in tomorrow and kidnap you for a killer bachelor party.”
Henry choked. “Kidnap me? Like literally?”
“How else am I gonna get you to loosen up?” Fleet snickered. “Come on, dude. The fact that you had to ask me to be your bridesmaid...”
“We agreed on the term, ‘best person,’” he pointed out.
“I’m just saying, you didn’t have a single bro you could wrangle?”
“I mean, there was a list.” He thought back over it. “I considered asking Anthony, one of the kids I’m mentoring, but it wouldn’t be fair to the other two—”
“Also not old enough to drink.”
“And then there’s Talon, but it seemed odd asking my boss—”
“Wouldn’t be able to cut loose, plus he’s like ninety, isn’t he?”
“No, I’m... actually not sure, but not that old.”
“Coulda fooled me.” Fleet snorted.
“But I really wanted you, Fleet. Not because you were my only option but because—well, I miss working with you sometimes. You always had my back, and I think that’s what the best man—er—person job is supposed to be.”
There was a moment of quiet. “That’s ... kind of sweet.”
“Thanks. Now, can you not kidnap me, okay?”
“Too late now anyway. They’re rebooking me, but it probably won’t be until late tomorrow, so I’ll be flying in right before the wedding. Even I’m not dumb enough to get you drunk hours before the ceremony. Your lady would kill me, normie or not.”
“Yeah, she would.” Henry laughed.
“You gettin’ cold feet yet?” she prompted.
“Not at all. In fact, I can’t wait.” He glanced at the GPS. Still another two hours to go. Maybe it was the rain, but the self-driving app had him going at least ten miles under the speed limit. He’d hoped to be able to have some time with Lara before he had to turn in for the night. At this rate he’d feel bad if she actually did wait up for him.
“It’s kind of incredible. Of all of us, I always thought you were the most married to the job. Even now, I can’t see you as anything but ‘Glint,’ DOSA’s golden boy. Now? Settling down? With a normie no less?”
“She makes me happy. When I’m around her, I’m not Glint. I’m just Henry, and I like that.”
“Yet you still addressed my wedding invitation to ‘Fleet.’ Do you even know my real name? Quick, without Googling. What is it?”
Glint’s mind spun for a moment. He’d definitely seen Fleet’s name on paperwork and in the media once or twice, but they’d always been on a handle rather than a first name basis. What was it... started with an M... The light bulb went on. “Of course I do. It’s Mackenzie, right?”
“Last name?”
With his memory stirred, that answer came easier. “Woods.”
“Thought I had you there, especially since I don’t think you’ve ever laughed at my awesome joke.”
“Joke?” Glint thought for a moment, but couldn’t figure it out. “What are you talking about?”
“Fleet? Mackenzie Woods? Fleetwood Mac?”
“Uh ...”
“You seriously just didn’t get it? Man, does your brain retain any information that isn’t directly DOSA related?”
“Sorry. Want to explain?”
“Just Google it.” She groaned. A muffled voice came through the speaker. “Oh, they’re paging me. I’ll let you know if I can make it in tomorrow instead of Saturday. Got to go, though.”
She hung up before he could say goodbye.
The rest of his ride went uneventfully, if slowly. The rain kept pouring down, getting stronger until even with the self-driving mode flipped off, he didn’t dare go too fast for fear of hydroplaning.
The event venue was about an hour outside of Lara’s hometown of Goodpatch, and Goodpatch itself was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. With only the occasional gas station or farm house to mark the way, the road seemed to wind on forever. Finally the GPS announced the final turn and his headlights fell across a hand painted sign for “Shady Brooks Inn & Event Venue.”
According to Lara, Shady Brooks was more a commune of connected small businesses than a single resort. The inn had been first, a former farm converted into a mini-resort, but other businesses had grown up around it, creating a tiny complex, almost like a mini-town, outside of Goodpatch. Under the sign, smaller signs advertised other nearby attractions, though Glint doubted he’d have time to check out any of them. Hopefully their guests would get some enjoyment out of them, though.
His tires crunched on the gravel as he turned off the main highway. Poplar trees lined either side of the road, blocking what little view he would’ve had even if it hadn’t been pouring rain and pitch black outside.
The poplars ended in front of a large, two story farmhouse with a covered porch. Most of the lights were out, but the entryway and a few other windows still glowed a homey orange in the dark. A little ways from the house loomed another structure he assumed was the barn Lara had mentioned.
