Silent Heart
Search and Rescue: Book Two
Dog wrangler Preston Echo has been in love with his brother’s best friend, copilot, and business partner since high school—and Damien Ward knew it. As Preston grew into a stunning, hard-willed man, Damien began to dream of Preston too.
Then Damien almost died in a helicopter crash. While his physical wounds are slowly healing, the blows to his self-confidence and goodwill are almost worse. His body is broken and he’s afraid to fly—how can Preston love him now?
When Preston’s brother goes on a search-and-rescue mission and disappears in an earthquake zone in Mexico, Preston and Damien are thrown together in an effort to find him and bring him back. Preston’s merciless honesty—and relentless passion—may leverage Damien into his bed, but can Damien overcome his fears to allow himself to stay there?
Book LInks
I hope you all enjoy this story!
It’s funny how we tap into our past experiences when we least expect to. I know one of my first books was about a horse rancher, but the truth is, I’m not great with horses. I had a couple of bad experiences when I was young–one of them is very like the experience Preston had in this book. I know those injuries–they were mine!
So as a Libra, I vacillate– on the one hand, horses are beautiful, intelligent animals who are majestic and lovely and should be treated like kings!
On the other, they’re one-ton idiot dogs who have a big blind spot in their vision and can look at something a thousand times and then lose their shit on the thousand and first.
And, as a Libra, in this book, I wrote a character for each side–Damien adores horses, and even the super bitchy ones.
And Preston?
Preston thinks they’re idiot dogs. (Just remember–Preston adores dogs. He just doesn’t like to ride them.)
Idiot Dogs
By Amy Lane
Preston doesn’t like horses.
Dogs, he gets—he understands dogs for what they are: companions with some limitations. He recognizes the circle of life in dogs—and that dogs are here for a shorter time than humans so we need to appreciate them while they are here. He recognizes that dogs need to be protected and catered to. Just like he needs his math games to keep his brain centered, his dogs need their treats so they know when it’s time to work. Everybody has their needs in order to do their job.
He’s very very copacetic with dogs.
Horses (to Preston) are big, dumb panicky animals that can hurt him if he’s not careful.
They’re like dogs—except they weigh a ton, and if a dog gets excited, he gets mud on your shirt, but if a horse gets excited, he kills you.
Damien on the other hand adores horses. They are to him, like airplanes and vehicles of any sort. If you treat a horse right, he will let you fly—and when Damien is whole and well, and has his hero on, flying is his very best thing.
Unfortunately, (or fortunately for us,) in the course of Silent Heart, both men need to deal with dogs andhorses, and the results are, well, unpredictable.
Preston gets thrown from a horse at one point—and his injuries when he landed are the same injuries I sustained as a middle schooler in an ill-advised attempt on my part to harness the power and the beauty of a magnificent animal.
As it turns out, I am not made for magnificent animals. I am more made for tiny mediocre animals with delusions of grandeur.
But heroes like Damien are made for magnificent animals, and this is all the more frustrating for Preston. He is aware of his limitations. His dogs are specially trained, and there is a need for them and this fills him with pride—but it is hard for him to go outside his comfort zone, and while he can do it, he needs more time to center himself and arrange his very unique brain, and he needs his routine, or he loses all of the things he can do in the very concrete maze of the things he can’t. Preston wants to go all the places Damien can go—but horses are never going to be his thing, and flying by the seat of his pants will never be his thing, so Damien must be the one to change.
Fortunately for both of them, Damien—who will never stop loving horses—has also come to crave peace and quiet. The activity of Preston’s home, training and caring for the many dogs Preston and his crew care for, has the potential to give Damien peace he’s never had.
So when Preston offers to get horses for Damien, horses Damien can ride on his property, while Preston is training his dogs, this is—for these two men—the equivalent of a marriage gift. This is Preston’s way of saying, “I will never love horses—but I love you. I will get horses for you, if you will come to my quiet home and love me.”
Damien has known Preston for nearly twenty years—he understands what horses mean.
The question is, will he take Preston up on his offer?
Well, it is a romance—the answer is, probably. Because sometimes the grand romantic gesture comes from the most unlikely of places.
In Preston’s case, it’s in the willingness to host idiot dogs on his property, because he knows they are, in reality, the magnificent animals his lover adores.
This paragraph will never not be my favorite paragraph ever.
As it turns out, I am not made for magnificent animals. I am more made for tiny mediocre animals with delusions of grandeur.