REVIEW: Missing Chord – The Road to Octoberfest 2024 – Kaje Harper

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Two huge mistakes. One second chance.

Griffin

Music's a harsh mistress, if you want to make a living by her. Years ago, when I was on my way up, I met a man. Sparks flew, hearts leaped, you know the song. But I was chasing my dream all across America, and Lee was tied to our hometown. Hell, I was too old for him anyway, even then. So I left, and the connection we'd had withered and died, except sometimes in the lyrics I wrote. Now I'm back home and I've met him again at the lowest point in my life. He's still gorgeous and kind, but I'm battered and faded and paying for my mistakes. He can do way better.

Lee

When I was twenty, I thought the hardest thing I'd ever do was watch Griffin Marsh walk out of my life. Well, newsflash, fate always has more crap waiting for you. I spent more nights than I want to remember torn between hating him for leaving and wishing I could’ve gone with him, but life went on with the good, the bad, and the ugly. Now Griffin's back and he's a silver fox, still unfairly hot and talented. I lost my sister years ago, and my life is far less complicated. But, despite Griffin’s current disaster, he'll be heading off soon to concerts like Rocktoberfest and the wide musical world. Letting myself fall for him again would mean another round of being left behind. I'm not going to do that to myself, no matter how much I want to erase the shadows from Griffin's eyes.

Fifty-six-year-old Griffin Marsh is a rock star who had ups and downs and never reached the top. He now has a chance to reintroduce himself to the public by attending Rocktoberfest which he was invited to. With Rocktoberfest looming soon he returned to him home in Iowa to go through his mother’s storage even though she died four years ago.

With everything looking up a careless act on his part would bring everything to a screeching halt when he took his eyes off the road and pushed a woman off the embankment. The woman died leaving behind two young girls and a husband and even taking a plea bargain going from a felony to a misdemeanor jail was a strong possibility. Fortunately, he got community service and two years’ probation and appearing at Rocktoberfest would be up to his parole officer.

His community service would put him in nursing homes, one of which would reunite him with the man he walked away from twenty-years ago, Lee Robertson. Lee is seventeen years younger than Griffin and when Griffin left his heart was broken. He is now the Nursing Supervisor at a nursing home and a NP. He never got over Griffin leaving when his sister was deathly ill, and everything rested on his shoulders. Now he is back, and Lee refuses to open his heart only to be left again.

It doesn’t take long before Lee’s heart gives in, and he and Griffin are reunited. Griffin is loved by the patients at the home because he gives them the attention they need, and it is done with love. He watches as patients who lived their lives are now subjected to the whims of the director, short staffed and requests often falling on deaf ears. It is Lee and Griffin that fight for them.

When everything looks to be going in Lee and Griffin’s way a medical issue would once again prove to be too much to keep them together. Griffin gets permission for Rocktoberfest and leaves to follow his dream, a dream that separated him and Lee twenty-years ago.

A beautiful story touched with sadness. A second chance that may never happen and two patients in the home prove that age doesn’t matter. It is a story more about love, loss and second chances and it was beautifully told by Ms. Harper.