by Tessa Layne
A HERO’S HOME
A RESOLUTION RANCH NOVEL
(Book 4)
TESSA LAYNE
Shady Layne Media
www.tessalayne.com
Copyright © 2018 by Tessa Layne
EPUB Edition ISBN-13: 978-1-948526-01-2
Cover Art by Razzle Dazzle Design
Published by Shady Layne Media
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, stored, or transmitted in any form or in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations included in critical articles and reviews. For information, please contact the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of copious amounts of wine, long walks, and the author’s overactive imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Meet the Heroes of Resolution Ranch
Welcome to Prairie!
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
About Mr. Pink
Books by Tessa Layne
Acknowledgments
Meet the Heroes of RESOLUTION RANCH
Inspired by the real work of Heroes & Horses… Chances are, someone you know, someone you love has served in the military. And chances are, they’ve struggled with re-entry into civilian life. The folks of Prairie are no different. With the biggest Army base in the country, Fort Riley, located in the heart of the Flint Hills, the war has come home to Prairie.
Join me as we finally discover Travis Kincaid’s story and learn how he copes in the aftermath of a mission gone wrong. Meet Sterling, who never expected to return to Prairie after he left for West Point. Fall in love with Cash as he learns to trust himself again. Laugh with Jason and Braden as they meet and fall in love with the sassy ladies of Prairie. Same Flint Hills setting, same cast of friendly, funny, and heartwarming characters, same twists and surprises that will keep you up all night turning the pages.
A HERO’S HONOR – Travis Kincaid & Elaine Ryder
A HERO’S HEART – Sterling Walker & Emma Sinclaire
A HERO’S HAVEN – Cash Aiken & Kaycee Starr
A HERO’S HOME – Jason Case & Millie Prescott
WELCOME TO PRAIRIE!
Where the cowboys are sexy as sin, the women are smart and sassy, and everyone gets their Happily Ever After!
Prairie is a fictional small town in the heart of the Flint Hills, Kansas – the original Wild West. Here, you’ll meet the Sinclaire family, descended from French fur-trappers and residents of the area since the 1850s. You’ll also meet the Hansens and the Graces, who’ve been ranching in the Flint Hills since right before the Civil War.
You’ll also meet the heroes of Resolution Ranch, the men and women who’ve put their bodies on the line serving our country at home and abroad.
Prairie embodies the best of western small town life. It’s a community where family, kindness, and respect are treasured. Where people pull together in times of trial, and yes… where the Cowboy Code of Honor is alive and well.
Every novel is a stand-alone book where the characters get their HEA, but you’ll get to know a cast of secondary characters along the way.
Additional books in the series:
PRAIRIE HEAT – Blake Sinclaire & Maddie Hansen
PRAIRIE PASSION – Brodie Sinclaire & Jamey O’Neill
PRAIRIE DESIRE – Ben Sinclaire & Hope Hansen
PRAIRIE STORM – Axel Hansen & Haley Cooper
PRAIRIE FIRE – Parker Hansen & Cassidy Grace
PRAIRIE DEVIL – Colton Kincaid & Lydia Grace
PRAIRIE FEVER – Gunnar Hansen & Suzannah Winslow
PRAIRIE BLISS – Jarrod O’Neill & Lexi Grace
PRAIRIE REDEMPTION – Cody Hansen & Carolina Grace
Help a Hero – Read a Cowboy
KISS ME COWBOY – A Box Set for Veterans
Six Western Romance authors have joined up to support their favorite charity – Heroes & Horses – and offer you this sexy box set with Six Full Length Cowboy Novels, filled with steamy kisses and HEA’s. Grab your copy and help an American Hero today! All proceeds go to Heroes & Horses
Visit www.tessalayne.com for more titles & release info
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Hang out with me! Join my Facebook Reader Group – Prairie Posse
CHAPTER 1
May
“You sure you’ve got this?” Sterling Walker asked Jason Case as he handed him the list.
“How hard can it be?” Jason retorted as he glanced down at the list.
SILENT AUCTION ITEMS
Dottie’s Diner tees and gift certificates – from Lydia Grace
Toy box and poker cards from the Five-n-Dime – from Vangie Miller
Dressmaking gift certificate from Emmaline Andersson
Romance gift basket from Millie (organic grocery)
Jason narrowed his eyes, stomach lurching. “Is this some kind of a joke?”
Sterling’s mouth quirked and he shrugged. “Not at all. We need those items for the silent auction tonight.”
“But they’re–”
“Yep. The loveliest ladies in Prairie have banded together in support of Resolution Ranch.” Sterling jammed his hands in his pockets and grinned broadly. Unapologetically.
Jason fisted the list, shaking his head emphatically. “No way.” He’d come to Prairie to help an inaugural crew of veterans at Resolution Ranch, not speed date the locals.
“C’mon, man. When was the last time you went on a date? Or got laid?” He raised his eyebrows meaningfully. “You’ve gotta get back in the saddle one of these days.”
“Not here. Not now.” Not ever. He offered up the crumpled list but Sterling kept his hands in his pockets. “I mean it, Walker. Not today.” Sterling of all people should know why.
Sterling backed up. “I’m taking Emma to meet my parents.” He grinned broadly. “Thanks for doing me a solid. Catch you in an hour?”
“You should leave the matchmaking to the ladies, Walker.”
Sterling winked and turned around. “Consider it my thanks for helping me with Emma,” he called over his shoulder as he walked down the street.
Payback was a fucking bitch, but he wasn’t going to pull a dick move and leave the ranch in the lurch. Especially when he was the one responsible for underwriting tonight’s fundraiser. His family’s wrath had been worth it, just for the look on his father’s face when he’d seen the price-tag. But they owed him, and every single one of them knew it. At least now, something good would come from his messed-up family.
Jason smoothed out the wrinkled list, scanning it again. He had to credit Sterling for trying. But he didn’t get it. No woman in her right mind would ever take up with someone like him. Not in his condition. The knot in his sternum, the one that had been his constant companion since he’d awakened four-and-a-half years ago broken, disoriented, and in excruciating pain at Walter Reed, gave a sharp twist. As if to say, damn straight. Ignoring the low-level gloom that always bubbled un
derneath the surface when he was alone, he started down the street. The sooner he started, the sooner it would be over.
Ten minutes later, three of the baskets safely stowed in the back of his truck, Jason crossed Main underneath a giant sign with the words Grand Re-Opening. It had been Emma Sinclaire’s idea to pair the ranch’s fundraiser with Main Street’s grand reopening following the tornado that destroyed half the town about a year ago. Judging from the crowd gathered in the park across from Dottie’s Diner, and the tickets sold for the ranch’s events later in the day, the idea was a wild success. Jason wove through festival booths, balloon makers, and musicians, making his way toward the organic grocery store tucked on a side street a few blocks away. His phone buzzed, and assuming it was Sterling, he answered without looking at the caller ID. “Well?”
“Mother hasn’t stopped crying since you left.”
Jason swallowed a groan and stopped dead in his tracks. “Not my problem, Nico. Just because she chooses to stay in a gilded cage, doesn’t mean I have to.”
His half-brother’s voice took on the used-car salesman quality that made his skin crawl. “You just need to work harder to get along with them. You know dad wants to make sure the business is strong when he hands over control.”
“I’ve told you before. I have no interest in taking over.”
“Well, somebody needs to,” Nico snapped.
Jason could see Nico’s jaw clenching, hand raking through his hair, a habit he’d developed in childhood that always returned when he didn’t get his way. He unclenched his fist, reining in his rising temper. “So you can keep your wife satisfied with spa and tennis dates? Not my problem. Talk to your brothers.” Jason’s stomach twisted as bile rose in his throat, just like it always did when Nico was involved. “We both know there’s no place for me there.” There was no place for him anywhere, the voice in his head reminded him. Not in the army, or in the vineyard. Certainly not at the helm of Case Family Wineries.
“That’s not true.” Nico’s voice grew soft. “You know we love having you home, safe.”
“So you can ease your conscience by parading me around to Angelique and Ronnie’s friends from the club, hoping that one of them will pity fuck a wounded vet?” He shook his head. “No, thanks.”
“Bitter, much?”
Anger spotted his vision. “Don’t deflect. You know I’m right.” The last girl his step-mother and brothers had foisted on him had been home from college on Spring Break, barely old enough to order a glass of wine. Not mature enough or sophisticated enough to hide the revulsion when he’d stumbled on a patch of loose gravel and she’d realized he wore a prosthetic.
“You’re just not trying hard enough.”
“Bullshit.” He raked a hand over his face “Listen to yourself, Nico. I’m not trying hard enough? I’ve tried for over four years,” he shouted, then lowered his voice as people turned to stare. “Look, I’m done with all of it. Don’t call me again.”
“But Mom and Dad–”
“Can go to hell,” he growled. “Case Family Wineries will do just fine without me.”
Nico’s voice grew hard. “You’re going to regret this.”
“The only thing I regret is not leaving sooner.”
There.
He’d said it.
Let his family stew on that. He never should have come home from Walter Reed to begin with, but in the name of family, he’d tried. Stupidly, because the family had already made their choice, and he’d been too blind to see it. Jason puffed his cheeks and blew out a breath. “Goodbye, Nico. Give my love to the fam. And one more thing,” he added. “Make sure everyone knows I’m done with the wine biz. I’ve always been more of a beer man, anyway.” He disconnected and jammed the phone in his back pocket and stalked off in the direction he’d been headed.
So his step-mother had been crying? Crocodile tears because she had one less person to manipulate. Had any of them cried over him when he’d lost his leg? Or cried over his buddy Gabe when he’d died? Hell, no. They didn’t do feelings. And they certainly didn’t do things like grief.
His family of choice had always been and always would be the good ole U.S. Army. Brotherhood forged through trial by fire, from shared experience, and yes – even shared loss.
Jason rounded the corner of Maxwell and turned south, spotting the grocery a few buildings up on the left. As he approached, a tiny woman with quite possibly the sweetest backside he’d ever seen, perched on the top rung of a ladder. Not that he admired backsides anymore. Frontsides either. His life was much simpler without backsides or frontsides. Still, he couldn’t help but stop. Her heart-shaped ass was too sweet to ignore. The woman held the end of a sign and seemed to be reaching for a hook that was just beyond her reach. His breath stalled, as much from her luscious curves framed by smooth fitting denim jeans, as from her precarious position atop the ladder. Didn’t she know you weren’t ever supposed to stand on the top rung?
“Hold up a sec,” Jason called, moving with speed that surprised him. “Let me help you.”
Something like an unseen hand propelled him from behind, spurring him into action. He had to spot the woman, there was no way she could stretch another six inches without falling headfirst to the cement. Already, she was leaning out too far, and she’d break something falling from that height. She turned, looking over her shoulder at the sound of his voice, and the motion was enough to upset the ladder’s tenuous balance. The scene unfolded in slow-motion, ladder tipping and hanging suspended for one awful second before it crashed to the ground. She yelped, arms flailing as the sign pulled taut, then ripped under the weight of her fall.
CHAPTER 2
Jason launched himself at the woman, arms open, diving to catch her and break her fall. It wasn’t pretty, but he caught her and rolled, body slamming into the sidewalk with teeth-jarring force, before coming to rest on his back. “I have you. You’re safe.”
She was tiny. Nestled easily in his arms, even as she sprawled across his chest. And her hair slipped through his fingers like the softest silk. He caught a whiff of almond emanating from underneath her curly blonde locks. And was that rose? Jesus, her perfume reminded him of the heady nose in a perfectly balanced cabernet franc. He stroked down her back, unconsciously feeling for breaks and finding none. “Are you okay?” His heart pounded frantically in his ears. She could have easily broken her neck. Or worse.
But when she lifted her head and locked eyes with him, his heart stopped altogether. Her wide-eyed gaze held him in thrall, and his stomach lurched like he was free-falling. Shit. Had he sustained a concussion? His body tightened in awareness as he stared back unabashedly. Her eyes were the exact shade of blue he’d experienced on a dive in the Maldives. Deep and solemn and mysterious as the reefs he’d explored.
And then the corners of her eyes crinkled as her eyes lit in recognition. With expectation. Hope. His stomach churned dangerously. She looked at him like she expected him to hand over the moon at any second. Emotions tumbled through him like an upended salt shaker. She shouldn’t be looking at him like that. Like she believed in him. He’d ordered his life so that no one looked at him that way anymore. Especially a woman.
“It’s you,” she said, awe in her voice. “I knew it.”
Maybe he wasn’t the only one who’d bonked his head in the fall. “Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?” He couldn’t stop caressing her hair. For the first time in years, the painful knot in his chest eased. But they couldn’t lie here forever, spread-eagle on the sidewalk in broad daylight.
“I’m okay,” she said with a husky lilt to her voice, the sound soothing the rough edges of his soul with its sweetness. He could feel his bones turning to liquid as she continued. “What about you? I think you took the brunt of it.” She cupped his cheek, eyes full of concern.
He fixated on her mouth, a perfect bow on top and a full, kissable lip on bottom, a dusky shade of pink that reminded him of his family’s signature rosé. A color that demanded to be tasted. Sippe
d and savored. He opened his mouth to speak, but she’d bewitched the speech right out of him. He cleared his throat. “Fine,” he managed to croak. Holy hell, what was happening to him? He shook himself. Her fall had obviously dislodged something in his brain. He needed to help her up, find Millie Prescott and hightail it back to the car before he did something he regretted.
She broke into a smile, revealing straight white teeth. An even pinker tongue darted out to slick her lower lip, and for the first time in a very, very long time, the faintest stirrings of arousal sparked to life. What would that lower lip taste like? What would she taste like?
“Shall we try and stand up?”
“Sure.” No. I don’t want to move.
She drew in a quick breath, hesitating, eyes suddenly unsure. “Wait. I have to know. Do you mind?”
What on earth was she talking about? “No?”
Her chest filled with air, pushing against him, as if she was getting ready to dive underwater. Before he could protest, she lowered her head and pressed her mouth to his.
Her kiss was tentative at first. Gentle, curious. He inhaled sharply and tightened his grip on her skull, as his cock sprang to full attention. All the shackles in the world couldn’t have prevented him from kissing her back. When her tongue slipped across the inside of his lower lip, electricity surged through him, shocking long-dead nerves back to life. With a groan that originated deep in his throat, he opened his mouth and deepened the kiss, pinning her against his chest with his other arm as they devoured each other. A minute or an hour could have passed, for all he knew. He was lost, floating on a wave of long-forgotten sensation, seeing a future filled with happiness.
She broke the kiss and beamed down at him, adoration shining in her eyes. His airway closed off. No one looked at him that way. Like he was special. Important. Like he meant something.
“I knew it,” she cooed, giving her hips a little grind into his painful erection.
