Chasing Home (Plain Daisy Ranch #6)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Romy

I inhale a sharp breath and tear open the plastic package.

I’ve held onto this test too long, pretending what I know in my heart to be true isn’t my actual reality.

But my breasts ache, I’m devouring every snack in sight, and my period is two weeks late.

The test feels like a formality at this point.

Still, I go through the motions. I pee on the stick.

I snap the cap back on. I set it on the counter.

When I reach for my phone to start a timer, my thumb stalls over the screen.

A video of Zander Shaw teasing his hot new single to the world fills the feed.

No doubt it’s a fake-ass love song written by someone with an actual heart.

He’s striding off his tour bus, surrounded by camera flashes and screaming fans, walking into a sold-out arena.

His shirt is wrinkled as if he just picked it up from the corner of the room, and his dark hair is disheveled—probably from someone’s fingers.

My chest tightens, because once—okay, three times—I was that someone.

Does he have to be so damn gorgeous? I squeeze my eyes shut, and I’m right back there, on that narrow bed in the back of his bus relaxing after he’d just taken me against the wall, his fingers grazing down the valley of my breasts, whispering things that made me believe I wasn’t just another notch on his belt.

God, what an idiot. I can’t believe I ever fell for his bullshit. I blame the hopeless romantic in me. Correction. The former hopeless romantic.

I swipe the video up before my heart caves in again.

A knock rattles the bathroom door. “Romy, are you in there?” my cousin Scarlett asks.

“Yeah, I’ll be out in a minute.”

Why Scarlett’s at The Knotted Barn today is beyond me. We don’t have a wedding booked for this weekend. Business has been slowing ever since Walker Matthews announced and then spent a gazillion dollars on his knock-off venue on Wild Bull Ranch.

Scarlett knocks again.

“I heard you the first time. Give me a second, okay?” I attempt to keep the irritation from my voice, then glance at my phone.

How many minutes since I peed on the stick?

Damn Zander. Even when he’s not here, he’s pulling my focus. And if this test is positive, he won’t just haunt me. I’ll be tied to him for life.

No. Not happening.

I cling to denial. There’s a chance I’m not pregnant, right? I haven’t had any pickle-and-peanut-butter cravings. And there’s been not one ounce of morning sickness. That means something, right? I’m fine. Totally fine. Not growing a little one inside me, that’s for sure.

“I have a surprise for you.” Scarlett’s voice is lighter than usual, bubbling with excitement.

“And I said I’d be a minute.” This time I don’t manage to keep my irritation hidden.

She growls in frustration, a more familiar Scarlett sound, then her heels click away down the hall.

The mental timer in my head buzzes. I face the counter, shut my eyes, palms clammy. This is it. If there are two lines, my life will never be the same.

“Romy!” Emmett pounds on the door.

“Is this a family reunion I don’t know about?”

“Jeez… calm down. Are you hangry?”

I snap my gaze back to the test, and my stomach flips. Because there they are. Those two pink lines.

No fucking way.

My lungs seize, my heart hammers, and sweat prickles my hairline. I grab the second test, desperate for a different answer, and sit again, rocking forward, willing my bladder to cooperate.

This can’t be real. And yet it is.

I already know that even though this wasn’t planned, I’ll be having this baby. My options flash through my mind, but the only one that feels right to me, no matter how messed up this situation might be, is becoming a mother.

How the hell am I supposed to tell Zander Shaw he’s going to be a father? He never wants to see me again. He had his security guy DeSoto make that abundantly clear already.

“Romy…” my older sister, Lottie, singsongs through the door.

Seriously? Can I not have two damn minutes to myself?

“In a minute!” I shout, pressing down, rocking, trying to squeeze out enough pee for the second stick.

The knob rattles. “Why is the door locked? Are you alone in there? Or are you with your mystery boyfriend?” She laughs.

“Go find somewhere to bang Brooks!”

My sister and her new husband are always eye-fucking each other, even at family dinners. That kind of thing used to make me swoon, but now it makes me feel sick.

The door jiggling stops. “You’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

I hear her whisper to someone else.

“Sweetie, are you okay?”

My eyes shut with frustration when I hear my mother’s voice. “Yes, Mom!”

I snap the cap on the second test, jam both sticks back in the box, and shove it into the farthest corner under the sink.

Then I face the mirror. My reflection looks…

off. My cheeks are flushed, my hairline damp.

I practice a neutral expression. Maybe I can get away with saying I have food poisoning or something.

It’s just my family. There’re so many of us, and with whatever is going on out there, there should be so much chaos that no one will catch onto the fact that something is up with me.

I open the door.

Lottie and Mom are plastered against the opposite wall, staring at me as if I just got released from jail.

“Why are you all here?” I ask.

Mom arches a brow and looks right and left. “I think I own the place, no?”

“What’s going on? You look sick. Are you sick?” Lottie frowns. “It’s probably from the girls. Bet they brought something home from school. I tried to tell Mom—”

“I’m fine,” I interrupt Lottie, my voice sharper than I mean it to be. “What’s going on?”

We head toward the barn’s main room, the old beams strung with lights, the vineyard visible through the French doors that lead to the balcony.

Scarlett spots me and claps her hands. “Oh yay!”

Most of the family’s here, minus a few who must still be working.

“Spit it out!” I snap.

Mom shoots me her disapproving look, but I don’t care. My nerves are frayed to threads.

Scarlett raises a finger, then swings open the double barn doors like I do when a gorgeous bride is on the other side, about to walk down the aisle to her groom.

Light spills in from outside, making me squint a bit.

Lottie hooks her arm through mine, her grin way too wide.

And then, DeSoto steps inside and does a double-take, his eyes asking the same question mine are—what the hell are you doing here?

But my stomach drops fully when the man behind DeSoto appears.

Zander walks in as though we should all fall to our knees over sharing the same space as him. It’s his practiced rock star look. Pompous cocky asshole.

Sorry, little one.

My hand drifts to my stomach before I snatch it back.

“Mr. Shaw… Zander…” Scarlett stammers. “This is my cousin, Romy. She runs The Knotted Barn and is a huge fan of yours.”

For the first time ever, Zander Shaw’s camera-ready smile slips.