Page 9 of The Hometown Legend

Well, maybe not anything; some deployments had certainly been worse. But most things were easier than that. At least here he would have a purpose again. That had been the problem. That had been the slow slide all the way down. Having nothing, no idea what to do next, no idea who he was anymore.

Cassidy had said he didn’t know how to smile anymore.

And she was right. That was the problem.

She’d been right about him. Everything she’d shouted at him in a desperate rage to wake him up, to reach the man she’d married, had been true.

He couldn’t even be angry at his wife for ending things. Because he wasn’t the man she’d married.

He was unable to be the husband that she wanted him to be.Neededhim to be.

All of those things were true.

She’d said it was like he’d died in Afghanistan.

He couldn’t argue that.

But maybe being back here would make him feel more like himself. Maybe.

But there was a reason he’d come back initially under the cover of darkness.

There was a reason that seemed preferable.

There was a reason it seemed a little bit easier.

He’d get the lay of the land before anyone was expecting him. Including his mom and Lydia.

He hadn’t told them about his intent to buy the ranch because he’d been afraid of it falling through. He’d been irritated when the sale had been held up, because he’d just been waiting for that to bite his ass and not be the heroic move he’d been hoping it would be.

Now, though...

He was sort of grateful for the reprieve.

He’d told them he’d had a hiccup with the place he was buying, and even though he’d managed to get it ironed out quickly, it had made the exact date of his getting to town fuzzy. He’d left it that way deliberately.

He could’ve stayed in Georgia for another month.

But he was so done with that place. So done with having to be confronted by any of the places where he’d once been Staff Sergeant Gideon Payne.

Because that man was gone.

But maybe Gideon Payne, rancher, could follow in his father’s footsteps and find a life.

Damn.

Regret hollowed out his gut.

His dad was gone.

He’d come home for the funeral, but there was something so stark about it now that he was home.

He hadn’t been back in four years. Not since his mom had sold the ranch. That distance had allowed him a healthy amount of denial.

And hell, he’d been in another world.

The military was all-consuming. His life away had been all-consuming. Until it wasn’t.

Until he’d been injured and left with nothing but his own echoing thoughts. His own weakness. His own failure.

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