Chasing home, p.1
Chasing Home, page 1
Chasing Home
PIPER RAYNE
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
© 2025 by Piper Rayne®
Piper Rayne® registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
Cover Design: Whiskey Ginger Goods
1st Line Editor: Joy Editing
2nd Line Editor: My Brother’s Editor
Proofreader: My Brother’s Editor
2nd Proofreader: Olivia Winston
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About Chasing Home
It was straight out of a rom-com—until two pink lines changed everything.
Zander Shaw is country music’s hottest star. So, when he singled me out of a packed arena and had me pulled backstage, I should’ve known I wasn’t his forever. One signed NDA later, I was sneaking onto his tour bus, wrapped up in his world, and him. But it ended before it really started when he ghosted me.
Then he shows up on my family’s ranch to film his new music video, a surprise to us both. Now I’m his appointed tour guide around the ranch, stuck sharing all my favorite places with the man who carelessly discarded me.
The more time we spend together, the harder it is to guard my heart because his flirty half-smile makes me forget my anger. But Zander’s made it clear, he’s not looking to ride out into the sunset with anyone.
Which would be fine… if I wasn’t carrying his baby.
Contents
Plain Daisy Ranch Family
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
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Epilogue
Also by Piper Rayne
Cockamamie Unicorn Ramblings
About Piper & Rayne
The Noughtons Family
Parents
Bruce and Daisy (deceased) Noughton
Children
Ben Noughton – Gillian Adams
(The One I Left Behind)
Jude Noughton – Sadie Wilkins
(The One I Stood Beside)
Emmett Noughton – Briar Adams
(The One I Didn’t See Coming)
The Owens Family
Parents
Brad and Darla Owens
Children
Lottie Owens – Brooks Watson
(Chasing Forever)
Bennett Owens – Delaney Richards
(Chasing Love)
Romy Owens – Zander Shaw
(Chasing Home)
The Ellis Family
Parents
Wade and Bette Ellis
Children
Poppy Ellis
Jensen Ellis
Scarlett Ellis
To see more of the Plain Daisy Ranch
family tree visit our website:
https://piperrayne.com/noughton-family-tree
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.
Chapter Two
ROMY
I stick out my hand toward Zander, forcing myself to keep it there and not recoil. “Nice to meet you.”
“That’s it?” Scarlett murmurs, gaze darting to meet Lottie’s.
Zander’s chin raises slightly, as if he’s questioning why I’m pretending I don’t know him. Then his large hand slides into mine. His calloused fingertips graze along my palm, and an uninvited memory of those fingers sliding between my legs forces itself front and center. I lock my jaw, willing it back down.
“Scarlett says you’re a really big fan. I love meeting fans.”
It takes everything inside me not to smack that smug smile off his face.
He doesn’t strip his gaze off me. It’s as though he’s daring me to acknowledge our prior relationship, which clearly wasn’t a relationship to him. He opens his mouth to say something else, but Scarlett interrupts.
“He’s going to film his new video here! Can you believe it?” Scarlett is so excited she looks as if she could pop a blood vessel. I’m not sure I would mind if she did, just to have an excuse to stop staring at him.
“Oh?” I press my lips together and nod.
“Yeah, can you believe it?” She grins at me, then lowers her voice. “I thought you’d be more excited.”
I hate the disappointment in her eyes, but I’m doing my best here.
Lottie grips my arm so tightly, I wonder if she knows something.
“We all did,” Emmett says from the back of the room. “I gotta go get Colter. Welcome to Plain Daisy Ranch.” Emmett walks past us, smacking Zander on the shoulder.
DeSoto steps forward, but Zander gives his head a shake, and DeSoto stands down. That’s the way it goes. It takes me back to the first night when DeSoto put his hand on my elbow and ushered me past the security detail at Zander’s request. It’s the same hand that barred me from entry, eyes apologetic, when he told me I was no longer on the list.
I pull my hand out of Zander’s, and his lingers in the air a beat before he shoves it in his pocket. All easygoing and casual. Annoyingly in control of his emotions.
“Why here?” I ask him.
My mom nudges me in the side with her elbow. “Romy,” she whispers.
“Why not?” Zander shrugs.
“Can’t you make a set like this on some soundstage or something?” My bitterness seeps out before I can rein it in. If I’m not careful, my whole family will piece together the fact that Zander Shaw was my mystery man.
“I want this to feel authentic.”
“Hmm.” My lips press together.
“Well, let me show you around the rest of the ranch. We’ve reserved The Getaway Lodge for you and your entourage.” Scarlett gives me a questioning glare as she holds out her arm to escort Zander away, but he doesn’t turn around.
I raise my eyebrows, afraid to open my mouth because my family are like detectives who will compare notes and swap knowledge until they figure out my secret. And this one I need to keep so I can wrap my head around it before I have to deal with everyone else’s opinions. Besides, I need to make sure I tell Lottie before anyone else. She deserves to be the first to know.
“Are you coming?” Zander asks.
“You should go, Romy,” my mom encourages.
“Yeah, we have room in the UTV for you.” Scarlett waits, looking between us.
“Nah, I’m good. I have work to do here.”
Zander’s smile falters. It’s a crack in his rock star façade that makes my chest ache. Reminds me of the man I thought he was.
Get a grip. He’s probably just upset his super fan isn’t starstruck in his presence in front of her family.
“Okkkaayy,” Scarlett says, her gaze searching out Lottie once again. “This was my birthday present to you, so I guess I’ll have to go shopping now. Hope you wanted some wool socks.”
A few of my family members laugh at Scarlett’s rare show of humor.
Dread washes over me—guilt, more precisely—because no one in this room knows my history with this man. They don’t know how much I thought it was some sign that Zander and I were meant to be the night he had DeSoto pluck me out of the crowd to go backstage. I inserted myself into the plot of one of the romance books I read, thinking that I was the special one he’d want to keep around.
They turn to leave, and my mom gives me a disappointed look over her shoulder.
“Sorry. I’ll go,” I say before my brain can catch up and ask me what the fuck I’m doing.
Zander circles back around. He holds out his hand for me, and my mom coos as if it’s romantic. I ignore his outstretched hand and unwind myself from Lottie, walking around them toward the door.
“Me too.” Lottie’s playing protective sister although she has no idea what she’s protecting me from. But she obviously must sense that something is up.
DeSoto steps in front of her.
Oh, this isn’t going to be good.
“We don’t have room,” he says in that stern voice he likes to use to intimidate people.
I was never on the other end of it, but I heard it plenty. When he denied me entry, there was a sadness in his eyes and a gentleness in his tone. Hell, he offered to get me a ride back to the airport or wherever I needed to go.
Now it makes me wonder how many times Zander had put him in that position.
“Sorry, big guy, but this here.” Lottie circles her finger in the air. “This is my family’s ranch. So, I can go wherever I want, and this whole bodyguard act isn’t necessary. I doubt anyone knows Zander is even in town, and if they did, there’s only one person you would’ve had to protect him from, but she doesn’t seem as interested as she once was. So why don’t you take the afternoon off and go feed our chickens or something?” Lottie breezes past him out the door, leaving DeSoto with his mouth hanging open.
