Whiskey Hearts & Battle Scars. Front Lines to Home Fronts

She calls him hers to deflect a problem. He takes it as a promise. Trisha Hendrix has spent her life running: from memories, from expectations, from anywhere that felt too permanent. Fresh out of the military and exhausted down to her bones, she touches down in a tiny lakeside town with a single goal-rest, then move on. What she doesn't expect? The bartender whose smile could light a blackout. Lorenzo Ingram is warmth wrapped in flannel, the kind of man who remembers strangers' drink orders and gives second chances like it's a hobby.
When Trisha impulsively calls him her "boyfriend" to shut down his overeager ex, Lorenzo is all too willing-and pleased-to play along. But what starts as a deflection becomes something else entirely. Because Lorenzo sees the woman beneath the armor-fierce, lonely, extraordinary. And he knows, instantly and absolutely, that she's his. Trisha tells herself it's just a stopover. Lorenzo is determined to prove it's the beginning of forever. This short read is MF with a guaranteed HEA.