Always a Maverick by Delores Fossen

Even a real-life hero needs a little healing sometimes…
Air Force test pilot Blue Donnelly has the greatest job in the world…until his F-22 crashes during a demonstration flight, leaving him with a busted body and a ton of guilt. Then horse whisperer Marin Galloway walks into his hospital room, snapping him out of self-pity with a shock of desire and some surprising news: her six-year-old ward thinks Blue is his daddy.

Leo isn’t really Blue’s son, much as the little boy wishes it. Still, he needs a father figure, and Blue is willing to help…at least until it’s time to report for duty. The longer Blue spends getting closer and closer to Marin and to Leo on his family’s sprawling Texas ranch, the more he questions his need to return to the sky. But when a secret is revealed, leaving his entire future uncertain, Blue must decide who he is outside the cockpit—and whether his new dream is big enough for two co-pilots.