Mary J. McCoy-Dressel

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see the end of winter this year. We’ve had so much snow. It’s hard to believe our snowfall is below average, so far. The whole country is getting slapped with awful weather. What will spring bring? Happy March!

This snippet comes from Hey, Cowboy, Book #2.

In the back of this book in my Note to Readers, I stated: Writing this book brought out emotions I forgot I had from joy to heart wrenching pain. I laughed. I cried. I held my breath. I loved.

In Howdy, Ma’am, Book One, the book opens with Velia returning from Italy after attending her Aunt Dafne’s funeral. Torre is Velia’s cousin and Dafne’s son.

At the end of this snippet you’ll see the word zio. This means uncle in Italian. I was told by the person who checked my Italian in this series, that words like zio, zia, mamma, papà aren’t capitalized like they are in English. At first, it was hard to get used to writing them without capital letters, but I wanted to be true to my heroine’s use of her language.

A name has been changed, and a scene has been modified so nothing is given away.

Sorry for the long introduction.

Bull Rider Series 2

“We have to get things straightened out here.” They backed Roy and Caulder against the wall while the sheriff handcuffed Rosemary. He nodded toward Caulder and said to a deputy, “He’s the homeowner, set him free.”

“Get the handcuffs off him, he’s family.” Caulder tilted his head toward Roy.

Sheriff Dawson instructed the deputy to release him, too.

Velia scanned the room. Two had been shot and there were men with guns. She understood their need to secure the place.

“Anyone else in the house?” asked the deputy who had been there previously to take a report.

“My cousin? No!” She turned to Caulder. “Is Torre in the…safe room?”

He gave a short nod.

“We’ll have to get him, ma’am,” said the sheriff. “Show me where he is.”

“But my father. Let me remain with him.” Her shoulders shook from sobbing. “My cousin is s-safe for now. He’s only a boy. Please…I don’t want him to see this.”

“Everyone needs to be in one place until we figure out what’s going on here, and to make sure he’s okay.”

“I’ll go,” Roy said. He directed the sheriff toward the safe room.

The EMTs arrived, and they attended to her father while two other techs attended to the second intruder.

Caulder picked Velia up from the floor. “Come on, baby, let them do their job.” He wrapped his arms around her and held tight.

One of the techs worked on her father. “We have to move him now.” They rolled his listless body over and prepared him for the trip, then lifted him to the stretcher and adjusted the straps around his body.

The sheriff returned and spoke to Velia. “Your man is in the other room with the boy and a deputy. I’ll get you to the hospital. You’ll bring the boy with you. We have to question Mr. McCutchen and Mr. Bianco before they can join you.”

Velia placed both hands on her head. “Are you arresting Caulder and Roy?”

“We need to question them, ma’am. This is an obvious home invasion, and it looks like you all did what you had to do to protect yourselves.”

He directed Caulder to remain with a deputy and another one stayed with Roy. Sheriff Dawson took Velia by the elbow and got Torre from the other room. He escorted them to his vehicle.

Velia held her cousin close against her as they walked outside. The sight of flashing lights and ambulances shattered her heart into tiny pieces. To think this boy had to go through something so traumatic once again in his life. She dropped into the back seat of the sheriff’s SUV, never removing her arm from around Torre’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Torre,” she said sobbing. “Oh, honey, I know you were frightened.”

“Roy and Caulder told me to stay hidden. Those people wanted to hurt you. I heard gunshots.”

Velia pulled back. “And you listened. I’m so thankful you listened to them. I’m proud of you.” She released him yet smoothed hair away from his face. His dark eyes held fear and questions.

“What happened to your face?”

Her face must have looked a mess. “An accident.” How many times had he heard that excuse from his own mother before she died?

“Will zio Ric be okay?”

“I don’t know.” She swiped at tears then embraced him. This must have brought back horrid memories for him. “Torre, I’m just so sorry. So sorry.” Please, let my father be okay.

I switched the featured book I had started with this month back to the Bull Rider Series. Mostly, because I’d like to expose the new covers as much as possible.

Thank you for reading. Enjoy your weekend.

Stay warm and dry.