Mary J. McCoy-Dressel

Christmas at Love House:

A Bittersweet Interlude #3

This month on my website and blog, I’m sharing a short snippet from the third book in the series.  These are the new covers for anyone who hasn’t seen them yet. I love the font my designer used for the titles.

Snippet Set Up: Reece (Foley) Wilson was the youngest bull rider on Caulder McCutchen’s team. He appears in each book in the series. Caulder has taken the kid under his wing. Now it’s Christmas and four years after the second book, and Foley is spending the holiday at Caulder’s family ranch in the Snowy Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania. The guys decided to do a practice bull ride.

Caulder and Velia have many family members visiting at Love House for Christmas. They never expected a new love to bloom between two of their guests. Velia’s three younger cousins, Torre, Natale, and Alba are in this scene. Natale recently turned eighteen.

If you haven’t met Velia and Caulder by now, how come? Haha, teasing!

Available at Amazon.

Let’s ride!

“Both you girls, step back,” said Caulder. “Pictures later. You don’t just come up here to take pictures. Did you ever see a bull bucking in the chute for crying out loud? A horn could take you out in a minute. Ask Velia all about it.”

Alba made a face and wrinkled her nose at Caulder. “Okay, bossy.”

Teenagers! He’d give her bossy later. Aiden stood beside Caulder when Foley eased down on the bull. He held tight to Foley’s vest. Torre came over to act as the front safety guy, ready to hold him back if the bull bucked in the chute while Foley rosined his rope.

“Come on, Foley,” said Caulder. “Like you told me on my last ride of the season, ‘you can do this.’”

“Got it.” Getting the bull rope rosined up, he tightened, wrapped, and secured it in his hand. “This feels damn good to be on a bull again with all y’all around.” Once the rope was how he wanted it, he glanced at Natale then nodded to the gate man. “Go!”

Caulder stepped back when the bull bucked out the gate. “Looking good!” This was like old times when Foley had been his teammate, but either way, he held his breath and said a silent prayer. “Come on, hold on, Foley. Hold on to that rage…”

The eight second buzzer rang. He loosened the rope on his hand. The crazy bull gave one last buck. Foley got hung up. He ended up running, or more like being dragged alongside the bull. Natale screamed from the sidelines. One of Aiden’s ranch hands followed with the horse and Jase rode another one.

Foley got his hand free on his own and fell back on his ass. Sitting in the sand, he removed his helmet, got up slowly, and slapped his chest with pride. A flashing smile lit his face as he held his helmet above his head. The first thing he did was seek out Natale.

“Yeah, baby, you did it!” She jumped up and down at the chute shoving her fists into the air.

Baby? Caulder glanced back and forth from Foley to Velia’s cousin. Their gaze stayed connected until Foley came out of the ring. She took two steps down at a time and ran to him the second her foot hit the ground. Caulder shook his head but cheered to himself. Those two reminded him of him and Velia back some years ago when this had all been new to her. Like Velia, Natale had it bad for a cowboy.

He went down the steps and to where they stood to break them up. “All right, all right, let me in here you two. Damn, Foley that was a good ride.” Caulder embraced them both and when he parted, he took both of their shoulders to bring them back together. “Carry on.” He winked at Natale and mussed up Foley’s hair like he was a kid.

Christmas at Love House: A Bittersweet Interlude #3.

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Thanks for stopping by today!

Here’s a short video showing how to wrap the tail of the bull rope in your hand. Remember, the bull is not standing there waiting for you to take care of business. One of your buddies is standing on the gate pulling the end of your rope tight between wraps. Sometimes, if the rider takes too much time, a judge sets a timer for, I think, sixty-seconds. If you don’t make it out of the chute, you forfeit the ride and points if you would’ve ridden the bull for eight-seconds. Haha, this excites me so much, I could talk about it forever!

Images: Dreamstime.com