More shovelling…
More shovelling…
Winter has hit the Pacific Northwest with a vengeance. While I was shoveling the driveway for the third time yesterday, I suddenly thought of a scene from WILD SKY REDEMPTION, in which a city girl ends up on a Montana cattle ranch in the depths of winter.
Here she is, riding on a snowmobile for the first time. (And where I create a word used nowhere else in literature. I hope.) Enjoy Throwback Thursday!
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Damn her and her big mouth.
And her vanity. She shuffled her feet on the running board of the snowmobile, praying she wouldn’t fall off, wishing she could get better purchase on the narrow skids.
“How you doing?” Zach yelled, his words whipping away in the wind. Des tried to answer, but she couldn’t move her lips. She couldn’t feel her cheeks. Or her eyebrows. Or her toes.
She’d begun the trip holding on to the bars at the side by her thighs. But when Zach opened the throttle, the speed had thrown her backward and she’d grabbed his waist instinctively, locking her hands together and burying her face against his back. Once there, she was unable to change position. Now, her arms might as well have been frozen in place. Even if she wanted to say something, she feared her lips would not be able to form the words.
The rumble of the engine beneath her and the nearness and position of Zach’s body between her legs created a distracting reminder of the sensuality that sparked between them. It was frustratingly inconsistent; sometimes, she’d swear he was deliberately antagonizing her, but other times, she saw the same old heat they’d generated the first time they’d met. He was not immune to her, no matter how he tried to hide it.
Zach pointed toward a ridge, shading his eyes against the sun. Des turned her head, blinking, feeling as if her bones had frozen in place. Her nose tingled. She probably had the mother of all danglers hanging off it, but unless she wanted to risk her life for a one-handed swipe, she was stuck with it. God. Zach would die laughing.
She looked where he pointed but saw nothing. Thank goodness she was wearing her sunglasses, or her eyeballs would be iced over, too.
“I’m going to circle around them,” he said, yelling over the engine noise. “It’s a bit of an angle, so hang on.”
When he turned his head, his mouth was disturbingly close to hers. She saw the rough stubble on his chin, the sculpted plane between jaw and cheekbone, lips open with exertion, the way they would be, she thought suddenly, when he made love.
“Okay,” Des yelled back. Or tried to. The sound that came out squeezed past lips frozen and sluggish, from a throat thick with phlegm.
Oh yeah, she was quite the seductress.
When he rounded the side of the ridge and began the steep climb, Des felt him shift his weight, to compensate and remain balanced. His hip pressed warm and firm against the inside of her thigh, sliding easily over the leather. She tried to do the same, but her butt didn’t slide. She gave herself a push off the rubberized running board, but her foot slipped. Her fingers lost their grip on each other and slipped apart, despite her conscious effort to keep them locked. In slow motion—or so it seemed—she broke away from Zach and the machine.
Before she knew it, there was only cold air under her.
Des saw the horizon do a complete turn before landing on the soft snow, bouncing once and plowing to a stop.
Vaguely, she heard Zach yelling her name. Snow rasped over her skin, filling her mouth and eyes. She gasped for air, coughing and spitting, her teeth aching. Her sinuses were on fire, and between the cold and the shock and the glare, she could barely see. Her sunglasses had gone AWOL.
Zach crashed through the snow and knelt at her side.
“Des? Are you okay? Don’t move. Can you talk?”
She struggled to sit up, to make some kind of response, but she might as well have been swimming in syrup. Her limbs were so cold they weren’t obeying properly.
She finally managed to sit up and rubbed a glove over her face.
“I’m fine.” At least the snot-sicle was gone.
Zach had been right, damn him. And now that he could see she was in one piece, his concern fell away. “Damn, Des, don’t scare me like that.”
“So sorry,” she paused for a sneeze, “if I caused you any discomfort.” She managed to get onto all fours, but then one boot slipped out from under her and she went sprawling again.
“Hey, Princess?” He didn’t even try to hide his laughter. “You’re gonna have to work on your dismount, but I’d still give you a solid five out of ten.”
A Dog Called Valentine
Today’s Teaser: A Dog Called Valentine
The dog lay in the back of the chain-link run, his head on his paws, his eyes deep and soulful. And hopeless. He was bigger than she expected. Dirtier. Stinkier. Sadder.
“Oh, my,” Lily said. “What’s his name?”
“Valentine,” Ariel replied. “He was a flea-market puppy, purchased last year as a Valentine’s Day gift by a guy for his girlfriend. She dumped them both by spring, and Valentine’s been bouncing around since then.”
Lily raised her eyebrows. “He looks a bit like Marley, from the movie. Can’t we call him that instead?”
“Sorry,” Ariel said, not sounding sorry at all. “Every new owner has tried to change his name. It’s the only one he knows. I think everyone expects him to be like the movie dog. Then they get him home and find out how energetic he is. He doesn’t listen, they say. He destroys their furniture. They can’t walk him. He runs away. He jumps on the kids.”
Lily’s heart ached. “And with each new home, he gets worse.”
“Underneath that dirty, matted coat is an adorable personality just waiting to be released by the right person.”
Lily and the dog surveyed each other. The tilt of his head and his half-cocked ears suggested that Ariel was right. It’s just that there was so much of him. And so much mud.
Lily bit the inside of her cheek. He needed so much. Would she be equal to the task? “Keep in mind, I’m no Cesar Millan. I’m more… See Spot Run.”
“You’ll be fine,” Ariel assured her. “A little basic obedience. You know, sit, down, off, heel, maybe a couple of tricks. Oh, and get him used to grooming. He enjoys rolling in stuff. A bath and a good brushing and he’ll be gorgeous.”
Not likely. But he had that heart-tugging quality in spades. “You haven’t had much luck, have you, boy?” she murmured. “No one’s ever even gotten to know you.”
She knew what it was like to strike out, over and over again. And be overlooked.
Copyright c 2019 by Roxanne Snopek
Fall in Love with Valentine!
Want to curl up with a read that will warm you inside and out? A DOG CALLED VALENTINE is just the book!
When an unwanted Valentine’s Day present is dumped at the shelter, volunteer Lily decides to foster the poor dog herself. A little attention is all he needs to blossom into a loving pet, ready for his forever home. Plus, helping an unloved animal will distract her from her own love life. Win, win. Right? Wrong. Valentine needs more than a makeover if he’s going to be adopted. He destroys her home, hates to be groomed and when he behaves better for a perfect stranger than he does her, Lily swallows her pride and begs that perfect stranger for help
After losing his canine partner in a horrific moment that upended his future, sexy and stoic Shane turns to remodeling his grandmother’s home. No more law enforcement career, no more dogs, no more risks. But it’s hard to ignore the misunderstood mutt at the park and his well-intentioned, but clueless, handler. Shane reluctantly agrees to give her a few tips and tricks, but that’s all. He won’t care. He won’t get invested. And once Valentine finds his new home, life can go back to normal.
But there’s a new normal in town and, suddenly, Valentine’s Day will never be the same.
Available in digital and paperback at Amazon: A Dog Called Valentine