It’s time for Snippet Sunday and we’re right in the middle of the 10 days of Cheyenne Frontier Days. That means rodeo, horses, and cowboys. I have a series for that. 😉
The Triple Star Ranch series now has three books, ROPE A FALLING STAR, STAR LIGHT, STAR BRIGHT and STAR SPANGLED BANNER. There’s a fourth one coming, but with so many writing projects going you can expect it probably in 2022. Tentative title: Loving a Tin Star.
In this snippet, Dr. Suzie is getting ready to ride in the championship barrel racing finals. But first the Leap Frog SEALs are doing their jumps. The snippet is a little long but worth the extra words.
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The rest of the crowd cheered as the announcers shouted out to “our Navy SEALs, the Leap Frogs” and Suzie strained her eyes to catch the little black dots of the men tumbling out of the back of the C-130. She bit her lip as they fell without chutes for a few moments, but the blue and yellow sails opened and the men stopped short. She let her breath out and shot a guilty grin around to her fellow contestants, but no one noticed her unease.
Two of the men fell in tandem, their feet locked together, and the other two fell separately, one twirling and swirling like his chute was caught in a wind vortex. Her heart crawled up to her throat until he leveled out. Glory be, I hate it when they do that. Not that they weren’t consummate professionals, but the appearance of being out of control scared the daylights out of her.
The tandem pair broke apart and one dropped an American flag while the other dropped smoke to leave trails in the sky. The whole team performed flawlessly, though the few “out of control” swirls still made Suzie hold her breath. The announcers commented on the performance the whole way down and it was a sight to behold these powerful men falling precisely into the center of the arena.
The first guy touched down amid cheers from the audience, waving before he gathered up his chute. The first member of the tandem team hit the ground, his NAVY chute fluttering to the ground along with the smoke.
But when the second member of the tandem team hung no more than fifty feet up, the SEAL’s chute folded like a burst balloon. He immediately looked up and tried to maneuver into the portion of his chute still inflated, but his speed increased.
Oh dear glory!
Somehow, the SEAL twisted in midair and gathered up the American flag before he hit the ground in a jarring thud that sprayed the sand of the arena out in all directions.
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Oh dear, that can’t be good. 😉 There are several great authors on the Weekend Writer Warriors list, the Snippet Sunday Facebook group, and the Rainbow Snippets Facebook group. A few of my favorites are, P.T. Wyant, Karen Michelle Nutt, Veronica Scott, Karysa Faire, and Iris Blobel.
Here’s the blurb for STAR SPANGLED BANNER:
Now available!
Sometimes a falling star wears a flag…
Dr. Suzie Appleton expected a helluva ride in the barrel-racing championships at Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo, but she had no idea she’d have to save a man falling from the sky. When he calls her for a date, she’s hesitant, but there’s something sexy and seductive about the Leap Frog, and she takes a chance. She suggests he come to the Triple Star Ranch for his therapy to have more time with him before he returns to jumping out of airplanes.
Petty Officer Enrique Sanchez signed up to serve his country and expected to get shot at, just not during an exhibition jump at a rodeo. But the sexy doctor who saved his life in the arena is willing to sign off on his transfer on one condition: that he’s not her patient. Works for Enrique. He’d much rather play doctor with her than have her white coat get in the way of their personal relationship.
While the attraction between them isn’t one-sided, neither are the threats. Someone is trying to complete their attempt on Enrique’s life, and someone else has their sights set on Suzie. Rumors and lies threaten to destroy their relationship. But all’s fair in love and war, and both of them could lose big.