Teaser Tuesday: Dakota Cowboy



Dakota Hearts Book 8
Dakota Cowboy

The last thing Luke McKinnon wanted in life was to work at the family oil business. He'd done a good job steering clear of that by setting up a successful law practice in Sioux Falls. But when the patriarch of the family falls sick, Luke steps in. He's only trading his crisp white dress shirt for a t-shirt and hardhat until his father is back on his feet. He doesn't plan on sticking around. That is...until he meets Tessa.

Single mother, Tessa Rock isn't afraid of hard work. She can hold her own with the ranch hands on her daddy's ranch and on an oil rig. She doesn't have time for a man to mess up her fragile life...until Luke McKinnon shows up on her rig. The handsome lawyer is probably used to having beautiful women draped on his arm. But at the end of the day, it's a miracle if she can get all the dirt and grime out from under her fingernails. The two of them couldn't be more different. But none of that matters. She quickly learns what a fool she'd been to think of Luke as just a lawyer who can help her get what she wants. One night in his warm embrace, and seeing the heart and soul of a man who loves so deeply, Tessa realizes she wants the man...for the rest of her life.


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Excerpt 

Rumor had it Luke McKinnon was a lawyer.  He was the kind of lawyer who untangled all the knots that married people spent a lifetime tying up.  The kind who won tough cases for the clients he represented.

At least, that is what Tessa Rock had overheard during lunch earlier that day.  She’d pretended not to listen.  She even pretended not to notice Luke McKinnon when he’d come into the cafeteria to get a cup of coffee, although in truth, it was hard not to notice a man like him.  There was something commanding about him.  Not unapproachable or intimidating.  Luke McKinnon was a man who made it hard not to notice him in a room full of men.

Tessa Rock knew she needed Luke McKinnon.  The question was how to approach him with her troubles without everyone else on this oil rig jumping into her business.

Tessa picked up one end of a section of pipe that had been dropped on the platform by Dibs Dobinski, the crane operator, and then she turned to Matt Henley, another roughneck worker on the MW oil rig she’d been working on for the past year.  She’d worked tours with both of these roughnecks and had gotten to the point where they’d fallen into a rhythm that functioned like a well-oiled machine.  She waited until Matt gave a nod and she lifted the pipe, holding steady so he could ease the pipe into the fitting.

Once the pipe was secured, Tessa turned to see if Luke was still talking to his brother, going over production numbers.  Ever since John McKinnon had been laid up in the hospital after suffering a heart attack on that very platform, Luke had been visiting the rig, trying to keep it producing oil. And that was just fine with Tessa.  Working on the rig wasn’t any harder than working on her ranch, but she needed this paycheck if she had any chance of keeping the Rolling Rock Ranch and making it solvent again.  If she lost the ranch, she’d lose everything.

That wasn’t going to happen if she had a breath left in her.

She needed to keep herself focused on her work like she did every day she spent at MW Oil.  It had taken her a long time to win over the acceptance of a crew that initially wasn’t too sure about a woman being on the platform with them.  Now that she had, she didn’t want a handsome face to undo everything she’d worked hard for this past year.

And she couldn’t deny that Luke McKinnon was a man who commanded attention just by standing there.  But if she didn’t get her mind off the man and on her work, she wouldn’t be standing here much longer.

“Ready!” she called out to Dibs.  Rinse, Repeat.


A few moments later, she heard yelling from below.

“Damn,” Matt yelled.  Tessa still held a section of the pipe in her hand, but with Matt’s outburst, she turned and spotted the pipe Dibs had secured on the crane swinging toward them as if it had a will of its own.

“Watch out!” she heard someone call out.

In the split second it took her to realize the pipe she was holding was going to connect with the pipe that was swinging from the crane, Tessa dropped the pipe and rolled across the platform out of the way just as the two pipes collided.  As she rolled, her hardhat slipped off her head and disappeared over the side of the platform.

When she stopped rolling and the pipes settled, Tessa glanced over at Dibs and took in the panicked expression on his face as he stood up inside the crane, and then shut it down.  She gave him a thumb up to let him know she was okay.

“Sorry, Tessa.  When I felt the wind, I should have checked to see if that pipe was stable.  I didn’t see it coming until it was almost right at you,” Matt said, heading toward the pipe that had rolled across the platform.

“It’s okay.  No one was hurt.  Just give me a minute to get my hardhat.”

“Earth to Tessa!” Matt called out, pointing above her.  “Watch your head!  You have a pipe coming your way!”

Tessa turned her attention back to the platform, and to the task at hand.  Her cheeks flamed after having been caught gawking at Luke McKinnon.  At least, that’s what the smirk on Matt’s face told her he was thinking.

She grabbed the pipe that Dibs was easing over to them to keep it steady, and repeated the same process she had for the last ten pipes they’d fitted today.

Tessa quickly ran to the stairs leading down to the ground from the platform she’d been working on.  She spotted her hardhat on the ground at the same time she saw Luke McKinnon walking toward it.  He got to it before her and picked it up with the hand that wasn’t holding the clipboard and turning it as if he were inspecting it for damage.

“I guess this is yours?” Luke said, handing her the hardhat.

“Thanks.”  She took the hardhat, but didn’t put it on her head.

“Were you hurt?”

“Up there?  No.  It gets gusty on the platform.  Every so often the wind takes one of those pipes like it’s the rope of a kite.”

He frowned.  “You mean a near accident like that is normal?”

She glanced up at the platform.  Matt was waiting for her.  He could wait a minute.

“No,” she said. “But it does happen.”

He pointed to his head.  “Better get that back on then.”

“Where’s yours?”

He seemed taken aback by her response.

“I don’t work on the platform.”

“You are today.  That means a hardhat for everyone here.  I’m surprised Gray didn’t mention it.  He’s very careful about such things.”

“I’ll remember it next time.”

She started to turn away, but then stopped.

“They say you’re a lawyer,” she said, watching his face.  She knew that a first impression was important, and she didn’t want to leave Luke with the impression that she was a shoddy worker.

“Not today,” he said.

“If I’d have asked you last week, what would you have said?”

“Last week?  I would have said I was the son of an oil company president.”

Her lips lifted just a fraction.  “You still are.  I heard your father is doing much better.”

The worry he’d been feeling over the last few weeks was deep and showed on his face.

“You hear a lot of things.”

“I asked.  I like your father.”  And Tessa did.  She’d always liked John McKinnon.  He didn’t treat her like someone who didn’t belong on his oil rig.  True, he was a gentleman, much like Gray had always been.  But he showed how much he valued her and respected her work.  With so little other positive in her life, that one small thing seemed huge.

Luke was clearly pleased at her compliment.  “He’s a good guy.  It’s hard not to like him.”

“Then why the guilty face?”

He eyed her and then glanced up at the platform.  “Aren’t you supposed to be doing something?”

“Yes.  But I’ve clearly touched on a topic that is sensitive.  Sorry about that.  I have no filter.  I just say what’s on my mind.”


“I’ll remember that, too.”

She put the hardhat on her head.  “You’re not going to fire me for it, are you?”

He frowned.  “Why would I do that?”

She couldn’t help but smile.  “Thanks.” 

When she remained standing there, he asked, “Was there anything else?”

There was so much more.  However, this wasn’t the place. 

Tessa shook her head.  “I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

“At least for today.”

Her stomach dropped.  “Are you leaving us already?”  He couldn’t leave.  She hadn’t even had a chance to talk to him.

“I meant I’ll be here until my father is well enough to come back to work.”

“Oh, let’s hope that’s soon.”

She walked away and felt his eyes on her back as she walked toward the ladder. When she reached the ladder to climb to the second platform, she turned around. Luke was still standing in the same place they’d spoken together, holding his clipboard in his hand.  He was staring at her.  Unlike most men who would turn away when caught, he continued to look at her.  She smiled and was rewarded with the same.  A stab of regret hit her as she turned away.  She’d been so focused on talking to him that she couldn’t see his smile up close or see if his eyes lit up, making his smile genuine or something he just pasted on for show.  Something told Tessa Luke wasn’t the kind of man to put on airs that way.  And she liked that.

Later.  Definitely later.

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Teaser Tuesday: His Dakota Heart



Dakota Hearts Book 7
His Dakota Heart

How do you say goodbye to a love when it had no ending? Gray McKinnon has spent two years struggling with moving on when the woman he loved suffered an accident that left her in a coma and no hope of recovery. Everyone urged Gray to move on. He's had plenty of offers to help him mend his broken heart on and off the rodeo circuit. But moving on is easier said than done when your heart belongs to someone else. At least, he thinks so until he sees Nina Hendrix again.

Nina couldn't help falling in love with her big sister's cowboy any more than she could bring her sister, Jen, back from her coma. She's kept her distance from Gray out of respect for her sister. But when her family decides to move Jen to another medical facility a few states away, she can't help but reach out to Gray, even though she has no illusions that he could love her the way she loves him. She won't let herself be just another woman passing through his life, helping him forget. But one night in his arms makes her realize there is no future for them if every time he looks at her he sees the one woman he can never have.


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Excerpt 

Eight seconds.

That’s all Gray McKinnon needed.  He wasn’t so broken down at thirty-two that he couldn’t hold his seat on the back of a bucking bull for eight seconds, despite the whispers that he was as ancient as the dirt beneath him.  He’d cut his eyeteeth at rodeos, like most of the McKinnons.

Gray positioned himself on the back of the dusty bull named Frozen Tundra. He wasn’t as rank as some of the other bulls being drawn today.  Even if he kept his seat, the bull’s score may not be high enough to give him placement today.  But it didn’t matter. He wasn’t here to prove anything to anyone.

Except himself.

When he was sure his rigging strapped to the bull was secure, he nodded that he was ready and the chute opened.  He expected power beneath him and Frozen Tundra didn’t disappoint.  The bull tucked its head and showed him just how unhappy he was to have Gray on his back.  The next Gray knew his hand broke free of the leather strap and he was airborne a few seconds.  Then his body connected hard with the dirt.  He didn’t even have time to be disappointed, or to react to the pain that shot through his body.  He saw the rodeo clown headed toward him to distract Frozen Tundra and Gray knew he had to get out of the path of the charging bull.  Still feeling the adrenaline rush, Gray scrambled to his feet as quick as he could and ran to the sideline.  Only when he was climbing the rail did he feel pain shoot up his wrist.

Fifteen minutes later Gray sat in the tented medic area with an ice pack on his wrist, staring at an empty gurney as the sound of rodeo erupted in the nearby arena.

“You’ll have to keep that ice on you for another ten minutes or so.  Probably should have an X-ray, too,” the medic said.  “You work at the rig?”

Gray nodded.  He’d been working in the family oil business since he could hold his own out in the field.  His father had insisted all of his children at least learn about the business before going off on their own.  Each McKinnon took their turn as they came of age.  Luke was the first.  He’d worked at MW Oil before heading off to college.  They’d all teased him that he’d purposely gone to law school to avoid having to come home and continue working under their father and uncle’s tutelage.  But he hadn’t been home since.  His brother Ian had been next, but then had left for a career in military soon after.  His sister Grace had been exempt from working on the rig, but still worked in the offices.  Julian was the youngest and the most stir crazy of all the McKinnons.  That left Gray.

“I’m working out in the field but I’m not doing anything with my hand that will prevent me from working.”

The medic, a man in his mid-fifties that looked as if he’d spent too much time in the sun, shook his head.  “Rules are rules.  You have an injury.  You need to get some film of it before you can be cleared to go back on the job.  I can’t force you to do it, of course.  But you put the company at risk without it.  If anyone at the oil company finds out you were injured, you’re going to catch hell Monday morning.”

Gray chuckled wryly.  “It won’t even take that long.”

The medic looked at him, his wiry gray and black brows pulling together into a frown.

“I’m having Sunday dinner with the boss.”

Dawning showed in the man’s expression.  “Then you best get yourself an X-ray before you sit down at the dinner table.  I’ll be back in a few minutes to take that ice pack and then wrap your wrist.”

Alone in the medic tent again, Gray listened to the roar of the crowd as another rider finished their ride.  He’d planned on doing his ride and then watching the other riders to get his head back into the sport.  As he flexed his fingers and felt the ache in his wrist, he decided maybe coming back to the rodeo was a bad idea in more ways than just a sore wrist.


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Teaser Tuesday: Dakota Wedding



Dakota Hearts Book 6
Dakota Wedding


Ian McKinnon was just getting steady on his feet, looking forward to the opening of the Wounded Veterans Center and a big McKinnon wedding celebration, when tragedy struck again. The soldier who'd saved his life while in the military has died. He's charged with his most important mission: find his friend Carlos's family in Mexico or become guardian and raise Carlos's children. The only mandatory stipulation of his friend's will was that Ian live under the same roof with Abby Townsend, a firefighter from Carlos's firehouse. Abby knew the kids well and she could help ease them all through the transition of becoming a family. Okay, so Ian may not be daddy material, but he'd grown up with a whole lot of McKinnons running around. He could handle the kids just fine. The beautiful Abby Townsend was another story.

Abby took one look at Ian and shook her head with utter disbelief. What were her dear friends thinking by naming a man whose nickname was "The Hazard" as guardian of their three small children? She only needed to spend one year in Ian's house in South Dakota. She had to either find Carlos's family, or convince Ian that she was the better person to raise the children. Abby knows how hard it is to lose someone you loved. She'll be there to protect the children in any way she can. But can she protect her heart from falling in love with a man known for taking too many risks...and risk heartbreak again?


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Excerpt 

There was a time when the prospect of standing on two feet was beyond Ian McKinnon’s imagination. That had been a darker time in his life. A time he didn’t ever want to go back to again.

As he made his way up the driveway leading to the home he’d spent the last year refurbishing, feeling the early autumn sun on his face, he could finally see light. He felt at peace.

His cousin’s SUV sat next to his Jeep in the driveway. As he rounded the corner, he found Hawk sitting on the porch overlooking the river in the back yard.

Hawk smiled and stood up when they made eye contact. But the look on Hawk’s face immediately told Ian he wasn’t here for a social call.

“Can we go inside and talk?”

Ian sighed and tried to force a smile. “Something tells me I’m not going to like this conversation. So if it’s all the same to you why we just have it right here on the front porch?”

“I was hoping to spare you.”

Ian laughed without any humor. “That bad, huh? Just give it to me straight.”

Hawk shook his head and chuckled low. “You always did things your own way.”

Ian climbed the few stairs and pivoted so he could sit opposite Hawk on the porch. He braced himself for whatever news he was about to get.

“You got a call from Vermont this morning. Your mom took the call. No one has your new number.”

“I didn’t get the new number until last week. I haven’t had a chance to call Carlos and Brenda yet. Both of them are excited to come out and see the house and the Wounded Veterans Center now that it’s nearly complete. But both of them have my cell phone number. They could have used that.”

He was rambling and his stomach hurt just looking at Hawk as his cousin struggled with what he was about to say.

“Carlos and Brenda’s lawyer only had your parents’ telephone number."

“Lawyer?"

Hawk nodded, taking a deep breath. “Carlos and Brenda are dead.”


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Teaser Tuesday: His Dakota Bride



Dakota Hearts Book 5
His Dakota Bride


Her heart had always belonged to Wade McKinnon...

When single mother, Skylar Barnett, came to South Dakota, she thought her life was just beginning. Newly pregnant, she waited for the love of her life, Wade McKinnon, to join her so they could start their life near his family. But her joy quickly shattered after learning Wade was presumed killed during a tsunami that hit the small Asian island they'd both worked on in the Peace Corp. She'd spent the last four years making peace with her decision to marry a man she didn't love so her baby would have a father. But marrying the wrong man when her heart belonged to Wade was the biggest mistake of her life.

Secrets and circumstance kept them apart...

No one in Wade McKinnon's life knew that his work with the Peace Corp. was just a cover for his real job in a secret military agency. Not even Skylar, the woman he'd fallen hard for the moment he'd laid eyes on her. But when his mission in Asia suddenly became too dangerous and all agents in the field were ordered to disappear, using the tragic events of the tsunami on the island where they'd met seemed like the only way to keep Skylar and their unborn baby safe until the situation cooled down. As much as it killed him, Wade stepped aside when he learned Skylar had moved on with another man. But now that she's free, he's determined to do everything he can to win back her love and claim the life they'd dreamed of sharing.


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Excerpt 

The McKinnon clan didn’t need a reason to get together and celebrate, but this Labor Day weekend they were going to get one.  Homecomings were always a good cause for a party.  But this was one homecoming no one was expecting.

He parked his car in the driveway under a shady tree along the driveway, making note of the fact that there was a pick-up truck parked next to the garage in the spot where he used to park his old sixty-seven mustang.  He recognized the truck, although the last time he’d seen Logan McKinnon driving it, the truck had been in better condition.

He paused at the corner of the house and heard laughter filtering through the air.  The boisterous laughing he always heard when his brothers were all together.  The giggles and shouts of young children he’d yet to meet.  It called to him as strong as the smell of food being cooked over an open flame that tickled his senses.  But a hunger of another kind was stronger.  The voices he heard had been missing from his life for too long.  But he listened closely until the female voice that had haunted him grew louder.

“I need to finish up in the kitchen.  Hawk can you give me a minute and then come carry a few things out to the table?


No, Kate you put your feet up.  You’re always serving everyone at the diner.  Let me do this.”

The screen door on the back deck opened and then shut.  With his heart pounding, he walked to the front door so he could have the precious few moments alone with her before the rest of the family converged on him.  He needed those few moments.

His old key still fit the lock on the front door.  Turning the knob slowly, he pushed the door open quietly and stepped into the foyer.  He glanced into the living room, taking in every detail and exchanging what was different with what he’d committed to memory long ago.  The familiar smell of the house magnified the realization that he had finally made it.  He was home.

He didn’t want to scare her.  He could only imagine her reaction when she saw him.  So he slipped through the living room and into the kitchen through the dining room so he wouldn’t startle her.  And when he finally saw her, he thought his legs would crumble beneath him.

Skylar Barnett.  If there truly was just one great love in the universe for every person, Skylar was surely his.


She buzzed around the kitchen, almost dancing on the balls of her feet as she moved.  He used to say she looked like a ballerina, dancing as she walked in the sand.  She’d told him it was only because he made her happy.

“I heard the front door.  Did I lock the screen door on you by accident again, Hawk?” Skylar asked, licking her fingers of the dressing she’d just stirred in the bowl. “This potato salad has to get into the ice bowl on the table or it will spoil in his heat.”

She turned in the opposite direction towards the refrigerator, opened it, and then pulled out a bottle. “Oh, and I forgot the Italian dressing for the salad.  Would you mind bringing that with you, too?”

She still hadn’t lifted her gaze to him.  And he didn’t rush to get her attention.  He enjoyed just watching her move.  He’d always loved the way she moved as she rushed from one side of the kitchen to the next.

Picking up the bowl of potato salad from the counter, she turned to him, her smile as bright as the blazing sun outside, and said, “Those barbeque ribs your dad has on the grill smell so good, it’s making me-”

Their eyes met for the first time in over five years and she gasped.  He should have done something to prevent the bowl of food in her hand from slipping through her grip and crashing to the floor.  The bowl shattered and the potato salad splattered on the tile floor and the cabinet Skylar was standing near.  She barely noticed the remnants of the mess at her feet.

“I’m not Hawk,” he said, never taking his eyes off hers.

Her mouth dropped open, as tears welled up in her eyes.  “Wade?”

He barely heard the words escape her lips, but he felt them just as strong as he had the last time they’d been together.  The memory of what it tasted like to kiss her, and that small intake of breath she made before her lips touched his.

“Is it really you?”

Her voice was a whisper and surged him forward. He took a slow step toward her as she took in seeing him for the first time in years. Her hand came up to touch his face but stopped short before making contact.



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Teaser Tuesday: Wild Dakota Heart



Dakota Hearts Book 4
Wild Dakota Heart

Former NAVY SEAL, Ethan McKinnon, has spent ten years trying to wash away the bad boy reputation that ultimately resulted in the death of his best friend Denny Newton.  Unfortunately, that meant leaving behind everyone, especially Maddie Newton, Denny’s sweet younger sister. Ethan had faced sniper bullets and lived through black ops missions that he never should have come home from.  But facing Maddie again, and gaining her forgiveness, is the most terrifying thing he’s ever had to do.

There was a time when Maddie Newton’s sun rose and set with Ethan McKinnon.  But that was before her world shattered with her brother’s tragic death, and Ethan had left her to grieve alone while he played hero somewhere else in the world.  Old motorcycle pieces in the garage have been a constant reminder of her brother’s unfinished life.  Now that Ethan is back in Rudolph, he insists they work together to fulfill Denny’s dream of restoring the motorcycle and bringing it to Sturgis. But how can Maddie work alongside Ethan when he’s the last man on earth she wants to be near…and the only man she’s ever truly loved?


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Excerpt 

Ten years of doing right didn’t erase one moment of stupid in the course of a man’s life.  Ethan McKinnon knew that more than anyone.  There were some things you couldn’t change no matter how much you wanted a do-over.  No matter how much you had changed.

Eight years of military service, most of them as a Navy SEAL, and the past year as a police officer, hadn’t prepared him for what he had to do in the next few minutes.

Facing Maddie Newton.

The sounds of his cruiser’s wheels on the pavement drowned out whatever thoughts cycled throughout his mind during the few hundred yards between seeing the red compact car plowed into the tree. He didn’t have to radio in the license plate to know who the driver was, making this stop all the more difficult.

Pulling the mic from the radio attached to his duty belt, Ethan called into the station.

“Dispatch, this is W17.  I’m at the scene of a one car accident on Buena Vista Road.  Vehicle is a red sedan.”  He paused to read the license plate and transmit it to the dispatcher.  “I’ll need a tow truck.  Checking for injuries now and will radio back if an ambulance is needed.”

“Copy that,” the dispatcher said.

Ethan pushed the door open and stood for a second with his heart lodged in his throat, choking him.  On pure adrenaline, he quickly moved his legs forward until he was standing just outside the driver’s side of the car. 

He’d seen Maddie from afar while he was driving in town and then down at the shelter just after the ice storm hit months ago.  But he’d never ventured this close to her.

The last time he’d seen Madelyn Newton, she’d been crying.  She’d walked right up to him with half the town of Rudolph standing around them, her eyes lifeless and her body fragile with emotion.  Then she’d slapped him across the face, telling him she never wanted to see him again.  A few hours later, Ethan boarded a plane heading to Fort Benning, Georgia, so he could start the basic training that launched his career as a Navy SEAL.

That was nearly ten years ago.  Ethan had been back in Rudolph for nearly a year and he’d done everything possible to remain invisible to Maddie.  Until now.

Peering in through the window, he found Maddie slightly slumped over the deployed airbag, looking down at the red on her fingers. His mind focused on the red spot on the left side of her temple.

Blood.

Instantly, all his specialized training kicked in.  His senses came alive and he quickly scanned the immediate area.  The smell of antifreeze hung heavy in the air around him and steam rose slowly from beneath the hood of the car.  But to Ethan’s relief, there was no smoke and he didn’t smell gasoline.

As if just realizing Ethan was standing there, Maddie lifted her face and glanced up at him with a bewildered expression. Ethan opened the door and saw the red spot was now a streak trailing down the side of her face.  Panic hit him hard in the center of his chest.  He’d dealt with all types of emergency situations in his life, first as a Navy SEAL and now as a police officer.  But this was Denny’s kid sister!  And she was bleeding.

“Maddie?  Don’t move.  Just let me know if you’re hurt.”

She said nothing.  Her eyes were void of the lifelessness he’d seen the last time they’d been this close.  He’d braced himself for hatred.  Maybe even another slap across the face.  But Maddie just looked at him as if she were trying to piece the course of events that brought them there together.

“You just plowed your car into a tree.  Your airbag was deployed.  Do you feel any pain in your chest?”

She shook her head weakly.

“You hit your head during impact,” he said.  “Do you understand what I’m saying to you, Maddie?  Do you know who I am?”



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