SUSPENSE SISTERS

 

After a summer of severe drought in the Midwest, “rain” isn’t a word we take lightly.

Finally, we started seeing same rainy days as August came to an end. What a joy to see the sky dark and threatening, and to hear the patter of rain on our roof.  Like today!

But this means it’s a “Cat in the Hat” day for the two dogs, who have to stay inside and are looking exceedingly glum as they stare out the windows. The barn cats are another story,

They parade up to the house every morning and plant themselves in my hostas to stare at the back door, as if magical thinking will make me appear faster. 

Once I step outside and head for the barn, they wind around my ankles like thick, plush pythons that purr. Apparently, it’s a contest to see which one can trip me and send me to the hospital, instead of letting me reach the barn and feed them. The logic of it all could only make sense to a cat, but there you are.

This morning they were not happy. They were a bedraggled, damp, flat-eared lot, their soft little mitten feet muddy, their fluffy, upraised tails sodden. From their narrow-eyed glares, they seemed to hold me personally responsible for the weather.

We all squished across the lawn together, six wet cats winding around my ankles, me slipping and sliding across that waterlogged green sponge of lawn…and then across the slick-as-silicone mud in the barnyard. Luckily, I didn’t fall and flatten a cat, but it was close.

But ahhhh, the barn. The lovely sound of rain spattering on the roof. The cozy smell of new hay, the cedar shaving bedding in the stalls, leather, and horse. Is there a better combination of scents anywhere? 

When I was a kid, nothing was more perfect on a rainy day than to go out to the barn with a stack of Black Stallion books, and stretch out on the back of a horse in a box stall to read, or climb to the top of the stacked hay bales with my books. Lovely dark and rainy days with rain battering the roof still bring back those golden memories. 

But the horse, cats, and the dogs weren’t the only beloved creatures at our place. Name a furry, feathered, or slithery creature and it was probably one of our pets at one point or another.

Which is why my new book release on September 10th, 
ONE MORE KISS, is truly a ”book of my heart.”  I had such fun writing this one, as I could relate to almost every misadventure that unfolded! 

It is the second book of my Northern Pines trilogy--but each of the three can be read as a "stand alone" book without needing to read the other two. Here’s a quick blurb:

In One More Kiss, a disillusioned lawyer searching for a quiet life in a small town inadvertently ends up sharing his elderly aunt’s vacant house with a woman who has a dark past, a young daughter and a menagerie of epic proportions.  Humor, romance…and a mystery!

It is FREE on Kindle Unlimited, or available for purchase.  CLICK HERE to read more about it. Why not order it today and give it a try?  I hope you will enjoy it! 

Have you ever had any amusing or interesting interactions with pets?  Leave a comment, and have a chance to win a copy of ONE MORE WISH, which is the second book in my Northern. Pines series.

If you'd  like a very brief notice of whenever I have a new book out, just click here and follow me on BookBub. CLICK HERE.   I've got a new romantic suspense series starting this fall.

Wishing you all the best,

Roxanne Rustand