Like Willie said, I grew up a dreaming of being a cowboy and loving the cowboy ways… I have always loved cowboys from the old western television shows and movies to country and western music, to the whole cowboy culture. There was always something about the cowboy that even though he tipped his hat and might use good manners, there was an untamed part of him that was just below the surface.

I grew up in eastern North Carolina where most people think of farm boys more than cowboy, but we have our share of cowboys and girls out here too. There were several horse ranches and cattle farms around my home growing up, and in the past few years I’ve known several who have therapeutic ranches for special needs children or those suffering from PTSD. The cowboy culture complete with boots and hats are still a part of our small-town fashion. I still prefer to wear my cowboy boots and jeans to anything else.

There’s nothing sexier to me than a man in a cowboy hat and boots and little else. Thick thighs, broad chests and muscles developed from work not a gym are still the hallmarks of what I call sexy. As a young adult I lived in Texas and New Mexico where vaqueros, Native American rodeo riders, and ranchers were our friends and neighbors. One friend’s husband, a former rodeo rider, had broken every bone in his body at least once. I can’t imagine the fear or the hardships of living on the road going from rodeo to rodeo, but I know the lifestyle and the dangers can be part of the attraction. Even after retiring from the circuit, the aura of being a cowboy lingered. It was a part of who he was, a part of who they were as a couple.

When the call came out for the cowboy anthology, I knew I wanted to write a cowboy story set in North Carolina. From our wild horses on the outer banks to the local ranches that dot the eastern North Carolina landscape, I know that our sexy Carolina cowboys are often overlooked when others think of cowboys. At the most, people might think of the ranches in the western part of the state, but few are aware of the cowboy culture that is prevalent on the east coast.

My story, Jerico, Carolina Cowboy is about Jerico Sawyer, who was orphaned late in his childhood. Angry and defiant, he and his two foster brothers never found their forever home. They grew up in a boys’ home. As teens they were often in trouble but the cook at their home, Ms. Sawyer, took a liking to them and did her best to give them the love and understanding they needed. At eighteen they are suddenly out of the system with no home, no family, but Ms. Sawyer helped them transition into adulthood and three young men decided to adopt each other and become each other’s family. They took the cook’s last name and as each of them became successful, they took legal strides to care for each other and the cook who’d been the closest thing they had to a mother. Jerico went to college to become a vet, but his big dream was to one day own a ranch. With his brothers’ help, he’d bought and opened his dude ranch.

Megan and her cousins were once closer than sisters. They spent every summer with their Aunt Lu, but then they grew up and life happened. Newly divorced and on her way to her new life as a chef in Las Vegas, Megan can’t allow another man to make her decisions for her. She didn’t plan on meeting Jerico, but she refuses to back out of her plans even for him. They will have to be satisfied with their one night together, because she learned the hard way that making sacrifices for love only left you disillusioned and alone. She would not make that mistake again, but fate has other plans.

What would they do if they had another chance to be together? What would they do if they found out their families were enemies?

Is it really possible to have it all?