*Excerpt Reveal* Slow Burn (Iron Horse #2) by Danielle Norman

Paris had changed me.
I wasn’t talking about the city,
I was referring to Paris Jean Kelly.
From the first time we held hands on the school bus to our first kiss, we’d been moving toward one thing, the day I’d ask her to be mine.

How was I to know that she thought friends couldn’t be lovers?
Well…I’m going to prove her wrong.
When her world turns upside down…I’ll be there.
When she’s feeling lost…I’ll be there.
After all, it’s not about the spark or the fire…
It’s all about the Slow Burn.

“Hey, Ash—”

“Holland, sorry I had to push you back. Had a crazy night.” Ellie punched me in the side. “What?”

“Don’t say that, it sounded bad,” she whispered to me.

What sounded bad? I said the truth. “Anyway, this is Ellie. She’s a vet tech and is familiar with large animals. She’s going to start helping me.”

“Oh. Well, then . . . nice to meet you, Ellie.”

I gave Holland a weird look because she wasn’t smiling and wasn’t offering to shake Ellie’s hand even though Ellie held hers out.

“Nice to meet you, Holland. You have a beautiful stable. Asher was telling me that you teach Western. I’d love to learn.”

“You don’t ride?” Holland gave me a quizzical look.

“No. I mean yes. Yes, I do ride, just not Western. I ride English.”

“Growing up around here there wasn’t to much need for English.” Holland turned around and walked off, totally dismissing Ellie.

“I’m sorry, Ellie.” I held up my hands.

“Don’t be. She’s choosing sides, and she has just let it be known that she is on her sister’s.”

“Her sisters? For what?”

“Men. You all are so stupid sometimes. Holland obviously thinks that you and Paris belong together and that I’m here to destroy that.”

“Let me go explain. I’m sorry, I should have been more clear.”

“Don’t you dare. A little competition is good every now and then.”

“You don’t get it, Paris isn’t the jealous sort.”

“We’ll see.” Ellie patted my arm and then followed Holland into the stables.

“This is Maleficent.” I rubbed the muzzle of a black mare. “You’re right, she does look a little distended.”

“Ahh, are we having a baby?” Ellie clapped her hands. “Who’s the papa?”

“The Good Humor man,” Holland replied.

“Holland.” I snapped. “It was—”

Ellie held up a hand. “I got it, Ash, frozen semen. Pretty common for horses . . . so was the punch line.”

Before becoming a romance writer, Danielle was a body double for Heidi Klum and a backup singer for Adele. Now, she spends her days trying to play keep away from Theo James, who won’t stop calling her or asking her out.

And all of this happens before she wakes up and faces reality where in fact she is a 50-something mom with grown kids. She’s been married longer than Theo’s been alive, and she now gets her kicks riding a Harley.

As far as her body, she can thank Ben & Jerry’s for that, as well as gravity and vodka. But she says that she could never be Adele’s backup since she never stops saying the F-word long enough to actually sing.

Danielle writes about kickass women with even better shoes and the men that try to tame them (silly, silly men).