Blue Ridge Breakdown is LIVE!
In case you missed the announcement yesterday, book 4 of the Jubilee series is now available everywhere.
Here's a little sample for you:
As Jack continued pondering his various thoughts, Ava suddenly appeared like a fiery-haired angel in the doorway of the cabin. She was truly stunning. Why wasn’t she married to some wealthy man with a giant diamond on her finger?�
She was wrapped snugly in one of the blankets from his sofa, framed by the rustic logs surrounding the door. She looked like a picture or maybe a painting waited to be completed. Someone should capture the shot, he thought. She watched him without saying anything, just a slight smile on her face. He kind of liked being watched, especially by a woman like her.�
“That looks like a lot of hard work,” she finally said, teasing him.�
“Not so hard,” he said, flexing his muscles and laughing. “How do you think I built these things?”�He swore he saw her blush a bit.
“Well, as you can see, I’ve never swung an axe in my life.” She slipped one of her biceps from under the blanket and attempted to flex it. Nothing much happened except that Jack found it incredibly cute.�
“Come here,” he said without thinking.�
“What?”�
“I’m going to teach you.”�
She laughed and shook her head. “No thanks, lumberjack. I’ll stay over here where it’s safe.”�
He waved his hand at her. “Come on. Don’t be a scaredy cat.”�
She dropped the blanket and walked toward him, only wearing her long-sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans. “I never back down from a challenge.”�
Jack wasn’t going to let her freeze to death, so he removed his heavy coat and handed it to her. “Here. Take this.”�
“I’m not taking your coat!”�
“Yes, you are,” he said, wrapping it around her and guiding each of her arms into the holes. He could feel her warm breath on his arms, and she smelled like sugar.�
“Okay, so how do I do this?” she asked, standing there looking at the stump. The image of her in his giant coat with her beautiful red wavy hair was almost more than he could take.�He picked up a smaller, lighter axe nearby.
“We’ll start with this one,” he said, handing it to her.�She took it and moved it from hand to hand, trying to get a feel for it. He moved closer, guiding her on how to stand and where to aim, his hands moving over hers to adjust the stance.
“You want your feet to be shoulder-width apart, get a good grip on the handle, and focus your eyes on what spot you want to hit. Right here should split it nicely,” he said, pointing.�
This was the first time he’d taught a woman how to swing an axe, and he was having a hard time keeping focused. He was acutely aware of her and the way she moved. The scent of her strawberry shampoo as he leaned in to correct her grip.�He moved, and she stepped back, taking in a deep breath. When she swung, the axe bit into the wood, not quite splitting it but making a measurable dent. She smiled triumphantly.
“That was better than I thought it would be. Can I try again?”�
“Of course,” he said, crossing his arms and watching her.�Again, she took in a breath, but this time her tiny little frame seemed to grow to twice its size because she swung the axe with way more power than before, splitting the log right down the center. Ava dropped the axe and jumped up and down, like she’d just won the lottery. Without missing a beat, she hugged him tightly, standing up on her tiptoes. Jack thought he might just melt into a large puddle right there on the snowy ground. Before he could put his arms around her, she pulled back and cleared her throat.�
“Sorry about that. I might’ve gotten a little overly excited there,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. Adorable.�
“No problem. That was quite something to watch.”
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMK4LHKH
