SUMMER HEAT

When she was 17, there wasn’t a man alive she would let get near her, and when she was 18, there wasn’t a man she would keep away.

She stood five feet seven inches tall, weighed one hundred twenty pounds, her green eyes sparkled like brilliant cut emeralds, her inviting full lips always ruby red and moist. Women universally hated her, men continued to hold doors for her long after she passed by - just to watch her walk away. To imply that Jessie exuded sex would be an understatement, akin to inferring that water was wet. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the men in Steam Corners wanted her, but she only wanted one man, Spencer Deacon. He was everything that she was not, even-tempered, amicable, well respected and kind. The one thing that Spencer didn’t want was Jessie, and his firm and undeniable rejections infuriated her.

Jessie always took full advantage of every opportunity. When fate stepped in and her stepson, Porter, was found murdered she gathered herself quickly and pounced on what she considered to be a gift from God Himself. This was an opportunity for revenge beyond her wildest expectations. All she had to do was identify Spencer as the last person seen with Porter prior to his death.

The following Sunday morning outside the First Baptist Church, you could almost see her perfectly white teeth through the tight smile she tried to hide with her perfectly gloved hand as Sheriff Calvin Hicks arrested Spencer and took him away in handcuffs. It all happened in front of the preacher, half of the congregation and the chipped concrete statue of the Baby Jesus.

SUMMER HEAT is a 66,000-word women’s fiction novel set in a small town in the south. It explores the raw emotions of a young woman trapped in the despair of a marriage gone bad and the lustful desire for a young man she can’t have.