Slow Heat in Heaven

The adopted daughter of the most powerful man in town, Schyler Crandall was a brokenhearted girl when she left Heaven, Louisiana. Now a crisis has brought her home to a family in conflict, a logging empire on the brink of disaster, and seething secrets that make Heaven hotter than hell. Everyone in Heaven has a secret: Schyler's beautiful younger sister, Tricia, with her cruel lies; Ken, Tricia's handsome husband, who married the wrong sister; Jigger, the pimp and ruffian with plans of his own; and Cash, a proud, mysterious, and complex bad boy with a wild reputation. It is dangerous for Schyler to even be near him, yet she must dare to confront the past -- if there is to be any peace in Heaven.
"At first she wasn't sure he was real. She had been dozing. Her head rested on her bent arm, which had gone to sleep and had started to tingle. She woke up and opened her eyes, then stretched languorously and turned her head. That's when she saw him. She immediately forgot her discomfort. She thought he was a trick of her unfocused eyes or a product of late afternoon drowsiness and midsummer ennui. She blinked several times. The image remained. The outline of his body was as detailed as a silhouette cut out of black construction paper with tiny manicure scissors. It was cast against a showoff sun that was making one hell of an exit. The horizon was as gaudily striped as a sultan's turban. It boasted every vibrant hue ranging from vermilion to gold. Like the pines, he was motionless. The trees stood as majestic and tall as sentinels. Their spiky branches were still. There wasn't a breath of breeze. Above from where Schyler lay, Spanish moss drooped from the sprawling limbs of the live oak, looking more desolate than usual, mourning the unrelenting humid heat."