Family Ties

by Veronica Leigh

About the Author: Veronica Leigh has been published in numerous blogs, anthologies, journals, and magazines.

Excerpt

Sheriff Claire Williams was grateful she remembered to bring a fan and could cool herself while the reverend switched from giving a eulogy to preaching a Come-to-Jesus sermon. The weather was crisp outside and she wore a suitable frock and coat for the season, but crammed together with a couple hundred others for Col. Marvel’s “The Colonel” funeral, she felt as though she were about to self-combust. Dear Lord, give me strength! She cast a sideways glance at Dr. Jed Loving, who squirmed in his seat in the pew, his cheeks reddened as if they were gin blossomed. Between the reverend’s hot air and the body heat, she didn’t know how they would survive the remainder of the service.

“God Almighty,” Jed grumbled, when the reverend beckoned folks to come forward for the altar call. “I’ll pay you a dollar if you go up and get saved just to end this.”

Claire stifled a giggle and waved her fan a little harder to cool him as well.

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