This image is the cover for the book Heat Wave: Key West

Heat Wave: Key West

When John returns home to Key West after a vacation, he discovers a stranger living in his garden shed. There are clothes and toiletries, a sleeping roll, and a bike. John is flabbergasted but also intrigued, not in the least because the stranger is very handsome and swims naked in John's pool.

John spends one hot afternoon prowling around town in an attempt to find out if his friends and neighbors have seen any new, gorgeous men around town. Everyone pleads ignorance. Yet the man returns to the shed every other day or so, while John, caught between anger and fascination, does nothing but watch from a hidden spot on the deck.

One day he comes home to discover the encroaching stranger has upped the ante. His grill has been used to barbeque chicken, and a bottle of good wine and two glasses are waiting on his kitchen table. This is going too far, and he wonders if someone isn't playing a nasty prank on him.

But when the truth comes out, it’s far more romantic than anything John anticipated.

Eric Fahnestock

Eric Fahnestock is a published professor of science education and research. He has received national and local commendations for his work in public education, and has also written for trade magazines and newspapers. Eric has been with his partner for more than twenty years, and they have been married for four years. Retired and living in Florida in winters and Pennsylvania in summers, he recently returned from vacation in Germany.