“LA is melting,” I said, as I shook the water out of my hair.

In spite of the rain and taking the bus north up the coast from my Playa Vista duplex to the edge of Santa Monica, I was only about fifteen minutes late for my shift as afternoon on-air personality, otherwise known as a DJ, at KCAS-FM, indie rock 101.3.

Still, Theodore the Underground Rock Explorer was pretty irritated about covering for me.

“Jessie, you're late at least twice a week. Whether it's been raining in apocalyptic quantities or not.”

I ignored him. He was in a bad mood. Theo was almost always in a bad mood because his wife was riding with an all-chicks motorcycle club instead of working, and his teenage son had two silver rings in both eyebrows and a D in History and French.

I rummaged through a stack of cd's on a shelf labeled appropriately, “Jessie's shelf.” It didn't mean that the other jocks couldn't take the stuff on my shelf and play it, it just meant they had to put it back on the shelf when they were done, which of course they hardly ever did.

I found MacArthur Park easily enough. Nobody else but me would play that. About two weeks ago, when the rains first started, I spun the tune Internet voters tabbed 'worst song ever' for a one time joke that morphed into a listener requested habit. As the heaviest rainfall in LA since 1897 deluged down. If I didn't play it first thing, people called me up and yelled at me.

I leaned over Theo and plopped the cd in the player. Sometimes I played the Donna Summer disco version, but today it was Richard Harris warbling, conjuring up images of tie-dyed shirts and beaded headbands.

“MacArthur Park is melting in the dark...”

Theo got up and handed me his head phones. “This stupid song is just one sign of it.”

“The apocalypse?” I asked.

“Turning the big 3-0. You're getting more and more maudlin.

You need a steady relationship, improve your mood.”

“Having a steady relationship hasn't done that much for yours,” I countered.

Theodore looked at me closely. I made an effort to smooth my normally straight light brown hair which was, due to the rain, all frizzed up now like I was doing an imitation of Bette Midler imitating Janis Joplin in The Rose.

“Still seeing that drummer?” Theo asked.

“He played guitar,” I said. “Drummer was two years ago.” Followed by six months of abject celibacy, a record I feared I was now destined to top.

“Played guitar, past tense?

I kept my eyes, hazel, but sometimes in romantic moments, described as “golden,” averted from Theo's inquisitive gaze. I really should learn not to tell anybody I knew that I ever dated anybody.

Richard Harris was building to a raging musical crescendo. “...Someone left the cake out in the rain...all the sweet, green icing flowing down...”

Of course it wasn't cake icing, it was mud and water oozing away this February, causing road closures, collapsed roofs, cracked foundations, and flooding down the banks of the Hollywood Hills and the Pacific Palisades in terrible waves no surfer would want to ride. Compared to problems like that, breaking up with a guy I hadn't so much as kissed since Thanksgiving seemed pretty trivial.

My gaze finally met Theo's. “Yeah,” I admitted, “I'm officially single again.”

...intriguing... entertaining and fun. The chemistry between Jessie and Chuck is explosive. The story is fast-paced and charming. FIVE O'CLOCK SHADOW is a captivating romance, and a great read -- Fresh Fiction

fun and breezy ... entertaining romance with just the right touch of mystery -- Bookloons

4 ½ Kisses - What I love most about this book are the characters. They're real people, with depth, complicated thought processes, flaws. People I'd like to be friends with...making me care —enough to keep me turning the pages until well past midnight every night until I finished the book.... definitely funny, emotionally evocative...an extremely well-crafted story full of humor, warmth, a little mystery, and even a little sex. Something for everyone! -- Romance Divas

...pure fun from beginning to end. The wacky characters play off each other perfectly, the mystery is well done and the romance is just right. -- Romance Readers at Heart

...excellently told...Danger and passion fill the pages of FIVE O'CLOCK SHADOW, and if readers haven't picked up a Genie Davis book yet, then I urge them to do so today.-- Romance Reviews Today

A delightfully engrossing book with two very real characters that steal the book! -- Book Cove Reviews

Four and a half stars!
A thoroughly engaging heroine whose witty, first-person voice and palpable love of music make this novel terrific...her relationship with the hero is steamy but with an underlying tenderness that makes their love scenes compelling. - Romantic Times

...fun and entertaining with a real man's man as the romantic lead. Booklist

4 Kisses - I was impressed... really vibrant...the romance plot was well paced and never completely overshadowed by danger. Genie Davis is an author I'll be watching in the future! - Two Lips Reviews

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