Description
Ever since his wife died in a car accident ten years ago, Miles has raised his daughter, Gates, alone. Though happy when he's working with the local marching band or being active in his church, Miles feels that something is missing from his New Orleans suburban life. So he joins a polyamorous Christian dating website and starts flirting with a woman whose username is TickledPink72-and who lives closer than he thinks. Miles's student John Ed is drawn into his band teacher's life when Miles reaches out to the troubled boy, who has been expelled from school for having drugs in his locker. Now a regular attendee at AA, John Ed struggles to overcome a difficult past with a single mother in a low-income neighborhood. Meanwhile, Gates is already an independent thinker at age thirteen-wily, smart, and questioning. Unlike her father, Miles, she isn't into church-until Gates discovers that John Ed attends AA at the same time as youth group. Under her father's nose, Gates aggressively pursues a relationship with the older teen, even faking alcohol addiction to get close to him. At a church party hosted by a neighbor, each character's search for wholeness comes to a (literally) explosive head. But will the resulting shock bring an end to that search-or a new beginning?
Prologue
