E J Runyon

900 Miles E J Runyon

Sudden luck strikes the one person who won't share the news.

It's a mega win on a weekly lotto ticket; a ton of cash.

But even though Christina's howls of triumph scare the cat, she can't tell her stepdad Harrison. Not even when a frustrated, off-the-cuff retort to a co-worker sets her free from a newspaper job she no longer needs anyway.

She fills notebook pages with bucket lists, but can't bring herself to just pick any. Wanting but not letting herself have, that's Christina all over. Motherless, practically raising Harrison instead of the other way around. For Christina, winning is what you hide so fate can't make it sour.

But fate has other plans.

She lucks into a newer, quirkier job (to hide from Harrison), and the new office opens a whole new world right on her doorstep.

Bit by bit, Christina's horizon widens. A black and white photograph helps her to discover friends of the finest kinds. A tribe with eyes like hers.

While she struggles with Harrison's addiction, and fights against all that she now has, fate wheels Christina on a 900-miles road trip to confront the young woman she could be, but can't yet face in the mirror.