The Paceline explores the dynamic relationship between two boyhood pals re-united after the death of a mutual friend. Both in their late twenties, Scott and Jack differ substantially in their lifestyles while still retaining a strong sense of being kindred spirits.Scott feels obligated to encourage his friend's nobler instincts, but Jack's stilted humor generally turns this heartfelt help into benign chaos.This pair is surrounded by a growing number of friends with budding romances where camaraderie and quirkiness mix agreeably, delightfully and tearfully.This G-rated novel is set in Billings, Montana in the early 1990s.SCOTT BOLAND: An accomplished musician returns to his hometown of Billings for a funeral and stays to help his indolent and ever-witty friend, Jack. Scott meets Emily, a shy baker and feels the intense scrutiny of her friends as he tries to get to know her. Emily's painful background provides intrigue and problems for a slowly growing relationship.
All while Scott is spinning good health and twelve-bar blues around the whole group.JACK: Clever, thirsty, well-read, cavalier; insightful into everyone's problems except his own. As annoying as he is entertaining, Jack serves as a self-appointed court jester to everyone around him. DANE ZETZ: Arrives in Billings to purchase a magnificent old building his great-grandfather had built. This impossibly good-looking, wealthy, suave-to-spare man heartlessly uses others to his financial gain but is slowly swayed to change by his new friends.LARRY BRUMSKI: Six feet ten inches of "doing 'er right!" This Nebraska farm boy is as sweet as he is hard-working. Larry provides the straight-ahead manpower to renovate Dane's building, unaware of his talents being unabashedly abused by Dane. A late-bloomer in having relationships, he falls hard for Geri, a six-foot five math teacher-turned-baker with a crisp smile, no-nonsense glasses and a clear vision for Larry's future.
ROCHELLE BRUMSKI: Visits her brother Larry in Billings and impresses Dane as a "drop-dead gorgeous, statuesque Polish goddess." Dane regrets his multitude of previous dalliances but turns on his usual charm, anyway. All while remembering that this resplendent creature is the sister of his very large and protective employee, Larry. Rochelle is as savvy as she is beautiful, understanding men with a wry and congenial demeanor.EMILY GJERDE: A business partner in a bakery with Jenny, this troubled vulnerable young woman finally finds love with Scott. Ultimately, she must force Scott to face his own demons after he feels responsible for the deaths of two close friends within one year.JENNY IVERSEN: A witty, ebullient party-girl who bemoans the romances erupting around her as she seems left out. Or is she?GERI IVERSEN: Jenny's no-nonsense cousin who is lured by Dane's money to become a partner in the bakery and finally finds a "straight-shooting" man actually taller than herself in Larry.
These very different characters meld into a compassionate group of friends who explore Montana's beauty in an exploding love fest and series of wildly dramatic events. They survive a blizzard on the Beartooth Highway, a rampaging moose in a campground, a feral pig in Hawaii and the brutal Montana winters and its blazing hot summers.An inspired Dane creates a "country club" on the roof of his Yellowstone Restaurant and Kalani Nui Lounge where this group formally becomes Montana Kokua. This Jacuzzi-based civic group puts on an alternative prom for poor kids and initiates the first Big Sky Road Bowling Championships.In the end good friends savagely fight each other over who had tried to help Jack the most, as it appears Jack has died in a freak garbage truck accident.