Cast of Characters

Main Characters

Mike Reynolds, 30 – Turns thirty years old the day the story starts. Mike has red hair, green eyes, and a muscular build from his years of working as a landscaper and gardener. A scar cuts his left eyebrow in half. He has spent his whole life in his hometown of Pearl Valley. His father, Tom passed away when Mike was a freshman in college. Mike didn’t think twice about dropping out and returning home to take care of his mother, Beth. Since his mom’s **** two years ago, he lives alone in the house he, his brother, and his sister grew up in.

Stephanie Taylor, 30 – Turned thirty years old the day before the story starts. She has long, curly, blonde hair and green eyes. Despite her slender build, she’s tough-as-nails, which served her well as a New York City school teacher. Sadly, her school suffered budget cuts and she lost her job. With no job, Stephanie couldn’t afford rent, so she packed up everything she had, and came home. She’s got a part-time job as a retail clerk and is staying with her parents while she gets back on her feet.

Tommy Reynolds, Jr., 34 – Mike’s older brother by four years. Almost a carbon copy of Mike, but at five foot nine, he’s three inches shorter than his little brother. He went into the Marines after high school and served three tours in Iraq. He later worked for a private security firm and spent another three years overseas doing pretty much the same thing, only making a lot more money doing it. When he finally decided that he had had enough of strangers shooting at him and blowing up his buddies, Tommy returned home and settled down. To keep himself from going broke, he took a job as a school security guard.

Jackie Reynolds, 33 – Tommy’s wife. She’s a music teacher at the school he guards. She’s been working at the school since she was twenty-two. They went to high school together, but didn’t really get along then. She was organizing the school band at the local Veteran’s Day Parade when she ran into Tommy. Just like countless thousands of other girls before her, she fell instantly in love with him when she saw him in his dress uniform. They got married after a year of dating, and have been married for a year-and-a-half. She is currently six months pregnant with their first child.

Monica Reynolds, 26 – Mike’s younger sister. She’s had a rough life since her father passed away when she was in high school. Since then, she’s gone from one piece of shit boyfriend to another. She’s been beat on by a guy more than once in her life. So far, Mike has had to educate three of them on why they don’t slap his baby sister around. Once Tommy came home, that task became a lot easier for him. Monica loves her brothers and hopes to find a guy that will treat her the way she deserves one day.

Bart Taylor, 52 – Stephanie’s dad. He’s a retired cop and has used his connections at the station to help Mike get Monica’s abusive boyfriends locked up. He acts like Mike, Tommy, and Monica were the kids he and his wife were denied having. For example, when Tommy was overseas, he prayed every night for his safe return. He jokingly calls Mike a coward for not “making an honest woman” out of his daughter.

Michelle Taylor, 53 – Stephanie’s mom. She works as a nurse in the maternity ward at the local hospital. She likes to joke that she was “On call during her delivery and got right back to work so she could help her daughter’s best friend be born the next day.” Just like her husband, she treats Mike and his siblings like they were her own.