Black and White

Despite being jaded and disillusioned by the horrors of war, Jason Keller is profoundly grateful to be alive. After being gravely injured in the city of Ramadi, Iraq under circumstances he cannot fully remember, he is discharged from the Marine Corps with Post Traumatic Stress.Upon leaving the military hospital, Jason isolates himself in his ancestral home in Pandora, Tennessee, wanting nothing more than to be worthy of the life he has retained. Far from family and friends, he undertakes recovery on his own, working to “get right” by living a regimented life. But his methods aren’t working, and the best he can seem to achieve is a state of numbness.Enter Ava Taylor, a veterinary college student on summer break in the small town in rural Tennessee. Away from the academic life, close family and animals she loves, Ava fills her days with new friends and bouts of boredom. With her uncle’s help, she gets a job at a local store to pass the time and earn some money for college. In her own way, Ava is as isolated as Jason, having been fairly sheltered by religious parents in her tiny, coastal Georgia hometown.But Mountain City is a small place, and it isn’t long before Ava and Jason meet. Despite his initial attraction to her, he is determined to remain alone, and forces himself to stay away from her. She cannot stop thinking about him, but her shyness and inexperience keep her from doing anything more than that.Thrown together once more under dangerous circumstances, Jason saves Ava, to the detriment of his own resolve. She is different from anyone he has ever known and he can no longer resist or avoid her. The tentative friendship they form eases their mutual loneliness, and soon they are spending most of their free time together.Wanting to protect Ava from the darker aspects of his past and his Post-Traumatic Stress, Jason still keeps her at a distance; especially once he knows that what he feels for her surpasses mere friendship.Their relationship begins a path that both must equally decide to follow. As each fully embrace and nourish their feelings for one another, truths are discovered and revelations unveiled. Events until the resolution lead to something both sought since the beginning. Black and White is a story about love, redemption, trust and hope.