Outskirts Press, INC.

Sometimes, the race doesn't end at the finish line.

What if heaven kept track of acts of love? What if those acts transcended time and influenced lives years later? How many coincidences and chance meetings can occur before it becomes clear that they are not coincidences, and none of the meetings have anything to do with chance? Gloria “Sweetie” Larosa is a fifteen-year-old hurdler looking for answers while struggling through a challenging freshman track season at a high school in rural Ohio. After her family abruptly decided to relocate from Columbus, Sweetie is reacquainted with three girls she has seen only sporadically as a child, yet all four of them have a unique connection to one another, and to a record-setting relay team from twenty-five years ago. Sweetie and her friends experience a series of unexplainable setbacks, but is all of this adversity actually designed to funnel the four toward a common destiny? Sweetie senses that there’s something big waiting for the four of them, something that is “meant to be,” if only they have the courage to embrace it. With an unlikely coach at the helm, their course seems to have been set by a greater power – a power unleashed a generation ago when three members of that record-setting relay team promised to keep alive the memory of their teammate. Love was the catalyst that ignited their journey, but it will take every ounce of faith they have to finish.