Love and the TSA (Paperback)

A finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards!What's really on the minds of those blue-uniformed women and men who pat you down at the airport? Vicky Richards, a young Transportation Security Officer (TSO) in Weaversville, South Carolina, thinks she's living as happily ever after as anyone has a right to. But one afternoon she steps off the checkpoint and finds her husband Dan, a TSA supervisor, sitting suspiciously close to fellow officer Jess Mehta. When Dan admits he's having an affair with Jess, Vicky slaps his face and kicks him out. To support her two children, she manages to work with Dan and Jess-now a happy couple-to protect an often hostile public from the shadowy threat of terrorism. As the dust of Vicky's marriage settles, she sees all her relationships in a new light. Eulalee, Dan's mother, steps up to offer daycare. Fellow officer Sara Zhou, whose insight and kindness Vicky had overlooked, shares her own struggles in a homophobic town. Vicky even negotiates an emotional truce with her abrasive sister, Cath. But in her endlessly busy new reality, can Vicky possibly find love again? The only candidates are Justin, an environmental lawyer playing divorce attorney, who seems to have something going on with his secretary; or charming-and married-TSO Chris. While Vicky and her team of officers battle heartbreak, exhausting hours, health problems, an obtuse administration, and each other, they must work together to save their passengers when carnage threatens. And Vicky alone must overcome anger and self-doubt if she is to win the life she and her children deserve. This novel of work and love offers an intimate view from behind the checkpoint as it traces one woman's reinvention of herself.