Teddy Two-Mile

Teddy Two-Mile is a voice-driven, darkly funny coming-of-age novel about a boy who runs for connection-and a man who learns to stop chasing and start showing up.

Teddy grows up in the high desert of New Mexico, where his mother's unwavering Christian Science faith denies the existence of matter and pain, and his father's version of love is silence and toughness. Feeling unseen, Teddy turns to distance running-chasing attention, achievement, anything that might make him feel good enough.

He claws his way through college and into the Army, earning a spot in the elite Presidential Honor Guard, where he stages a quiet rebellion against the system that's always tried to mold him. He falls hard for Sammie, then loses her to Strider-a charismatic, "distance god" who becomes both his rival and his shadow.

Years later, Teddy meets Allie, a clear-eyed med student whose grounded love begins to heal what Sammie, Strider, and his past performative defiance couldn't. He eventually becomes a psychologist, trying to help others face the pain he spent years outrunning.

Told in a raw, unfiltered voice laced with dark humor and emotional bite, Teddy Two-Mile explores masculinity, faith, longing, and the messiness of becoming authentic. If you like fiction that bruises a little and sticks with you, this is your kind of story.