Promise Me Sunshine

Miles is Lenny’s “grief wingman,” “list doula” (132), romantic interest, and closest friend after Lou’s death. Miles grew up in a small town in upstate New York, living with his single mother and later his younger cousin, Anders. Miles’s mother had an affair with the famous bluegrass musician Carp Hollis, who had his own family and abandoned Miles after his birth. Since his father treated him like a secret to be kept, Miles’s mother showed him all the love she could and made sure that he knew she was proud of him. When Anders moved into their house upstate, Miles became like an older brother to him and helped him as he grew up.

Ten years before the beginning of Promise Me Sunshine, Miles’s mother and cousin died in a car accident, and Miles fell into a profound grief. People in his small town treated him with pity but saw him only as the man who had lost his family. Miles pushed the people he knew away, unable to accept help or pity from others. A few years later, he started dating the town sweetheart, a girl named Kira, and his community began to look at him in a new light. When Kira cheated on him, Miles still did not want to break up with her, afraid that people would pity him once again. Miles learned to live with his grief after a time, but he was particularly affected by Anders’s death. Because Miles felt that it was his job to protect his young cousin, Anders’s death was especially hard on him, and Miles left his room in their house untouched after his death.

Miles had gotten back in touch with his father after his mother’s death, but the two were not close. However, when Carp learned that he was dying, he asked Miles to come to New York City to take care of him. With no other family left, Miles agreed, leaving his home and his job as a bricklayer to come to the city. There, he met his half-sister, Reese, who had no knowledge of his existence, and her young daughter, Ainsley. For a few months, the family helped take care of Carp, but he died a year before the beginning of Promise Me Sunshine. Carp left an unexpectedly large sum of money to Miles and gave him the apartment above his in the city to live in. Having no other family, Miles stayed in the city in hopes of becoming closer to Ainsley and Reese. However, the two did not know how to accept Miles into their life, especially since they were grieving Carp, a father figure to them all.

By the beginning of the novel, Miles is still grieving but has learned to live with his losses. He acts as a blueprint for Lenny to follow as she goes through her grieving process, but he needs her help when it comes to connecting with Ainsley and Reese, with whom she gets along easily. Miles is an even more dynamic character than Lenny, as he not only learns that he needs to help himself first in order to help others, but he eventually also recognizes that his fears are preventing him from having a relationship with his remaining family. Miles is characterized by his gruff exterior, but his softer side comes through in his love for young Ainsley, for whom he alters the way he presents himself. By the end of the novel, Miles reforms his relationship with Ainsley and Reese and is ready to start getting what he wants out of life.

Lenny is referred by one of her clients to babysit for Reese and her seven-year-old daughter, Ainsley. When she meets Reese, Lenny describes her as “perfection personified” and can instantly see how much she loves her daughter (11). Successful, wealthy, and beautiful, Reese initially appears to have everything she wants in life, but Lenny soon learns that this is not the case. Reese learned of the existence of her half-brother, Miles, just before her father died. This truth destroyed her image of her family, especially since Miles was born exactly nine months after her, meaning that Carp missed her birth to be with Miles’s mother rather than her own. Reese constantly worries that she is not capable of taking care of Ainsley, whom she has raised on her own with Carp’s help. Yet when her father got sick and Miles entered the picture, her fears that she wasn’t able to take care of others doubled as Miles recognized the severity of Carp’s poor health before she did. Reese has a tense relationship with her half-brother, whom she pointedly refers to as “Ainsley’s uncle” rather than her brother when she first introduces him to Lenny. Unsure of where to put this prickly and overbearing man in her life, she allows Miles to try for a relationship with Ainsley but doesn’t want much to do with him herself. Reese pushes others away and does not recognize how Miles only wants to help her with her grief and be part of her life.

Though only a child, Ainsley experiences many of the same emotions that Reese does. She, too, is grieving Carp, who was like a father to her, and does not know how to react to Miles’s sudden presence. Additionally, Reese’s busy work schedule is hard on Ainsley, whom she feels is her only family and who is rarely around. Though Reese does not recognize this until the end of the novel, Lenny sees Ainsley’s loneliness when Reese is gone and helps her express her feelings. Once Lenny tells her more about Miles, Ainsley begins to want a connection with him as well, and the two get closer with Lenny’s help. Miles and Ainsley’s connection helps Reese see where her brother is coming from and who he wants to be for the only family he has left. Toward the end of the novel, the three of them begin to work together to discover what they want their family to look like.