A Different Drummer — Deirdre O'Dare

Jest has been on his own since his mid-teens and still blesses the chance that allowed him to realize his dream of playing percussion in a band, one that has become his substitute family. Although he misses the close sharing, he doesn't expect to find a partner, and certainly not one as clearly out of his element as the man, looking totally lost and friendless, who one night wanders into the club where Jest's band plays.

Greene has struggled to build himself a life far from the undisciplined communal community in which he grew to his mid-teens. He's lonely, though, and not sure how to remedy that, so he keeps working as a game programmer in Silicon Valley until he makes a faux pas at a party. Traveling aimlessly, he meets Jest and the other members of Taken By Storm, and is intrigued but terrified of slipping back into a disorderly world like the one of his childhood.

Opposites do attract, but can a rebel percussionist and a totally uptight game programmer find common ground for a partnership?