Promises to Keep — Shirley Hailstock

Tricky curves ahead

After three years of grieving, it's finally time for widow McKenna Wellington to take that long-awaited road trip…though her adventure isn't meant to include Parker Fordum. The stodgy, set-in-his-ways economics professor is the last person McKenna wants to accompany her across 2,400 miles of defunct highway. But her late husband's friend has his own reasons for signing on.

And Parker's surprising McKenna in all sorts of good ways. Somewhere between Chicago and LA, an unlikely friendship blooms, turning a cross-country trip into something more. But what awaits them at journey's end?