Literary Fiction · Free kit
The Road to Tender Hearts
PJ Halliday is sixty-three, sober-ish on a good week, and still eating breakfast with the ex-wife who left him and the partner who replaced him. A lottery win a decade ago bought him time, not peace — and three heart attacks later, Pondville, Massachusetts, feels smaller than the grief he carries for his drowned daughter Kate. When his estranged brother’s grandchildren land in his lap after an unthinkable loss, PJ does what he has always done when life corners him: he gets in the car. With adult daughter Sophie, ten-year-old Luna (who is certain a soap opera star is her real father), nine-year-old Ollie, and Pancakes the nursing-home cat — rumored to sense when death is near — he heads west toward Michelle Cobb, the high school sweetheart he never stopped wondering about, and a retirement community called Tender Hearts in the Arizona desert.
“You don’t always get a map for the road back — sometimes you just keep driving until the landscape matches the courage you’re trying to grow.”
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Plan your meeting
The Road to Tender Hearts This or That
Answer in under three seconds. No wrong answers — only revealing ones.
1 / 40
Rapid fire (60 seconds)
Read these aloud as fast as the group can shout answers.
- 1. Diner coffee or Gas-station coffee?
- 2. Desert sunset or New England rain?
- 3. Window seat or Driver’s seat?
- 4. Playlist you chose or Radio you don’t control?
- 5. Map on paper or GPS with attitude?
- 6. Motels with pools or Motels with quiet?
- 7. Road-trip snacks or Sit-down breakfast?
- 8. Talk through the drive or Silence until the state line?
- 9. Cat in the car or Dog in the car?
- 10. Arrive early or Arrive when you arrive?