A Thousand Miles of Gravel and Grace

Priya Ramaswamy runs a bakery in the Adirondack town of Speculator, makes the best rye bread north of Albany, and has kept her body to herself for thirteen years. When Sam 'Crank' Whitcomb walks into her shop on the anniversary of her mother's death, she recognizes him from a summer camp two counties over and, three months later, she lets him upstairs — the first man she's ever let anywhere. He is called away by his club president that night and doesn't come back. A week later, a photograph of Crank in a Glens Falls motel room with an unnamed woman arrives in the bakery's inbox and in every Taconic Ridge member's email. Priya throws it away. She sells the bakery, moves to Albany, learns French, and adopts a dog named Biscuit. Fourteen months later, Crank rides ten hours to Albany with a notarized affidavit from Vera, the woman in the photo — a former Taconic Ridge prospect with a harassment complaint against the club's president. Priya believes him. And then she tells him the truth: support without honesty is not support. If he wants her, he can spend a thousand miles of gravel earning it one Sunday at a time.