Compass of the Heart, page 1
Table of Contents
Blurb
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Keep Reading
About the Author
By Eliana West
More from Eliana West
Copyright
Compass of the Heart
by Eliana West
When Steve Bernard finds his college classmate Ava Jones stranded in the rain, he takes his chance to be a knight in shining armor and offer her a ride home. Only instead of a white steed, he’s driving a white Volkswagen camper van named Pearl.
State by state, Ava and Steve get to know each other on the road trip of a lifetime. When they reach the West Coast, will the compass of Ava’s heart point toward a new home?
Compass of the Heart is a short story originally included in the Loving Hearts anthology in honor of Richard and Mildred Loving.
For Richard and Mildred Loving, your journey paved the way for ours.
Chapter One
“AVA, YOU have done some really stupid things, but this may take the cake,” Ava Jones muttered to herself, blinking back tears.
Mother Nature must have decided she was in on the joke because a fat raindrop landed on her cheek, followed by more droplets that quickly transformed into a full-fledged rainstorm.
She ran her hands over what had been perfectly straight strands moments before. The deluge was quickly returning her curls to their natural state. Flipping her hood over her head, she bit down on her lip, refusing to cry. Though even if she did, the sounds of cars whizzing by on the highway would drown out her sobbing.
With a heavy sigh, she looked down at the rain splatters on her backpack. “You have no one to blame but yourself.”
She couldn’t even blame her asshole boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. She was the one who had excused Donald’s rudeness as him being confident and a little cocky to her friends. Those same friends who had told her going on a road trip back home to California with her spoiled, preppy boyfriend was a big mistake. But Ava hadn’t been able to see past his sexy brown eyes and her dream of a post-college-graduation road trip across America. Now she had stranded herself at a rest stop only two days into her journey.
If she were smarter, she would have waited to ditch him until they were passing through a town or something that resembled civilization, but she couldn’t stand another minute in Donald’s shiny new Volvo that his parents had bought him for graduating with a C average.
The trip had started off badly, with Donald insisting they couldn’t eat or drink in the car because he wanted to keep his “baby” in pristine condition. And then there’d been the constant loop of Whitesnake, Def Leppard, and KISS he insisted on playing at full volume, which still had her ears ringing. But it wasn’t until he’d suggested they take a southern detour on their route, hinting that he’d be down for a little master-slave role-play, that she lost it. As soon as she’d seen the sign for the rest area, she’d demanded Donald pull over. She’d read him the riot act before grabbing her backpack, getting out, and kicking his precious car door closed with enough force to leave a slight dent.
Ava shook her head to dismiss the fresh memories, then picked up her backpack—her first step a stagger under its weight—and headed toward the bathrooms, looking for a pay phone.
“It’s 1987 and you are a strong, independent woman. Get it together, girl,” she said, straightening her shoulders.
The pep talk’s effects didn’t last long. Five minutes later, she gave up the search along with her show of strength. Putting her head in her hands, she let the tears flow.
“Ava?”
She pulled her hands away from her tear-stricken eyes, her gaze lifting from a pair of hiking boots to a familiar face, Steve Bernard, one of her former classmates at Brown University.
She wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Steve, what are you doing here?”
His blue eyes looked down at her with worry. “What’s wrong? What happened?” He glanced around the parking lot. “Where’s Donald?”
She couldn’t keep the tremor out of her voice when she said, “Gone.”
His expression went from worry to anger in a heartbeat. “Did he abandon you here?”
“No,” she sighed, “this is my fault.”
“Come on.” He gently pried the backpack from her shoulder and took her hand in his, pulling her up and leading her toward an updated version of the classic Volkswagen camper van. Unlike the older models, which resembled loaves of bread, this one looked more rectangular, like a Lego block.
He slid the side door open and motioned her inside. Closing the door behind them, he set her pack on the passenger seat up front and gestured to the bench in the back. “Have a seat. I’ll make something warm to drink. I’ve got hot chocolate, tea, and instant coffee. What would you like?”
Ava frowned. “What are you going to make it with?”
The ceiling of the van wasn’t quite tall enough for his just-under-six-foot frame, forcing him to stoop slightly. He reached up and pressed a lever. With a quiet hiss from hydraulic struts, the roof popped up, forming a tented ceiling. He turned to the counter that ran along one side of the van and pressed another lever, lifting the countertop to reveal a gas cooktop and a small sink.
She jumped up to take a closer look. “This is awesome.”
Steve opened a small compartment under the sink to reveal a tiny refrigerator. “Pearl’s got everything you need.”
“Pearl?”
“That’s what I named her.” He swept his arm over the space. “My van.”
Sitting sat back down, she patted the gray geometric-patterned fabric of the bench seat. The name fit with the van’s white exterior and light gray laminate cabinets. “It’s nice to meet you, Pearl.”
She watched, fascinated, while he pulled a tea kettle and cups out of different compartments.
When the tea kettle whistled, he asked, “Did you decide what you’d like to drink?”
“Hot chocolate, please.” After the day she’d had, chocolate was definitely in order. Ava turned away, biting the inside of her cheek to keep a fresh wave of tears at bay.
He handed her a mug with tiny dots of white floating on the creamy brown beverage. “Sorry, I’ve only got Swiss Miss.”
She lifted the cup to her lips and inhaled. “Don’t think I’m weird, but I love the little freeze-dried marshmallows.”
“I don’t think you’re weird at all,” he said, while fiddling with the driver’s seat. A second later, he swiveled it to the side and sat on the edge facing her.
“Okay, it’s official. This is the coolest van ever.”
His face lit up with a huge grin. “You’re the first person who didn’t turn up your nose at her. All my friends thought I was nuts saving like crazy and using the graduation money my grandparents gave me to buy it.”
“I wish I’d bought a van like this instead of going on a road trip with an asshole.”
“Do you want to tell me what happened?”
A half hour and too many details later, Ava concluded, “And that’s how I ended up at a rest stop in middle-of-nowhere Ohio.”
Steve let out an impressive string of expletives, his eyes flashing with anger as he said, “I never liked that guy. I couldn’t stand being on the lacrosse team with him.”
“Yeah, well, I had to learn the hard way.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“I can’t go back to Brown. My roommates and I all moved out of our apartment. I guess I’ll have to give up my road trip fantasy and head straight back to California. Would you mind giving me a ride to the nearest bus or train station?”
He studied her for a minute before he set his mug down and leaned forward, clasping his hands. “I have a proposition for you.” Ava frowned, and he gave her a wry smile. “Not that kind of proposition. Pearl and I are heading back to Misfit Harbor. I can give you a ride to California.”
“Where’s Misfit Harbor?”
“It’s in the San Juan Islands, just north of Seattle.”
She shook her head. “I can’t ask you to go out of your way.”
“You wouldn’t be. I was planning to drive to LA and then head up the coast on my way back home. The views of the Pacific are supposed to be spectacular from State Route 1.”
She considered the offer. She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t been interested in getting to know Steve before she’d fallen for Donald’s Mr. Charm act. Occasionally their paths crossed at Brown, and they’d even had a couple of classes together. They also had mutual friends who all said what a great guy he was, and her brief interactions with him, both then and now, had seemed to verify her friends’ judgment.
She glanced at Steve. There was something about the hopeful look he was currently giving her. Her heart warmed and then matched the steady staccato of the rain falling on the van roof.
He had dimples when he smiled.
Chapter Two
HE HELD his breath. Please say yes. Please say yes. He sent up a silent prayer of thanks to the mysterious higher power, plus three cups of coffee, that had made him pull into the rest stop just outside of Cincinnati.
He’d noticed Ava Jones on the first day of their freshman year at Brown University, and not just b
The memory faded and his heart thudded in his chest the same way it had when he found her crying at the rest stop. Then it slowed to a steady thump… thump… thump, waiting to see what her answer to his offer would be.
“How would it work?” she asked.
“What?” He’d been so occupied with willing her to say yes, he’d missed the question.
A hint of pink spread over her cheeks. “I mean, where would you—” She cleared her throat. “Where would I sleep?”
In my arms.
“Oh.” Steve jumped up when her question registered in his love-struck brain. “I can sleep up here.” He patted the sleeping loft that was accessible when the tent was up. “The bench you’re sitting on turns into a bed that you can have. Or you can have the top bunk. Either way is fine with me.”
Please say yes. Please say yes.
She eyed the top bunk and then looked around the van. “You have to let me split gas and any other expenses with you.”
He had to stop himself from jumping and doing a fist pump.
“Yeah, sure, whatever you want,” he said, trying to sound like going on a road trip with the girl he’d been crushing on since freshman year was no big deal.
He grabbed the bundle of maps off the dash. “I went to AAA, and they did a TripTik for me.”
Ava wrinkled her nose. “A TripTik?”
“Yeah, you can go to AAA, tell them where you’re going, and they’ll help you plan your trip.” He flipped through the maps. “Here, let me show you the route I was planning.”
He opened one of the maps and set it on the floor of the van, kneeling down in front of it. Ava knelt down next to him, peering at the map as he ran his finger across the route that would take them across the country through Indiana and Missouri, then Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. “I was hoping to do a detour into Wyoming to see Devil’s Tower. What do you think?”
She looked up at him, her deep brown eyes sparkling with excitement. “This is exactly the trip I wanted to take.”
This close, he could smell the flowery honey scent of her shampoo. His fingers itched to brush away the hair hiding her profile. Instead, he picked up the map and carefully folded it back up. “It’s going to be a lot more fun traveling with a friend.” Digging into the cabinet under the sink, he pulled out a bag of marshmallows and some chocolate bars. “We’ve got the makings for s’mores and tunes for around the campfire,” he said, gesturing to a boombox on the floor.
“Thank you.” Her eyes became bright with unshed tears. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t shown up.”
“Just consider me your knight in shining armor and Pearl, my trusty steed.”
Ava laughed, and Steve hoped their road trip would last a lifetime.
He showed her how to pull the top down on the van, then they stowed her stuff in the back. With everything put away, they took their seats and pulled onto the freeway.
“Where are we spending the night?” she asked, pulling the map with Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois out of the stack on the dash.
“I was going to Brown County State Park in Indiana.”
She nodded, studying the map and tracing their route with her finger. He reached down and handed her a shoebox. “Here, see if there’s anything you want to listen to.”
She dug through the collection of cassettes. “You have much better taste in music than Donald.” Her eyes lit up, and she held up a cassette. “How about this one?”
He gave a thumbs up, and a minute later they were singing “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” by Wang Chung at the top of their lungs while the scenery passed by in a blur of green. It was late in the afternoon when they pulled into the campground. The rain had stopped, and the sun broke through the clouds, creating halos of amber around the trees.
Steve backed the van into a grassy spot surrounded by poplar trees. They jumped out, eager to move their legs. He watched as Ava stretched her arms over her head, revealing a strip of skin at her waist. He quickly turned away before she could notice the obvious evidence of his attraction.
Lucky for them, this early in the spring they had most of the park to themselves. The hordes of tourists wouldn’t show up for a few more weeks.
“So, what do we do now?” Ava asked.
Within minutes, the tent was up and they’d unpacked the firewood and groceries they’d stopped to buy on the way.
“Oh no.” He slapped his forehead. “I wasn’t thinking about traveling with anyone. I only have one camp chair and a sleeping bag.”
“That’s okay, I can make do for tonight and we can stop somewhere tomorrow and I’ll get some supplies.” She gave her backpack a rueful look. “I didn’t exactly pack for camping. I was saving all my money for hotel rooms and dining out, but now I can use some of that money to get my own sleeping bag.”
He dug into the small cabinet next to the bench seat and pulled out a flashlight and a towel. “I have an extra towel though, so you can take a shower if you’d like.”
He’d picked a campsite that wasn’t too far from the bathrooms, and he’d previously made sure all the campgrounds bookmarked for the trip had shower facilities.
She gave him a grateful smile. “Thanks.”
Digging into her pack, she pulled out a makeup bag and a pair of sweatpants. As soon as she headed for the bathrooms, he got to work getting the campfire going and dinner ready before it got too dark out.
While Steve worked, he planned. He had seven more states to show Ava he was the right man for her.
When she’d started dating Donald, Steve resigned himself to bachelorhood. At least for a while, until someone else came along. That was the lie he’d told himself, because if he’d been honest, he would have to admit that Ava Jones had stolen his heart that day on the College Green.
He should have asked her out then and there, but he’d chickened out. He didn’t ask her out later because he’d heard from a friend that she didn’t date White guys, and partly because he’d let himself worry about what his friends and family would say. By the time he’d pulled his head out of his ass and realized he wouldn’t be able to get Ava out of his mind until he’d at least given it a shot and asked her out, he’d seen her walking across campus arm in arm with Donald. He’d been kicking himself ever since. Now fate had given him a second chance, and he would not waste it.
Chapter Three
AVA’S FINGER shook as she punched in the numbers on the pay phone by the campground showers.
Her parents disapproved of her original road trip plans. When they found out about her new arrangement, she knew she was going to catch hell.
Her heart pounded in her ears. She drew in a shaky breath, listening to the phone ring.
“Pease don’t pick—” she started. The line connected on the first ring, cutting off her plea. “Hi, Mom!” She winced. Too enthusiastic.
“Ava? It’s about time you checked in,” her mom said.
“It’s only been two days, and I promised I’d check in at least once a week.”
Her mom’s dissatisfied “hmm” wasn’t unexpected.
“Where are you? I hope that boy isn’t driving like some kind of madman.”
She glanced over at Steve, who was digging through his own gear, getting ready to shower as well. He looked toward her with a half-smile that she returned with a quick wave.
“So, about Donald….”
Her mom’s shriek of outrage at the conclusion of her story had her holding the phone from her ear. Her dad’s deep baritone soon joined her mother’s protest while they took turns berating her.
“Maybe your sister can talk some sense into you,” her mom muttered.
There was a moment of silence, and then her sister Nell came on the line. “Damn, sis, you’ve got Momma and Daddy spitting fire. What is going on?” she asked in a hushed voice.
