Read A Bridge to Dreams Online
Authors: Sherryl Woods
A Bridge to Dreams
A staycation turns out to be anything but boring in this acclaimed tale from
New York Times
bestselling author Sherryl Woods.
There's no place like home. At least, that's what San Francisco paralegal Karyn Chambers kept telling herself when her first vacation in years was ruined. Then she met dangerously handsome auto racer Brad Willis, who proved to her that happinessâand loveâare often found in your own backyard!
Originally published in the 2010
Summer Brides
anthology.
Sherryl Woods Booklist
The Sweet Magnolias
Chesapeake Shores
The Devaney Brothers
The Devaney Brothers: Ryan & Sean
The Devaney Brothers: Michael & Patrick
The Calamity Janes
The Calamity Janes: Cassie & Karen
The Calamity Janes: Gina & Emma
The Adams Dynasty
The Rancher and His Unexpected Daughter
The Cowgirl and the Unexpected Wedding
The Cowboy and His Wayward Bride
The Cowboy and the New Year's Baby
Rose Cottage Sisters
Praise for the novels of
SHERRYL WOODS
“Sherryl Woods writes emotionally satisfying novels about family, friendship and home. Truly feel-great reads!”
â#1
New York Times
bestselling author Debbie Macomber
“Sherryl Woods gives her characters depth, intensity, and the right amount of humor.”
â
RT Book Reviews
A Bridge to Dreams
Sherryl Woods
CHAPTER ONE
T
he fog rolled in, gray and thick, but not nearly dreary enough to dampen Karyn's enthusiasm. She could barely see the Golden Gate Bridge in the gloomy twilight, but beside her she had shimmering, golden sunshine in the form of at least a dozen travel brochures for Hawaii, from the exciting, sun-drenched beaches of Honolulu to the more private but equally tropical sands of Maui. She'd spent the past hour in the travel agency sorting through the colorful, tempting photographs of places she'd only seen on television. Finally the impatient travel agent had grown weary of her dreamy expression and her indecision and had handed over the entire assortment, suggesting that she take her time before making her reservations.
Karyn intended to do just that. She was going to spend the entire weekend savoring every minute of planning the first real, away-from-home vacation she'd taken in her entire twenty-six years. She was choosing far more than a destination. She was searching for romance
and adventure and a dash of excitement all rolled into one seven-day vacation.
As her car began the steep climb up the narrow, winding road to her apartment, the engine coughed and sputtered.
“Come on, Ruby, you can do it. You climb this hill every night,” she reminded the aging engine. The response was a wheeze that would have put a human in the hospital. Karyn felt the first pang of panic. “Don't you dare give up on me now,” she ordered. “It is cold and wet outside.”
Ruby responded with an apologetic murmur, then choked and died. Karyn yanked on the emergency brake as the car started to roll backward. Then with a familiar sense of resignation, she put the car into Neutral and tried to restart it. Tonight, however, the red Volkswagen did not respond. After several futile attempts to encourage the ancient car back to life, Karyn sighed and rested her head against the steering wheel.
“Why now, Ruby?” she said, admitting that the signs of a permanent collapse were all too ominous. “Couldn't you have waited another month? Another year? What did I ever do to you except feed you oil and wax you? Is this any way to repay me for taking you off the junk heap and giving you a new coat of paint?”
On the off chance that the car would react favorably to her pleas, she turned the key one last time. Nothing. Not even a muted grinding noise to indicate that there might be a hint of life stirring under the hood. Resigned, Karyn let the car roll to the curb, reset the emergency brake, then got out and went to hunt for a pay phone so she could call a tow truck. Thanks to Ruby's growing
number of quirks, she knew the number at the garage by heart.
“When are you going to give up on this old heap?” her gray-haired mechanic grumbled when he had the car hooked up and Karyn was bouncing along in her all-too-familiar spot beside him.
“One more year,” she said wearily.
Joe, who'd bandaged every part in the car half a dozen times over the past eight years, shook his head. “It'll never make it. It's getting too dangerous for you to be out in this thing, especially at night. One of these days you're going to get stranded after the shop's closed. Then what'll you do?”
“Abandon it. Call one of my brothers. Take the bus. Whatever,” she said. It was exactly the same thing she'd said last week and the week before. “Joe, you know I can't afford a new car now.”
“But you can afford some expensive trip?” Joe knew all about Hawaii. He didn't approve. “What's more important? Your safety or a few days away from home in some foreign place where you don't know a soul?”
“Hawaii is hardly foreign.”
“Might as well be. You have to cross a mighty big ocean to get there, don't you?”
Karyn sighed. Joe had considered his own move from Oakland to San Francisco risky business. He was even more protective of her than her family was, something she hadn't thought possible. “I am going on this vacation,” she said with a stubborn glare in his direction. “I have waited a lifetime to save enough money to get away on my own and see another part of the world. I will not give up this trip. Please, Joe, just fix the car this one more time.”
Still grumbling under his breath, he chomped down on his unlit cigar. “Okay. Okay. I'll do the best I can.”
But on Saturday when Karyn returned to the garage to pick up Ruby, the car was sitting forlornly at the back of the lot in a spot obviously chosen because it wouldn't block traffic. Joe wore a funereal expression. Even his cigar drooped at a downcast angle. Karyn's heart plummeted.
“The engine's blown,” he said. One thing about Joeâhe didn't waste words or sympathy.
“Can't you fix it? You're the best. There must be something you can do.”
“Not worth it,” he said, poking his head back under the hood of a car that apparently had more of a future.
“It is to me. Please, Joe.”
“It'll cost you more than the car's worth.”
“How much?”
“Five, maybe six hundred. More if I can't find the parts in some junkyard.”
The figure represented half of her savings, half of the money she'd set aside over the past year and a half for the long-dreamed-about trip to Hawaii.
“I know you was counting on taking that vacation, but it ain't worth it.” He even managed to sound vaguely sympathetic, which told her far more than she liked about the state of the car. Joe was a genius with engines. He never willingly sent one to the junk heap. If he couldn't fix Ruby, then Ruby was beyond repair.
“Use the money to put a down payment on a new car or at least a good used one from this decade,” he urged. “Pick one out and I'll go over it for you. You can take the trip next year.”
Karyn knew the advice was well-meant and probably sound, but it sent her spirits sinking straight down to her toes. More dejected than she'd ever been, she walked over to the scarred red VW. She wanted badly to kick the tires, but couldn't bring herself to do it. Unlike Ruby, she still had a certain amount of loyalty.
“How could you do this to me?” she said plaintively, taking one last resentful look before gathering the Bay Area maps, sweaters and umbrellas that had accumulated in the backseat. She started across the parking lot. As she reached the gas pumps in the center, she opened her purse, took out the travel brochures for Hawaii, ceremoniously tore them into shreds, then dumped them into the oil drum that served as a trash can. They were only pieces of paper, but as they fluttered away she felt as though she were destroying her dream.
* * *
It took Karyn until the following Friday after work to accept the inevitable. With a sort of grim determination she went to a car dealership she'd passed every day. She walked past the sporty new convertibles, past the serviceable sedans, beyond the new car showroom to the used car lot. She tried very hard to tell herself that buying a replacement for Ruby was going to be exciting, that it would be terrific to drive something that didn't quit at stoplights and balk at hills. All she could see, though, was the dimming vision of Diamond Head.
“May I help you, miss?”
Karyn sighed heavily and returned to reality, which in this case happened to be an eager salesman who was practically rubbing his hands together in glee at the prospect of making a sale before the day ended.
“I'm looking for a car,” she said without enthusiasm.
He chuckled as though she'd made a terrific joke. “Well, you've certainly come to the right place,” he said with so much forced enthusiasm that Karyn reconsidered the possibility of taking the bus for the rest of her natural life. Only the fact that she often needed her car for work kept her standing right where she was.
“Now, we have a real beauty over here,” he said. “Take a look at this convertible. Only a couple of years old, real low mileage. Just right for a pretty little thing like you. It's flashy. Sexy. It projects a certain image, if you know what I mean.”
Karyn glanced at the bright red car that reminded her all too vividly of Ruby in color, if not in style. Used or not, the car looked expensive. She didn't want to get her hopes up so she shrugged indifferently. “How much?”
“Well, now, I guess that's something we'd have to discuss. Why not take it for a test drive and see how you like it?”