The Promise of Paradise (2 page)

Jen began to drum her
heels against the roof. Sighing, Ash pulled herself up and over the
window sill. One deep breath. Then another.
Okay.
Not so bad
after all. With careful steps, she walked from one end of the roof to
the other. Beyond the back lawn of her rental house, the center of
Paradise, New Hampshire, rose to greet her, a picturesque town with
an old-fashioned Main Street and two stone churches squatting on the
town green. To her left, Lycian Street meandered below. In the
distance she could make out the tops of red brick buildings over at
the town’s junior college. She took a deep breath and peeked over
to the sidewalk.

“Wow.” From here
she could see all the way to the street’s end in both directions.
Maybe this hadn’t been the wrong decision after all. Standing close
enough to reach the leaves that swayed above her, Ash felt peaceful
for the first time in months. She closed her eyes and drew it all in,
the quiet street, the sleepy town. Somehow, it felt right. It felt
like a good place to spend a summer. It felt like a good place to
escape the mudslinging, a good place to figure out how to tell her
parents she wanted a different life than the one they’d sketched
out for her from birth.

Most of all, it seemed
like a good place to forget her heartache, to try and flee the ghosts
of Colin and Callie that reappeared every time she turned a corner.

Ash slid to a seat
beside her friend. “Okay, maybe you’re right. Might not be a bad
place for a party.”
If I’m ever in the partying mood again.

“Told you.” Jen
glanced at her watch. “What else do you need me to do? I’m going
down to visit the family this weekend. Gotta help my little brother
mend a broken heart.”

“Lucas? What
happened? ”

“Dumped his fiancée.
He found her in bed with someone else.” Jen’s face went dark.

“Aw, poor guy. That
stinks.” She'd always had a soft spot for Jen's little brother –
not that
little
was the right word, since the guy towered over
both of them. “When?”

“Last month.” Jen
pulled her hair onto the top of her head before letting it fall
again. “It's okay. He's better off without her.”

Ash rested one cheek in
her hand. Looked as though it had been a rough spring for break-ups.
Maybe Lucas needed to find a Paradise of his own to escape to for a
little while.

“Anyway, I think the
last train back to the city leaves in an hour or so,” Jen went on.
“So you need anything? Want to make a run to the grocery store
before I go?”

“Nah. I’ll find one
tomorrow.”

“You sure? I can just
hang out for a while if you want.”

The thought tempted
her. Despite her need to be alone and sort through the snarl of
feelings around her heart, despite the funny, run-down house that was
already starting to seem like home, part of her wanted Jen to stay.
Ash opened her mouth to answer, but a roar from below drowned out her
words.

“What the hell is
that?” Jen turned to peer through the slats in the railing. A
second later, she pulled herself to her feet and leaned over as far
as she could. A grin spread itself across her face. “Whoa. Take a
look at this.”

“What?”

But Jen didn’t answer
and instead just stared.

Curious, Ash joined Jen
at the railing and looked down. Near the curb, engine still running
and rock music bellowing from the speakers, idled a red pickup truck.
White and yellow flames danced along both sides. Bending over the
tailgate was a broad, bare, definitely male back.
Yow.
No
wonder Jen looked like she was about to start drooling. Even one
floor up, Ash could trace the outline of nearly every muscle in his
arms and back. A bright red and yellow king cobra tattoo curled
around his left triceps. Wavy brown hair fell across the sides of his
face. His jeans, faded in all the right places, sat low on his hips.
Ash squinted harder and ran a hand over her hair.

Oh God. They still
make men who look like that?

“Turn around,
please,” Jen commanded under her breath. As if he’d heard her, he
straightened, biceps flexing as he hauled two large boxes from the
back of the truck and turned into the sidewalk. Her sidewalk. He
looked up, and Ash’s heart dove into her stomach. A neatly trimmed
goatee underscored a crooked nose. He flashed a smile and winked.

“Hey,” he called.
“You live here?”

Jen nodded and jabbed a
thumb in Ash’s direction. “She does.”

“I’m Eddie West.
Movin’ in today.” It was hard to hear him over the noise of the
truck’s humming engine and the music. Ash watched his mouth move
instead.

“Need any help?”
Jen asked.

Eddie shook his head.
“Nah. I’ve just got a couple of boxes to bring in. The rest is
coming tomorrow. But thanks.” He continued up the sidewalk.

Jen cupped her hands
around her mouth and yelled down. “Come up later if you want.”

Ash elbowed her. “What
are you doing?”

Eddie backpedaled and
nodded, grinning wider. As he disappeared from their view, the heavy
front door creaked open and, after a few seconds, thudded shut behind
him.

Jen straightened. “See?
I told you he’d be good-looking.” She rolled her eyes. “He’s
beyond good-looking, Ash.” She fell back against the railing, hands
to heart in a dramatic pantomime. “He’s perfect.”

But she wasn’t sure a
good-looking housemate was what she needed this summer. Hadn’t she
sworn off men just a few weeks ago? “I’m sure he’s not perfect,
Jen. You don’t even know if he’s available. Maybe he has a
girlfriend. Maybe he’s
married
.”

“He’s not. He
wasn’t wearing a ring.”

“How do you know?”

“I looked.”

“From ten feet up you
looked?”

Jen winked, grinning. A
few minutes later, the pickup’s music squawked off. Less than two
minutes after that, footsteps thundered up the stairs, and a fist
pounded on Ash’s front door.
Already? He's coming up to visit
already?
Her heart crept from a steady gallop to a sprint. She
didn’t need to meet anyone new, not now. She needed to get her head
straightened out. She needed to heal. She needed to –

“Are you getting
that?” Jen stood perfectly still and stared at her.

“Fine.” She crawled
back through the open window, crossed the living room, and stood
before the door.
Please don’t be perfect. Please have one lazy
eye or a limp or something caught in your teeth or…

Ash opened the door,
and Eddie stood on the other side, smiling.

A breeze kicked through
the living room, one of those warm summer gusts that sweep in from
nowhere. It lifted the hair off her neck and blew a puff of dust
across the doorstep. For an instant, the room seemed to widen, to
swell with warmth, and sun flooded the space.

Wow. Maybe Jen is
right. Maybe he is perfect.

Eddie wasn’t tall,
but the faded green t-shirt he’d put on outlined every muscle she
could see. Sweat lined the creases in his forehead, and brilliant
blue eyes met hers. Their color startled her, so bright they made the
summer sky seem shady and dull. The more she examined them and tried
in vain to match them to a Crayola color that had never existed, the
more she felt a strange tumbling in her stomach.

God, what’s wrong
with me? He’s just a guy. Pull it together, Ash.
Taking a deep
breath, she shifted her gaze to the doorjamb above him. “Hi, Eddie.
Come on in.”

He didn’t move for a
moment, just stood and studied her. Cocking his head, he wiped his
forehead against the sleeve of his shirt, then stepped across the
threshold and into Ash’s life. Maybe it was the sun, maybe the odd
wind that had picked up at just that moment, but suddenly she had the
strangest urge to reach over and touch him, to run one finger along
his brow and down his cheek. She studied a wrinkle in the fold of his
shirt and wanted to smooth it. Something hovered in the space between
them, and a strange sense of closeness pierced her throat and stopped
her words.

“Are you – ?”

“When did – ?”

They spoke at the same
time, but the words fell away, and though neither finished a thought,
they both began to laugh.

Eddie reached for Ash’s
hand. “Nice to meet you.”

She placed her palm in
his, for a moment only, but she liked the way it felt. Warm. Safe.
“I’m-uh-Ashley. Ash.” Again she altered her first name, and
didn’t offer her last, in case he’d been watching the news
lately. And who hadn’t?

* * *

Ash studied her new
housemate as Jen joined them in the living room. Eddie leaned in the
doorway, cracking his knuckles, and continued to smile at her. He was
saying something, about the weather or maybe the house, but she
couldn’t concentrate over the thumping of her heart. She watched
him, though. She watched as Eddie’s goatee moved when he spoke, a
rich, wide spread of stubble that covered his chin. She wondered for
a moment what it would be like to feel it against her own cheek, and
a tickle ran up the back of her neck.

Ash pushed the thought
away.
Forget it.
The pain of Colin still stung, and even a
friendly neighbor with rugged, take-your-breath-away good looks
couldn’t chase that memory from her mind.

She tore her gaze away
to turn and look behind her, seeing for the first time the furniture
that filled her new living room. A loveseat sat under the wide window
overlooking the street, with a worn corduroy couch opposite it. A
tall bookcase stood in one corner near the kitchen, and two oak end
tables completed the set. Hmm. She might have to invest in a few
pieces of furniture after all. Ripped boxes and limp garbage bags
covered the floor. She blushed, embarrassed.

“I just moved in.
Sorry about the mess.”

Eddie shrugged. “What
mess?”

Her smile returned.
“Want a seat?”

He nodded and made his
way to the couch, stepping over a box and around a stack of books.
Jen plopped down beside him. Hands laced behind her head, she
stretched out her short legs and grinned at Eddie. Jen had always
been good at that, sliding up to men without a second thought. Ash
wished sometimes she could be more like her friend, instead of
sitting in the shadows and thinking too much. She’d never had to
work to get Colin, anyway. He’d showed up on her doorstep three
days after she arrived at Harvard.

“So you’re Senator
Kirk’s daughter,” he’d said, and that was that. The following
day they went out for coffee. The next weekend she took him home to
meet her parents. They hadn’t been apart since.

Ash’s eyes burned,
and she reached up to rub away the tears she knew would appear in
another minute. She found a spot on the loveseat and forced her
attention to Jen and Eddie, in an effort to steer her mind back to
the conversation instead of the thoughts running around inside her
head.

“Nice place, huh? I
mean the house, the street, and all.” Eddie waved to the ceiling
above them as he leaned back, settling himself into the cushions.

Ash followed the
movement and noticed strong, calloused hands, with scars on the
knuckles, and one pinky finger bent in an odd way. Warmth filled her
belly. She always noticed men’s hands. Maybe that’s why she found
baseball players and cellists so sexy. She liked hands that looked
powerful and rugged. Hands that could take on the world and throw it
into its place when needed. Strong hands that turned soft when they
wound their way along her body late at night. Eddie’s hands looked
like that.

The warmth reached her
cheeks again, and she willed it away, afraid it would betray her.

“So how’d you end
up moving in here?” Jen asked him.

“Mmm…long story.”

She propped one elbow
on the back of the couch. “We’ve got time.”

Eddie’s face changed
a little, and he switched the subject, smooth as cream. “What about
you, Jen?”

“What about me?”

“You and Ashley.
What’s your story? You guys from around here?”

Ash cringed a little
when he said the name.
Ashley
. Her alias. The one she’d just
made up to take the place of her true identity for the next few
months. Already she felt guilty about lying to the guy who would be
sharing her house. Damn. Why couldn’t things ever work out the way
she planned?

“Not really,” she
began, with a quick glance at Jen. How did she answer his question
without revealing too much? “I mean, we just graduated and…”

“I grew up in
Connecticut,” Jen finished for her. “Ash is from outside Boston.
I'm starting my residency next month, but the smart one here decided
to take a summer to herself. You know, enjoy some peace and quiet. I
just came along today for the ride.” She leaned in closer. “That,
and to interview any housemates she might have. To make sure they
pass inspection.”

Eddie looked at Ash.
“And do I pass?”

Her cheeks got even
hotter, and she wondered if that was answer enough.

Jen smiled. “Oh, I’d
say you do.”

He shook his head.
“Good. I guess.”

“Do you work in
town?” Ash asked.

“Yep. Frank’s
Imports. It’s a repair shop out by the highway. Some high-end
stuff, Mercedes and Beamers, but mostly family cars. Hondas,
Toyotas…lotta minivans.” He grinned, and Ash nearly lost herself
again.

“I think we passed it
on the way in. Didn’t we?” Jen asked.

A repair shop?
Something tugged at the corners of Ash’s mouth. Wouldn’t her
father die if he knew who his youngest daughter was living with? Not
exactly the Stepford Club, she thought, and then was sorry, as if
she’d somehow betrayed Eddie though she’d only just met him.

“I think I saw it,”
she said. “Big place. Red sign.” Lawyer’s eyes noticed
everything, Ash’s father used to tell her. Even the details.
Especially the details.