The Promise of Paradise (5 page)

Ash shook her head.
That thought hurt, so she stopped it. Instead, she stepped into the
sunshine and let the day cheer her.

* * *

A stop at Lou’s for
pasta salad and tomato soup, and Ash returned home.
Home
. The
word sounded funny inside her head. She stood in the middle of her
living room and looked around. Last night, after Eddie left, she’d
laid out her faded but beloved Oriental rug and hung two Monet prints
on the wall above the couch. Already the place looked better. Warmer.
Another throw rug in the hallway, and it might actually feel like her
own space.

She ventured into the
kitchen and gazed out the window. Should she? The roof beckoned her,
sun-dappled and secret. Jen had been right. The bird’s eye porch
was the best part of the apartment. Out there, she could escape. She
could think. She could watch the world from above without it staring
back at her. Ash grabbed a napkin along with her lunch and hauled
herself across the sill.

The day was quiet,
breathless in the heat. She watched the street for a while as she
chewed, but nothing moved. Even Helen remained inside. Content for
the first time in what seemed like forever, she allowed herself to
relax.

God, she’d fallen
apart when the news about her father broke. He’d tried to claim a
set-up, a political framing, but how did you argue with the facts? A
gram of cocaine in the glove box of his private Benz. A point-oh-nine
on the breathalyzer test. Worst of all, a nineteen-year-old
prostitute in the seat beside him, made up to look twenty-five but
playing the lost little girl as soon as the first news camera
appeared.

Her mother had defended
him, as always. Ash finished her lunch and crumpled her napkin into a
tiny ball. The space in the center of her chest ached. Was that what
it meant to be a politician’s wife? Smiling for the camera and
denying any wrongdoing? Ash had no intention of letting that happen
to her. Ever. She’d be the politician, but never the passive wife,
never standing at home while her husband ran around behind her back.

Hell, now she didn’t
even want to be a politician. She’d spent her entire life watching
how everyone, the people of Massachusetts, and the reporters
themselves, had at first loved her father and then lambasted him.
They worshipped him, put him into office with the biggest majority
the state had seen in fifty years. And then they were the first ones
to parade his mug shot across every television channel and newspaper
in the city the moment he slipped up. Did she want a life like that
for herself? No way.

Ash made her way back
into the kitchen. She couldn’t think about it anymore. The sorrow
and frustration would give her a migraine and land her in bed for two
days. With a couple of hours until she had to return to Blues and
Booze, maybe she’d attack the mold growing behind her toilet. That
chore might be disgusting enough to take her mind off all the
problems back home.

Someone knocked on her
door, and Ash froze.
Oh, God. They found me. The media followed me
to Paradise and now they want a statement.
With a hearing
scheduled for later this summer, the story would be building again,
after the relative calm of the last few weeks. She eyed the door.
She’d thought New Hampshire was far enough away, but who knew what
those vultures were capable of? They’d camped outside her apartment
in Cambridge until Colin called the police. Of course, that was when
he’d still lived there.
When he still cared.
She hugged her
elbows. All she wanted was to be left alone. Was that too much to
ask?

She tiptoed to the door
and looked through the peephole.
Eddie. Thank God.
She pulled
open the door in relief.

“Hi.”

Today her downstairs
neighbor wore jeans and a faded red T-shirt with the words “Frank’s
Imports” across the pocket. His feet were bare. He lifted the edge
of his shirt to wipe his forehead, and Ash caught a glimpse of a
six-pack hiding underneath. Damn, he looked good. Even preoccupied
with thoughts of her father, she couldn’t deny that.

“Hi yourself.
Everything okay?”

“Fine. Come on in.”

“Thanks.” A wide
smile brightened his eyes, revealing a dimple.

God, he’s even
better-looking when he really smiles.

“How’s the job
search going?” He pointed to the paper, lying on the floor beside
the loveseat.

“Ah, I found one.”
A vision of the darkened Blues and Booze flew into her mind, and Ash
grimaced.

“Yeah? But that’s
not a good face.”

“No, it’s okay.”
She willed away the image of the manager's yellow teeth. “It’s
waiting tables in a restaurant downtown. Blues and Booze. You know
it?”

“Sure. Great little
place.”

“Really?” She
leaned in the kitchen doorway. “Seemed a little...I don’t know.
Strange.”

He chuckled. “You
probably talked to Marty, the manager.”

She nodded.

“Marty’s dad left
him that place ‘cause no one else in the family wanted it. He’s
got a sister who works in real estate down in Boston, and a brother
out in California. Marty just made it through high school and didn’t
have the gumption to do much of anything. Actually, he’s done all
right for himself. That place always does a good business. Decent
clientele. Any place on Main Street is safe enough, anyway. You don't
need to worry about that.”

Ash listened to him
talk. She liked the way his mouth moved and the way his strong
fingers rubbed a soft spot under his chin. “That makes me feel
about a hundred times better. Thanks.”

“When do you start?”

“Tonight. Five
o’clock.” A thought, brave enough to scare her, came from
nowhere. “You should stop by.”

He smiled but shook his
head. “I’d like to, but I have to work the odd shift at the
garage tonight. Three to ten. Frank stays open late one night a
week.” He looked at his watch. “I’ve got to get going. Just
wanted to see how you made out.”

“Oh, okay.”

“But let me know how
it goes. I'll stop by another time. Promise.”

She nodded. “Sure.
Have fun at work.”

“Fun? Don’t know
about that.” For a moment he stood in the doorway, and though
neither one spoke, something bounced between them. Eyes met, then
dropped, and Ash felt an orchestra of butterflies begin a symphony in
her stomach. Eddie winked and headed out the door.

Ash sank to the floor
and leaned against the loveseat. What was going on here? Somehow in
the last twenty-four hours, Eddie West had slid into her life, smooth
and easy as water winding its way down rocks on a lazy spring
afternoon. She tried to decipher it, to understand the feeling of
familiarity that emerged when they were together. It wasn’t just
attraction, though some of that hung over them too. It was almost as
though they’d known each other a long time ago and were now trying
to make up for all the years they’d been apart. She’d never
sensed anything like it, and she wasn’t sure how it made her feel.

She scratched her nose
and wondered if it were possible to have a soul mate.

A little after six the
following night, Eddie eased his truck into an open spot on Main
Street. He didn’t bother to lock the doors. In Paradise, the last
time anyone had something stolen in the daylight hours had been more
than ten years ago. He ambled across the street to Blues and Booze.
It had been a slow day at work, though he hadn’t really minded.
Some days he liked losing himself in the diagnostics, like figuring
out why someone’s alternator didn’t work or why the idiot light
on the panel kept blinking on and off.

But today, he’d
appreciated the few oil changes and timing belts he’d had to take
care of. Simple stuff. Nothing too complex. Because even though he’d
done his best to concentrate, his mind kept going back to her. To Ash
and to the few hours they spent having dinner the night before last.

Eddie pulled open the
restaurant door and let his eyes adjust to the dimness for a moment
before looking around. He’d been in here a few times as a teenager,
maybe once or twice in the last couple of years. It used to be one of
the only places in town you could drink without showing an ID. Not
since Marty had taken over, though. Though not too bright in the
business department, that guy only let himself get caught once for
serving minors. Today the place catered more to the thirty-something
and up crowd, though on any given day, schoolteachers, cabdrivers,
and retired highway workers sat together at the bar watching a ball
game.

“Jesus, that pitcher
stinks,” one of them said as he walked in. Eddie recognized Harold
Triumph, former owner of Triumph Dry Cleaners, and pulled up a stool
beside him.

“Draft, tall one,”
he said to the bartender.

“Hey! Eddie West!”
The bartender grinned as he pulled on the tap. “Nick Scoles. Few
years ahead of you back at Paradise High.”

Eddie dropped a five on
the bar. “Sure. How’s it going?”

“Not bad. Got a
couple-a new girls working here, so I’m enjoying the view.”

A sharp sting of
jealousy stiffened Eddie’s spine. “I know. One of ‘em’s my
housemate.”

Nick started washing
glasses. “Yeah? Which one?”

“Ash.”

Nick nodded. “She’s
cute.”

“Yeah she is.”
Eddie paused. “How’s she doing, anyway?”

“Learning the ropes,
I guess. Today’s only her second day, so she hasn’t screwed up
too bad.” He grinned around the toothpick in his mouth.

Eddie glanced over his
shoulder in the direction of the dining room. Low-hanging lights cast
shadows and made it hard for him to make out much of anything. A few
tables were occupied, and a few more were covered with dishes and
crumpled-up napkins. Near the door that led into the kitchen, two
figures stood, filling water glasses and talking.

“Bathroom still in
the same place?” Eddie asked.

Nick jerked one thumb
toward the dining room. “All the way in the back.”

Eddie ran one hand over
his damp hair, smoothing it down. He was glad he’d stopped at the
house to take a quick shower after finishing up at Frank’s. He
didn’t want Ash to think he walked around smelling like diesel
fumes all day. He headed into the dining room, taking his time. He
passed one table with a young family he didn’t recognize and
another with a single man bent over a laptop, and slowed at a third
when he recognized the two women having cocktails.

“Hey, Simra.”

The bleach-blonde with
the heavy eye makeup looked up. “Eddie?” She practically leapt
out of her chair, dragging her napkin and menu with her. Flinging her
arms around his neck, she leaned in for the squeeze.

Heavy perfume nearly
choked him, and he pulled back after a minute.
Probably should’ve
skipped the hello.
“How’ve you been?”

She leaned against the
table, posing the way she used to back in high school. One hand on a
hip and chin cocked up at him. Trouble was, her hair had grayed and
her hips had broadened quite a bit in the last ten years, and the
pose looked less come-hither and more
tired-single-mother-aching-back. He wondered how many kids Simra was
up to by now.

“How’s Carl?”

She made a face.
“Please. The loser left me last winter for a waitress over at the
truck stop. Surprised you didn’t hear about it.”

Eddie was surprised
too. News like that usually traveled through Paradise pretty quickly.
Still, he’d been so wrapped up inside his own head the last few
years that a train might have derailed and gone careening down Main
Street without his noticing.

“Sorry to hear that.”
He cut a glance toward the kitchen door, where he thought he’d seen
Ash a few minutes earlier.

“Oh, don’t be.”
Simra reached over and tugged at Eddie’s shirt. “That means you
still have a chance.”

His cheeks heated up.
He’d gone on exactly one date with Simra Hall, five or six years
ago, and the way she’d thrown herself at him in the back of his
Camaro had turned him off fast. “I like women, but not when they
don’t let you do any of the catching,” he told his buddies later
on. “Shooting fish in a barrel isn’t my style.”

“This is Denise
Reynolds. Lives over in Silver Creek.” Simra turned to her friend,
a redhead with graying roots, who gave Eddie a shy smile.

“Hi.”

“Nice to meet you.”
Eddie nodded. “Listen, I’ll catch up with you later. Nice seeing
you.”

“You, too.” Simra
leaned over and planted a kiss on his cheek before he could react.
“Call me sometime. I’m staying with my parents over by the
trailer park.”

Eddie winked rather
than answer and made a mental note to stay far away from the mobile
home community until Paradise’s grapevine told him Simra had gotten
herself another man.

He continued through
the dining room, waving a hand to Zach Olson and his wife, then
stopped to drop a friendly kiss on the cheek of Mrs. Wainwright, his
fifth grade teacher. Still, he hadn’t caught sight of Ash and
decided to head to the bathroom after all when the kitchen door swung
open, and she nearly ran into him.

“Whoa!” Eddie took
two steps back.

She backpedaled, and
for a dangerous moment her tray tilted left. “Eddie?”

He reached over and
helped her steady the steaming plates before they hit the floor. “Hi
there.”

Her face lit up, and he
hoped it was because she was glad to see him and not just because
he’d rescued the nachos and chicken fingers. Out of habit, he gave
her a once-over, taking in her tight black shorts and the t-shirt
that curved around her breasts and stretched the words “Blues and
Booze” in just the right way.

“You here for
dinner?”

“Just stopped by for
a drink. And to say hello.”

“Hey, sweetheart!”
A burly guy Eddie didn’t recognize waved a hand in the air. “You
gonna bring us those nachos while they’re still hot?”