in Paradise who didn’t. Still, she didn’t get nosy and pry. She just sat and studied him, concerned.
Eddie nodded and tried to find a smile. “Yeah. I’m fine.” Yet a strange feeling of déjà vu raised the hairs on the back of his neck. His housemate, this person he’d just met, reminded him of someone he’d known years ago. He couldn’t remember who. But he suddenly felt better than he had in a long, long time.
Chapter Four
Ash tucked the Paradise Chronicle under one arm and locked her door. She skipped down the steps and then paused for a minute in front of Eddie’s apartment. Yesterday she’d passed it a few times as she carried the rest of her things upstairs, and it had only watched, a solid brown door with nothing but quiet behind it. Today, though, it studied Ash as she stood there. It hid possibilities, ones she wanted to know more about. Maybe I should say hello. Say thanks for last night. She raised her hand to knock.
He’s different somehow. She thought Eddie West would be like most other good-looking guys she'd known, interested in himself and not much else. A memory of fraternity brothers tossing around a football and grilling on the quad during her undergrad days flashed into her mind. Eddie looked like a Sigma Chi, strong and masculine, the kind of guy who dated a different girl each week and won over his professors’ hearts with a wink and a smile. Sigma Chi brothers didn’t date girls like Ashton; they asked them for class notes or directions to the library. Then on Friday nights, they shared their drinks and their beds with blushing sorority girls or dark-eyed, mysterious graduate assistants who drank port and read Eliot.
Eddie had mentioned that he’d gone to tech school for a couple of years, opting to work on cars full-time as soon as he turned twenty. Okay, so he wasn’t really like a Sigma Chi, not formally educated anyway. Still, there was something about him, something about the way he watched her with thoughtful eyes, that made Ash suspect he had more intellect and common sense than half the people she’d met at Harvard.
That’s why I have to be careful, keep my distance. I can’t let him find out who I am. I can’t let anyone.
She let her hand drop away from his door. He’d probably gone to work, anyway. She hadn’t heard him leave, but to her surprise she’d slept well, a long eight hours without waking once. Stepping onto the porch, she glanced down at the classified ads. She’d found three possibilities this morning and circled them in red ink, a declaration of her decision to stay in Paradise, at least for now. She’d figure out how to explain that to her parents when the time came.
“Waitress needed immediately for busy jazz club. Experience helpful but not necessary. Apply at Blues and Booze, 53 Main Street.”
Paradise had a jazz club? A busy one? Ash smiled. She’d spent a couple of years sloshing coffee at the campus java joint; did that count as experience? She left her car at the curb and decided to walk. Three blocks later, the numbers on Main Street crept from forty-one, Lana’s Plus Palace, to forty-five, a used bookstore, to forty-nine, Lou’s Sub Shop. Oh, right. Eddie mentioned this place last night.
Ash slowed and peered into Lou’s front window. A solitary cook in a stained white apron stood behind the counter, rolling dough. In front of him, a display case showed row upon row of deli meats, cheeses, and colorful salads. Her mouth watered, and she decided she’d stop by on her way back and pick up some lunch.
The sandwich shop sat on the corner of Adams Street, an alley barely wide enough for one car. Still, accustomed to busy Boston avenues, she glanced both ways before crossing it. On the other side, she found herself in front of a tall, narrow-fronted building with smoky windows. “Blues and Booze” read the neon sign above the door. She shaded her eyes. “Eleven to midnight,” announced a paper sign in the window. Someone had scrawled “Help wanted” beside the hours.
She checked her watch and reached for the doorknob.
“Hello?” The word echoed in the space and fell away. To her right, a long bar stretched halfway across the room, ending at a curved doorway. Beyond the arch of the doorway opened another, larger room, draped in shadows. Chairs sat upside down on tabletops, skeletons in the darkness.