The Promise of Paradise - By Allie Boniface Page 0,20

later he emerged holding a soggy ball of black and white. “Got him.”

“Wow. It is small.”

A rumble started up in the kitten's throat.

“I told you.” Eddie peered down at it.

Ash took hold of one of the kitten’s legs and pushed aside damp fur. “There's a cut here. A bad one. No wonder it’s limping.” She lifted a towel off the rack inside the bathroom door and wrapped it around the animal. “Here.” In a moment she had clutched it to her chest, nuzzling it and blotting off the worst of the water. “Might want to get it to a vet. Know anyone who’s open on Sundays?”

“Maybe.” Eddie loped off into the kitchen and re-emerged a moment later, cell phone in hand.

Ash returned to the living room and sat on the couch, kitten in her lap. Bright green eyes looked up at her, and a weak mew escaped its pink mouth. A tiny paw batted at the finger she reached out to it. She grinned. The only pet she and Colin ever had was Buster, the oversized goldfish. She used to watch him swim circles in his stupid glass bowl and wish for just a day that her boyfriend wasn’t deathly allergic to all things furry.

“Now I don’t have to worry about that, do I?” she murmured into the cat’s head.

“Ash?” Eddie appeared in the doorway. “Friend of mine in Tompkins Heights’ll take a look at it this afternoon.”

“Really?” Ash looked up, suddenly aware of the way her robe fell apart at the neck and her bare legs stretched down to the hardwood floor. As she watched, he dropped a glance to her toenails—newly painted red, as of last night in front of the TV—before turning a shade of crimson himself.

“Anyway, thanks for the help.”

“No problem.” She paused. “You know, I wasn’t sure what was going on down here. Thought maybe you were still entertaining your date from last night.”

“Cheri?” He chuckled. “Nah.”

“Things didn’t work out?”

“We had a good time. But she wanted to come in, stay a while, and…” He shrugged.

“You didn’t?”

“Woman stays the night, things get complicated.”

Ash nodded, fingers stroking the kitten’s fur as its purr regulated into a steady rhythm. “And you don’t like things to be complicated.”

“Do you?”

Ash shook her head. No, she answered silently. They’re complicated enough already.

Chapter Eight

“Ash!” Marty stuck his head into the kitchen of Blues and Booze.

She pulled her tips from her pocket and started to count. “What's up?” It had been a long week, and she couldn’t wait for the night to be over. Thank God the clock read ten minutes to twelve.

“Some guy out here says he knows you.” The manager wheezed. One arm snaked up to scratch an itch between his shoulder blades. He peered into the coffee pot, pulled some brown strands of lettuce from the salad bin, and straightened the cocktail napkins.

Ash’s shoulders hunched up, and she didn’t answer for a minute. The media? No. Not at almost midnight. But she knew better than anyone that the paparazzi didn't watch the clock.

“You hear me?”

“I heard you. Who is he?”

“Dunno. He’s got a couple of tattoos. Says his name’s Eddie something.”

Coins slipped through her fingers like water. “Oh. Yeah, he knows me. Tell him I’ll be right out.” She bent to retrieve quarters from the sticky floor and waited for Marty to leave.She’d only seen Eddie twice in passing, the last couple of days. Both times he’d paused, placed a hand on her shoulder, and smiled down at her like there was nowhere else he wanted to be. The gesture made her uncomfortable as hell. It made her look forward to walking down the stairs each morning. It made her wonder who had taken over her body and replaced her with a woman who grew warm and slippery every time she saw this guy. A guy she barely knew.

Watch it, Ash, she warned herself for the tenth time since moving to Paradise. Falling for this guy is trouble. Wrapping her apron into a ball, she admitted that as much as she wanted to avoid complications, she was still glad Eddie had come to see her tonight. She wanted to ask him how the kitten was making out. She wanted to tell him about the idiot who’d grabbed at her earlier and laugh with him about the woman who’d sent her meal back three times before ordering something else altogether. Mostly, Ash wanted Eddie to drop an arm across her shoulders or rub a hand across the top of her