The Promise of Paradise - By Allie Boniface Page 0,42

way this will work. Ever.”

Tears bubbled up to the surface, and Ash looked away in case they fell. She couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

“You know, I’m not stupid. I know you came to Paradise because something chased you out of Boston. I know you’re running away from something. Or someone.” His voice shook. “And I don’t care. I’ve never pushed. But if you can’t even begin to tell me about it—”

Eddie’s voice broke, and he didn’t finish, just retraced his steps to the front door and shut it behind him.

That was what happened when you let yourself get involved, Ash thought. Her chest tightened. She never should have kissed him. She never should have become friends with him in the first place.

But it was too late for that, and she knew it. She stared at her door, willing it open again. Suddenly, she wanted to confess everything. She wanted to look into those dark eyes and know Eddie didn’t care where she came from or who she really was. She wanted to feel his mouth on hers again. She wanted him to fold his arms around her and tell her everything would be okay.

But she didn’t know if it would be.

Chapter Seventeen

Twenty-four hours of heartless rain poured down. It soaked the roof and seeped into Ash’s bedroom in the form of dreary dampness. She rearranged her furniture. She took all the recyclables to the store, careful to avoid looking at Eddie’s door on the way there and back. She rearranged her CD collection. She drove all the way to Burnt Hills, a leftover hippie colony past Silver Creek rumored to have the best hummus in the state.

Finally, she gave in and called her mother.

“Ashton!” Mamie Kirk’s voice wobbled. “Where have you been?”

“I’m sorry.” She curled into a ball on the loveseat and stared at the ceiling. “It’s just…I needed to take a break from things back home. It was getting a little crazy.” Getting crazy? Already way beyond, if you want the truth.

“Jess said you’re subletting a place in New Hampshire?” Doubt crept into her mother’s voice and hung there, waiting for Ash to correct her, to say that no, Jess was wrong, she wouldn’t do something so un-Kirk-like.

“Mm hmm,” Ash said instead.

“You’ve heard about your father? About the charges being dropped?”

“Yes.”

“We’d like to make a statement to the press,” she went on when Ash didn’t. “At the house on Martha’s Vineyard. The secretary of state will be there next week, and we’re planning on joining him and his wife for a few days.”

God, no. Ash squeezed her eyes shut. Less than three months away from that life, and it already seemed foreign to her, as if she’d never lived it at all.

“So will you be there?”

“I don’t think I can make it.”

“Ash, your father needs all of us together. As a family. You know the nomination is—”

“I know. The most important thing in his life right now.” And that’s why he needs the shiny, happy faces of his wife and daughters with him when the cameras start snapping.

“The thing is, I’m working,” she said. “I’m not sure I can get away.”

Mamie didn’t answer, a quick intake of breath the only indication that she’d heard. “Well...what do you mean, exactly? You’re not…you haven’t taken a position with another firm, have you? Not up there?”

Oh, how that would complicate things. Ash almost smiled. She could just picture the headline: “Youngest Kirk daughter turns down prestigious job in Boston only to slum in the hills of New Hampshire.” Part of her wanted to tell her mother just where she spent her working hours. It’s a jazz club in a blue-collar town. I serve people food and then clean up after them. Want me to issue a statement to the press about that? But she kept her mouth shut.

“We’ll be at the Vineyard the whole week,” her mother said. “I’m sure you can take some time off.” She paused. “Colin asked if he can join us.”

“What?” Ash sat straight up. “No. No way.” How dare he try to weasel his way back into her life? That’s what the phone call was all about. He didn’t miss her. He missed the Kirk name. He missed the reputation. Her cheeks burned with anger. “Forget it.”

“Ash, please—”

“He broke up with me, Mom. Did you know that? That Colin dumped me right after everything happened with Dad? That he was sleeping with someone else?”

“No, I didn't. I…” Her mother choked off into silence.

“Tell Dad