The Promise of Paradise - By Allie Boniface Page 0,45
the girl’s question. She glanced at the time clock. Almost nine on a Tuesday, and Eddie hadn’t stopped in. He always came in on Tuesdays after work. Always, since the second day she'd worked there.
But could she blame him for staying away? He hadn’t called or come upstairs since their fight, over twenty-four hours earlier. She thought again of the anger in his voice, the disappointment in his gaze, as he waited for her to talk about Colin. About her past. About her family.
He had no idea what he was asking her. Something clutched inside her chest, and she bent over in pain.
“Ash? You okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, waiting for the feeling to pass. “Just a cramp. I’ll be fine.”
Eddie. Mom. Dad. The Vineyard. Blues and Booze. Ash stared at her toes. How had her life become this complicated? Four months ago, she’d been a regular law student, with a regular boyfriend and a regular job awaiting her. Today she had none of that. She had nothing to count on, no predictability beyond her weekly shift schedule. Most mornings, she didn’t even know the woman who stared back at her from the mirror.
How on earth had she gotten herself so far away from her life as a Kirk? And where was she headed from here?
Chapter Eighteen
The rain broke around eleven, and by the time Ash left the restaurant a little after midnight, the moon had begun to sneak its way through the clouds.
It changes in an instant. She stepped over puddles that caught the reflection of the trees lining the parking lot. One minute everything was dreary, and the next there was light every place she looked. She sighed and sank into her car without turning it on. Or the other way around. Bright to black in a heartbeat.
He hadn’t shown. She’d waited all night for Eddie to walk through the front door, almost certain he’d come. Certain he felt the same way she did, shaken up and fizzy, but wanting to hold on to whatever had started up on the porch roof two nights ago. Maybe this time she was wrong. With leaden fingers, Ash turned the key in the ignition. No more problems with her car, that was for sure. Since Eddie had worked his magic on it, it hadn’t so much as purred the wrong way.
“I, on the other hand…” she said aloud. She managed to break things before they even showed signs of cracking.
She pulled out of the lot and made a left instead of a right. She didn’t want to go home. Not right away. Not if it meant looking at Eddie’s closed door and wanting more than anything to knock and tell him her secrets. Maybe he wouldn't think she was crazy. Maybe he wouldn’t care that she'd lied to him about her name. Maybe he would understand if she told him why.
And maybe he wouldn’t.
Ash swung into a new development on the edge of town, slowing as she passed the bi-level homes. She wondered who lay sleeping inside them. Newlyweds? Single moms trying to keep it all together? Happy families with perfect lives? Or hardworking laborers trying to piece together a living the way their parents and grandparents had? She rolled down the windows and fresh air poured inside.
Barely a sound filled the night air. Just the hum of air conditioners and the occasional chirp of a restless bird carried through the evening. She imagined for a moment the constant buzz of the city—the mix of cars and voices and music from dance clubs—that would fill the streets of Boston at that hour. She didn’t miss it. Not one bit.
At the end of the cul-de-sac, she swung her VW in a slow circle. She couldn’t stay in Paradise. It wasn’t her home. She had no ties here, not really. But the thought of joining the rest of her family on Martha’s Vineyard next weekend turned her stomach. The thought of seeing Colin again tied her up in knots. Not there, not here. Where did she belong?
A door opened suddenly, and a beam of light speckled one of the driveways to her right. A black Lab emerged, sniffing the air. It meandered down the lawn and flopped onto its back. Legs straight up, it rolled from side to side on the wet grass. Ash could see its tongue lolling from its mouth.
“Angus!” The voice was a hiss in the darkness. “Stop that!” Into the frame of light waddled a woman so pregnant she looked as