The Promise of Paradise - By Allie Boniface Page 0,46
though she might fall over.
Ash smiled. Dottie Warren stopped into the restaurant once in a while after her shift at the Post Office. “I told Mick I didn’t need to do desk duty,” she’d told Ash over a vanilla milkshake and french fries last week. “Told him I could still deliver on the route. Christ, I been through this three times already. But you know how men are. Always think they know what’s best…”
Ash raised a hand to wave, though she knew the woman couldn’t see her. Still, as she drove by, she thought Dottie took an extra look at her car, tucking away the color and the silhouette of its driver. After a moment, the dog peed and trotted back inside. Dottie shut the door, and the outside light turned off again. Ash grinned. Tomorrow or the next day, she knew, the woman would amble into the restaurant and ask Ash what she was doing on Miller’s Circle after midnight.
No secrets in this town. You know that. The minute you tell Eddie who you are, word will spread. Everyone will know. And everything will change. She yanked the rubber band from her ponytail and let her hair fall to her shoulders. The breeze picked up as she pulled away from the stop sign and gave the car some gas.
“Well, so what if it does?” She couldn’t pretend anymore. She was tired of living a secret. It was too damn hard. Ash tightened her fingers around the steering wheel. She had to make things right.
“I’m going to tell him everything.” And they would take it from there.
She bit her bottom lip and hoped he would still look at her the same way afterwards. She hoped he would still wrap those strong arms around her, still press his lips against hers, and still pull her into his embrace like there was nowhere else he wanted to be.
* * *
It was after one by the time she killed the engine in front of the house. Ash dragged herself up the sidewalk. Do I see if he’s still up? Or do I wait until tomorrow? I want— She didn’t know what she wanted. That was the problem.
She pushed open the front door, which he’d left unlocked. The porch light still burned, too. All good signs. Ash stood in the foyer and studied the stairs, working up the nerve to knock on Eddie’s door. She took one step forward, raised her hand, then glanced down at herself and realized she probably smelled like the kitchen of Blues and Booze. Wrinkling her nose, she stepped back again.
Tomorrow, when I’ve had a shower and some sleep and we can talk about this rationally.
But when was the last time she’d done anything rationally when it came to Eddie West? That was what worked, what made him – and her, when she was around him – different. Better. Her hand reached up and knocked before she could stop it. “Eddie?”
She heard nothing for a minute. Her stomach clenched. What if he was in there with someone? What if he'd completely changed his mind? She guessed there were half a dozen women in Paradise who’d be more than happy to warm his bed and soothe his wounded ego.
Ash traced a crack on the floor with one toe. She knocked once more and waited a long thirty seconds. Well, if he was home, he wasn’t answering. It would have to wait until tomorrow after all. She turned to go.
“Ash?”
She’d almost made it to the stairs by the time his door swung open. She turned around, heart in her throat. Eddie stood on the threshold, bare-chested and dozy-eyed. He wore a pair of cut-off sweats and nothing else.
She forgot how to breathe.
“What time is it?”
“Late. I’m sorry.” The words came out in a rush. “I shouldn’t have—were you sleeping?”
He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, standing it up on end. “Watching TV.” He paused for a moment, then pushed the door open all the way. “Want to come in?”
“Okay.”
The living room smelled of him, of that complicated scent she associated with baseball games and late nights on the porch and winks in the bar as he sat and watched her count tips. Ash stopped near the recliner and looked around. The kitten, now a few pounds rounder in the belly, slept on a towel Eddie had tucked into a cardboard box.
“You ever give it a name?”
He closed the door and stepped beside her, breathing the words into