The Promise of Paradise - By Allie Boniface Page 0,51
think?” Amazing. Skin-tingling, heart-turning-inside-out amazing. Ash almost didn’t want to remember, because it made everything worse. Yet as she said it, heat fluttered in her belly. His hands on her skin, his body, lean and hard, his mouth skating across hers and making her ache for more…the memory of it made her dizzy. She lay flat on the hardwood floor of her living room and put a hand over her eyes.
“Ash?”
“I’m here.”
“How the hell did your father find you?”
“Who knows?” Connections, an email, a phone call or two. It didn’t matter. He might have traced her credit card or gotten a copy of her cell phone bill. He might even have had her followed, from the first day she arrived in town. She sighed. She knew enough of politicians to know they could find out anything they wanted to.
“He wants me to come back to Boston,” she said after a minute. “The family’s doing a big press thing next weekend. And Mom's really upset that I said no.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That I wasn’t coming.”
“How’d he take that?”
“Not well. Big surprise.” She tried to rub away the headache. That wasn’t the worst part, though. Not even close. “Eddie’s furious.”
“Mmm…” Jen clicked her tongue. “Yeah, I guess finding out your new girlfriend is Senator Kirk’s daughter might be kind of a rude awakening first thing in the morning.”
“No, he’s really…he threw me out. I don’t know.” Ash’s voice broke. “I don’t think he wants to have anything to do with me.”
“He’ll get over it.”
“I lied to him. About everything.”
“Ah, you just didn’t tell him the whole truth. There’s a difference.”
But Ash knew there wasn’t, not in Eddie’s mind.
“Give him some time. He’ll come around.”
She closed her eyes against the sun that insisted on poking through the blinds. “What if he doesn’t?”
“I’m not answering that.” Jen paused. “Why are you so hard on yourself?”
“Because I screwed up.”
“Everyone screws up. Don't think you're special because of it. ”
“Ouch.”
“Aw, honey, you know I'm teasing. Listen, if Mr. Stubborn downstairs doesn't call, or doesn't return your calls, then go down there and knock on his door until he lets you in. Sleep on his doorstep if you have to.”
“That sounds a little dramatic.”
Jen went on without missing a beat. “Explain why you made up the name, why you didn’t tell him who you really were. Come on, anyone else in your situation would have done the same thing.”
But neither of her sisters had. Jess and Anne, whatever other faults they might have, had remained in Boston, fielding media questions and carrying on with their lives as Kirk daughters. Only Ashton had turned her back on the family.
“I saw Colin the other day,” Jen said.
“So?” Her ex was the absolute last person Ash wanted to think about.
“He looks like hell.”
“Good.”
“That’s what I said. To his face.”
“You didn’t.”
“Sure did. I walked up to him and told him he’d never looked worse in his life, and that it served him right for letting the best thing go that ever happened to him.”
“Jen, I love you.”
“I know.” She laughed. “He agreed with me, too. You know, Callie went back to her old boyfriend. Right after Colin dumped her.”
Ash thought about that. In the last few months, everything and everyone in her life had seemed topsy-turvy. Everything she believed so steady had tumbled out of place. But now her father stood guilt-free. Callie and Colin were no more. Next weekend, the Kirk family would travel to Martha’s Vineyard, the way they did every summer. Ash remained the only puzzle piece still out of place.
“Jen, I have to go.”
“What are you going to do about Eddie?”
“I don’t know.”
But she did. Ash knew exactly what she needed to do. She needed to go down there and tell him everything, once and for all. She needed to explain why she’d come to Paradise. Why she’d changed her name. Why she’d left Colin, and why she had no intention of taking him back. Sure, she had some things to work out, including one hell of a mess back in Boston, but she needed to start here, with the one man who’d made her feel like no one else ever had.
She needed to start with Eddie.
* * *
Ash stared into her closet. Draped on a hook hung the shirt she’d grabbed from Eddie’s apartment that morning. She glanced at the clock. Had it only been a matter of hours since her life had fallen apart? She felt as though she’d been fed through a roller,