The Promise of Paradise - By Allie Boniface Page 0,61
wasn’t exactly a saint when it came to defending him. I guess we both ran away from it in our own ways.
Colin reached for her hand, brushed his fingers across the back of it for an instant. “We were good together, right? I want to try again.”
Oh, God. The words she’d wanted to hear three months ago. Even two months ago. Ash’s skin burned from where he’d touched it. “I don’t think—”
“Hear me out. Please.” He inched his chair closer, so that their knees touched. Skin to skin, breath meeting breath. Ash’s heart sped up. “We’re a good match,” he went on. He caught her gaze and held it with those dark eyes. “We’re headed the same way. We want the same things.”
Oh, really?
“We’d be good for each other.” He wound his fingers through hers. “Or you’d be good for me, anyway.” He grinned. “But I’d try, babe. I’d try to be the best goddamned husband you could ever wish for.”
Ash drew her hand away. “What are you talking about?”
Colin rose, towering over her for a moment before he folded himself into a crouch at her feet. The boards creaked beneath him, and for an instant, she thought of the night she and Eddie had stood there, after a dinner shift. After the first time they fought. Before the first time they kissed.
“Thanks for walking me home.”
“No problem.”
“See you tomorrow, I guess.”
“See ya.”
Colin spoke again, interrupting the memory.
“Ashton.” He reached into his front pocket and pulled out a small black box.
She drew in her breath and held it. That box didn’t contain what she thought it did. It couldn’t. The wind picked up and crickets scratched their legs together. The flowers near the sidewalk swayed. Beyond the hills, thunder rumbled.
“It’s going to rain,” she said. “We should go inside.”
Thunder announced itself again, closer this time. As if it hovered in the hills behind the college, or came up from the ground beneath her. Or turned the corner on two wheels.
In slow motion Ash looked past him, just as the motorcycle veered onto Lycian Street. Just as its rider slowed to a stop in front of the house. Just as he pulled off his helmet and looked at her and Colin. Oh, Eddie. His eyes, wide at first with something like hope, dimmed as his gaze moved across them. Even from a distance Ash saw his face redden. Something clutched inside her chest.
It’s my heart tearing in two. Stretching in opposite directions. Breaking apart.
Colin took her hand, forcing her attention back to where he still kneeled in front of her. “Ash, I love you.” The last word cracked. “I want to spend my life with you.” He flipped open the box, and an enormous diamond ring flashed up at her. Emerald cut, the way she’d once told him she’d wanted. Close to two carats, if she had to guess. And more diamonds set along the delicate band of platinum. Sunlight caught a rainbow of color as his hand shook a little.
“Marry me, babe. Please. Make me the happiest guy in the world.”
* * *
Eddie pulled up behind a sleek silver BMW. Who the hell did that belong to? For a minute he wondered if Ash’s father had stayed in town. Then his gaze traveled up to the front porch. Eddie straddled the bike and stared. The whole way back to Paradise, he’d thought it over, and here was the thing: he wanted to work things out with Ash. He wanted to see if they could push aside the mess and make a go of it. Just the two of them. He thought maybe they could. He thought maybe they had a chance.
But now…
She wasn't alone. The realization stopped him before he got off the bike. She was with another guy. After twenty-four hours?
Ash glanced over and saw Eddie at that moment, and her eyes widened. A messy ponytail fell down her back, and her top looked damp. He wondered if she’d been up half the night, or out walking since dawn. Her face flushed, and her hands worked themselves in and out of her pockets. She bit her bottom lip and turned away again.
What the hell was going on? With his head still throbbing enough to remind him of last night’s mistake, Eddie rubbed a hand across his eyes. He didn’t recognize the guy kneeling on the porch, in his light blue shirt and ironed shorts and woven leather sandals. But he held something in his hand that Ash kept staring