The Promise of Paradise (3 page)

Eddie nodded. “That’s
the place.”

Her gaze returned to
his face as he and Jen continued to talk, and Ash noticed with
surprise that it was scarred in places. Besides a crooked nose, three
thin scars ran almost parallel down the left side of his jaw. A
thicker scar underlined his right eye, and peeking from beneath the
left side of his goatee, a tiny spider web of lines faded into his
upper lip.

God, what happened
to him?
Pain immeasurable echoed on that skin, and she was
surprised she hadn’t noticed the scars sooner. Ash shifted in the
loveseat. Somehow, though, they didn’t mar Eddie’s appearance.
Rather, they added character to eyes that danced and a voice that
caressed like deep cello tones, mellow and laughing through the low
notes on the scale.

After a few minutes, he
stood. “I have a lot more to unpack,” he said. “Sorry. Just
wanted to say hi.”

“Well, nice meeting
you,” Jen said. “You’ll have to come back up later on.”

His smile widened at
the invitation, and a dimple winked below his deepest scar. “Sounds
good.” Eddie backed across the threshold. The door swung shut
behind him, and the room seemed emptier than ever.

“Wow.” Jen dropped
onto the loveseat beside Ash and feigned lightheadedness. “If you
don’t find a way to sleep with that guy by the end of the summer, I
give up.”

“Good God, Jen. I’m
not here to sleep with anyone.” Ash tried to sound convincing.
“This is my summer to heal, to get away from my parents. To forget
about Colin. And figure out what I’m going to do with the rest of
my life.”

Jen opened one eye.
“Speaking of which, when are you going to tell them?”

Ash studied her short,
bare fingernails. “Which part? That I’m living in a no-name town
instead of taking the job at Deacon and Mathers? Or that I’m
thinking of changing my last name because my father can’t keep his
zipper closed? Or that precious Colin Parker isn’t going to be
their son-in-law after all?” She chewed at a hangnail. “I was
kind of hoping to make it until July, at least.”

“You talk to your
parents every week.”

“I know.” The
hangnail began to bleed.

Jen jumped up. “Let’s
get this room set up, anyway. Then I’ll take off.”

Ash waved a hand.
“Don’t worry about it. Go on home and let Lucas pour his heart
out.”

Jen laughed. “I am a
good big sis, aren't I?”

“The best. You’re
sure you don’t want a lift to the train station?”

“Nah. It’s right
down the block. I’ll walk.” Jen piled the empty boxes in one
corner. “And Ash?”

“What?”

“I meant what I said.
I know the last few weeks have been hard. You've got a gorgeous guy
living downstairs from you. So have some fun this summer.” She
paused. “You can’t hide away forever.”

“It’s only been
five weeks. That’s not forever.”

“You know what I
mean.” She backed through the door before Ash could respond. “Bye.
Call me later.”

“Bye. And Jen?”

“Yeah?”

“If you run into my
parents or one of my sisters in the city...”

“I know, tell them I
don’t know anything.”

“At least for right
now.”

“No problem.” Jen
grinned and slipped away.

Ash closed her eyes and
listened to her friend's footsteps disappear. Sleep with her
downstairs neighbor? No way. Her head fell back onto the cushions,
and she let them cradle her tired muscles. Despite her fatigue,
thoughts of all kinds wound their way into her head. Colin. Callie.
Her father. Eddie.
Yummy,
she thought before she could help
herself.
And I don’t usually fall for guys so fast.

She rested one arm
against her forehead. Who was she kidding? She never fell, period.
She took careful steps. She analyzed all the possibilities. She
played her cards one at a time, over long, slow days of
contemplation. She never jumped into anything.

But maybe Jen was right
this time. Ash had changed her name and slipped on a new skin. She’d
moved to a new town where not a soul knew her. Why shouldn’t she
change a few other things? She pulled at her bottom lip with one
finger. Maybe she should forget about the summer of chastity she’d
promised herself. Maybe she should she lose herself in a different
world for the next few months. She stared at the door, imagining
Eddie a few steps away, unpacking boxes with muscles that flexed and
strained and…

Oh God.
What on
earth would she tell him, if she did invite him up? She couldn’t
confess who she really was. Ashton Kirk? As in Senator Kirk’s
daughter? He’d look at her like she had two heads.

Rock music started up
again, shaking the floor of her apartment a little before the volume
lowered to a gentle throb. Smiling, she wondered about her new
housemate. Something told Ash she wasn’t the only one with a story.
Why had Eddie moved into the house? Like her, was he only killing
time for the summer? Or had he moved to tiny, protected Lycian Street
to escape something or someone?

And what, for God’s
sake, had happened to him to leave such deep scars on an otherwise
handsome face?

Eddie finished pulling
the sheets over his bed and flopped onto his back. He stared at the
ceiling, where a few cracks spread above him and down the wall into
the doorframe. Near the floor they widened and fractured the wood,
causing the door to no longer shut tight. He studied the spaces just
above the floor and imagined spiders shuttling in and out, making odd
little homes inside the crevices of his apartment. Might be nice to
disappear one day inside a wall, hang his head for a while until the
blood-rush chased away faces from the past.

He turned to look
through the wide window next to him. Far enough from his parents’
house, but a ten-minute drive from work, he’d snapped up this place
the minute he saw it advertised in the
Paradise Chronicle
.
Didn’t know he’d be sharing the house with another tenant, but
hell, he didn’t mind. Not when the other tenant looked like Ashley
Kirtland did. Ebony eyes, honey-colored waves of hair falling around
her face, a cute little waist that curved down to the longest pair of
legs he’d ever seen…damn. He wouldn’t mind looking at that body
every morning over coffee, that was for sure. Ash seemed a little
quieter than the women he usually dated, but she had a great smile
and eyes you could drown in.

Eddie continued to
stare out the window and wondered who else lived on the street. Only
two blocks from the junior college on the hill, the homes rented
mostly to college kids, he supposed. He guessed he’d have to cover
his windows once fall rolled around, but right now he didn’t have
any curtains or blinds. He turned over and buried his face into the
single pillow he’d brought with him.

Yeah, Ash seemed cool.
It might be nice to have a housemate he could hang out with. Then
again, he wasn’t very good at just hanging out with women.
Friendships with them always turned into relationships. He couldn’t
help it. He loved women. Loved watching them walk. Loved listening to
them laugh. Loved feeling their hands clutching his back on a summer
night, fingernails leaving red lines of passion down his spine.

Eddie got up and headed
into the kitchen, where he flipped on the light and ran the faucet as
high as it would go. He stuck his head under the running water and
slurped. It tasted good and felt even better running down the sides
of his face. He shook his head. Droplets flew and dappled the walls.

Wandering back into the
living room, he looked around. High-ceilinged, with windows that
faced the street, the place gave him a feeling of open space,
something he hadn’t had in a long time. He’d stayed at home too
long, after the accident. At first he pretended his parents needed
him around to get the bills in order, repair the back porch, take
care of other things that had started to fall apart. But after almost
three years, they didn’t need him hanging around anymore. At
twenty-seven, it was time for Eddie to start making a place of his
own.

He ran his fingers
through his damp hair, then turned and punched the wall. “Damn!”
But he wasn’t sure if he swore because of the pain radiating up his
wrist or the grief of losing Cal that still caught him in the gut so
hard he lost his breath.

Turning, he looked for
a box to unpack. Anything to get his mind occupied with something
else. He pushed aside one, pulled open another, and saw his brother’s
face staring up at him. Eddie stopped breathing. Taken four or five
years ago, the two of them were forever frozen in that silver picture
frame, tossing a football around the back yard and laughing at their
mom.
She always snuck up on us and took our picture. We used to
hate it.
He ran one finger over the glass.
Now I wish she’d
taken a thousand more.

Eddie tucked the
picture into the box, facedown, and shoved the flap back into place.
Surrounded by pictures of the past was the last place he wanted to be
right now. He headed for the shower instead, doing his best to scrub
away the memories.

Better, he thought as
the hot water turned cool after awhile. At least he wasn’t feeling
so damned depressed anymore. He dropped his towel on the floor, dug
through a suitcase for a change of clothes, and ran a comb through
his damp hair. Then he darted upstairs and pounded a fist on his new
housemate’s door. Ash was absolutely the kind of distraction he
needed right now.

* * *

“Hello?” Eddie
knocked a second time and still heard nothing. Maybe Jen and Ash had
gone out after all. He turned to leave.

“Eddie?” The door
cracked open, and Ash peeked out. A hesitant smile lit her face. “Hi.
Come on in.”

“Thought maybe you
guys were out.”

“Jen left,” she
said. “She wanted to get back to the city before dark.”

“You eat yet?”

She shook her head. “I
was just wondering what Paradise has in the way of take-out.”

“Well, there’s
Primo’s Pizza down the block. Or Louie’s Sub Shop around the
corner. They’re both close enough.” The curiosity on Ash’s face
stopped him. “What?”

She smiled. “You live
here.” It wasn’t a question, but a quiet discovery.

“Oh, yeah.” Eddie
nodded. “My whole life. Thought I mentioned it before. I grew up on
the other side of town.” He scratched the back of his neck.
“Figured it was about time I moved out of my parents’ house.”

She looked at him a
moment longer, but he couldn't read her thoughts. Judging? Wondering?

“Pizza,” she
decided after a moment. She looked over her shoulder, in the
direction of the kitchen. “You know, there’s a pretty cool
rooftop out there. Want to get it to go, bring it back here?”

“Now you’re
talking.” Eddie said, stomach growling.

“I don’t have
anything in the fridge,” she apologized. “We should pick up a
six-pack or something, too.”

“Pizza and beer? A
woman after my own heart.”

Her cheeks reddened at
his words, and Eddie grinned. He liked having that effect on women,
making them at first uncomfortable around him and then by turns so
comfortable he could open them up, peel back the layers, and turn
their hearts inside out. He liked making women ache for him. He was
good at it.

“You have a
boyfriend?” he asked as he followed her down the stairs. He figured
he might as well negotiate his options from the start.

She shook her head, and
waves of hair moved across her shoulder blades. He wanted to touch
them, wind them around his fingers. He bet they smelled like some
kind of floral shampoo.

“No.” Her answer
was quiet in the stairwell. At the bottom she turned to look back at
him, and he saw that the light had vanished from her eyes.

“Ah…mending a
broken heart?” He backpedaled and changed his approach.

“Something like
that.” As she opened the door, her shoulders sagged a little, and
Eddie followed, wanting to reach out a hand and comfort her.

* * *

“Pepperoni or
mushroom?” Eddie asked as he opened the boxes. Steam poured out and
wound its way upward.

Standing in the middle
of the kitchen, Ash pulled the tops off two beer bottles. “Mushroom,
please.” She took a long swallow. “I’m a vegetarian.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I’m not.”

“You really don’t
eat meat?”

“I don’t eat
anything that used to have a face. It’s just...I don't know. It
makes me feel bad.”

“How long?”

“Since college.”
She paused and sent a look straight through him. “Does it bother
you?”

“Nah. Just never knew
anyone like that before.” Eddie separated the cheese as he pulled
slices apart, two for each of them. “Napkins?”

Ash looked around. “I
had some. I think Jen put them somewhere. Oh…on top of the fridge.”
She stood on tiptoes and reached for the unopened package. “What
else do we need?”

“Nothing but a
rooftop and some good conversation.”

“Okay.” She pulled
open the window. “Here goes.” She lifted one leg up and over the
sill and hopped out. “The view’s great out here.”

He grabbed the rest of
the six-pack, handed her the plates and followed. Wow. She was right.
He walked to the railing that ran along the perimeter and surveyed
the block from end to end. The trees laced together overhead, and he
could smell the scent of flowers somewhere close by. Contentment
settled over Eddie. He leaned against the side of the house and
reached for the pizza.

Opposite him, a few
feet away, Ash sat with her plate on her lap. Her shorts grazed the
tops of her thighs, and through the thin skin of a gray T-shirt,
Eddie could see small breasts punctuated with perfectly round
nipples. He argued with the part of him that wanted to lose himself
in the view and stopped looking.
Not going to do it, not now. She
just broke up with her boyfriend. Give her a break.