The Promise of Paradise

Chapter Five


A little after six the following night, Eddie eased his truck into an open spot on Main Street. He didn’t bother to lock the doors. In Paradise, the last time anyone had something stolen in the daylight hours had been more than ten years ago. He ambled across the street to Blues and Booze. It had been a slow day at work, though he hadn’t really minded. Some days he liked losing himself in the diagnostics, like figuring out why someone’s alternator didn’t work or why the idiot light on the panel kept blinking on and off.

But today, he’d appreciated the few oil changes and timing belts he’d had to take care of. Simple stuff. Nothing too complex. Because even though he’d done his best to concentrate, his mind kept going back to her. To Ash and to the few hours they spent having dinner the night before last.

Eddie pulled open the restaurant door and let his eyes adjust to the dimness for a moment before looking around. He’d been in here a few times as a teenager, maybe once or twice in the last couple of years. It used to be one of the only places in town you could drink without showing an ID. Not since Marty had taken over, though. Though not too bright in the business department, that guy only let himself get caught once for serving minors. Today the place catered more to the thirty-something and up crowd, though on any given day, schoolteachers, cabdrivers, and retired highway workers sat together at the bar watching a ball game.

“Jesus, that pitcher stinks,” one of them said as he walked in. Eddie recognized Harold Triumph, former owner of Triumph Dry Cleaners, and pulled up a stool beside him.

“Draft, tall one,” he said to the bartender.

“Hey! Eddie West!” The bartender grinned as he pulled on the tap. “Nick Scoles. Few years ahead of you back at Paradise High.”

Eddie dropped a five on the bar. “Sure. How’s it going?”

“Not bad. Got a couple-a new girls working here, so I’m enjoying the view.”

A sharp sting of jealousy stiffened Eddie’s spine. “I know. One of ‘em’s my housemate.”

Nick started washing glasses. “Yeah? Which one?”

“Ash.”

Nick nodded. “She’s cute.”

“Yeah she is.” Eddie paused. “How’s she doing, anyway?”

“Learning the ropes, I guess. Today’s only her second day, so she hasn’t screwed up too bad.” He grinned around the toothpick in his mouth.

Eddie glanced over his shoulder in the direction of the dining room. Low-hanging lights cast shadows and made it hard for him to make out much of anything. A few tables were occupied, and a few more were covered with dishes and crumpled-up napkins. Near the door that led into the kitchen, two figures stood, filling water glasses and talking.

“Bathroom still in the same place?” Eddie asked.

Nick jerked one thumb toward the dining room. “All the way in the back.”

Eddie ran one hand over his damp hair, smoothing it down. He was glad he’d stopped at the house to take a quick shower after finishing up at Frank’s. He didn’t want Ash to think he walked around smelling like diesel fumes all day. He headed into the dining room, taking his time. He passed one table with a young family he didn’t recognize and another with a single man bent over a laptop, and slowed at a third when he recognized the two women having cocktails.

“Hey, Simra.”

The bleach-blonde with the heavy eye makeup looked up. “Eddie?” She practically leapt out of her chair, dragging her napkin and menu with her. Flinging her arms around his neck, she leaned in for the squeeze.

Heavy perfume nearly choked him, and he pulled back after a minute. Probably should’ve skipped the hello. “How’ve you been?”

She leaned against the table, posing the way she used to back in high school. One hand on a hip and chin cocked up at him. Trouble was, her hair had grayed and her hips had broadened quite a bit in the last ten years, and the pose looked less come-hither and more tired-single-mother-aching-back. He wondered how many kids Simra was up to by now.

“How’s Carl?”

She made a face. “Please. The loser left me last winter for a waitress over at the truck stop. Surprised you didn’t hear about it.”

Eddie was surprised too. News like that usually traveled through Paradise pretty quickly. Still, he’d been so wrapped up inside his own head the last few years that a train might have derailed and gone careening down Main Street without his noticing.

“Sorry to hear that.” He cut a glance toward the kitchen door, where he thought he’d seen Ash a few minutes earlier.

“Oh, don’t be.” Simra reached over and tugged at Eddie’s shirt. “That means you still have a chance.”

His cheeks heated up. He’d gone on exactly one date with Simra Hall, five or six years ago, and the way she’d thrown herself at him in the back of his Camaro had turned him off fast. “I like women, but not when they don’t let you do any of the catching,” he told his buddies later on. “Shooting fish in a barrel isn’t my style.”

“This is Denise Reynolds. Lives over in Silver Creek.” Simra turned to her friend, a redhead with graying roots, who gave Eddie a shy smile.

“Hi.”

“Nice to meet you.” Eddie nodded. “Listen, I’ll catch up with you later. Nice seeing you.”

“You, too.” Simra leaned over and planted a kiss on his cheek before he could react. “Call me sometime. I’m staying with my parents over by the trailer park.”

Eddie winked rather than answer and made a mental note to stay far away from the mobile home community until Paradise’s grapevine told him Simra had gotten herself another man.

He continued through the dining room, waving a hand to Zach Olson and his wife, then stopped to drop a friendly kiss on the cheek of Mrs. Wainwright, his fifth grade teacher. Still, he hadn’t caught sight of Ash and decided to head to the bathroom after all when the kitchen door swung open, and she nearly ran into him.

“Whoa!” Eddie took two steps back.

She backpedaled, and for a dangerous moment her tray tilted left. “Eddie?”

He reached over and helped her steady the steaming plates before they hit the floor. “Hi there.”

Her face lit up, and he hoped it was because she was glad to see him and not just because he’d rescued the nachos and chicken fingers. Out of habit, he gave her a once-over, taking in her tight black shorts and the t-shirt that curved around her breasts and stretched the words “Blues and Booze” in just the right way.

“You here for dinner?”

“Just stopped by for a drink. And to say hello.”

“Hey, sweetheart!” A burly guy Eddie didn’t recognize waved a hand in the air. “You gonna bring us those nachos while they’re still hot?”

“Sorry,” Ash called over, and her cheeks pinked. “I gotta go.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“I’ll come out and see you at the bar if I get a minute,” she added.

“Hey, sweetheart!”

Eddie cut another glance across the room and didn’t like what he saw: a middle-aged guy with red cheeks and bloodshot eyes, and two friends who looked in about the same condition. All three wore plaid shirts with the sleeves rolled up and expensive-looking watches. They aren’t locals. They’d probably stopped in Paradise on business or signed up for a two-day seminar at the junior college.

“I’ll see you later.” Ash raised the tray above her head, winding her way through tables until she got to the three idiots.

He watched her go, backing toward the bathroom after a minute, though what he really wanted to do was stay and make sure those guys treated her okay. He didn’t like the way they were looking at Ash, with grins splitting their faces apart and winks behind her back. As he watched, biting back a comment, they made her get them fresh napkins, fresh drinks, and extra plates before one of them finally ran a hand down her bare arm and let her go.

* * *

“So who’s the guy?”

Ash looked up from the salads she was making. Lacey, the other waitress, stood with one hand on the coffee pot.

“What guy?”

The twenty-year old college student clicked her tongue. “C’mon. The one who just ran you over in the dining room. The one who was talking to you.” She filled two mugs and headed for the door. “He’s cute. Is he your boyfriend?”

“God, no. Just my housemate.” Ash crooked her neck, trying to work out a kink. Thank goodness she was only working until eight. Already she’d had enough of drunken customers hitting on her to last through the summer.

“Cool. So is he available?”

Ash watched the young girl’s eyes light up. She had to admit Eddie looked good in his polo shirt and shorts. Who wouldn’t fall for those dimples, the hard body, that sensual voice? She straightened. Not her, that was for sure. It didn’t matter how good Eddie West looked. She wasn’t about to get involved with someone who lived downstairs from her. She’d learned that lesson in her first year of college.

“Ash?” Lacey stood in the doorway, waiting. “Do you know if he has a girlfriend?”

“Um… I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

“What’s his name?”

“Eddie West.”

Lacey’s brows flew up. “That’s Eddie West? Geez, one of my roommates was talking about him the other day. Said she took her car in to get fixed and this gorgeous guy spent the afternoon hitting on her. Said she’d go out with him, too, if he ever called.”

Ash laughed. “Did he?”

“No. I guess he’s like that. You know, a player.”

Ash swallowed. “Yeah? Could be. I really don’t know him. I mean, we both just moved in…”

Lacey bumped the door open with one hip. “Well, I don’t care. Guy looks like that, he can play with me all he wants.” She laughed, a little chirp that hit Ash the wrong way.

Ash watched the door swing closed and returned to her salads. See? That’s one more reason you need to make sure you and Eddie stay just friends. He’s already got a reputation a mile long. And if he’s looking at you like…well, like he wants something more, remember that’s what he does with any woman he meets.

She took another couple of minutes, hoping Eddie had made it back to the bar, before she headed into the dining room.

“Hey, sweetheart!”

Ash stiffened. When were those guys going to leave? Did they have any idea who she was? Who her father was? She pressed her lips together and turned around.

“Can I get you something else?”

One of them, the heaviest, ran his tongue over his bottom lip. “Sure can.”

How about the check? she almost said as she made her way over to their table.

Before she could stop him, the guy wrapped one arm around her waist and yanked her into him. “How about you give me your phone number, good-lookin’?”

Ash’s hipbone pressed into the spongy flesh of his belly as she tried to pull away. “Um, listen…”

“C’mon. Sweet little thing like you probably tastes even better than she looks.” The other two guys at the table guffawed. “What time do you get off?”

Ash shoved a palm against his shoulder. “Let go of me.”

But he wouldn’t. “What’s wrong? You got a boyfriend or something?”

“No, but – ”

“Take your hands off her.”

The voice, low and angry, came from behind her. Startled, the guy unwrapped himself from her waist, and she almost fell into Eddie in her rush to get away. He put one hand on her shoulder, and her legs turned wobbly with relief.

“You okay?” he breathed into her ear.

A tingle ran down her arm. Uh-oh. Tingles weren’t good. Well, they were, but not in this case. She wasn’t supposed to let her neighbor knock her off her feet with desire. Ash took a step back to catch her balance and nodded. Eddie glared at the guys, who’d turned back to their nachos with sheepish faces. He lowered his voice another degree, so that his next words came out as a clear threat.

“You touch her again, you even breathe wrong when you’re asking for a glass of water, I’ll make sure you don’t walk straight for the next week.”

“Whatever,” one of them muttered.

Eddie strode over to the table. Biceps flexed as he put both hands on the back of an empty chair and squeezed. “What’d you say?”

“Nothing, man,” one of the other guys said. “We’re leaving anyway.”

“Good idea.”

And as Ash watched, Eddie stood there with arms crossed as she brought them the bill and collected their tab, plus an extra twenty for her tip.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

He shrugged, the angry look melting away as the three finally stumbled out of the restaurant. “They were being a*sholes.”

She walked over to him, thankful down to the tips of her toes. Without letting herself think too much about it, she planted a kiss on Eddie’s scarred cheek. “Thank you.”

“Ah, it wasn’t anything.” But he didn’t move and neither did she, until a crowd of people came into the restaurant and she had to help Lacey with the order. The next time Ash checked the bar, Eddie was gone.