The Promise of Paradise

Chapter Twenty-Four


“Don’t touch me.” Before Colin could take her by both arms and pull her in for a kiss, Ash twisted away from him.

He stopped, and his smile froze. “I just—okay. I’m sorry.”

She stuck her hands into her pockets, house keys digging into one palm. First her father. Now her ex-boyfriend. Ash let out a long breath. Her legs grew unsteady, and she refused to look at him again. She couldn’t take any more surprise visitors. She was about torn in half as it was.

“What are you doing here?”

“That’s a nice way to say hello.”

“I told you I wasn’t coming home. And I didn't tell you where I lived. Which means you took it upon yourself to find me when I didn't want to be found.” She looked at the peeling paint beside him, the rusted door hinges, the weeds growing alongside the geraniums in the yard.

He exhaled. “Thought maybe you’d reconsidered.”

“Why would you think that?”

Colin’s chin jerked in the direction of the house. “This is where you decided to spend your summer?”

“What’s wrong with it?”

He swiped a hand over his close cut, dark blonde hair. “Nothing, babe. I just…”

“My father told you where I was. Didn’t he?”

Colin raised both palms to the sky. “Guilty. But only because I called him and told him I needed to see you. Needed to make up for the stupidest thing I’d ever done.”

Suddenly, the fire left Ash’s heart, and she sank into the chair farthest away from him. She didn’t have the energy for this. “Whatever. Stay, leave, I don’t care. I’m not going back to Boston. I already told him that. I don’t care if he sent you to try and convince me.”

“He didn’t.”

She doubted that, but she kept her mouth shut.

Colin sat in the chair across from her and folded his fingers together. “Okay, I get that you were mad. That you needed space.”

“That’s an understatement.” She tried not to look directly at him, because she had a feeling that if she did, he’d burn her to the core. Colin Parker was—always had been—a too-bright sun shining down on Ash. He pulled her close. He drew her into his orbit.

“I wanted to apologize. In person.” Eyes on the ground, he cleared his throat. “I was a total ass. Really. That thing with Callie—”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“It was a complete mistake. I was juvenile. Idiotic.” Another throat-clearing. “And yeah, the thing that happened with your dad, it shook me up some.”

Ash rubbed the back of her neck, trying to loosen the muscles there. “Well, me too.” I 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 at. Eddie took a few steps up the sidewalk.

“Colin, I don’t...” As the guy stood, close to six three or four if Eddie had to guess, Ash put a hand on his chest. Her words fell away, but she didn’t stop looking at him.

That’s Colin? The ex-boyfriend? Eddie’s earlier cup of coffee burned in the center of his chest. As he watched, Colin slipped a ring onto Ash’s finger, wrapped an arm around her waist, and pulled her in for a kiss. One hand swept the hair off her forehead. The other pressed five fingers into the small of her back. Possessive. Wanting. He hadn’t even looked Eddie’s way.

Eddie’s head jerked back as if someone had caught him square across the jaw. He felt sick, almost feverish. Stumbling, he backed toward the bike. Mistake…the word echoed inside his head. A total mistake, to come back here. To think she’d want to be with him. To think she wouldn’t go back to her other life the minute she had the chance. Thunder growled, and a few drops of rain pattered the back of his neck.

“Eddie, wait!”

He didn’t turn around. One leg over the motorcycle, and it revved to life. The rain picked up; the wind swept in and chilled him bone deep. He couldn’t have cared less. Barreling through the stop sign, he headed downtown. He wove around a stupid Civic going thirty miles an hour and an equally stupid mini-van with a bumper sticker that read “I Brake for Manatees.”

Manatees? Where do you live, lady, f*cking Florida? Look around. Only small-town USA up here in New Hampshire. No ocean. No big cities. No place anyone would want to stay and build a life, that’s for sure. Under his breath came every curse word he could think of, most of them directed at Ash. A few at himself. What an idiot he’d been to fall for her, someone he’d known less than three months.

On he rode, faster at every chance, savoring the silence, the speed, the rush of air that stilled his thoughts after awhile. Gotta get myself a bike. Or talk Frank into letting me buy this one. The rain came down harder with every mile, and he welcomed it. Only when he reached the hairpin curve that headed out of town did Eddie realize he’d left his helmet sitting on the curb back on Lycian Street.