The Promise of Paradise (15 page)

Ash weakened a little.

“But your father
needs your support. Is that too much to ask?”

Ash didn’t answer.
She didn’t know. And when her mother hung up a moment later, all
she really knew was that she felt exhausted beyond belief, squeezed
tight and wrung out, like laundry left too long in the rain.

* * *

“Evenin’, boss.”
J.T. flashed Ash a smile as she stepped inside Blues and Booze. The
stupid umbrella she’d grabbed from her car had lasted exactly
thirty seconds before it pulled itself inside out and went twisting
down the sidewalk away from her.

She ignored his
greeting and stomped through the bar, checking the orders and the
cash register before making her way to the kitchen.

“Well, somebody’s
got her panties in a knot,” she heard behind her. One of the guys
at the bar, she supposed. Probably Jackson Todd. Or maybe Tyler
Mulligan. J.T.’s cronies often hung out after their shifts at the
cheese factory, slurping down a few beers before going home to their
wives.

She didn’t bother to
turn around.
Get it together, Ash. A bad mood isn’t going to get
you anywhere. It’s not their fault your life is a total mess right
now. You have work to do. So do it.
She grabbed a clipboard and
pulled open the coolers in the back, making notes as she went down
each shelf. “More apple pie, more double-chocolate torte, still
enough cheesecake…”

“Ash?” Lacey
waltzed into the kitchen. “Carla just called. Said she can’t make
it tonight. Car trouble or something.”

“You’re kidding.”
Their newest waitress, a single mother of two, had called in late
three times in the last week. Ash really needed to tell Marty to get
rid of her. If they couldn't depend on Carla, she might as well look
somewhere else for a job. Ash would pick up extra shifts if she had
to.

Lacey started making
salads, draping them loosely with plastic wrap and storing them in
the refrigerator. “Sorry.”

Ash shrugged. “We’ll
deal. Rain might keep people away, anyway.”

“Remember that
Ladies’ Day idea you were talking about?” Lacey asked. She dumped
out the afternoon’s coffee and started another pot.

Ash nodded. She’d
thought about opening the restaurant on Sunday afternoons, offering
specials for Paradise’s wives and girlfriends whose men spent the
day staring at eight straight hours of baseball. Maybe introduce a
vegetarian dish or two. Maybe get one of the local salons to offer
manicures. She didn’t know any of the girls who worked in Hair
Heaven or Nails and Tails, but she supposed she could ask around.

Ash bit her bottom lip
as a thought snuck its way in. That wasn’t exactly true, was it?
She knew Cass worked at one of the salons in Paradise.

“
Hi yourself,
Cassandra. What the hell are you doing here?”

“
Stopping by to
say hi, that’s all…It’s been a while. You haven’t stopped by
the salon…”

Cassandra. And Eddie.
That thought hurt.

“Ash?”

“Sorry.” She
jumped, and the pencil slipped from her fingers. “What?”

Lacey gave her a funny
look. “I was talking to my housemates about it. They think the
Sunday thing’s a great idea. They’d definitely come.”

“Oh. Well, good.
Maybe I’ll mention it to Marty, see what he thinks.”

Lacey nodded and backed
through the swinging door. “Let me know if I can help. I wouldn’t
mind picking up another shift.”

Ash straightened her
shirt and grabbed a fresh stack of order slips. Deep down, she hoped
the rain brought people in today, rather than kept them away. That
way she could keep her mind on juggling trays instead of botched
kisses and awkward telephone conversations she didn’t know how to
sort out. She spent another ten minutes sorting through napkins and
tablecloths in the back. Then she filled two pitchers of ice water
and walked into the dining room.

“Could we have some
menus?”

“I asked for Absolut,
not Stoli.”

“I thought tonight’s
special was going to be chicken.”

Ash stopped and stared.
Three-quarters of the restaurant was packed with people escaping the
storm.

“Can you believe
this?” Lacey whizzed by on her way to the kitchen. “I’ve never
seen a night like this.”

Neither had Ash.

“Came in for the
meatloaf,” June Frisbie confided, as she stopped by the elderly
woman’s table. “Saw it on the specials board outside and couldn’t
resist.”

“Glad to hear it,”
Ash said. “Don’t know if there’s enough back there for
everyone, but I’ll make sure to set aside an extra-large serving
for you.” She bent closer and aimed her voice at the woman’s
hearing aid. “Make sure to save some for Dobber and Jones.”

The woman broke out in
a huge smile at the mention of her two beloved poodles. “Oh, I
will.” She patted Ash on the wrist. “Dear, you’re the best
thing that’s happened to this place since Marty took it over. I
hope you’ll be staying a while.”

Ash moved on without
answering.

“Ash!” A heavyset
man dressed in head-to-toe camouflage waved her over.

“Hi, guys.” She
nodded a hello to the three farmers, portly and red-cheeked. “Nice
to see you.” She glanced at their empty table. “Need a pitcher of
Bud?”

The men nodded in
unison. “Better make it two.”

“Coming right up.”

She headed for the bar
and checked in with J.T. “What do you need?”

“Another set of hands
would be nice.”

She cracked a smile.
“Wish I could.” But she slipped behind the bar and started
pouring drinks and filling pitchers. “Give you a few minutes,
anyway.”

Lacey flashed back to
the bar, slim legs trotting faster than Ash had ever seen them move.
The young girl loaded up a tray, grabbed some cocktail napkins, and
took off again.

“She’s working her
tail off tonight,” Ash noted, glad to see it.

“Nice tail it is,
too,” one of the guys at the bar guffawed.

Ash pointed a finger in
his direction. “Watch it,” she said with a serious squint of the
eyes. She recognized him but couldn’t come up with a name.
Give
me another hour and I’ll remember it for the rest of the summer.
Once again, she was glad the photographic memory that had served her
so well in college was coming in handy.

“Ash?” The new
Blues and Booze hostess, a meek woman of forty, shuffled over. Behind
her, a crowd of people jostled for space in the restaurant’s narrow
lobby. “We just got a party of twelve. Can we take them?”

“Let me see.” She
surveyed the dining room. “I think Gus Masterson’ll move if I ask
him to, and the Wallaces just decided they’re getting take-out
instead of staying, so we’ll push those tables together and…”

* * *

“There.” Three
hours later, Ash set down the bill for table nineteen and exhaled.
Her feet ached. Her throat was raw. Her shirt stuck to her lower
back. Her hair had fallen from its ponytail and hung around her face.
She rolled her neck. Well, at least the rush had kept her mind off
anything except running orders, replacing napkins, and filling empty
glasses. What next? She looked around for a table to clear, a new
party to seat. But the room was quiet. Finally.

She took a few minutes
to drink a tall glass of water and then found Lacey in the kitchen.
“Are we actually finished?”

The girl smiled. Her
eyes shone with fatigue. “I think so. God, I never saw such a
rush.”

“Me either.”

Lacey pulled a wad of
bills from her pocket. “Definitely over a hundred.”

“Good for you.” Ash
sagged against the salad bar, exhausted.

Lacey eyed her. “You
okay? You were running like crazy tonight, too.”

“Tell me about it.”

The college student
pulled off her apron and headed for the door. “You’re good at
this, you know. I mean, I know you’re probably not staying around
Paradise forever, but still…” She shrugged. “You’d be good at
running a restaurant. If you ever wanted to.”

Ash didn’t say
anything. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She did like
being in charge. She liked the social part of the job. And there was
a lot less stress involved in keeping customers happy than memorizing
cases or prepping briefs, even on a night like tonight. But a
lifetime of it? She thought she’d probably go a little stir-crazy.

“You can head home,
Lace,” she said without answering the girl’s question. She
glanced at the time clock. Almost nine on a Tuesday, and Eddie hadn’t
stopped in. He always came in on Tuesdays after work. Always, since
the second day she'd worked there.

But could she blame him
for staying away? He hadn’t called or come upstairs since their
fight, over twenty-four hours earlier. She thought again of the anger
in his voice, the disappointment in his gaze, as he waited for her to
talk about Colin. About her past. About her family.

He had no idea what he
was asking her. Something clutched inside her chest, and she bent
over in pain.

“Ash? You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said,
waiting for the feeling to pass. “Just a cramp. I’ll be fine.”

Eddie. Mom. Dad. The
Vineyard. Blues and Booze. Ash stared at her toes. How had her life
become this complicated? Four months ago, she’d been a regular law
student, with a regular boyfriend and a regular job awaiting her.
Today she had none of that. She had nothing to count on, no
predictability beyond her weekly shift schedule. Most mornings, she
didn’t even know the woman who stared back at her from the mirror.

How on earth had she
gotten herself so far away from her life as a Kirk? And where was she
headed from here?

The rain broke around
eleven, and by the time Ash left the restaurant a little after
midnight, the moon had begun to sneak its way through the clouds.

It changes in an
instant.
She stepped over puddles that caught the reflection of
the trees lining the parking lot. One minute everything was dreary,
and the next there was light every place she looked. She sighed and
sank into her car without turning it on.
Or the other way around.
Bright to black in a heartbeat.

He hadn’t shown.
She’d waited all night for Eddie to walk through the front door,
almost certain he’d come. Certain he felt the same way she did,
shaken up and fizzy, but wanting to hold on to whatever had started
up on the porch roof two nights ago. Maybe this time she was wrong.
With leaden fingers, Ash turned the key in the ignition. No more
problems with her car, that was for sure. Since Eddie had worked his
magic on it, it hadn’t so much as purred the wrong way.

“I, on the other
hand…” she said aloud. She managed to break things before they
even showed signs of cracking.

She pulled out of the
lot and made a left instead of a right. She didn’t want to go home.
Not right away. Not if it meant looking at Eddie’s closed door and
wanting more than anything to knock and tell him her secrets. Maybe
he wouldn't think she was crazy. Maybe he wouldn’t care that she'd
lied to him about her name. Maybe he would understand if she told him
why.

And maybe he wouldn’t.

Ash swung into a new
development on the edge of town, slowing as she passed the bi-level
homes. She wondered who lay sleeping inside them. Newlyweds? Single
moms trying to keep it all together? Happy families with perfect
lives? Or hardworking laborers trying to piece together a living the
way their parents and grandparents had? She rolled down the windows
and fresh air poured inside.

Barely a sound filled
the night air. Just the hum of air conditioners and the occasional
chirp of a restless bird carried through the evening. She imagined
for a moment the constant buzz of the city—the mix of cars and
voices and music from dance clubs—that would fill the streets of
Boston at that hour. She didn’t miss it. Not one bit.

At the end of the
cul-de-sac, she swung her VW in a slow circle. She couldn’t stay in
Paradise. It wasn’t her home. She had no ties here, not really. But
the thought of joining the rest of her family on Martha’s Vineyard
next weekend turned her stomach. The thought of seeing Colin again
tied her up in knots. Not there, not here. Where did she belong?

A door opened suddenly,
and a beam of light speckled one of the driveways to her right. A
black Lab emerged, sniffing the air. It meandered down the lawn and
flopped onto its back. Legs straight up, it rolled from side to side
on the wet grass. Ash could see its tongue lolling from its mouth.

“Angus!” The voice
was a hiss in the darkness. “Stop that!” Into the frame of light
waddled a woman so pregnant she looked as though she might fall over.

Ash smiled. Dottie
Warren stopped into the restaurant once in a while after her shift at
the Post Office. “I told Mick I didn’t need to do desk duty,”
she’d told Ash over a vanilla milkshake and french fries last week.
“Told him I could still deliver on the route. Christ, I been
through this three times already. But you know how men are. Always
think they know what’s best…”

Ash raised a hand to
wave, though she knew the woman couldn’t see her. Still, as she
drove by, she thought Dottie took an extra look at her car, tucking
away the color and the silhouette of its driver. After a moment, the
dog peed and trotted back inside. Dottie shut the door, and the
outside light turned off again. Ash grinned. Tomorrow or the next
day, she knew, the woman would amble into the restaurant and ask Ash
what she was doing on Miller’s Circle after midnight.

No secrets in this
town. You know that. The minute you tell Eddie who you are, word will
spread. Everyone will know. And everything will change.
She
yanked the rubber band from her ponytail and let her hair fall to her
shoulders. The breeze picked up as she pulled away from the stop sign
and gave the car some gas.