Read Online The Promise of Paradise by Allie Boniface - Free Book Online Page A

twice in passing,
the last couple of days. Both times he’d paused, placed a hand on
her shoulder, and smiled down at her like there was nowhere else he
wanted to be. The gesture made her uncomfortable as hell. It made her
look forward to walking down the stairs each morning. It made her
wonder who had taken over her body and replaced her with a woman who
grew warm and slippery every time she saw this guy. A guy she barely
knew.
    Watch it, Ash, she warned herself for the tenth time since moving to Paradise. Falling for this guy is trouble. Wrapping her apron into a
ball, she admitted that as much as she wanted to avoid complications,
she was still glad Eddie had come to see her tonight. She wanted to
ask him how the kitten was making out. She wanted to tell him about
the idiot who’d grabbed at her earlier and laugh with him about the
woman who’d sent her meal back three times before ordering
something else altogether. Mostly, Ash wanted Eddie to drop an arm
across her shoulders or rub a hand across the top of her head and
tell her she was doing okay.
    He sat alone in the
bar, on the stool closest to the door. An empty beer mug stood in
front of him, with a few crumpled dollar bills beside it. Ash paused
for a minute in the dining room and peered through the chair legs,
now perched upside down on their tables.
    J.T., one of the night
bartenders, leaned on his elbows and told a joke out of one side of
his mouth. Ash watched Eddie listen, watched the scars in his cheek
dip and crease when he laughed, and she wondered again where the
scars had come from, and why he hadn’t erased them. The one along
his jawline, especially, cut so deep that surely plastic surgery
could have softened it. Had he tried it? Had the surgery failed? She
wiped her palms on her shorts. She knew nothing about Eddie and his
scars, not really. Maybe he’d been born with them. Maybe they
reminded him of something he didn’t want to forget. Maybe he didn’t
want softening.
    She crossed the floor
and snuck up beside him. “Hi there.”
    Eddie smiled and gave
her a soft punch on the arm. “Hi, yourself. Done for the night?”
    “Yeah. Finally.”
    “You getting used to
it?”
    “I guess. Honestly,
it’s harder than I thought.” That, at least, was true. Ash had no
idea her feet could ache so, or that her legs could turn wobbly after
a night of running trays back and forth. In just a couple of weeks,
she’d discovered a newfound appreciation for the people who did it
day in and out, year after year. She knew she could never be one of
them, dependent upon tips to pay a mortgage, cover car insurance, or
put food on the table.
    J.T. flipped on the
television as he wiped down the bar. Ash tensed. Not the news,
please. She eyed the clock. Just about midnight. Good. Maybe the
highlights would be through. She didn’t need any news from Boston
discussing the senator’s latest statement or the opposing
attorney’s trial preparations. She fidgeted on the stool beside
Eddie and sipped a glass of water.
    “I should get going,”
she said. She watched the screen and prayed no political report would
appear. “I’m beat.”
    “You drive tonight?”
Eddie didn’t look at her, just asked the question sideways as he
watched a preview for some new reality show.
    “Um, yeah.” She
always drove when she worked the night shift. Didn’t matter that
everyone she’d met told her she could walk down Main Street at two
in the morning and not see a soul. City habits didn’t die that
quickly. She’d keep on driving herself, for a while anyway. Until
Paradise seeped into her veins a little more.
    “Okay if I catch a
ride back with you?” he asked. “I walked.”
    This time he did turn
toward her, and his gaze landed on her with such intensity that she
felt as though he’d burned right through the fabric of her shirt.
    “Ah, sure.” Stop
doing that to me. Stop setting me on fire every time I get too close
to you. “How’s the cat?” she asked, to change