The Promise of Paradise Read Online Free PDF

at him.
    “You okay?” Her
voice, soft and low, crept across the porch. She didn’t press,
didn’t ask him what was wrong, like people always did. Of course,
she didn’t know about the accident, and he figured she was about
the only person in Paradise who didn’t. Still, she didn’t get
nosy and pry. She just sat and studied him, concerned.
    Eddie nodded and tried
to find a smile. “Yeah. I’m fine.” Yet a strange feeling of
déjà vu raised the hairs on the back of his neck. His housemate,
this person he’d just met, reminded him of someone he’d known
years ago. He couldn’t remember who. But he suddenly felt better
than he had in a long, long time.

Chapter Four
    Ash tucked the Paradise
Chronicle under one arm and locked her door. She skipped down the
steps and then paused for a minute in front of Eddie’s apartment.
Yesterday she’d passed it a few times as she carried the rest of
her things upstairs, and it had only watched, a solid brown door with
nothing but quiet behind it. Today, though, it studied Ash as she
stood there. It hid possibilities, ones she wanted to know more
about. Maybe I should say hello. Say thanks for last night. She raised her hand to knock.
    He’s different
somehow. She thought Eddie West would be like most other
good-looking guys she'd known, interested in himself and not much
else. A memory of fraternity brothers tossing around a football and
grilling on the quad during her undergrad days flashed into her mind.
Eddie looked like a Sigma Chi, strong and masculine, the kind of guy
who dated a different girl each week and won over his professors’
hearts with a wink and a smile. Sigma Chi brothers didn’t date
girls like Ashton; they asked them for class notes or directions to
the library. Then on Friday nights, they shared their drinks and
their beds with blushing sorority girls or dark-eyed, mysterious
graduate assistants who drank port and read Eliot.
    Eddie had mentioned
that he’d gone to tech school for a couple of years, opting to work
on cars full-time as soon as he turned twenty. Okay, so he wasn’t
really like a Sigma Chi, not formally educated anyway. Still, there
was something about him, something about the way he watched her with
thoughtful eyes, that made Ash suspect he had more intellect and
common sense than half the people she’d met at Harvard.
    That’s why I have
to be careful, keep my distance. I can’t let him find out who I am.
I can’t let anyone.
    She let her hand drop away from his
door. He’d probably gone to work, anyway. She hadn’t heard him
leave, but to her surprise she’d slept well, a long eight hours
without waking once. Stepping onto the porch, she glanced down at the
classified ads. She’d found three possibilities this morning and
circled them in red ink, a declaration of her decision to stay in
Paradise, at least for now. She’d figure out how to explain that to
her parents when the time came.
    “ Waitress needed immediately for busy jazz club. Experience
helpful but not necessary. Apply at Blues and Booze, 53 Main Street.”
    Paradise had a jazz
club? A busy one? Ash smiled. She’d spent a couple of years
sloshing coffee at the campus java joint; did that count as
experience? She left her car at the curb and decided to walk. Three
blocks later, the numbers on Main Street crept from forty-one, Lana’s
Plus Palace, to forty-five, a used bookstore, to forty-nine, Lou’s
Sub Shop. Oh, right. Eddie mentioned this place last night.
    Ash slowed and peered
into Lou’s front window. A solitary cook in a stained white apron
stood behind the counter, rolling dough. In front of him, a display
case showed row upon row of deli meats, cheeses, and colorful salads.
Her mouth watered, and she decided she’d stop by on her way back
and pick up some lunch.
    The sandwich shop sat
on the corner of Adams Street, an alley barely wide enough for one
car. Still, accustomed to busy Boston avenues, she glanced both ways
before crossing it. On the other