Page 37 of Phillip

“Phillip!” Ashley squeaked, her cheeks flushing pink.

He winked, shifted into reverse, and eased the Porsche back. Smoothly, he straightened the wheel then pulled forward. Once in the tight space, he deadpanned, “Get your head out of the gutter.”

“It’s not!”

Phillip couldn’t hide his laughter. “Well, I’ll be damned. Look at you with the dirty thoughts.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

“Whatever you want to call it, beautiful.”

Ashley pointed her finger at him, repeating herself, “Incorrigible.” She pushed from the car, announcing she would pick the restaurant.

“Whatever you say.” Phillip couldn’t shake away the grin that Brock had called dopey, and he didn’t care. So long as she didn’t run away.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“That’s it?” Mary Beth pursed her lips in disbelief, ignoring the melting ice cream cone in her hand. “You’re telling me that nothing happened.”

Ashley nodded, twisting her cone, and wondered why nothing happening made her feel hollow. “Nothing at all. Just a little joking before lunch, and then he was a perfect gentleman.”

They focused on their melting ice cream cones before Mary Beth asked, “Are you happy about that?”

“Good question.” She leaned her elbows on the bistro table and immediately regretted it. The tables at Dairy Fairy were the stickiest in town. Ashley would know—she considered herself an expert of King Harbor ice cream shops. She grabbed a napkin and wiped her elbows. “Do you think Dairy Fairy would be interested in having a stand at the car show?”

“Who doesn’t like ice cream?” Mary Beth licked her ice cream cone. “It’d be a hit.”

Ashley pulled out her notebook to jot down the ice cream idea.

“Put your notebook away,” Mary Beth demanded. “This is a no-work zone.”

“Just give me a second.” Ashley twirled the cone, trying to keep up with the melting ice cream drips while writing.

“No work at the Dairy Fairy.”

“Fine.” Ashley tucked the notebook into her purse then quickly caught a delicious drip before it slid into the paper wrapper.

“Is that…” Mary Beth shrunk, almost as though her ice cream cone were a shield.

Ashley turned toward her best friend’s dread, and her stomach dropped. “Oh God.” Her mother and her ex were walking side by side down the sidewalk.

“What are they doing here?” Mary Beth whispered.

“I don’t know.” Ashley wanted to ditch the cone and run. Not only because her mother and ex would see the ice cream as needlessly messy and a waste of time, but because she didn’t want to know why they were in King Harbor together.

What kind of mother wouldn’t let her daughter know she was coming into town? With her ex…

Both Mother and Sean were the type of people who saw ice cream as pointless and relationships as nothing more than facades for business mergers and acquisitions.

“Should we go inside?” Mary Beth asked.

They didn’t have enough time. Ashley numbly shook her head. “It’s too late. They’ll see us.”

“Then what do we do?”

Her queasy stomach somersaulted as she ran through a list of possible options and discarded each. “We do the only thing we can. We say hello.”

Mary Beth groaned but didn’t offer any other suggestions. She sat in the chair, wearing an expression similar to a deer caught in headlights, and silently pleaded for Ashley to change her mind and run.

---