Page 81 of Phillip

Still, Ashley didn’t move. “Why didn’t you call?”

Glenn folded the paper and glanced in between mother and daughter. “We had to talk on the drive here.”

“Youdrovehere this morning?” Ashley moved to the table and pulled out a seat.

Wow. Phillip calculated how long the drive would take. It was at least several hours.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Ashley said.

“We did after our heated discussion last night. It gave us a chance to speak with cooler heads.” Glenn glanced at Agatha. “Sit down, Aggi.”

Uncomfortably, Ashley’s mother joined her husband at the table.

Her dad continued. “It occurred to us that we needed to have a face-to-face conversation.” Glenn glanced at Phillip. “With you also. Please join us.”

Again, after reading Ashley’s unspoken cues, Phillip chose the seat next to her. Agatha pulled out the seat next to her husband, paused, then sat across from Ashley on the other side of her father.

Isn’t this cozy…

“I said what I needed to say before,” Ashley said.

“But we didn’t,” her dad said, letting his gaze linger on his wife.

Agatha cleared her throat. After she shifted and fidgeted, she looked her daughter in the eye. “I’d like to apologize. To both of you.” The hard mask of the woman’s expression cracked, and what might have been sorrow creased her forehead as she glanced between the two of them. “I’ve never been the best…”

“Mother,” Ashley suggested.

The cold bitterness in her voice caught Phillip off guard.

But Agatha nodded. “Yes,mother. I tried, but not always and especially failed you when it counted.”

Ashley’s hand dropped under the table and found Phillip’s. He grasped it, running his thumb over her knuckles as her fingers tightened. Ashley pulled in a deep breath, relaxing as she let it out. “Before you say anything else, Mother, I decided last night to let everything in the past go, to forgive everything between us.”

Her admission rolled through him with a thunderous shock. He didn’t know if he had that in him.

Ashley’s fingers squeezed his again, and she awkwardly laughed. “It turns out that making decisions to magically change how I feel doesn’t fix everything. But I think it might have helped.”

“Ashley Catherine—”

“Mother,my name is Ashley.”

Her mother’s mouth snapped shut as though she’d been slapped, but then she tried, “Ashley.”

“Thank you.”

Her mother nodded. “I appreciate that you can imagine forgiving me. That kind of heart comes from your grandmother.” She let her eyes roam the dining and living room. “Maybe that’s why she made sure that you inherited this house—to fix my mistakes. Maybe she knew about you two.”

Her thoughts seemed to linger until Glenn cleared his throat. Then Agatha took a deep breath. “Phillip, you came to us, trusting that we would do what would be best for Ashley Cath—Ashley. But I used that trust against you, and for that, I apologize.”

Having heard the heartbreaking details from Ashley earlier, he didn’t expect the knot that tied in his throat.

“I don’t expect you to accept my apology,” Agatha continued. “But I have something for you that I hope will start our journey of forgiveness.”

Glenn took a manila envelope from under his newspaper and handed it to Agatha. She unfolded the top and pulled out a set of keys.

“This is yours, and we are more than happy to support your nonprofit,” her mother said.

His keys.Ashley gasped. Phillip couldn’t breathe.

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