Page 26 of Phillip

Her lips trembled.

“But…” He eased back, giving her room. “I won’t make you deal with this now.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”Lies again!

Instead of exposing the truth, she turned the conversation—and his intentions—around. “Why did you ask me to come here?”

He took too long to come up with an honest answer. An ache split her heart. She didn’t know why. But anything involving Phillip was always a mistake.

“I always wondered if you’d end up like your mother or not.”

Ashley gasped. His conversation turnabout hit far closer to the truth and made her ill.

He continued. “I remember when the queen of all things home and garden had tapped you to rule her fiefdom one day.”

Ashley clenched her fists but didn’t have this fight in her, and her hands loosened. “Please don’t compare me to her.”

Phillip stepped closer, and with another hill of her roller coaster, she desperately missed how his arms could make the rest of the world disappear.

“What happened? Why aren’t you on the throne?” he asked.

Phillip had happened. Losing him had happened. Losing her way, the one she loved, losing everything because she couldn’t be true to herself, that had all happened! Then everything had changed. Her eyes slipped shut, and a tear slipped free. She wondered how to explain any of it and couldn’t figure out a way to share without hurting both of them again. Ashley wiped the rogue tear away and tamped down the truth.

They didn’t touch, but as he towered over her, Ashley wished for what she couldn’t have.Him.

“Tell me the truth,” he demanded. “At least on that.”

He had no idea it was all the same thing. The hate she claimed for him was really aimed at herself, and knowing that, she ran away.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Phillip squinted as the morning sun shined through the cloudy sky. He’d relished the overcast weather while pummeling baseballs in the batting cages at Harbor Park but decided, as he slid his sunglasses into place, the sun would only help.

The pitching machine threw another ball. He concentrated for the swing, letting the nearby children that played and laughed in the distance slip away.

Crack.

That could’ve been a grand freakin’ slam, but again, it didn’t help. He cursed to himself as the pitching machine readied another ball. Phillip gripped the bat, wondering when he would hit enough balls to release his aggravation that had compounded since Ashley ran off the beach the day before.

I let her go.A baseball whizzed by Phillip’s head without him taking a swing.Let her go just like I did before.

The mechanical crank of the pitching machine didn’t stop because his mind was hopscotching between the present and past. He repositioned his grip on the Louisville Slugger as he listened to the repetitive machine crank another ball into position.

The pitching machine’s hum held his focus. He needed the hit and craved the impact, wanting to hear the collision between bat and ball and feel that resounding crack. Sooner or later, it would help clear his mind.

The pitch barreled down the lane. His eyes narrowed, and Phillip swung.Crack.The impact offered sweet relief, though it was fleeting. His muscles ached. Sweat beaded on the back of his neck and clung to his shirt.

The robotic crank readied another ball, but the mechanical hum died. The automatic pitching arm whined down until it came to a rest. Exhausted and no less aggravated, Phillip dropped his grip on the Slugger and turned.

Devlin stepped from behind a partition. “Nana said I’d find you here.”

Phillip wiped his forehead with his shirt. “Nana?” He ran a hand through his hair then exchanged the bat for a bottle of water, sucking several gulps down.

“She was tending to her garden when she saw you storm out with the bat.”

Nana missed nothing. Somehow, she had eyes everywhere. Phillip could only wish to be as lively as she was when he got to her age. “If you wanted to hit balls, you could’ve called.”

Devlin took one of the bats that lined the lane wall, tossed it over his shoulder with ease, and swung through with perfect form. “I don’t want to hit balls.”

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