Page 54 of Phillip

Between ice cream and kissing Ashley at camp, Phillip was spent. The afternoon became a blur after they left the lake. Nothing specifically changed between them. He’d already taken to holding her hand. But that kiss didn’t leave a lot of room for them to ignore what was rekindling between them.

He would wait to figure out what that would mean. They were exhausted. The helicopter lulled Ashley to sleep beside him, and Phillip thought long and hard about directing the pilot to take them to the estate.Slow down, don’t rushbecame the prevailing advice in his head.

The helicopter descended where they’d picked her up almost twelve hours before. He carefully woke her as they landed.

Her groggy ideas refocused. A quiet smile curled on her lips. “Thank you. Today was more than I expected.”

He unbuckled them and pulled her close, letting his lips brush over hers. Exhausted or not, their kiss heated to life. It was a good thing that he’d brought her home. If they were alone, he would push her too fast. “I’ll walk you to the door.”

Her front yard was dark, but several lights were on in Ashley’s house. He helped her from the helicopter, taking her arm to the front porch.

“We didn’t discuss work today,” she whispered, turning into his arms.

“We’re not going to start now.” He kissed her good night. “But we can over dinner tomorrow?”

She nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

If she only knew how much of his plans he’d hung on tonight. “Good night, beautiful.”

***

The next evening felt as though it would never come. Phillip had checked his watch a half-dozen times before leaving to pick Ashley up. After yesterday with a pilot and a driver at the helm and today’s anticipation for dinner, Phillip relished the control of driving.

“I love the Bickmore,” she said.

The engine purred as he leaned into the gas on the straightway. “It’s never a bad decision to dine there.”

His cell phone rang through the Bluetooth. The dashboard screen illuminated, and his cousin Ross’s name appeared.

Phillip glanced toward Ashley. “Do you mind if I take this? He might have news about the stock car test drive.”

“Please.”

Phillip accepted the phone call. “I was wondering when I might hear back from you.”

“If it’s not one thing, it’s another.” Ross laughed.

“Yeah, guess so.” They hadn’t talked much since Ross had a heart-stopping wreck. He’d walked away from the flames nearly untouched. “How’s Holly?”

“She’s great.” The smile in his voice carried through the speakers.

Phillip couldn’t have imagined his daredevil cousin settling down, but Ross had done so while happily falling in love—even if he’d once promised not to lose his head over Holly. “You sound good, man. I’m happy for you.”

Ross chuckled. “There must be something in the whisky.”

Phillip snorted. “Must be.” Devlin, Jason, and Ross had all fallen hard and fast this summer. “Tell Holly to keep an eye on the mash.” As the woman in charge of their Kentucky operations, she would know if the Blackthorne brand had been dosed with a love potion.

“Three out of the seven of us? Less than half. I won’t be concerned unless you drop too, Philly.”

He would’ve groaned over the nickname, but instead, heat hit his cheeks unexpectedly. Phillip cleared his throat. “Let it go, Martin.”

Ross chuckled.

“Who is Martin?” Ashley asked.

Phillip held up a finger and would explain their Martini & Rossi inspired childhood nicknames later. For now, he was more concerned about the conversation drifting toward relationships. “So, about the donation, all we need is a car and someone to drive the highest bidder around a track.”

“That’s all you need, huh?” Ross cracked. “It took some time to find room on the calendar since the team won’t be in that part of the country any time soon. But there’s a small block of time we can do after the Green Mountain 500.”

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