Page 17 of Mustang Summer

“What do you think, Brock?”Travis asked.“Would you let Uncle Greg and Aunt Nancy move back?”

“They wouldn’t want to.”While it’d been hard for his mom to leave her broken baby alone in the world, Brock had still been well into his twenties, and she’d been wanting out of Moore since she was a teenager.

Travis chuckled.“My parents are loving life in Phoenix.They’re giving it this summer to decide if they’ll be more than winter birds.”

“They’re too young to be going south for the winter.”Aaron pulled into the courthouse parking lot.“But I guess, after Uncle Steve died all of our parents seem to be finding themselves.”

Brock nodded.The early death of Dillon’s dad had spurred the brothers to sell the farm and ranch business and allowed Brock to have a job he didn’t dread every day.

They all climbed out and stretched under the bright summer sun.

Dillon waited in front of the large, square, stone building.He had an arm slung around Elle and was dressed just like them.Plain white button-up shirt, clean jeans with no holes, and the nice boots that were worn for weddings, funerals, and anything else church-related.Cash loitered on the other side of the entrance, staring off into the distance.

“We ready?”Dillon called as they approached.

“Now or never.”Aaron swaggered up the expansive stone steps.“How many more of these do we gotta go to?”

“If they find him guilty, which he is,” Dillon growled, “then we’ll probably have another court date for sentencing.”

“Long as this shit’s done before harvest.”Aaron held open the shiny glass door for them.

“And he stays behind bars,” Dillon agreed.

The temperature change into the air-conditioned building was a frigid drop.A few people in business wear strolled through the wide hallways, their heels clicking on the hard floor.

Dillon gestured to a set of stairs.“We’re on the second level.I have to meet with my lawyer.Head on up.You’ll see where we’re supposed to go.”

Brock jogged up the stairs with the others and found a place to sit.His family surrounded him as they took up most of one side of the courtroom.

It was smaller than he’d expected.Only three rows of benches behind the desks the lawyers would sit at.The jury area was stuffed into a corner where jurists wouldn’t have to directly face either the plaintiff or defendant.A raised wooden platform must be where the judge sits.

People were coming in and out of a small door across from the jury seats, readying the room for trial.

Brock glanced at the clock on the wall.Almost time.

“Whoa,” Aaron said under his breath.

“Wonder who she is,” Travis murmured.

“Dude,” Cash breathed.“I can find out.”

Brock glanced to where his cousins were looking and his eyes widened.“What are you doing here?”

His cousins all stared at him while the petite car lover dressed like a businessman’s wet dream smiled demurely as she sat across the aisle from him.

“I’m here to support my brother.”Josie crossed one leg over the other and her form-fitting maroon slacks hugged her hips, even sitting down.The V-neck, sleeveless top she wore was actually part of the outfit.Like a pantsuit.A sexy as hell pantsuit.

Her brother?“Jesse Rodriguez?You don’t have the same last name as him.”

Was she married?His world grew dimmer with the thought.

She shot him a look he struggled with.Impatience?Embarrassment?Tolerance?“Our mother remarried after he was born.My dad didn’t adopt him.”

Her statement made sense and he got hung up on the shock of finding her here.“Is that why you were snooping in my barn?Did your brother put you up to it?”

Her lips set and she feathered her spiky hair away from her eyes.“One, we established I wasn’t in your barn.You can ask Deputy Max, remember?And two, no one has to put me up to anything.”

He stared at her.She was fidgeting—with her hair, with her hands, readjusting her sitting position.She kept lying.

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