Page 29 of Mustang Summer

Josie’s lips twitched in a sad smile.Once we learn how his brain works.

With that thought, a car pulled up out front.She opened the door before Penny reached it.

“How were they?”Penny asked.

“Watched movies and argued with each other.”

Penny chuckled.

“How’d it go?”Josie couldn’t help but ask.

Penny didn’t look downtrodden; maybe she’d gotten good news.“We finally got someone to say ‘autism.’Now that we know, we can do more pointed therapy.We’ve been getting such a run-around, which is weird, given how often it’s in the media these days.”

“I’m really sorry.That must be hard.”

“Especially when I already suspected what was going on.Oh well, everyone has their own brand of special.”

Josie nodded as kids raced past her out the door.“I see they’re glad to leave.”

Penny rolled her eyes.“I told them I was picking up kids’ meals from their favorite restaurant.”She dug a twenty out of her wallet.

“Seriously, Penny, you don’t need to pay me.I planted them in front of the TV and just made sure they were breathing every few minutes.”

“It makes me feel better to pay you.This is hopefully the last emergency call.I can coordinate his therapy with the others’ activities.”

Josie accepted the money.As long as it eased her neighbor’s worries about feeling like a leech, she tried not to let guilt seep in.She waved good-bye to Penny and the kids and closed the door.

Poor Mason.People like Bill were going to label him as “not right” his whole life just because he didn’t act like a “typical guy.”

Different wasn’t always bad.Her farm boy came to mind.Compared to Gage and Bill, Brock was definitely atypical.Unlike Mason, he conversed, but talking with him was just…different.But Mason was a kid and Brock was her age.

Still, autistic kids grew up.And adults didn’t walk around with labels sewn on their clothing that said, “Hi, I’m autistic.”

Could Brock be like Mason?No, her experience with men had just created a small box.Brock didn’t act that much outside it.

She straightened and stretched.Oh, shit—the time.No more thinking about Brock today!

The garage was only a mile away, so she saved the gas and walked to work.Muggy air surrounded her.Oh yeah, it was going to rain today.Maybe she should’ve driven, but getting rained on seemed to fit how her month had been going.

She arrived at her dad’s garage and went straight for her office.Gage’s truck was outside and she had no interest in interacting with him.It’d just put Brock back to the forefront of her thoughts.

Like how he kissed better.How his muscles felt like they weren’t manufactured in a gym.How his blue eyes made her stomach flip and her knees weak.He wasn’t like any guy she’d met, and her reaction toward him was unlike any other.Her hopes lifted that maybe she could find what her mother hadn’t.

There was a folder with some papers and a scrawled note sitting on her desk.The heat of the day washed out as cold settled into her bones.

Her eyes went wide as she saw the dollar amount and her dad’s message that’d he made a deal and gotten the money up front.

A loan.And not from the bank.

Good God, didn’t her dad know what that meant?

She was young, but she knew what a loan shark was.How stupid could he be?The business was in trouble, but now it was in capital T trouble.She sifted through the documents.

A hundred thousand dollars.Nausea swept through her.

One hundred.Thousand.

How in the world were they going to pay that back?

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