Page 54 of Mustang Summer

“And,” Travis interjected, “you met because she broke into your barn.”

Brock shook his head.“She didn’t break in.The door was open.”

“I don’t like it.”Cash squatted to inspect the stalks.“It’s Katie Johnson all over again.”

“She’s nothing like Katie.”Brock had forgotten about her—on purpose.Leave it to his cousins to bring it up.

“Bullshit.”Cash checked the ears of corn and muttered, “This was a damn fine crop.Anyway… Katie acted all interested in your cars, too.Aunt Nancy really liked her, too, right?”

Yes, his mom had.But she’d warned Brock that a girl like Katie might not understand how different he was, and he was forbidden to tell anyone, especially a high school girl.

Dillon bent to follow Cash’s lead and check corn that would’ve been a bumper crop that they now couldn’t harvest.“I could barely carry her screaming ass out of the gym,” he said.

Brock ground his jaw together.The pep rally where Katie had turned on him was, hands down, the worst memory of high school.All because he hadn’t asked her to prom.Didn’t know she’d wanted to go.Sure, after the fact, when his mom had pried the story out of him, it had made sense.But only because his mom pointed out that all those random comments Katie had made were hints.

“I wasn’t going to go with Jenna when she asked me,” Brock argued.

Cash barked out a laugh.“Katie didn’t know that.All her little seventeen-year-old heart knew was that you hadn’t asked her when she saw another girl asking you.”

Brock lifted a stalk of corn with his boot, but it flopped over as soon as he removed the support.“So, you’re saying that Josie’s going to announce to the whole town what a callous bastard I am?How I don’t understand women and I’m bad in bed.”

Fuck, that’d been embarrassing.He hadn’t asked a woman out again until college.

“We all know she was lying.”Aaron snorted a laugh.“Because she’d been bragging about how good you were up until the pep rally.”

“What I’m saying,” Cash continued, “is that Jesse might be in jail, but maybe Josie has another brother who she’ll get to key your car.Only it won’t be on the scale of some spurned high school girl, but a woman who blames you for putting her brother away.”

“I didn’t have anything to do with Jesse.”

“Does it matter?”Cash shot back.

Yes, it did.Because it was the truth.Brock ignored the question.“She’s not like that.”

“No?Wait for it.She’s coming back for the sentencing, right?Wait and see if she starts moaning about how unfair it is Jesse’s in jail.”Cash’s voice rose into a falsetto.“Oh my poor brother, isn’t there anything you could do?He was just in a bad space.He’s not a bad guy.”

“I hate to agree with Cash because he’s an asshole,” Travis’s calm, measured words broke in, “but he might be worth listening to.She’s sexy.She likes cars.Guys have handed over a lot more for a lot less.Just watch yourself.”

Dillon pinned Brock with his intense stare from where he crouched with his elbows resting on his knees.“We’re just looking out for you like we always do.”

Brock adjusted his hat.Yeah, they did.Just like with Katie.Where Brock had been left standing, trying to process what was happening, his cousins were already in action and dragging Katie off the stage.

But Josie wasn’t Katie.She wouldn’t use him.

Josie puttered around the kitchen,pulling various ingredients out of the cupboards and the fridge.She had a craving for pancakes and the morning was cool, so firing up the griddle wouldn’t heat the whole house.

Bill was already gone when she woke.Odd.It was Saturday and even though he worked seven days a week, he usually slept in on the weekends.A new lady?

Josie paused and stared at the buttermilk in her hands.He hadn’t been hanging out at the bars, either, which was where he picked up his lady friends.While he was just as sly with the women now as when her mother was alive, Josie hadn’t seen any signs of a relationship.

Ugh.Then he was probably recruiting more pieces for his “hobby.”The doors to the rooms around her office had been locked all week.Paint fumes had clogged the air, but she hadn’t seen what they were working on.In the garage were just the three cars that were on the books as contracted work.Once finished, they’d each bring in a few extra grand.Probably not even enough to cover the interest on the loan.

She finished measuring her ingredients and was stirring the batter when a floorboard creaked.

With a gasp, she whipped around to admonish Bill for scaring the shit out of her.Her breath froze in her lungs.

An average-looking man stood in the kitchen entrance.Other than pockmarked skin that probably mottled and turned red when he was angry, she wouldn’t have given him a second glance in a dark alley.

His brown hair was graying, but trimmed.His hands were in the pockets of navy slacks and his dark eyes watched her much like a lion surveyed the Serengeti.

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