Chapter 6
A fter Josie got home, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him about the Shelby yet.
To stall, she told her dad she hadn’t heard from Mr. Blackwell and went to her room.
Her neighbor called and asked her to watch her older kids again for a few hours in the morning while she took little Mason to the doctor.
She always told Penny not to pay her, but the woman never listened.
That money would go to Josie’s travel fund.
Since the kids always wore her out more than overhauling an engine, she went to bed.
The next morning dawned gray and dreary. A perfect day to watch kids, then work on the books and see if she could come up with a business plan to get them through the rest of the year.
She raced through her morning routine. By the time she got downstairs, Bill was leaving.
“Hey, Bill. Mind if I come by later this afternoon? I’m watching Penny’s kids again.”
“That little guy sick again, huh? Not surprised. He’s a little different.”
“Bill!”
“What? He is. Three years old and doesn’t talk, doesn’t even wave at you. Yeah, take the morning off.” He shrugged and slipped out the door.
Josie dug through her movies. The kids liked watching her old fairytale shows from when she was a kid.
The doorbell rang and Josie rushed to answer. As soon as the door opened, Tayton and Payton pushed in.
“Kids!” Penny’s exasperated shout followed.
Josie shrugged to ease Penny’s mind. “No worries. I already have movies ready to hit play.”
Penny gave her a worn-out smile. Mason’s screams could be heard from the car. “Are you sure this is okay? I might be gone three hours, but at least we should have some answers.”
“Oh? He’s not…” How should she finish that? Sick? Well? Really, why doesn’t he talk?
Patty released another gusty breath. “I think we finally found a doctor who can help us."
Josie settled with, “I hope everything’s okay.”
The smile was back in place, but with a little more optimism. “It will be. Once we learn how his brain works. Thanks, again, Josie.”
Oh…so, not sick. Mason not talking was really an issue.
Josie wished her the best and shut the door.
While the kids watched TV, she whipped up a batch of muffins and noted all the grocery items she’d need to purchase.
She added going through her coupon apps and grocery store ads to her to-do list for the day.
As she ate, she stared out the window. The place was so quiet since her mom had passed, it was nice to hear the scuttle of kids, even if they were bickering half the time. Bill spent almost no time at home anymore. He came to sleep—if he slept at home at all.
She shuddered. She and Jesse had been joking about who her stepmother would become.
Any woman who settled for Bill deserved Josie’s pity, not resentment.
Loving her dad didn’t make her blind to his faults and he had many in the significant-other arena.
Her mom had worked to make him happy, but Josie remembered all too well her mother’s tears when Bill came home in the middle of the night.
Poor Mom. She would’ve watched Penny’s kids morning, noon, and night.
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?
Of course. The Shelby. He spent the money before he even got the car.
She sunk her head into her hands. “Bill. Bill. Bill.”
“No, it’s me.”
She popped up. Gage leaned against the doorframe. It was his signature move. Must think it made him irresistible.
She could resist. Brock did the move so much better.
“What do you want?” She threw all her emotion into her question.
He held up his hands. “Just checking on you. I know you walked and it’s raining out. Need a ride home?”
No. The rain matched her mood.
“I just got here. Where’s Bill?”
“In a meeting.” Gage’s flat stare increased her suspicion.
“What meeting?” Another fucking loan?
“Garage stuff. Nothing for you to worry about.”
She spread her arm over the desk. “In case you missed it, this garage is my business, too.”
Gage’s smirk ignited hot anger in her chest.
“No, it’s not,” he said. “You do the books. Your dad makes the decisions. Let him do his job.”
She wanted to growl. Bill excelled at anything with wheels and a motor, not the intricacies of running a business. And he wouldn’t listen to her.
She went back to tallying receipts. “Whatever Gage. It’s not your business, either.”
“Don’t be so sure.”
Her head popped up. “What?”
He shrugged. “Bill’s not getting any younger. Jesse’s in jail. Who’s left?”
She spread her hands out. Like, duh .
Gage strode to the chair and plopped down in it, reclining back in a way that was supposed to make him look irresistibly tough. It used to be her favorite look on him. Now all she could envision was a hot mechanic in a dirty Ford hat.
She adopted the same position while spinning her pencil in one hand. “You don’t think I can run it.”
“You don’t know cars.”
She tipped her head back and laughed. Bill knew cars and look at the numbers in front of her.
Focusing back on her ex, she grew serious. “What has Bill arranged?”
Gage smiled, his eyes twinkling. “Nothing yet, but all I have to do is wait.” His grin widened.
He was hiding something, and of course, he wasn’t going to tell her.
“I’d better get back to work.” She shot him a pointed look. “And you should, too.”
Like he had all day, Gage stood and adjusted himself—at eye level.
“Camilla like that move?”
The grin was wiped off his face. “It didn’t mean anything.”
“That makes me feel so much better. Thank you for clearing that up. How about that other girl who stopped by here the other day. Mean nothing?”
“Tia? Nah, she’s just after a good time. I keep shooing her away.”
Sure he did.
He leaned across the desk and reached for a lock of her hair, but she tilted away until he gave up. “I’m waiting for you. You know we were meant to be together.”
“Keep waiting.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t miss us.”
“Okay, I won’t tell you.” Not too long ago, this would’ve been just a show. Such a relief to realize that she no longer missed what she and Gage had. Because now she could see all it was going to be was a replay of her mom and Bill.
“You’re mine, Josie. Work your little things out, get it together, and come back to me.”
She fanned herself and made sure her words dripped with sarcasm. “Such sweet words.”
He pointed to her before he walked out. “Us.”
Puffing a breath of frustration, she went back to her ledger.