“You don’t?” Smiling like he knew he had me, he gestured at the car. “You getting in?”

“Okay, now this is a car.” I slid into the passenger seat as he went around to the driver’s door, which also had a manual lock. The leather upholstery was butter-soft, and the car was super clean. Even the gear shift was dust-free and shiny. A car guy would probably call it pristine, and it seemed about as unlike the rest of Milo’s life as one could get.

“It’s all right.” Milo shrugged like he didn’t have the coolest car in the parking lot. Hell, simply the fact that he could drive a stick was impressive. His easy coordination as he backed out of the space and put it in gear made my body hum with awareness. But I didn’t need to be finding anything about Milo sexy, so I tried to keep my attention on the car. I’d learned to drive on a minivan with a wonky starter, but Milo would have had his pick of cool cars.

“Is this the one your dad was always tinkering with?” His dad had been a mechanic at a garage in the next town over and had always had a restoration of some kind going. Growing up, I’d liked going over to Milo’s, especially when his dad wasn’t home and we could sneak into the garage to check out what he was working on.

“One of them. First one he finished that wasn’t a job went to Bruno. Next one we fixed up together all through high school. All my cash went into parts. Got the keys graduation day.”

“Wow.” That was a lot of time and effort that I hadn’t realized Milo had in him. And cash. I wasn’t a car guy, at all, but I did know collectible items and this certainly had to qualify as one. “You know…this car would probably fetch a whole lot of cards. Just saying.”

“Nothing doing.” Milo’s voice hardened. “Dad wouldn’t let me or Bruno sell our cars. The whole eighteen months he fought that liver disease, he kept saying they had the bills under control. But they didn’t.”

I groaned at the all-too-familiar tale. “Oh, how I know that dance. My parents have been there with April’s medical bills more than once. Luckily, they’ve had resources like a fundraiser Dad’s work did and the foundation from the hospital to keep from total bankruptcy.”