Chapter 44

Masyn finally managed to escape to the stairs and sat there facing the pool. Her eyes shimmered with happiness, and her chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath. I could do this all night if that was the reward I got at the end of it.

I loved Beau like a brother, but he'd never appreciate the little things about her: the way her nose scrunched when she thought something was gross, or the fact that she preferred jeans to dresses or barbeque to fine dining. He'd want her to change to fit into his circle-the one his family expected him to grow into. There would be no job in a machine shop, no tiny house on a mill hill, and certainly no clunker car he wouldn't know how to fix if he had to. All the quirks that made Masyn who she was-the things I loved-would be altered. And I couldn't let that happen without at least trying to fight for her.

I'd never managed to tell her what I went to her house to say on Monday-not all of it, anyway. She'd been so hell-bent on telling me what she