Page 1 of Perfect Composition

THE MIDAS TOUCH

In Greek mythology Midas, wandering one day in his garden, came across the wise satyr Silenus who was rather the worse for wear. Midas treated him kindly and returned him to his great companion, the god Dionysos.

In return for this, Dionysos granted Midas a wish. The king, not realizing the repercussions of his decision, chose to be given the magical ability to turn any object he touched into solid gold. Simple things, everyday things, Midas took for granted were instantly transformed by his touch into solid gold.

The full consequences of this gift soon became evident. At the barest touch, flowers, fruit, and water turned to gold. Midas became sick of this world he world surrounded himself with and sought to relieve himself of it.

Those finding themselves burdened with an abundance of perfection gifted to them by the gods often seek relief to reverse their fortune.

Except when that gift is love.

BECKETT

PROLOGUE- TWENTY YEARS EARLIER

The heat is so unbearable it’s causing my clothing to stick to my skin, even at nine o’clock at night. I pluck at my shirt to peel it away from my chest. Then again, until a few moments ago, I didn’t care much about the sweltering humidity.

All I care about is Paigey and the plans we’re making to leave all of this behind. I jump and fist pump the air. Well, I care about a hell of a lot more than that. There’s the fact she believes in my dreams. Hell, believes? She encourages them as we sit around the ruins of her family’s original homestead and I play on the decrepit ashes of a piano that’s missing half of its keys because that’s all that remains of the original furniture her family carted here as they settled this land close to two hundred years ago.

There’s a burn in the back of my eyes when I recall the way she whispered her love for me the first time. I know no one will ever love me the same way, and I’ll never love anyone the way I do her. Ever. Paige is the other part of my soul, marked on my skin as surely as if she were inked there. In my head, I’ve composed a hundred songs to her—even if I’ve only managed to scribble down just a few on the pieces of scrap paper I’ve shoved under my mattress.

She’s my heart’s calling. And it has nothing to do with the way she gives herself so sweetly to me when we come together under the stars. A tingle runs up my spine as I remember the way her long legs wrapped around my waist before her hips rose up to meet my thrusts. The way her gem-colored eyes shone and her lips whispered my name as I slid inside her body.

“Beckett…”

It’s part of the name someone else might have given me, but it’s the man I’ll become.

Someday.

When we’re long gone.

She knows I need to leave Beau here in Kensington, and my Paige is already helping make my dreams come true.

I kick at the dirt ferociously as I make my way home to twelve hours of hell before I can see her in the school halls. Even a glimpse of her dark hair in the halls will give me enough oxygen to keep me going until we can meet.

Not long now, I think savagely as I pass through the bend in the chain-link fence behind the wall of trees between the back line of Paige’s family property and the trailer park where my family lives. Just one more year until she graduates and we both can leave this town and everything it represents behind us. Parents who’d rather lose themselves in their misery or their bottles than acknowledge their children.

But I frown as I hear a raised voice coming from the direction of my folks’ place. While not uncommon to hear one or the other yelling at each other, I catch wind of a name that should never be yelled from that direction.

Paige’s.

As quietly as possible, I stop just beneath the open window and listen.

“…could make things so much worse for both of them. All I have to do is tell Paige the truth about how her mother died.”

I hear my mother’s gurgle—a clear sign she’s been hitting the bottle early. “What’s it matter to me?”

A hard fist slams down. “You keep your boy away from my daughter, Ava.”

I stay in the shadows as Tyson Kensington, Paige’s father, slams out the front, letting the door slap against the side of the trailer without a care.What does he mean?Paige told me her mother died of an infection they couldn’t treat because she was pregnant with Paige herself. She cried inconsolably in my arms when she did.

Slipping my hand into my pocket, I pull out my cell phone and send a text to Paige.Let’s run away.

Her response is immediate.Okay.

I’m not kidding.

Neither am I. I don’t care anymore. I just want to be with you away from here.