Chapter 2 - The Cost of StayingBy high school, they were inseparable. Mayaâs mother, Ruth Bennett, raised her daughter with a tenderness that never confused love with weakness. âIf you want a thing, learn what it costs,â Ruth would say. âIf you cannot pay the cost, learn whether you still want it.â
At fifteen, Ethan worked weekends at Dawsonâs Auto Repair, grease stained under his fingernails. Maya spent Saturdays at the library. At four oâclock, they would sit on the curb and share pretzels from the vending machine.
âFine,â Ethan admitted one afternoon. âI want to build houses. Old ones mostly. The kind with bad roofs and good bones. I like fixing what people gave up on.â
Maya looked at him then, and something in her heart moved. âThose are not nothing, Ethan.â
On graduation night, they sat on the roof of Willow Creek Middle School, looking down at the ancient oak tree behind the gym. Maya had once mentioned she wanted to get married under that tree someday. Ethan remembered it like scripture.
When they enrolled at Northern Ohio State, their love deepened amidst poverty. Dollar pizza on the hood of his dying Honda. Library dates because the library was heated and his apartment was not. On their second anniversary, near Willow Lake, he gave her a cheap silver ring from a pawn shop.
âI swear Iâll give you better things someday,â he vowed.
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Maya touched his face. âEthan Walker, I am not loving you on credit.â
Maya dreamed of a small white house with blue shutters, a porch swing, a kitchen facing east, a flower shop downtown called Sunday Flowers, and a Golden Retriever named Sunday. Ethan memorized every single detail.
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