Chapter 53

The color in his cheeks began to wash away when he no longer felt pressured. "Dude, she loved Harden. And I know things were rocky with Masyn, but Peyton seemed like she genuinely wanted to get to know her. She was willing to try anything we wanted to do-I couldn't have paid Felicity to go off the rope swing. But more than anything, my mom loved her. They hit it off the way I thought Felicity should."

It was no secret in Harden that Beverly Chastain approved of the marriage between the two families; she just had no intention of adopting Felicity as her new daughter. Daughter-in-law was the only title she would have ever held in the Chastain household, and that didn't come with affection.

"Your mom has a sixth sense about things, Beau. She's been pushing Masyn and me together since I learned to ride a bike. If she embraced Peyton, you might want to consider it. You just need to go into it with your eyes wide open, and make damn sure that Peyton knows what she stands to lose on her e