He stood up and began to get ready to walk out. “Where are you going next?” he asked as he looked down at her. She already felt small, but when he stood up, he dwarfed her. She had to crane her neck backward to see his face.“I have an hour off, and then I have an English class,” Dawn said as she grabbed her bag.“Mrs. Little?” he asked as he made his way to the door.“Yeah, How did you know?” Dawn asked.“I have the same class.” He laughed. “Come on, kid. We can go there together.”Dawn had no idea that meeting someone who would be nice would be easy here. She thought they would all think she was a freak like the others she had known. Her friends couldn’t play with her anymore. Their parents didn’t like her now that she was different. They all looked at her weirdly. They looked at her parents, though with anger. Dawn kne

  Over the summer, they attended the meetings, with her father dropping her off and Maverick bringing her back to the farm later in the evening. The next day was often the worst for her because she would still get up before the sunrise to do the chores she had been assigned. The fact she was different didn’t get her any special treatment on the farm. She was okay with that. Her parent's divorce was being dragged out in the court system even though all the kids had said who they wanted to live with already, and their parents were not contesting that at all.Maverick knew that she had told the courts she didn’t care who she had to live with. Her father had taken most of the custody when it came to her, but it was still a problem because of her being in college and her needing a ride to and from school. Her mother had little to no contact with her. Dawn wasn’t all that surprised by that either. He was, though. He had n

   The drive to the farm wasn’t all that long. Though he knew this was not probably the smartest thing to do, he couldn’t argue with her. He honestly didn’t know why he voluntarily took this child as his responsibility, but he had as it seemed that no one else seemed to care what happened to her, including her family. They were the worst to her he had seen.Though she didn’t fit in at the university either. Most people ignored her and she was fine with that. She really didn’t try either.When they got there, even to his untrained eyes, the farm was huge. There were so many cows there in the open-walled barn that she didn’t seem to think anything was different. She went and opened the doors to the large farmhouse, and he followed her in. He saw the wall of photos that had to be her brothers and sisters that were scattered there just hanging up. He didn’t see many of her there. He didn&rsquo

   The first year of college for the two had ended. When Dawn thought he was going to go home and stay with his parents for the summer, he surprised her when he showed up to live in the small apartment housing that was for the workers on the farm. “Your dad hired me.” He said with a shrug. “I guess I get to learn about cows after all from the smartest person in the world.”“I am not the smartest person in the world.” She said as she helped him unpack his car.“You know the owner's daughter can’t be seen helping the lowest farmhand.” He chuckled.“Sure, I can.” She said, “No one even sees me most of the time.”“Dawn.” He said.“Don’t worry, I am not feeling sorry for myself or anything. Just stating a fact. I am good at being invisible.” She said. “So are we still on for the meetings every other Fri

  Over the next year, the two often met even though they only had two classes together. She was carrying a course load of three times as many classes as he was. She was serious about the number of degrees she would be working on. He thought there might be four or five by the time she was done adding to her interests.Dawn was as normal as she could be when she was around him. She had sensed there was something that he was keeping from her, but she also didn’t want to hear it if it was what she thought it might be. He was nineteen. She knew that in her bones every time she saw him. She was on borrowed time with him. She expected him to pull back from the friendship that the two had. Though it was odd, he never seemed to think it really was. She just went along with it, knowing sooner or later the one thing she thought was safe was going to leave her in the dust.Knowing him, he would find the perfect woman to go out with,