Page 8 (1/2)

The agony was too intense to endure even for the brief seconds he had left to live Engulfed in fire, and unable to screaered backward and fell into the waiting sea

CHAPTER 3

KURT AUSTIN STOOD IN A SEMIDARKENED WORK BAY ON THE lower level of his boathouse as the hour crept past ht

Broad-shouldered, relatively handso His hair was a steel gray color, slightly out of place on a man who looked to be in his mid-thirties yet perfect for the man all Kurt’s friends knew hiht but not perfect, his face sun-kissed and lined from years spent on the water and out in the elements

Sturdy and solid were the tered face caaze The directness of Kurt’s stare and the brilliance of his coral-blue eyes often caused people to pause as if taken by surprise

Right now, those eyes were studying a labor of love

Kurt was building a racing scull Thoughts of perfore factors and the power that could be generated by a hu

The air around his, wood chips and other types of debris, the kind that piled up anda boat by hand

Afternear to perfection Twenty feet long Narrow and sleek The wooden craft’s honey blond color shined froht up the room

“A da the finished product

The boat’s glasslike finish made the color seee in focus, and the rooht in the reflection

On one side of the reflection, a new set of tools sat untouched in a bright red box On the other side, pegged to the backboard of the workbench with meticulous precision, were a set of old hammers, saws and planes, their wooden handles cracked and discolored with age

The new tools he’d bought hirandfather—a gift and a ht in the ht between torlds, Kurt saw his own reflection

It see with s of this world; old guns, antebellum and Victorian hos grabbed his attention with equal power But the boats he owned, including the one he’d just finished, brought out the purest sense of joy

For now, the sleek craft rested in a cradle, but tomorroould lift it off its frame, connect the oars and take it down to the water for its th in his legs, arh the cal clip