He shrugged. “I felt like I needed to learn about the could-have-been boys…” he said. “Thought it was my best shot at not becoming one.” I reached back and touched his cheek—first with the outside of my palm, then with the inside. “You became the opposite,” I said. “I think that might just be the single best thing anyone has ever said to me,” he said. “It’s true,” I said. And it was true. Owen was the opposite. He had felt like the opposite from day one, from that first meeting in my workshop, but it was more than just a feeling
