Can two broken men build one life? Ten years. That’s what Makai lost for a crime he didn’t commit. He’s been exonerated, but the abuse he suffered in prison isn’t so easy to leave behind. He heads to the one place he remembers being happy: Acker, Wisconsin, where he spent summers with his grandpa. Unfortunately, not everyone wants Makai there. Ten days. That’s how long Emil, now twenty-one, was held prisoner as a teenager. The mental and physical injuries he suffered at the hands of a drug trafficking ring still haunt him. Nightmares, anxiety, and PTSD challenge the connection forming between Makai and Emil, though together, they might find a way to move beyond their pain and into a future -- and a relationship -- that both had thought impossible. Now they just have to convince Emil’s father, the town sheriff. It won’t be easy with danger closer than they know ...

Mr. Miller chuckled, shaking his frail form that Makai suspected was tougher than it seemed.


“Wow,” Makai breathed. “I think I was four or five the last time I stood here.”


“I reckon so,” Mr. Miller said. He went to the door between the post office and store, peeked his head through, and bellowed. “Momma, I’m taking a break!”


Mrs. Miller, Makai assumed, called back something he couldn’t decipher.


“Come on, coffee time,” Mr. Miller told him and gestured for him to follow


They ended up going through to the back of the building and into what seemed like a small apartment where the Millers must’ve lived.


“Sit, sit,” Mr. Miller said in the kitchen, and Makai did.


Silence, but not really an uncomfortable one, reigned while Mr. Miller fiddled with what seemed like one of those pod coffee maker things Makai hadn’t really gotten the hang of, even though his mom had one.


Chapter 12