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 ...

Emil couldn’t help but laugh. Moanamade everything better. If only his life were as simple as Joy’s.


The next couple of days, Emil helped Lotte with the homeschooling stuff she was doing with Joie. One day they were Joy, the other, Joey, but Emil was used to it all by now. He understood that Lotte wasn’t ready to put her child through the wringer of public school, not with how things had ended with the day care group last year.


Chapter 20