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 ...

“What should we watch?” Emil smiled at the gray kitten who sat on the back of the couch and batted his hair with a tiny paw.


“Can we do more stand-up?” Makai grabbed the remote control and his iPhone and smoothly turned the TV and the Chromecast attached to it on, and then started Netflix from his phone so that it showed up on the TV screen.


Emil couldn’t hold in a little snort.


“What?” Makai looked at him, baffled.


“Nothing, nothing at all,” Emil managed, then giggled and rested his temple against Makai’s shoulder. “I’m not laughing at you. More like with you. It’s just the fact that a while ago you could hardly use a modern laptop and certainly not a smartphone.”


“Oh,” Makai breathed, then blushed. “I’ve had a good teacher.”


Emil let the happiness wash over him. “Okay, so, I’ve watched some of the stand-up specials on Netflix. Are you looking for weird, witty, sarcastic, what?”


Chapter 61