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 ...

“Okay?” Stuart’s eyebrows scrunched.


“I’ll fix your stuff and figure out a better table. I’ll need to come by and see what I’m working with. Take some measurements for the table, depending on where you want them to use it and how many people play around it, but sure. I’ll do it.”


“That’s great!” Stuart grinned. “I’ve been making a pile of stuff in the storage room in the back, so it should all be relatively easy to put in your truck whenever you want to work with it.”


“Yeah, I have space in the back of my work shed, so I can probably take it all home and figure out what to do with the pieces there. I think I need a few more days for Mrs. M’s table, but after that?”


“Right, I’m really in no rush with the repairs, but the card table would be nice, so if you want to start from there, that’d be great?” Stuart said it all so carefully, as if Makai was the one doing him a favor.


Chapter 66