Chapter Eleven
THE NIGHTEmil slept in Makai’s bed and the kiss, orkissingas it may have been, changed everything.
They touched each other a lot more now, and after Emil’s family weekend, on the next Monday, Emil practically bounced into Makai’s arms straight from the car. Nora, who was dropping Emil off, looked amused and happy.
Makai felt the general contentment too. He hadn’t come to Acker to find someone, but life had thought he needed a person anyway. He wasn’t complaining. Not when Emil was starting to come out of his shell even more, and even people he didn’t know so well in town told Makai that he’d done something wonderful just by being in Emil’s life.
Everyone seemed to be more tolerant of Makai now, even the people who had looked at him weird at first were now nodding in greeting. It felt like more than he’d expected or hoped for, really. It made Acker feel like home.
On the Wednesday after the kiss, Emil had a therapist’s appointment with Evy, and they’d arranged to meet afterward at the diner for lunch.
Makai had worked on a table he’d promised to make for Mrs. Miller’s birthday next week. Mr. Miller had seen photos that Emil had taken of the things Makai had made himself and commissioned the table for his wife as a surprise.
Makai knew that if he succeeded making that table as perfect as possible, there would be more business to come. Doc Donovan had asked if he could fix some shelving in the vet’s clinic, and while Makai had been there on Tuesday, he’d talked about the other side of the building being available if Makai wanted to ever expand his furniture making into an actual shop in the future.
It was a nice idea, Makai could admit that much, but he wasn’t sure he would be comfortable with running a business like that. If someone wanted to sell pieces he made sometime, sure, he would be all for that. Maybe Doc needed to get a souvenir shop or something in the empty space. But he’d gotten the feeling that the vet wasn’t quite ready to let go of the memories clinging to the empty space. Even though he’d said he’d rent it out, something about the way he’d spoken had felt sad to Makai. That was part of the reason why he didn’t want to rush into anything. Doc seemed like such a good person, and Makai didn’t want to do anything to make him feel bad.
Makai sat down in a booth at the diner and ordered himself a coffee for now.
“Is Emil joining you?” Leah asked, smiling at him as she poured the coffee without even looking.
“Yeah, should be in a bit. He’s at Evy’s,” Makai said, and Leah nodded knowingly.
“You know, everyone here loves that boy. He’s been through hell and… thank you for being good to him.”
It wasn’t the sentiment that made Makai feel choked up; it was the way she looked at him, as if he was something special like Emil.
“Thanks,” he managed to say, and she patted his shoulder, then went to serve someone else.
There were people at the diner, and Makai looked around, realizing he knew most of these people by name.
“No, I don’t want to!” a female voice yelled somewhere toward the back where Makai couldn’t see.
He did notice that everyone else tried to ignore the noise and the angry male rumble accompanying it soon after. Some people tensed, their shoulders rising as if they were trying to pull their head into hiding like a turtle. Makai sighed, knowing that those people had been subjected to something loud and ugly at some point in their lives.
The noise level of the woman went down, but the man’s voice just got louder, until Makai heard another male yell, “Enough! Pay for your meal and get out, both of you. Frank, you’re barred from this building for two weeks.” Makai realized it was Stuart, Leah’s husband, taking charge of the situation.
Frank Matthews soon marched through the diner and sneered at Makai when he caught sight of him. A pretty, harried-looking blonde rushed after Matthews with makeup running down her face.
Makai turned his head slightly, just to see what the Matthewses did when they got out. He grimaced when he saw Frank grab his wife’s wrist and all but toss her into their vehicle. He understood now what Emil meant when he said everyone in town knew but nobody could prove it, and Mrs. Matthews never pressed charges.
Frank stomped on the gas pedal and the car peeled out of the parking lot, vanishing from Makai’s view. He could see Emil walking across the lot and thanked the universe he hadn’t been there twenty seconds earlier. Who knew what a man like Matthews would do when he’d see someone he obviously loathed walking across the parking lot like that.
Maybe it was far-fetched, but Makai felt there was something wrong with Frank Matthews, and he didn’t like what he’d seen in the man’s eyes, not at all.
Emil came in and greeted Leah who said something to him, probably that she’d be with them shortly, then smiled at a couple of people who acknowledged him, before coming to sit in the booth.
“Hey, how did it go?” Makai asked, as Emil reached out to touch his hand briefly.
“Just fine, although she still insists we should do a session together sometime.”
“I think that’s fine. You set it up, and I’ll be there?” Makai felt a bit fluttery at the thought of talking to Emil’s therapist now that she knew their relationship had taken a bit more of a physical form, but he wanted things to go well between Emil and himself, and this couldn’t hurt.
Leah bustled over. “Here you go.” She set a glass of what Makai thought was cranberry juice in front of Emil. “You ready to order?”
They got their lunch orders in and settled in for the wait.
“Do you wanna share a blueberry shake for dessert?” Emil asked shyly.
