“That you did,” Makai agreed. “They’re in the side pocket of my pack.” He’d thought about Emil’s hands and what the photographing might do to them and decided to take the splints with them anyway.
Emil gave him a look he couldn’t translate and reached for Makai’s backpack to get the silver pieces. Once they were on his fingers, supporting them as they should, he turned to look at Makai with tears in his eyes.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Makai reached a hand to touch Emil’s arm. “You okay?”
“No, no I’m not. It’s….” Emil looked away and gnawed on his lower lip for a while. “It’s like you do all these things for me. You think about what my needs are and fulfill them without question. You do so much for me, and I don’t…. What doIdo for you?”
“You do plenty,” Makai said immediately and took Emil’s hand into his while awkwardly holding on to his sandwich with the other. “You do so much more than you think.”
“Like what?” The pout was epic, and Emil looked a lot younger than he was right then.
“You play with the kittens. You hand me tools and hang out with me while I work. You clean the litterboxes even when I don’t ask you to. You cook for us. You show me things I should’ve known but lost because of prison. And most of all, I haven’t ever doubted that you like me formeand not for some other reason.” Makai squeezed Emil’s fingers and waited until Emil made eye contact. “I like you, Emil Newman. After everything I’ve been through, I’m not sure if I’ve actually been in love before, but I think this is what falling feels like, okay?”
Emil looked wide-eyed for a few seconds, and then he smiled at Makai so beautifully it took his breath away. “Okay.” He squeezed Makai’s fingers right back and said, “Pass me the apple slices?” with a grin that made Makai’s chest fill with a bubble of happiness.
ON MONDAY,Emil went back to looking after Joie, because Leah had caught a summer cold and Lotte was helping out at the diner. Lotte had been meaning to do some grocery shopping that day, so she had made a list for herself and for Joie, which she had given to Emil.
“So basically, she’s making this a teachable moment. How to grocery shop and so on,” Emil told Makai on the phone on Monday morning. “It’s pretty neat.”
“I’d say so. Where are you going to shop?” he asked, while making sure the shed was ready for Leah and Stuart’s broken furniture.
“I was actually thinking that he’d benefit most if we went to Target, so Woodruff, probably. We’re taking Lotte’s car, and Joey has his kids’ tablet for a game or a movie if he gets bored. Although I was going to look for audiobooks once we’ve ended this call.”
“Either way, have fun, drive safely, and say hi to Joey for me, okay?” Makai smiled as he walked to his truck.
“You too. I wish I was there to see Mrs. Miller’s reaction to the table, though.”
“I’m pretty sure Mr. Miller will recap it to you as many times as you want to hear it,” Makai said while making sure the table was secured just so in the truck bed.
“Har-har, wise guy.” Emil’s tone was fond. “I’ll see you tonight?”
“Yeah, come by whenever.”
“Okay. You be safe too. Bye.”
“Bye.” Makai put the phone into the holder now attached to his dash—a gift from Emil—and started the truck.
He drove into the grocery store’s parking lot, then rounded the building to the Millers’ private spot in the back.
As soon as the vehicle stopped, the back door opened, and Mr. Miller beamed at him from the doorway. He turned away, obviously to get the Mrs., and Makai jumped out of the truck. He untied the table and lifted it from the truck. It was heavy, but not very large, as it was for her books and things she liked to keep in the living room.
“What’s this?” Mrs. Miller asked, bustling out of the door ahead of Mr. Miller.
“Well, apparently someone wanted to give their wife a special birthday present,” Makai said, smiling at her.
Her hands flew to cover her mouth as she glanced from Makai to her husband and back. “Really?”
“Yes. I was told you might like an underwater theme.” Makai lifted the table so that she could examine the carvings on the legs.
“Oh… this iswonderful!” she gasped, wrinkly hands tracing the fish, starfishes, clams, and corals he’d carved meticulously into each leg of the table.
“I’m glad you like it. Now, where do you want this?” he asked, pointedly not looking as she wiped her eyes and then went to give her husband a kiss on the cheek.
“Let me make room for it. Just follow me.” She went back inside, and by the time Makai maneuvered the table around the narrow back corridor’s corners, she had made a spot for it by the window. “Here. I like to read in this chair.”
Makai put the table down and smiled at her. “Happy Birthday from me as well,” he said, and oofed when she hugged him firmly.
“Thank—” At least two sets of wailing sirens cut through her words.
