“A tad bit sheriffy on your day off, aren’t you?” Emil teased.
“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I can email you the info for the one journalist I like out of them all. She seems caring and not into the sensational side, you know?”
“Okay. Send me the info, and I’ll email her or something. I want all of this over and done with, to be honest.” Makai sighed and then promptly coughed enough to make the kitten on his lap—Xander—look at him with affront.
“I think you need a nap.” Emil looked at him worriedly.
“I think my son is right.” Kalle got up and placed Spike on the ground, where he went on to terrorize his mother. “If you take those photos, have some blown up for your mother for her birthday. She’d love it.”
“I could always make her a calendar for next year or something.”
“That’s a nice idea. She’d really like one. Hell, I’m sure Erin would love one for the station too.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Emil said, grinning. He hugged his dad, and then Kalle took hold of Emil’s shoulder for support and stepped out of the pen. He turned back to the kittens. “You four, no doing the same thing grandpa just did. You stay in there where it’s safe.” Then he seemed to catch what he’d said and flushed.
“Aww…,” Emil teased, and Makai tried to suppress his own smile.
“Well, talk to you later, and I’ll email you, Makai.”
“Yeah, sounds good. Tell Nora we said hi and that she should come play with the kittens one day now that she can sit outside with them.”
“That’s an excellent idea, I’ll be sure to tell her that. Bye!”
Kalle went to his car and drove off. Emil and Makai turned to look at each other and burst into laughter.
“Grandpa?” Makai wheezed and clutched his chest where it hurt like hell.
“Jesus, they really are both gone on these kittens. Even Dad!” Emil wiped tears off his cheeks, helped Makai up, and then started to collect kittens. “Let’s get you inside. Mouse, too. Inside, girl.”
Mouse, being the smart cat she was, waited until all the kittens were in Emil and Makai’s arms before walking inside.
Everyone including the cats were tired, and the nap they took turned out to be epic. Then again, they all probably needed it.
KALLE SENThim the information for the journalist, and Emil looked her up online. She seemed compassionate, a good kind of person who didn’t sensationalize stories but tried to find the human aspect in them instead. Makai still took a few days to think about it.
When Makai finally sat down at the kitchen table one afternoon to compose the email, Emil took the cats out, and after a while, the telltale sound of hesitant guitar playing came through the open door.
Emil had restringed the guitar the previous night with an old unopened package of strings he’d found in his things, and then he’d slept restlessly and woken up once. Makai had been so in tune with him that he’d woken up as well. It wasn’t just his own coughing that woke him.
He admired the hell out of Emil for still going for it, still making the effort even though it clearly unsettled him on some level.
Finally, Makai managed to send a few lines to the journalist, Alice Kane, and then sent a quick text to Evy about Emil playing the guitar. She sent him a thumbs-up emoji in response, making him grin.
Makai didn’t want to go out to disturb Emil, so he went to the couch and made himself comfortable. He listened to the hesitancy fade gradually. It still wasn’t perfect, but Makai was pretty sure Emil himself wasn’t expecting that.
Learning to play with his fingers as they were would be hard, but Makai had sneaked some hand dexterity–related equipment into his Amazon order. He was pretty sure Emil would love especially the exercise putty that seemed silly but apparently worked. He’d also gotten one of the grips for strength exercises and a couple of other ones just for change.
Would Emil have bought them for himself, had he thought of it? Probably. But Makai had learned that Emil had been pointedlynotthinking about his fingers and how to exercise them in relation to the guitar playing.
The steadier Emil’s playing became outside, the more Makai started to just enjoy listening to him. After a few minutes, Emil started to hum along with his playing, then moved on to singing.
Makai listened, a little bit awed. It hadn’t occurred to him that Emil would have such a lovely voice too. There was a surprising rasp to it that complemented his tone perfectly, and Makai felt like in different circumstances, Emil could’ve been a recording artist with a voice like that.
He wondered what Emil would like to do with his life now that he was feeling a little better. He knew Emil was basically college ready on paper. He couldn’t see Emil going to college, other than maybe taking online classes, but there was probably something he could do that didn’t mean leaving Acker.
Then again, if Emildidsay he wanted to move away, Makai would just leave the cottage there and follow Emil wherever he went. The realization came as a surprise of sorts: he hadn’t thought about it yet on those terms.
The more he made up scenarios where Emil wanted to leave town, the more he understood that he would do anything to be with Emil, as long as Emil wanted him.
