“Mm-hmm, my dad came up with it.”
“That doesn’t happen to be the sheriff?” she asked when her mouth was empty again. “Excellent food by the way.”
“Yeah, it’s his dad,” Makai answered for Emil who was drinking his blueberry shake.
“There’s bound to be a story there too.” She seemed intuitive and curious but didn’t press when neither of them seemed to be into sharing anything about that.
“I grew up in a town about this size in Minnesota. That’s part of why I wanted to talk to you, see if there’s a story here.”
“Oh, so you’re not set on writing an article even though you came all the way here?” Emil asked, surprised.
“No, I don’t think it would serve any of us any good if I tried to make up a story if there isn’t one. I also think that before we get into talking, we could go somewhere more private so I can ask questions about the heavy stuff if I want.” Before Makai or Emil could react, she held up a hand and added, “Which you are completely free to ignore. You just tell me you don’t want to talk about it, or if there’s something you’d rather not have in the article even if you do talk about it with me, then that’s completely fine. I’m not here to exploit you. Any of you.” She looked at Emil, and something in her eyes told them she knew a lot about Emil’s history too.
“Yeah, Emil’s off-limits.” Makai couldn’t have made his voice any more growly if he’d tried to.
Emil snorted. “Down, boy. I can speak for myself. But yeah, I agree. What happened to me has nothing to do with Makai. The only way you can tie it to him is the place and then the fact that we’re in a relationship. That, on the other hand, is off-limits. You can mention he’s in one with someone local, sure, but….”
Makai nodded. “Completely agree.”
“That’s fine. I can work with that,” she said, and they dug into their meals as if they’d agreed that they wouldn’t talk shop in the diner.
Half an hour later, they parked at the cottage. Alice got out of her car and looked around curiously.
“Let me show you the lake,” Emil told her and left Makai to go let the kittens into the pen while he and Alice walked to the edge of the yard.
Makai could hear them talking and felt pretty good about her being there. Well, at least better than he’d thought he’d feel. They’d agreed that if she didn’t seem like the person she’d been in her nice emails and then on the phone, they wouldn’t have asked her to come to the cottage at all. Emil had said that he didn’t want any negative energy at their home, and Makai had very much agreed.
“Oh, this pen is pretty awesome,” Alice said when she and Emil got closer.
The kittens noticed someone new was there and made inquisitive sounds at the source of her voice.
“Yeah, Lotte from across the lake is a friend, and her kid is old enough not to need this anymore. So they gave it to us.” Makai smiled as he sat down on the grass and Mouse came to him to be petted. “This lady is Mouse.”
Alice, who still had her messenger bag slung over her shoulder, chuckled. “Okay, now I gotta come meet these kitties. How do I get in?”
“Can you go over? We can open the end by the door, too, if you’d like.” Emil held a hand out for her to balance her a bit when she stepped over the fence that was almost too high for her.
Alice cooed over the kittens who were very interested in her and her bag, and they spent a while just chilling out together.
Eventually, Makai sighed. “I think we should get to work.” Anyone could’ve heard the pure resignation in his tone.
“I’m not going to lead you to slaughter,” Alice said in a kind voice. “We’ll talk about stuff and I’ll record you if you’re not against it, that way nobody can twist your words. Then I’ll write the article and send it to you to read. It will never go live if you don’t approve it. I’ll make sure my editor in chief understands that, I promise.”
She sounded so sincere that Makai relaxed a little. “Okay, then let’s talk?”
THEY ENDEDup chatting nearly three hours total before Emil told them to come get coffee and snacks from the kitchen.
They’d talked and walked around the property, and Makai had shown Alice where the boat shed had been, his work shed, and even the dock. For the final hour they’d sat on the couch with the kittens asleep between them—or in Buffy’s case, on Makai’s lap.
“Do you have people in your past that you miss?” Alice asked when they settled back on the couch with their coffees.
“Yeah. The cell mate I mentioned, K. He felt more like a brother than my own actual brother ever did.” He drank from his mug and added, “The latter part you can leave out. I still don’t want to hurt my family, estranged or whatever it is we are.”
“I won’t publish it, but you call him K, what’s his actual name?”
“Kaos.” He spelled the name out for her. “And no, it’s not his actual name either, but it was his tag when he did graffiti as a kid. He’s a pretty good artist, wanted to do tattoos.”
“Okay, just in case someone contacts me and claims he’s ‘K.’ I can check them out.”
