The night Emil slept in Makai’s bed and the kiss, or kissing as 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
