"Oh wow," Kiel said as he looked down at the picture of him with her father and mother. A small wistful smile appeared on his lips as he said, "Where did you get this, Em?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Found it in one of grandma's old photo albums. You guys look so different."

He nodded his head, his eyes glazing over the way they did every time he looked at a picture of her dad. "Yeah. I guess we were different. Damn," he said, shaking his head. "I miss that guy. Did I ever tell you he laughed like a horse?" She shook her head, fighting to hold back a laugh of her own. "He did. And he was always laughing. It was so funny to hear. It was like an infectious laughing disease. Once he got going, he'd spread it to me and then your mom. And then it was like we just couldn't stop. We'd laugh so hard our sides would ache. When your mom was pregnant with you, he made her laugh so much that she peed her pants a few times. True story."

She burst out in a fit of giggles. "No way. He did?"

"Yes," Kiel said, eyes wide. "I was there once when it happened. She was so embarrassed. I swear I thought she would kill him. But it made for a great story later. Funny, I can't even remember what they laughed about. I can't remember what we ever laughed about. Just that we did. I guess times were simpler back then."

She sighed, a little smile still on her face, and nodded her head. "Who's the other girl in the picture? The one you have your arm around?"

Kiel looked back at the picture, and his smile fell just a little bit. "A girl I was seeing at the time. Honestly, I was crazy about her. Really believed I was going to marry her."

Her eyes widened. "Whoa, really? I didn't know that." He nodded his head, and he looked sad as he continued to stare at the picture. "What happened to her?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "It just didn't work out." She stared at him curiously, wondering if he was going to offer any more information. But he didn't say anything else about her, and Emersyn knew him well enough to know the memory still hurt him.

"Is she the reason you never had a family of your own?" she asked, focusing on his face so she could catch his reaction to her question.

He waved his hand, dismissing the thought. "I have my own family. You are my family. And back then, your dad and his parents were my family. I wasn't close with my own parents. They had their vices, so being home was never easy. There were so many times I wished your dad's folks would just adopt me. They might as well have, because I was there all the time."

"Yeah, I know," she said, having heard the stories about Kiel's alcoholic dad and verbally abusive mom. "But I mean... is she the reason you never... you know... got married and had kids of your own?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. She broke my heart. I always considered her to be the one that got away, you know? I waited for her for a long time, but after a while, I kind of figured she was never coming back. And then your dad died, and I was too busy helping with you and your grandparents to go fishin' in the old partner pond again. And now here I am. And I enjoy my bachelor lifestyle, thank you very much."

"By bachelor lifestyle," Zeke said, having just come back in after draining the old water heater tank so they could bring in the new one, "he means living on TV dinners and watching old reruns of The Big Bang Theory before passing out in his recliner."

Emersyn laughed at this as Kiel glared at his young new hire. "I have gotten a lot better about what I eat, thank you very much."

Zeke snorted, and Emersyn liked the way his light blue eyes sparkled as he teased her uncle. "Only because I cook for you every night. If I wasn't making quinoa and salmon or chicken and broccoli for you, then you'd probably still be stuffing your face with flash frozen Salisbury steak every night. Which, by the way, is disgusting. Even before my diet, I never ate that crap."

"Hey, leave the Salisbury steak meals out of this," Kiel said, and Emersyn shook her head, laughing at the pair of them. "Water heater tank all drained out?" he asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Yup," Zeke replied. "And I went ahead and disconnected it. Think you can help me carry it out to the truck, you old bachelor?"

Kiel glared again, handing the picture back to Emersyn and getting to his feet. "You're cruisin' for a bruisin', young man." They walked to the back of the house together, leaving Emersyn alone in the living room with a mountain of books and several pages of notes.

She'd been up half the night scribbling down old family names from the town, hoping that one of them might be a link for Zeke. She'd even gone to the graveyard website and printed out a list of all the names of the people who were buried there and began crossing out the ones that were too old. Later in the day, she was going to see if she could get a burial map of the graveyard, so she could cross out the old ones on an actual map. All this work, she hoped, would give them a head start on their mission. A mission she called, in her own head, Operation: Lost Meerkat. She didn't know why this name popped into her head. She just remembered watching an old docu-series about a family of meerkats. And something about Zeke reminded her of that show. So Operation: Lost Meerkat it was. At least to her.

The two men pulled the old water heater tank out of the house, and then brought the new one in, hooked it up, and turned the water back on. She couldn't wait for the moment she'd be able to take a hot shower again. That was probably the only thing she missed about living with her mom. Hot showers. Which, if she was being honest with herself, said a lot about how she'd felt living at her mom's place. It had always been just that too. Her mom's place. Never home. Not like this was.

They finished hooking up the water heater tank, and then came back out to where Emersyn was, still sitting on the couch and taking notes. She had pages and pages of notes, and she didn't know if any of them would be useful. But it gave her something to do other than clean the house, which was what she really should've been doing. Zeke was drying his hands on a paper towel, and Kiel was checking his phone, probably looking to see if there was any more work for them to do for the day.

"Anything?" Zeke asked, confirming Emersyn's suspicions. Kiel looked up and shook his head, and Zeke broke out into a huge grin. "Nice! So you ready to go?" he asked her, and she jumped at being addressed. She raised her eyebrows at him, and he said, "To the graveyard? Sorry, I know we were supposed to meet up there. But since I'm here, and since I have nothing else to do, I thought maybe we could walk there together?"

She was really looking forward to taking a hot shower, but now that she thought about it, the water probably wouldn't get hot for a while. "Sure. But before we go, let me show you what I've been working on." She scooted over, making room for him on the couch. He sat beside her and looked over her shoulder at the pages of notes. "Okay, so I started going through my grandma's old books last night. And I found some on the history of the town. She also had some stuff on the old families from the town. Obviously, we don't know what family you belong to. But I thought these names would be a good place to start."

Zeke was clearly surprised. "Wait, so what's this? A list?" He pointed at a small stack of papers sitting to her left.

"Names of people that are buried in the graveyard," she replied. "I found it online, and I started crossing off the people who died before you were born. When we get there, I'll ask for a map of the graveyard, and I can start crossing off graves that don't fit. That will narrow down our search by quite a bit."

"How do you know when I was born?" he asked, picking up the stack of names and checking to see how many she'd crossed off.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't. But you don't look much older than me, and I'm 19. Am I right?"

He smirked at her. "Yup. I'm 21. Good guess." He looked back at the names. "Wow. You really went all out."

"Em doesn't half ass anything," Kiel said, and Emersyn loved that he was beaming with pride. She wondered if dropping out of college was doing something half-assed, or if it was just being true to herself. She chose to believe the latter.

"Good," Zeke said, smiling at her. "Looks like I have the best teammate here." He nudged her gently on the shoulder, and she grinned. "Seriously, thanks again for offering to help me do this. I was starting to feel a little hopeless. Had no idea what I was doing. Feels good to have a plan."

She nodded her head. "Believe it or not, I am really happy to help." And it was true. She was happy to help him. She didn't know why, considering he was pretty much a total stranger to her. But it felt good to help him. Maybe that's why she was doing it. After everything she'd gone through with her mom a few days ago, maybe she needed to feel like she was doing something right. Dropping out of college still didn't feel like the best move, and she kept hearing her mom's disappointed and angry voice in her head every time she thought about it. This was the perfect distraction for her. Exactly what she needed. So maybe she had ulterior motives. But so what? She still felt good about it.

"Okay, well, I guess our next move it to head to the graveyard," Zeke said, getting to his feet. She grabbed a sharpie and the names of the people buried in the graveyard. He turned and looked at Kiel. "Hey, no burgers on the way home. Or steak. Or any other red meat. I've got chicken marinating in the fridge back at the house."

Kiel shook his head. "Who needs a wife when you've got this guy?" he said, rolling his eyes as he ruffled Zeke's already messy blond curls. "Okay, you two... have fun sorting through gravestones. Or whatever you want to call what you're doing."

Emersyn gave him a one-armed hug. "Thanks for changing out the water heater tank," she said. He gave her a quick kiss on the top of the head, and she slid away from him. Then the three of them headed out the front door. Kiel jumped in his truck and drove away, but the graveyard wasn't very far from Emersyn's house, so they decided to just go on foot.

The walk was a little awkward at first, and once again Emersyn was reminded that this guy standing next to her was basically a stranger. She didn't know what to say to him to start a conversation, and she didn't want to talk about the weather. No matter how nice it had been lately. She was racking her brains, trying to think of something to say. But she was coming up blank, and for some reason she was feeling so nervous. And then she remembered that he had overheard the phone argument between her and her mom, and she started to feel embarrassed. Should she talk about that? Would that seem weird? Ugh, what should she say?

"So, how's the art coming along?" he asked, pulling her out of her own crazy thoughts and back into the moment.

She shrugged her shoulders, thankful that he had started the conversation for her. "It hasn't really been coming along at all." He gave her a confused look. She sighed. "I'm still unpacking, I guess. Haven't really had the time." This was true, but there was more to it than just that. She had unpacked everything by the end of her second day back. But she was still mentally unpacking everything else. The decision to drop out of college. The argument with her mom. The choice to run away early in the morning and return to the island where she grew up. The words she read in the journal about her mom's affair and unwanted pregnancy. And honestly, she was still unpacking the loss of her grandma. It had only been a year since she'd died, and she still found that she hadn't really processed it yet. So yeah, she was definitely unpacking stuff. And for some reason, her art had been pushed aside. Maybe she should go seek therapy.

He nodded his head. "Yeah, I get that." And she wondered if he really did get it. "When I left home to come here, it took me a while to unpack. Even after I'd actually unpacked. And listen, I totally get if you don't want to talk about it. But I'm just going to say that I don't have a lot of friends here. Pretty much just Kiel. And I'm definitely in need of some. So if you want to be friends, I'm totally down. And as friends, if you need to talk about anything, I'm here. If you don't, that's fine too. Just tell me to shut up, and I will."

She smiled sadly at him. "Thank you. That is really nice to hear." She took a deep breath, wondering if his offer was serious or empty. But then she remembered that, just moments ago, she'd thought about seeking therapy. And maybe talking to someone who had no connection to anyone else in the situation could be helpful. "I left Seattle without telling my mom I was leaving. I had moved back in after spring break, and I'd just told her that I wasn't going back to school."

He made a face. "Yikes. My guess is she didn't take that news very well?"

Emersyn gave a cynical laugh. "No. Not at all. My mom and I have a shaky past already, you know? So my choice to drop out of school did not help our relationship."

"I get that," he said, nodding his head. "But that's just it, isn't it? It's your choice. It's your life, and it's your decision. And I don't know your mom, or the kind of relationship you have with her. But in my opinion, as uneducated as it may be, if she doesn't like the way you choose to live your life, then she can just get bent."

Holy. Crap. She couldn't believe he'd just said those words to her. At first she didn't really know what to say. But then she started laughing. He stared at her in surprise. "Sorry," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "I just... what does 'get bent' even mean? I've literally never heard that expression."

Now he laughed. "I don't know. It's just a nicer way of saying 'get fucked.' But it fits here. If she doesn't like the choice you made, well too damn bad. It's not her choice. It's yours. And she should try her best to support it."

These were the same words she'd tried to say to her mother the other night. And they made so much sense coming out of his mouth. Why didn't they make sense coming out of hers? Even she wasn't wholly convinced of them herself. "My mom isn't a very supportive person," she said, and she knew that he had no idea how true this statement was. Her mom had never been supportive. At all. In any fashion. Not even with the simplest things. Why she expected her to start now was beyond her.

"I'm sorry," he said, and he sounded like he meant it. "Parents can suck sometimes."

Another totally true statement. And as they approached the iron bars of the graveyard gates, she wondered if the statement was true for him as well.

Author's Note:
Hello, beautiful people! Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! And I hope you all enjoyed the new chapter. I love that you get to see a little bit more of Kiel in this one, as he's my favorite character. He just reminds me so much of my uncle Tim, who I am very close to. Let me know what you all think of him, and who your favorite character is so far, in the comments. You know I love to read to them.

New chapter coming in a couple days, so stay tuned, my dears!
XOXO
~Aly