The Lights on Knockbridge Lane (Garnet Run 3)

When he finished with the biogas generator and went into the basement to feed the lizards, Zachary was describing something made of wire and silicone that sounded like it might be a skeleton.

His phone beeped with an incoming call.

“Hang on a sec, Zachary.”

Wes looked at his phone. The incoming call was from Adam Mills. Wes’ heart sped up at the sight of his name. They’d exchanged phone numbers after Gus’ show-and-tell, Adam adorably flustered and making up reasons why it was good for neighbors to have one another’s contact information, but Wes hadn’t thought anything would come of it.

“Hello?”

“Wes, thank god. I’m so glad you answered. I mean, hi, hello, it’s Adam. Mills. From across the street. How are you?”

Though it was the first time he’d heard Adam’s voice on the phone, somehow Wes felt as though they did this all the time—Adam calling, enthusiastic or in a hurry; Wes answering, waiting for the infusion of sparkle that Adam’s next words might bring.

“What’s up?”

“Okay, I’m so damn sorry to ask you for another favor, but I’m at work and my damn car won’t start. River’s with Gus, but they have to leave in half an hour to meet the vet at the cat shelter so they can’t stay with her. Is there any way you would be able to pop over to my house and stay with Gus until I can get home? It shouldn’t be more than an hour or so.”

“Go over to your house,” Wes echoed.

“And hang out with Gus, yeah. Wes, are you there?”

He’d thought he was speaking, but apparently not.

“I don’t know what to do?”

“With Gus? No worries, just watch a movie, or you can read a book and tell her to play in her room. Really, it’s just so she’s not alone.”

If he were to stop and think about it, Wes would realize that Adam and Gus were the first people outside his family to ask him for anything in years.

Once, he had been someone people asked things of. Asked far too much of. But when he pulled into himself, he shed those connections like a snakeskin.

He waited to see if the request would feel suffocating, as requests once had, but all he felt was a warm tingle in his stomach. Excitement at the prospect of seeing Adam again.

“Okay.”

“Really?! Oh, god, thank you so much, Wes. You’re saving my life, seriously.”

“Should I go now?”

“If you don’t mind, that would be wonderful.”

“Okay.”

He hung up and switched over to the other call.

“Zachary, I have to go.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“I have to go watch a human child.”

“The kid from across the street again? You never told me if her dad is attractive. Wes. Westley. Is he hot? Wes, hey!”

“Bye, Zachary.”

River answered the door with their coat already on.

“Thanks, Wes,” they said. “I’d stay, but the vet is coming by to look at one of the kittens and I have to be there to let her in.”

“That’s understandable. I hope the kitten is okay.”

River smiled. “Me too.”

Gus ran at Wes the second he got inside.

“Wes!”

“Hi, Gus. What are you up to?”

Gus shrugged. “Me and River were building a fort, but I’m bored of that. Can we do science?”

“Building a fort is science. It’s physics.”

Gus cocked her head like she was considering that.

“Oh. Well can we do other science?”

Wes didn’t know much about kids, but as Adam had pointed out the other day, he had been one. He could certainly give Gus what he wished someone had given him when he was her age.

“Want to do some chemistry?”

Gus grinned and nodded enthusiastically.

* * *

Two and a half hours later, Adam walked into the kitchen looking exhausted. There were circles under his blue eyes, and his clothes were rumpled. Wes had the strongest urge to fold him in his arms. To press his thumbs to those dark circles as if he could erase them simply by noticing.

When Adam saw the state of the kitchen, his eyes widened. Wes had intended to clean things up before Adam returned, but had lost track of time. He’d been having such fun with Gus.

“Whoa.”

“Daddy, we’re doing science!” Gus announced.

“That’s great, sweetheart,” Adam said weakly.

“We were looking at some chemical reactions,” Wes explained, hoping to distract from the mess.

“We made a volcano that erupted all over the place,” Gus said, pointing with a grin and ruining any chance of a distraction. “And we made plastic out of milk!”

Adam raised an eyebrow at that, like he thought it was a child’s whimsy.

“Milk contains casein molecules,” Wes explained. “Proteins. A chain of casein monomers makes a polymer that can be molded, kind of like plastic.”

“Wow, cool.”

Adam’s blond hair was messier than usual, as if he’d run his hands through it over and over in frustration, and Wes had the strangest urge to push it back from his face.

“You really saved us today,” Adam was saying. “Do you wanna stay for dinner? I was just gonna make mac and cheese, but...”