The Lights on Knockbridge Lane (Garnet Run 3)

After that Wes ran home briefly to feed the animals and, he said, get presents. Adam gave him a funny look because Wes had said he didn’t have presents, but he returned with several boxes that he instructed them not to touch.

By the time River arrived at 11:30, Gus had consumed too much sugar and taken to running around the living room pretending to be a lyrebird that they’d just learned about from a David Attenborough special.

“Yay, River!” she shouted when they came in the door. “It’s Christmas!”

“It is,” River said, catching her in a one-armed hug. The other arm was occupied with several boxes.

“Come in,” Adam said, winking at them. “Want me to hold that for a minute?”

River put the medium-sized box down gently on the floor to take their boots and coat off.

“It’s okay, actually,” they said very quietly. “But I think we should do presents sooner rather than later.”

“Got it.”

Adam left River to get cozy in the living room, and corralled Gus out of the kitchen, where she was trying to add mini candy canes to the Christmas monster cookies they’d made after breakfast, and into the living room.

“Is it presents, is it presents?”

She was bouncing in place. Adam nodded, wiping icing off her eyebrow with his thumb.

“Yay!”

She rocketed through the living room, and upstairs, then back down, with her arms full of three presents wrapped in grocery bags and covered with marker and stickers.

Adam’s heart lurched.

“Can I give mine first?” Gus asked.

Adam looked to River who peeked at their box, then nodded.

“Sure, sweetie.”

“Okay this is for you, Daddy.” She handed him the largest package. “This is for you.” She gave a slightly smaller one to River. “And this is yours,” she told Wes. “I was working on it before you went away, so now you’re back and you get a present.”

She smiled when she said it so Adam knew she was just being honest, not trying to make Wes feel bad. From Wes’ smile, he knew it too.

Adam opened his first.

It was... He had no idea what it was. There were washers and twists of wire and what appeared to be part of a chrome hubcap. The entire thing was beautiful in a brutal, abstract way.

“Thank you, Gus, it’s beautiful,” Adam said, hoping that would satisfy her. “Maybe you can show me where I should put it to best appreciate it.”

Adam caught Wes’ eye and saw the humor there.

“It’s an invention!” Gus said. “Can’t you tell?”

“I absolutely can,” Adam said. Because yes, he taught his daughter not to lie. But there was room for a little fib in some instances.

River and Wes unwrapped their gifts, revealing similarly constructed objects.

“What a cool invention,” River told Gus, and Gus beamed.

Wes examined his from every angle, then pronounced it perfect.

Gus looked ecstatic.

“Okay, now me,” she said.

Adam nudged the box that River had brought toward her.

“Merry Christmas, sweetheart.”

Gus bent down and lifted the lid off the box. Adam held his breath. Then a small orange head popped out.

“I thought, since you wanted a pet so much, we could adopt her,” Adam said.

River added, “Her name is Neon, but you can totally change it.”

Gus patted the cat’s head in the box.

“It’s really cute,” she said. “Thanks.”

Gus’ reception of River’s gift of a litter box, cat food, and some cat toys was similarly lukewarm. Neon’s enthusiasm for the toys in particular was far greater.

Adam’s heart sank. Gus had so clearly wanted a pet, he’d thought this would be the perfect gift. He’d wanted so badly to make her happy.

“Um,” Wes said, looking conflicted. “At the risk of overcrowding the house...”

He pushed the box he’d brought from his house toward Gus. She lifted the lid just as she had on Adam’s gift. But this time, her eyes got wide and her mouth fell open as she gasped with joy. Exactly the response Adam had been hoping for and didn’t get.

Suddenly, Adam got a very bad, creepy feeling. His eyes flew to Wes.

“I swear, it’s not a tarantula,” Wes said immediately.

Adam could breathe again.

Wes reached into the box and extracted...an orange and brown lizard.

“Oh my god, I love him!” Gus cried, stroking the lizard and cuddling it to her chest.

She turned to Adam with big, pleading eyes.

“Can I keep him?”

Over her head, Wes grimaced the grimace of the non-child-having when they realized too late that they should have checked with a parent before giving something to a kid. Luckily for everyone, Adam was fine with it.

“As long as you promise to take very good care of it and as long as I never have to touch it.”

“I will!”

Adam turned to River.

“I guess I have a cat now,” he said.

River grinned. “You’ll love Neon. She’s the best.”

Truth be told, Adam was delighted to have Neon. And if Gus was happy because of Wes’ present and not his? It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that she was happy.