The Lights on Knockbridge Lane (Garnet Run 3)

Adam and River made hot chocolate while Gus and Wes got the lizard (whose name, it turned out, was Ludwig) settled in her bedroom. He’d brought an aquarium for it and a jar that he hid behind his back and told Adam he didn’t want to know when Adam asked what was in it.

“So,” River said. “You and Wes are okay now?”

Adam nodded.

“He just got scared. But everyone deserves a second chance.”

“I’m so happy for you,” they said. “And for Gus. She really loves him.”

“I know. The feeling’s mutual.”

Adam imagined Wes helping Gus with her science projects and tramping through the woods with her looking for mushrooms or spiders or whatever the hell people looked for in the woods.

“He’s gonna make a really, really good dad,” Adam said.

River’s eyes got wide, but they nodded.

“I think so too.”

“What about you, sweetie? Are you seeing anyone?” Adam asked.

A dreamy, mysterious look passed over River’s face.

“Not quite...maybe...there’s kind of someone,” they said. They were flushing at the thought.

“I’m glad,” Adam said, handing them a mug of cocoa.

* * *

River left around four, citing the need to get back and give the cats their dinner, but now that Adam knew they were not quite, maybe, kind of seeing someone, he wondered if River didn’t have a second stop to make.

Gus, high on Christmas adrenaline, her new lizard, and a day full of sugar and running around, crashed out hard right after dinner. Adam carried her to bed and tucked her in, all without looking at what was in the jar that now sat next to the newly ensconced lizard aquarium.

“Hi, Ludwig,” Adam said as he passed the tank, in the spirit of Christmas.

Back in the living room, Wes had collapsed on the sofa, head lolling languidly against the cushion.

Adam arranged himself within Wes’ arms and pressed a kiss to his lips.

“So this is Christmas,” Wes said.

“Yeah. What do you think?”

“I give it a solid nine,” Wes said. “Bumped up to a ten for the part where you got yourself a cat for Christmas.”

“Oh my god, I know, but she’s so cute.”

As if Neon could hear the praise being heaped upon her, she padded into the room, walked in a circle, then plopped down in the exact middle of the living room floor and proceeded to fall instantly and adorably asleep.

“Is it okay to go outside for a minute?” Wes asked. “I wanna show you something.”

Adam was pretty sure Gus was down for the count. So he bundled up and followed Wes outside into the front yard.

Wes took a pair of binoculars from his coat pocket. He stood behind Adam and wrapped his arms around him, putting the binoculars up to Adam’s eyes.

Adam looked and saw the moon, nearly full, hanging heavy in the velvet sky. Lines crisscrossed the cratered surface. It looked unreal.

“Wow,” Adam said.

“Sometimes I go outside at night,” Wes said. “I have a telescope I take to the roof. I look at the stars and the moon. It’s the most beautiful, expansive, peaceful thing. Vast and quiet. And... I wonder what it would be like if there was someone up there with me.”

Wes’ arms tightened around Adam’s stomach and he rested his chin on Adam’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry I don’t have a real gift for you. But I thought you might like this.”

Adam swallowed around the lump in his throat. He felt a happiness that seemed so large it could launch itself outside his body and find a home glowing brightest among the stars.

“It’s so damn beautiful,” Adam said, voice thick. “I don’t care about presents. I have everything I want.”

Adam and Wes stood, huddled together, in front of a house dripping with lights that had come from as far away as New York and as near as across the street. They stood in front of that house that yelled I love you! and watched the stars move over Garnet Run, Wyoming, as Christmas settled into a memory in the houses nearby.

Once, the residents of Knockbridge Lane had told stories of Westley Mobray the vampire, the witch, the Satanist, the freak.

But Adam knew better.

Wes Mobray was a brilliant, kind, generous, sexy, romantic weirdo. And he was going to be a part of Adam and Gus’ family.

Adam leaned his head back and claimed a kiss from the lips of the most amazing man he’d ever known.

By next year, the residents of Knockbridge Lane would tell a very different story. The love story of Wes Mobray and Adam Mills.

* * *