december, age 25
River View had earnt its name. A couple of miles east of Farnleigh town centre, the peaceful neighbourhood sat nestled in the gentle curve of the River Farn. The river curved almost all the way around Farnleigh, only a half-mile break in the loop stopping the town from becoming an island: it was though the town had been dropped down from above, forcing the water to break its natural course.
Although it wasn’t far from town, River View felt like a haven. Encased by the river on three sides, there was no rumble of traffic from the main road, no constant stream of cars on the way to somewhere else. For years, it had been Lucas’s home away from home when he had stayed with his grandparents, who had lived in the neighbourhood for more than three decades, and each time it had been with a sigh of relief to escape the hustle and bustle of his home on the twenty-first floor. Little Blythe had been a whole other kind of quiet, almost stiflingly cut off from town, and life since university had been spent in two busy cities.
After four years of tolerating the crowded urban life in Brighton, Lucas felt as though he was home when he passed the floral sign welcoming him to River View, and this time he really was.
When their lease on the flat in Brighton had come to an end in September, he and Asher had decided not to renew it. Instead, for the cost of less than a year’s rent in the southern city, they had put down a deposit on a picturesque three-bedroom house on the river. Mika’s words had lodged in Lucas’s mind: Farnleigh was the perfect place to raise a family, the perfect place to get married with his family surrounding him.
It had been Asher’s idea to move, putting it to Lucas when they had returned home from their trip around America. He had hardly finished his sentence before Lucas had agreed. As much as he loved the city, it exhausted him. Mika had been right: it was perfect for a holiday, and it had been fun for a few years, but it wasn’t where he wanted to stay for the rest of his life.
On New Year’s Eve, rain sheeted down before it softened and turned to snow. The weather had been so indecisive since they had finalised their move two weeks ago, just about getting themselves organised in time for Christmas Day. While Lucas had focused on sorting out their furniture, arranging each room to his liking and paying special attention to his books, Asher’s priority had been decorating the house for the holidays.
Outside, fairy lights twinkled in the bare bones of the trees that had shed their leaves in autumn. Skinny branches reached for the uninviting sky, pale bark darkening as the soft snow sank into the wood. It was still relatively early, the hour hand hitting the five less than thirty minutes ago, but night had already sunk over the horizon, the sun long since set behind the heavy clouds that darkened the sky. The pathetic snow turned back to slushy rain that streaked the windows, blurring the view of the river that night obscured.
Lucas sighed as he looked over the back garden. Turning off the tap, he stacked up a couple of plates to dry and he peeled off his rubber gloves. When he heard footsteps behind him, he smiled and turned around just in time to catch Asher about to surprise him.
“Nice try,” he said with a laugh. “Where’ve you been? I thought you just went to get wine.”
Asher’s face fell. “Shit. I forgot the wine.”
“You forgot the wine? That’s why you went out!” Lucas rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, sinking back against the counter. “We’ll just have to pop to the shop on the way to your parents’. How’d you forget it?”
“I made a friend in town,” Asher said. “I got distracted.”
Lucas’s eyebrows slowly raised. “Please don’t tell me you’ve been out for an hour because you befriended a dog again.”
“Huh?” Asher laughed, his eyes creasing. “No, you idiot. I’m just teasing you.”
“So you didn’t forget the wine?”
“Oh, no. I still forgot the wine. I was on my way to the shop and I bumped into Sadie out with one of her friends and their parents and she asked if she could come over before we head out.”
Lucas glanced around the kitchen but there was no sign of the little girl, who would soon be his sister-in-law. “Did you forget her too?”
Asher widened his eyes. “Shit.”
Lucas let out another sigh, shaking his head. “Oh my goodness. You’re useless! You lost Sadie?”
Asher’s face cracked into a grin. “I’m kidding. God, you’re so easy. I love it. Though I did still forget the wine.” He kissed Lucas, a delayed greeting, and reached past him to fill up one of the glasses that was sitting out to dry. “She went to the loo.”
As if on cue, the flush sounded from the downstairs bathroom and a minute later, Sadie bounced into the kitchen. She was growing up fast, already in her final year of primary school, but she had yet to lose her girlish enthusiasm. Lucas had no idea how she had held onto her innocence with the family she had, but she was somehow still such a sweet little girl.
“Hi Luca!” She grinned and hugged him with such force that she knocked him back against the sink. Although she had grown out of her lisp, able to pronounce his name now, the habit had set and she couldn’t break it now. Lucas forgave her. She was the only person in the world who called him anything but his name.
“Hey, Sadie. What’re you doing here?”
“I wanted to see your house again,” she said. “I like that you live here now. I hated when you were so far away.” She pouted up at Lucas. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” he said, hugging her again. She had treated him like a brother ever since she had joined the Knight family, accepting him into her circle of trust when she had grown up with him constantly in the house. She probably knew him better than Aaron or Dylan, both of whom had already left home by the time she had moved in. After more than nine years, he was her family as much as everyone else.
“Asher, can you help me now?” She latched onto her brother, staring up at him with doe eyes. “You promised you’d help.”
“A promise is a promise,” he said. Lucas looked over at him, waiting for him to explain, but Sadie took over that role.
“Asher promised to do my nails for the party,” she said, wiggling her fingers. “Mum gave me a really pretty sparkly dress for Christmas and I wanna wear it tonight. I have nail polish that matches!” She dug into the little bag that hung from her shoulder, shaped like a wedge of watermelon, and took out a little bottle of glittery silver nail polish as well as a handful of hair clips.
“That’s awesome,” Lucas said. “We won’t need a disco ball – we’ll just spin you around.”
Sadie laughed. She shoved everything back into her bag. “I think I’d be sick,” she said. “I can’t even turn around in the car – spinning makes me dizzy.”
“You and me both, Sades. So, which room are you turning into a spa?” He looked up at Asher with the question.
“The conservatory,” Asher said, nodding at the modest sunroom that wasn’t catching much sun right now. “Don’t worry, I’ll put newspaper on the table, though I think you’re underestimating my ability to paint nails.” He shook the bottle that Sadie handed him. “I’m an artist after all.”
“He’s really good,” Sadie said sincerely. “He never gets it on my fingers or anything.”
Asher herded his little sister into the conservatory and with a wink for Lucas, he added, “It’s not my first time.”
Lucas snorted a laugh. “Ok, well, don’t take too long. We’re supposed to be at your parents’ house in ninety minutes and it seems that we still need to pop to the shop for that wine.”
“Relax,” Asher said breezily with a wave of his arm. “We’ve got plenty of time.”
*
Asher tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, humming along – a little out of tune – to a song on the radio while beside him, Lucas obsessively bounced his foot and gritted his jaw, clenching and unclenching his fists as the traffic got on his nerves. Even with his meticulous timing, practically forcing Asher and Sadie out of the house in order to be on time, he hadn’t predicted how many people would be heading to the supermarket for a last minute shop on New Year’s Eve.
“We’re late,” Sadie said, checking her brother’s phone. The battery was running low after she had spent the last forty minutes playing games, wiling away the time that they had spent in queues, both inside the shop and outside. Only just eleven, she didn’t have her own phone yet, one of few rules her parents had enforced. Bishop and Ishaana had never been quite as strict about technology with their sons, doing more to protect their daughter from the ever-increasing dangers of the internet. Ishaana had seen it all and done it all, and she didn’t want her daughter to follow in her ill-trodden footsteps.
“We’ll be fine,” Asher said. “Mum’s times are always just guides anyway. Not like she’s ever on time.”
“You have a text,” she said.
“From?”
“Mum.”
“Read it out,” he said, turning down the radio. It was on a fairly low volume already, else he struggled to distinguish the music from the voices in the car.
Sadie hesitated. “I can’t.”
“Why not?” He turned around when he came to yet another red light, lined up behind too many cars heading out of the town centre.
“I don’t have any money for the swear jar,” she said, handing her brother the phone, “and I don’t swear.”
With a laugh, Asher passed it to Lucas, who adjusted his glasses to read out the message Ishaana had sent her son, censoring himself as he went.
MUM: where are you guys? are you still coming? also where the fuck is my daughter?! apparently “one of her brothers picked her up” but aaron & dylan are here but i’m still missing half of my children. you’d fucking better have sadie with you! oh by the way, just made £20 off your dad . . . he reckoned lucas would make sure you’re on time but you’re a jain through and through LOL! see you soon (seriously please tell me sadie’s with you, i am honestly getting concerned. and tell lucas to turn his fucking phone on for crying out loud!!!) xxx
Lucas cringed, taking his silent phone out of his pocket to see three missed calls from Ishaana and a similar text. Asher laughed at the message, shaking his head at his mother.
“She’s so dramatic,” he said.
“I think she has a right to be!” Lucas cried out. “We’ve been completely incommunicado and you didn’t tell her you picked up Sadie?”
“I forgot!” He momentarily took his hands off the wheel, holding them up in surrender as he slowed to the back of yet another queue. His parents’ house was still eight miles away, a fifteen-minute journey on a good day. “Just ring her, let her know that all’s well and we’ll be there within half an hour. And we’ve got mulled wine and snacks to compensate.”
Lucas tutted and dialled Ishaana’s number, glancing out of the window with the phone clutched to his ear. He hated talking on the phone but being with Asher had forced him to step out of his shell a bit: even after years with his cochlear implants, Asher still struggled when it came to talking on the phone unless he was in a silent room and he was talking to someone he knew. If the line had the slightest crackle, or an unfamiliar accent distorted the words, he couldn’t process a thing.
“Asher, thank fuck!” Ishaana cried out after the phone had barely rung once. “About fucking time. Where the fuck are you? Please tell me you’ve got your sister – Dad’s about to call the fucking police. I can’t even get through to Lucas!”
Lucas’s cheeks pinkened at Ishaana’s onslaught of expletives. He had never quite got used to her swearing, the words hitting his hears all wrong when he looked up to her as a mother figure, while he had slowly grown accustomed to the way his fiancé casually swore.
“Hi, Ishy,” he said, awkwardly clearing his throat.
“Oh, Jesus, I’m sorry Lucas!” She spluttered a laugh. “Sorry, sorry. Please tell me you’ve got your eyes on the rest of my children?”
“I have, don’t worry. Asher picked Sadie up earlier and we’re all on our way over now. Sorry for being unreachable.”
“Thank God,” Ishaana said with a sigh. “Don’t do that to me – it’s not often I tear my hair out but I was getting worried!”
Lucas suppressed a laugh. Ishaana was always tearing her hair out, constantly searching for something she had misplaced as she tore around the house in a frenzy. “Sorry again. I can assure you Sadie’s fine – she and Asher had a spa afternoon. We should be with you in … twenty minutes.”
“Ok, ok, good. Glad all’s well. Sorry for the freak out, and all the swearing. Sadie’s not listening, is she?”
“I am,” Sadie said from the back seat. “Four pounds in the jar, Mum.”
“Shit,” Ishaana said, laughing. “Oh, fuck, I did it again. God, I’m a terrible mother, aren’t I?”
Sadie giggled and said, “Six pounds now.”
“Oh my God. Ok, I’m going to go now before I go broke. See you soon. Love you!”
“Love you too,” Lucas said. “We’ll be there soon.”
Asher looked over at Lucas with a soft smile on his lips.
“What?”
“I love how you talk to Mum,” he said. “You’re so cute.”
Lucas smiled. “Well, I love your mum,” he said. He had always felt a connection to Ishaana, for as long as he had known Asher: she had always seemed to get him, sometimes more than he had even got himself when he was younger. She had always had his back, yet a substitute mother to hold him up when he had needed it. She had always treated him like he was her own son.
“This time next year…” Asher trailed off, losing his words when he had to concentrate on the darkening roads. Sadie finished off his thought for him, leaning forwards between the two front seats.
“She’ll be your mother-in-law!” Her voice was laced with glee. “And you’re gonna be my brother.” She hugged Lucas around the back of his seat. “I can’t wait.”
“Me neither,” Lucas said. His heart fluttered at the thought of his wedding. It was still a year away, a December wedding date, but he and Asher had already spent months putting together tentative plans. Moving house meant those plans had been put on pause for a while but now, having spent a fortnight in their new home, Lucas was ready to get back to planning his big day.
Asher squeezed his knew. “Just what you need: another sister.”
Sadie pouted, frowning at her brother in the rearview mirror. Lucas turned around to meet her striking gaze. She had the most captivating eyes, something even strangers had commented on – before getting an earful from Ishaana. She was a feisty terrier with a bite as bad as her bark when it came to defending her children, something that had grown even more apparent when she had become the mother of a daughter.
“There’s always room for you,” Lucas said. “You’re already a sister to me.”
*
It took twenty minutes to reach the house, pulling up behind Dylan’s car. The drive would fill up before long with the Knight family’s annual New Year party due to kick off at eight but before that, a family dinner. Every single year, Bishop and Ishaana gathered their children and their partners for supper all together: Lucas had been there for twenty years in a row now; Benji had been a part of the tradition eleven years ago, even longer than Sadie. Aaron had yet to bring anyone home but now that he was thirty, Asher was sure that this would be the year his brother introduced them to a boyfriend.
“And that makes eight!” Ishaana swung open the front door, greeting Sadie first with a swooping hug.
Lucas did the maths in his head. If there had only been five people before they had arrived, then Aaron hadn’t brought anyone. He struggled to imagine his soon-to-be brother-in-law in a relationship: he was independent, perfectly happy in his job and with his friends.
Ishaana kissed her daughter’s forehead. “You had me worried, stinky bum. Have fun with your brother?”
Sadie showed off her perfectly painted nails. Asher had done a stellar job, as intricate with the nail polish as he was when he took a brush to a sketchbook. He often turned off his cochlears when he got into the zone with his art, plunging himself into silence to focus even better.
The house, as always, was magnificent. The huge Christmas tree dominated the hall way, dripping baubles and swatches of every tinsel, as well as every ornament that the Knight children had ever made. The whole house was stunning with wreaths looped through the bannisters and fairy lights strung above every doorway and along every shelf. Ishaana always went all out for Christmas, the only time she could ever get her family in one place.
“I aspire to be this extra when we have kids,” Asher said as they headed to the conservatory. “The big tree, all the decorations, the stockings hanging by the fireplace…”
“We’ve got the space for it now,” Lucas murmured. He still couldn’t believe how his life had come full circle in the best way possible. There were times he had been pulled away from Farnleigh; there were times that he had worried he was being pulled away from Asher, and yet he had ended up with both, right where he wanted to be.
“God, I love Christmas,” Asher said with a sigh. “It’s my favourite time of year. It’s so fucking magical.”
Lucas had never been huge on the winter months, the long, dark nights getting him down, but it was hard to feel that way when Asher was so infectiously obsessed with the holiday. A winter wedding had been his idea, and it gave Lucas something else to look forward to, something to brighten the season.
“Oh, hey!” He stopped in the middle of the hallway, pulling Lucas to stop too.
“What?
Asher pointed up, grinning. Mistletoe hung above them. He curled his arm around Lucas’s waist and kissed him, his hand cupping the back of his neck. His lips lingered on his fiancé’s for several long seconds, holding him close. Lucas melted against him, their bodies pressed together in the most perfect embrace, the two of them fitting together as though they had been designed that way. Despite his pragmatism, Lucas believed in soulmates, and he knew Asher was his.
*
The house seemed to get busier every year, the Knights’ circle of friends and family growing with every new year that passed. Lucas’s family alone was responsible for a decent chunk of the guest list, all four of his parents turning up, along with his six sisters and three brothers, and everyone who tagged along with them. Audrie had her own family now, her son three years old, and three more of Lucas’s sisters had boyfriends now. That still blew his mind, even though he was engaged, and he wished his brothers would stay young for a while longer.
Alcohol and nibbles flowed. Ishaana knew how to put on a party, excelling every single year with the food she spent all day cooking and the kitchen she kept stocked with wine, beer and ciders. Lucas sipped his third cider, the bubbles beginning to flood his bones, loosening his joints. It was only nine, three hours still to go before the fireworks as the clock ticked over to the next year, but he already felt pleasantly tired, a tipsy smile painted on his lips as he floated between rooms and conversations.
It was freezing outside. The temperature had dropped below zero and stayed there, the grass frosting over and tiny icicles forming on the branches. Everyone was huddled inside in the warmth, a fire roaring in the living room, except for two people. Lucas spotted a couple locked in conversation outside when he swung into the kitchen to collect another cider and he frowned out of the window. It was too cold to be outside. Pushing open the back door, he recoiled at the chilly blast and squinted in the dark.
“What’re you doing out here?” he asked, trying to decipher the faces. Their conversation came to a halt.
“Oh, hey, Lucas.”
It was Mika, nestled against her husband.
“It’s so cold out here,” Lucas said.
“We just needed a bit of fresh air,” she said. She and Tom stepped into the hazy light from the kitchen. “It’s pretty busy inside.”
“I’ve hardly seen you all evening.” Lucas sipped from his can, the bubbles fizzing their way down his throat. He reached out to Tom. “Come inside. You’ll freeze.”
They followed when he headed back into the kitchen. Mika shivered when the heat met her cold skin, pulling her cardigan tighter around herself. Lucas glanced at the two of them, not too tipsy to register that something seemed a little off. Tom was quiet even for Tom: he had hardly said a word since he and Mika had arrived forty minutes ago.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, narrowing his eyes as he looked from Mika to Tom and back again.
“Nothing,” she said. She plastered on a smile, but it wasn’t as sunny as the one that had earnt her nickname.
“That’s not true,” Lucas said. He swayed a little when he gestured at her and took a sip. “Something’s wrong.”
“We’re fine, Lucas, honestly,” she said again. Tom’s hand slowly dropped from her waist.
“I’m going to pop to the loo,” he said, excusing himself from the room. Lucas’s eyes followed him for a moment before returning to Mika, who swallowed hard and looked as though she was about to cry.
“Mika … you’re kind of scaring me,” he said quietly. He wasn’t used to seeing her so subdued. “Are you two ok? Did you have a fight or something?”
“What? No, no, of course not,” she said. She and Tom had never really fought, airing any disagreements before they could boil over into an argument. “I’m just not really in a party mood right now. I’m sorry.” Her voice was sincere; so were her eyes. That only worried Lucas even more. Mika had never been a partier but she and Tom always showed up to the New Year’s parties, snuggled in each other’s company as they made their way around their friends and family.
The silence that Lucas left seemed too much for her after several seconds. Her shoulders sank and she opened her mouth, resting back against the sink.
“It’s just…” She trailed off, pursing her lips. “Ugh, I hate this.” She let out a heavy sigh as she ran both hands through her hair. “Sorry, Lucas. I hate to be such a downer. It’s just that Tom and I got the results back from the fertility clinic and it’s hit us hard.”
Lucas felt a chill roll through him, struck by the despair in her voice. “Oh, no,” he said quietly, reading the signs that were scrawled across her face. “It’s bad news?”
She nodded and sniffed, forcing a smile onto her lips, though it was even less convincing now. After a year and a half of trying and failing to get pregnant, she and Tom had eventually caved and gone to see a fertility doctor a few days ago, right in the middle of the holiday season between Christmas and the new year.
“I’m so sorry, Mika,” he said, sobering up fast. He pulled her into a hug and she held him tightly, a sob escaping her.
“Sorry, sorry, I shouldn’t be such a mess. This is a party after all.” She let out a weak laugh, attempting to mask how distraught she was. “I just … I don’t think we’re ever going to be able to have our own baby.”
“Is that what the doctor said?”
“Essentially.” She crossed her arms tightly, as though she was holding herself together. “Apparently there’s an almost zero percent chance of us conceiving.” She sniffed again, briskly drying her eyes. “We’ll figure it out,” she said quietly, “but right now, it’s a major blow, and I’m sorry, I know you really care, but I don’t really want to talk about it. Tom’s absolutely devastated – I think he’s taking it worse than me. We just need some time.”
“Of course,” Lucas said, swallowing down the lump in his throat. He held Mika, gripping her in a tight hug. “I’m so sorry. And you know, if you ever need anything, Asher and I are always here. Whatever you need.”
She smiled. She knew he meant it. “Thanks, Lucas. You really are an incredible friend and I’m so sorry for bumming you out. You should enjoy the party – go and find your fiancé!”
Lucas’s cheeks still warmed when he heard the word, beyond elated that it applied to him. He was a fiancé. He had a fiancé. He was going to get married. “Are you going to be ok?”
She nodded. “Maybe I just need a drink,” she said.
“I thought you didn’t drink.”
She sighed and smiled. “Maybe it’s time I did.”
*
Midnight was still two hours away. Lucas was sitting on the sofa with Asher, the two of them perfectly content in each other’s company as they idly watched a live concert on TV, leading up to the countdown.
“Lucas!”
He looked up at the sound of his name and smiled to see his father and Cora career into the room, each with a drink in their hand. Matilda and Isabella had come separately: now eighteen and nineteen respectively, they had both started university and as of three months ago, they both had boyfriends. Lucas still couldn’t believe how fast his sisters were growing up. Long gone were the days when they begged him to tuck up and watch a film with them.
“Hey,” Lucas said, smiling up at his father and his stepmother. They both seemed fairly tipsy, each wearing loopy grins.
“If it isn’t my favourite son,” Floyd said, looping his arm around his son’s shoulders, and he kissed his temple. Cara dropped down next to Asher and squeezed his knee, almost sloshing her wine over him. Isabella had agreed to be their designated driver, allowing her parents to let their hair down.
“Having fun, Dad?”
“We’re having a wonderful time.” He grinned, the most infectious joy on his face. “We were looking for you two.”
Lucas raised his eyebrows. He had been sitting with Asher’s arm around him for the past thirty minutes, chatting about everything under the sun from new year’s resolutions to the future beyond that, their words flowing from their wedding to the family they wanted to build. Ever since getting engaged, Asher had been more and more vocal about his desire to adopt, desperate to become a father.
“We’ve been right here for a while,” Asher said with a grin. He clinked his can of beer against Floyd’s glass and then Cora’s. “What can we do for you?”
Floyd leant back with a sigh, his hand resting on Lucas’s head. “I just wanted to say how proud I am of you, and how excited I am for your wedding.” He reached across to Asher and patted his shoulder. “You, Asher, I can’t wait to have another son. There’s no-one I’d rather my little boy married. You two…” He swallowed a mouthful of wine and ruffled his son’s hair. “You two were made for each other. It was written in the stars.”
“I’m inclined to agree.” Asher nuzzled against Lucas’s jaw and kissed his cheek, his hand warm on his shoulder.
“I knew from the moment I met you,” Cora said, her voice loose and her eyes bright. “As soon as I started teaching you two, I knew there was something special there. I’ve been teaching for twenty-five years and I’ve never seen anything like that again. How much you two cared about each other, even when you were four…” She sniffed and smiled. “And just look at you now.”
Floyd laughed to see her on the verge of tears, the alcohol going straight to her head. He stood and rested his elbows on the back of the sofa, his chin on her head. “My weepy wife,” he said, draping his arms around her and kissing her cheek. “I love you so much.” He kissed her again. “And I love my boys.” He put one hand on Asher’s shoulder, one hand on Lucas’s. “And my girls … wherever they are. My perfect family.”
Lucas chuckled at his father’s display of emotion. He had a feeling his parents would be more of a mess than him on his wedding day: they were the people who had watched every moment of torment he had put himself through as he had grown up, the people who had helplessly stood by as he had figured life out for himself.
“You’re incredible, Lucas,” Cora said quietly as she stood and bent down to hug him. She held on tight. “I am so, so proud that I get to be your stepmother, that you’re a part of my life. You are so important, hun.” She kissed his cheek, her hands on his shoulders, and stood with a wobble, supported by her husband’s frame to stop her from falling over. Like his son, Floyd was a slim man without much muscle to speak of, but more than a foot taller than his wife, she couldn’t budge him.
“Love you, Cora,” Lucas said. “And I love you too, Dad.”
Floyd smiled, cuddling his wife close. “We love you more.”
*
Five minutes until midnight. Lucas dropped his fifth empty bottle into the recycling bin and poured himself half a pint of water, downing the lot to quench the thirst that sweet cider worsened. He rested his hand on the sink to steady himself as he finished off the water, gasping when he set the glass down on the side. Wiping his mouth, he turned around to see Asher leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed.
“Hey there, kinkyboots,” he said, stepping into the kitchen. He was beyond tipsy now, almost tripping over his feet.
“Hey,” Lucas said, reaching out until his hand met his fiancé’s waist, feeling his muscles beneath his t-shirt. He stepped up on his tiptoes to kiss him. “Where’d you go?” He kissed him again before he could answer. Asher leant against him, drinking him in.
“I had to pee,” he said, his lips barely leaving Lucas’s. “God, I love you. I know I probably say that too much but fuck, Lucas, I really fucking love you.” He kissed him, slowly draping his arms around him. “I am, without a doubt, the luckiest guy in the world.”
“I love you too,” Lucas said. The counter was digging into his back but he didn’t care. “You know what?”
“What?”
“I’ve never been happier than I am right now,” he said. “Here, with you. This is everything I ever wanted. Just … you.” He sank into the embrace, overcome with a moment of drunken emotion. “You’re my everything, Asher. Absolutely everything. I can’t live without you.”
“You’ll never have to,” Asher murmured. He tipped Lucas’s chin up and smiled his charming smile before he kissed him again, pressing hard against him as the kiss turned hungry, devouring each other. As they kissed, cheers erupted throughout the house, following by the crack of fireworks both outside and on the television. “Happy New Year.”
“Happy New Year,” Lucas said. “Something tells me this is going to be an amazing year.
“Mmm, it will be,” Asher murmured. “Let’s make a baby.”
Lucas laughed. “I don’t think you paid enough attention in sex ed.”
Asher grinned. “Ok,” he said slowly, “then let’s have sex, and then we’ll adopt a baby.” He kissed Lucas’s jaw along to his earlobe. “That’s the long game. Right now, I just want you.”
Lucas smiled against the kiss, his hands clasped over the small of Asher’s back. His eyes closed, he lost himself in his fiancé’s lips, the taste of his tongue, the feel of his hands on the back of his neck.
“Oops, sorry,” Bishop said when he backed into the kitchen with a tray of empty plates and glasses, his eyes widening a fraction. Asher pulled away and laughed.
“We’re only kissing, don’t worry,” he said. His father had a bad habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, though the kitchen wasn’t exactly the best place to ignite a romantic encounter. He slowly peeled away from Lucas to stand next to him, his arm around him. “Hey, Dad?”
“Mmhmm?” He joined the boys by the sink, setting down the tray beneath the tap to deal with in the morning. “What’s up?”
“What’s the latest bet?” he asked. He was well accustomed to his parents’ bets, which had been going on since long before he had even been born, and a couple of times he had got in on the action.
“Well, I already lost twenty quid to your mother today thanks to your poor timekeeping,” Bishop said with a laugh, pushing lines around his eyes. “You mean big bets?”
“Of course,” Asher said, rolling his eyes.
“Hmm. Well, you could help me win a bet for once, actually,” his father said. “I think right now I must be, maybe … three for about a thousand.”
“Mum always wins,” Asher said with a knowing nod. “We’ll do what we can to give you a win.”
Bishop chuckled. “Easier said than done.”
Asher’s intrigue picked up. “Oh yeah? What’s the bet?”
With a sigh, Bishop folded his arms said, “Your mother’s put five hundred pounds on Dylan being the first of you boys to have a child. So, if you two could give me my first grandchild … that would really help me out.”
Asher Lucas even closer, tracing his fingers over his waist, meeting his eye with a soulful gaze. He smiled lazily, lighting Lucas’s heart on fire. “I guess we’d better hop to it.”
“Not to put pressure on you or anything,” Bishop added, shaking his head to himself, “but I could really do with a win.”
“It’s ok,” Lucas said. He found Asher’s hand, lacing his fingers with his fiancé’s. “We’ve actually already been talking about it.”
Bishop stood straight. “You have? Really?”
Lucas smiled and nodded, a sliver of confidence warming him from the inside out. “We have,” he murmured, squeezing Asher’s hand. He took a deep breath. “No time like the present, right?”
+ – + – +
i hope you enjoyed this chapter! the boys are back in town at last!
i have put a poll on ask.fm about whether or not i write a halloween-themed short story. if the vote is yes, i’ll write a 3-part story that will be something of a prelude to my christmas novella. if the vote is no, i’ll launch straight into writing turning point! you can find the poll on my ask.fm account (dipthewick) and in my latest announcement on my message board. happy voting!w
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