december, age 27
The temperature had lingered around four degrees all day, only once rising to five when the rays had had pierced through the clouds for half an hour at lunch time, but the cold had only plummeted further once the sun had dropped down below the horizon before it was even four o’clock. The days were getting longer now, each day adding a couple of extra minutes of light, but that didn’t mean much in the depths of winter when the light hardly seemed to appear at all.
It had been dark for four hours now. It had been dark when Asher and Lucas had taken Lucy to her first New Year’s Eve carol service, when they had met up with Tom and Mika for an evening of celebration and Christmas joy. It had been dark when they had moved the figures of Mary and Joseph into the nativity set. The stars had been twinkling when they had sat down in front of the television to watch a film before Lucy went to bed.
She wanted to stay up all night. This was the first Christmas she would really remember, something that her parents couldn’t be more thankful for, and she wanted to savour every minute of jittery excitement that led up to the big day. She had been excited for weeks now, ever since the shops had started to play catchy Christmas songs and she had learnt about the holiday. Bypassing the reason for the season that Lucas had tried to instil, she was fixated on the mystical idea of Father Christmas.
The lights mesmerised her. Walking through town yesterday, she had gazed up in awe as she gripped Lucas’s hand with both of hers, staring at the fairy lights that flickered overhead and the tall tree that dominated the centre of town. She had run over to it, pointlessly reaching for the giant baubles that hung two feet above her head, and Lucas had filled his camera roll with photos of his grinning little girl.
It had taken them an hour to buy the candles Asher had asked them to get when Lucy had wanted to stay in town, admiring the Christmas decorations that went up every year in November. They had been there for the light switch on a month ago and Asher had filmed the whole thing, if only to have Lucy’s glee on tape. There was no shortage of that. The festive run-up had brought out the most contagious childish joy.
With five hours left of Christmas Eve, Lucas careful measured out hot chocolate powder into Lucy’s mug. He mixed it with a splash of cold milk before topping it up from the bubbling pan on the hob, topping it with a layer of mini marshmallows and a squirt of cream.
“Ooh,” Asher said. “That looks amazing. I could do with one of those.”
Lucas chuckled. “Tell that to the wine in your hand. I don’t think the two mix,” he said. “Maybe once Lucy’s down, I’ll make you a Lucas special.”
Asher pursed his lips, raising his eyebrows. “Hot chocolate with … a night of mind-blowing sex?”
“I was thinking more like hot chocolate with … cream and marshmallows,” he said, nodding at the mug that he picked up to take through to Lucy. Asher winked and kissed Lucas’s cheek.
“We’ll see about that, baby,” he whispered, following him through to the sitting room.
Lucy was ready and waiting, snuggled up on the sofa in her tiger onesie and her blanket scrunched in her hands, one silky corner in her mouth. The film was loaded up on the TV, the lights off with only a string of fairy lights twinkling above the crackling fire: it was the perfect atmosphere for a cosy Christmas Eve, the decorated tree highlighted by the soft glow.
“Ready, Luce?” Lucas asked, setting the hot chocolate down on the coffee table. “Just let that cool down a bit first.” He sat down next to her, Asher on her other side, and she nestled between them like a burrowing mole and tried to push her hair off her face. She hadn’t quite mastered the art of tucking it behind her ears yet, nor was she very skilled with a bobble.
“Can you do my hair?” She looked up at Lucas with the question, knowing that Asher was completely useless when it came to plaiting. He had tried many times, usually when his husband wasn’t available, but Lucas always ended up redoing it.
“If you sit up straighter, hun.” He patted his lap and when she clambered up, he pressed play on the film. The Polar Express, one of his old favourites. It was one his grandmother had grown up on, one that she had passed down to his mother, and he had inherited it from her. Now he was passing the legacy down to the next generation.
“You know, I’ve watched this film every Christmas Eve that I’ve known you,” Asher said, “which is every Christmas Eve I can remember, and I’m still not sick of it.”
“Because it’s a classic,” Lucas murmured, sticking his tongue between his lips as he focused on Lucy’s slippery hair. She had a lot of it, but it was fine and flyaway and it hated to be tied back, easily coming loose when she was such an active child. He had no doubt that by the time she woke up, the plaits would have fallen loose with all the shuffling she did in her sleep.
“What’s it about?” Lucy asked. She sat as still as she could while her father quickly worked her hair into two even plaits, her eyes fixed on the screen as the camera panned over the animated snowfall.
Asher recounted the simplified plot in a minute. Lucas always struggled to do that. He wasn’t much good at summarising, going into far more detail than Lucy needed, especially as the film was playing out in front of her. All she wanted was an idea of what was about to happen.
“It’s a magic train,” she whispered when the titular train rolled onto the screen. She slipped back into the gap between her fathers when her hair was finished and when Asher passed her the mug, she clasped her hot chocolate in both hands to lick the cream off the top.
“It really is,” he said, toying with the end of her plait. “Just like Christmas. It’s a magical time.” He looked across at Lucas. It really was the most magical time of year. He had decided that long ago, that even the short days and the consuming darkness couldn’t steal that away from him. Christmas time was when he and Asher had first got together; it was when they had married; it was when they had become parents. Nothing could ever compare.
*
Lucy drifted off an hour into the film, her eyelids struggling to stay open until she succumbed to her exhaustion a little after eight o’clock despite her insistence that she would stay up all night and meet Santa Claus. By the time the credits rolled, she had been snoozing for thirty minutes with her head lolled against Asher’s chest.
“I think it might be bedtime,” he said, his arm around her as he weighed up whether or not he could get her upstairs without waking her up. “Reckon she’s been out for long enough?”
“I’d say so,” Lucas said, sipping his second glass of wine. The film had given him that sense of familiar warmth in his chest, one of his favourite traditions, and he couldn’t wait for Christmas. It had changed recently. Time seemed to have flown by so quickly; long lost were the days that he was the excited child waking up his parents at an ungodly hour. Now he was the parent; he would be woken up by his daughter. It was difficult to wrap his head around just how much was different now, but he wouldn’t change a thing.
“Ok, I’m gonna put her down,” Asher said, carefully untangling himself from the sofa and the blanket as he stood and scooped up Lucy. She was out cold, a dead weight that hardly even snuffled when she was moved. Lucas gazed at the pair of them, the perfect picture of his life, and he stood even though he was perfectly comfortable on the sofa.
“Night-night, Lucy-loo,” he said, his hand on her back. He kissed her cheek. “Sleep tight. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.”
He sat down again, the only sound the crackle of the fire. Before tucking up for the evening, Lucy had left out a cookie and a glass of milk for Santa and half a cucumber for the reindeer. They had been out of carrots, but Asher had persuaded her that reindeer loved cucumber even more: it was a special treat for them, like getting a present.
Ten minutes later, he returned and perched on the arm of the sofa with his glass in his hand. “I give it five hours,” he said, stifling a yawn. It wasn’t yet nine but he was exhausted, half-tempted to go straight to bed too.
“I told her not to get up before the sun’s up,” Lucas said. Asher snorted.
“That’s, like, eight o’clock. No way she sleeps through till eight.” He slipped down onto the sofa and slung his arm around Lucas’s shoulders. “You’re a little optimistic, my dear.”
“As long as it’s after seven,” he said. “I really don’t want to be up before seven.”
Asher grinned. “Oh, but you will be. That’s just part and parcel of Christmas: gotta get used to it. I think I was, like, ten before I slept in any later than about five or six.”
Lucas grimaced. He wasn’t ready for that. He wasn’t good at being enthusiastic in the morning, not when his body craved the sleep it was being denied. “In that case, I don’t know how much later I’ll be up,” he said as he surveyed the room. Lucy’s empty stocking hung beside the fireplace, in which the embers were dying, and he stood with a groan. “I’m going to do her stocking.”
“In which case, I’ll be Santa,” Asher said with a laugh, putting on a waddle as he stepped over to the fireplace and took a bite out of the cookie that Lucy had left out for Father Christmas. “Hey! These are the good cookies! Why’re we giving Santa the good cookies?”
Lucas gave him a withering look. “You’re Santa,” he said, his voice deadpan, and Asher spluttered a laugh. “I thought that was only your second glass of wine?”
“So did I,” he said. “Sure you didn’t spike it? Because, you know, you really didn’t need to. I’m in a pretty festive mood already.”
Lucas quietly laughed, shaking his head at his husband as he headed into the dark depths of the pantry for the bag of stocking presents that had been kept well-hidden on a shelf at least twice Lucy’s height. “I feel kind of bad,” he said when he came out.
“Why?” Asher dipped the remains of the cookie into the glass of milk that he then polished off, leaving only a smattering of crumbs on the hearth.
“I don’t like being deceptive,” he said. “I’m a bad liar. You know that.”
Asher rolled his eyes. “You need to put your guilty conscience to bed, babes,” he said. “Believing in Santa is a rite of passage. It’s part of the magic of childhood and no matter how guilty you feel, we’re going to keep that magic alive for as long as possible.”
“You’re just scarred,” Lucas said with a chuckle. Asher nodded, his eyes wide.
“I am! Seriously, I think I would’ve believed until I was, like, thirteen if Aaron hadn’t gone and ruined it,” he grumbled. He had been five when a falling out with his older brother had led to the heart-breaking revelation that Santa wasn’t real, that it was their parents filling their stockings each Christmas. Aaron had spat it in anger, and every single Christmas since he had brought it up as one of his biggest regrets.
“Well, no-one’s going to ruin it for Luce,” Lucas said. “No-one ruined it for me, actually. I just … I gradually realised that it was implausible. The logistics just didn’t make any sense.”
Asher laughed and kissed Lucas. “I love you so much, my darling oddity,” he said with a grin. He held out the cucumber. “Wanna bite?”
“I’m alright, thanks,” he said.
“I probably should’ve eaten this first…” He frowned at the cucumber before taking a bite out of it anyway. “I guess it’s all water anyway.”
Lucas finished up with the stocking and neatened up the presents beneath the tree. “Ok, I think we’re all ready,” he said. “Time for an early night. What d’you say?”
“Just one more thing,” Asher said. He held up a finger and disappeared. When he returned a minute later, he had a piece of basil in his hand that he held above his head when he was standing a foot away from Lucas. Lucas looked up and laughed.
“You know that’s basil, right? It’s not mistletoe.”
“Slight oversight,” Asher said with a shrug. “I don’t have any mistletoe. But basil smells good and it’s what I have.” He twizzled it and smiled. “I was going to kiss you at midnight but I doubt either of us are going to make it so … merry Christmas, Lucas.”
Lucas softly smiled, his hand resting on Asher’s chest. “Merry Christmas, Asher,” he said before he kissed him. For a full minute, they held each other in the comfortable embrace, their bodies tucked together like yin and yang, until Asher’s yawn broke the moment and he laughed.
“Ok, bedtime it is,” he said, “and I bet Luce’ll wake us up before six. Well, she’ll wake you up before six.”
“I have faith,” Lucas said. “She’s hardly ever up before eight.”
“You seem very confident for someone who’s about to lose a bet.” Asher held out his hand. “Tenner?”
“Funny, I didn’t realise I married your mother,” Lucas said. He shook Asher’s hand anyway. “You’re on.”
*
After what didn’t feel like enough sleep, Lucas was awoken in the dark by his daughter’s hand on his arm.
“Is it Christmas yet, Daddy?” she whispered.
He fumbled for his glasses to bring his bedside clock into focus. It was only half past four. Grimacing at the time, he shook his head. Asher was flat out next to him, quietly snoring and oblivious to the interruption. “Not yet, honey,” he whispered. “A couple more hours.”
Lucy pouted, sticking out her bottom lip. Yawning, Lucas dragged himself out of bed and took her hand as he shuffled through to her bedroom. He crouched beside her bed when she reluctantly got back in and her tucked her in tight, stroking her hair. One of her plaits had come out, her hair splayed out in slight waves over her pillow.
“Just a couple more hours, honey,” he said. “You need to sleep for at least two more hours, ok?” It was hard to explain when she couldn’t tell the time, when she couldn’t even recognise numbers yet. There was no point telling her to wait until the four was a six when she didn’t know which was which. Instead, he set her alarm for six thirty and he tapped it. “When your alarm goes off, then you can come in. Ok?”
“Ok,” she said quietly. “Love you, Daddy.”
“I love you more,” he said as he stood. Lucy reached out her arms before he could leave.
“Kisses!” she cried out. With a sleepy smile, Lucas bent down to hug her and kiss both cheeks.
“Sleep well, hun,” he said. “Night-night.”
“Nanight, Daddy.”
He blew her a kiss and dragged himself back to bed, rubbing his bleary eyes. Asher was fast asleep, undisturbed even when the mattress dipped beside him and Lucas stole enough of the duvet to cover himself. Asher was a duvet hog and a shuffling sleeper: he always stole the covers and yet invariably woke up without an inch left covering him.
When Lucas awoke for a second time, he was sure that he had only been asleep for a few minutes but his clock told him that it was five forty-five. Not quite half past six, but he didn’t have the energy to get up again. Instead, he shuffled into the middle of the bed and let Lucy crawl under the covers with him. She wasn’t the best solo sleeper and he didn’t have much willpower. When Asher had gone away for a few days for a conference in France, Lucy had spent every night on his side of the bed.
Third time lucky. When Lucas opened his eyes once more, the sky was a tad brighter outside and miraculously, Lucy was still asleep, cuddled against him with his arm over her. She never seemed to overheat, even with the covers over her head and her nose buried in her blanket. Lucas let out a sigh and closed his eyes again, relieved to see that it was after six at last, but he didn’t get to relax for long when Asher nudged his shoulder.
“What?” he muttered, not lifting his head from the pillow.
“What time is it?” Asher asked in a way that suggested he knew exactly what the time was.
“Quarter past six.”
“And how long has Lucy been in our bed?”
He paused. “A few minutes,” he said, closing his eyes and breathing in the smell of Lucy’s tea tree shampoo. He almost yelped when Asher poked his waist.
“Oh really? So that wasn’t her you were snuggling when I went for a wee at half five?” He snorted. “You’re a terrible liar, Lucas, and you owe me a tenner.”
“You know where my wallet is,” Lucas said. “Just shush. The longer she sleeps, the better. I’m shattered.”
“Because she woke you up early?” Asher chuckled to himself and lay down again, kissing the back of Lucas’s neck and tucking himself against him. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas,” Lucas said quietly. “Love you.”
“Love you too.”
*
Getting up twice in the middle of the night seemed enough to knock Lucy out for long enough to give her parents a bit of a lie in, sleeping through until quarter past eight. When she woke up and saw the sun outside, she jumped up with more enthusiasm than she had ever got up with before, almost breaking Lucas’s nose in the process.
“It’s Christmas!” she cried out, bouncing on the bed until her eyes went wide and she stopped. “Did Santa come?”
“I don’t know, hun,” Asher said. “I guess we’ll have to go and check.”
She looked as though she might pass out from excitement, almost tripping over her pyjamas as she raced into the hallway and thudded downstairs, and Asher laughed as Lucas drearily got out of bed and stretched up, exposing his stomach.
“Morning,” he said, briefly linking his fingers with Asher’s as he stretched up to kiss him before he followed Lucy downstairs. “Let’s do this.”
*
After an intense morning of Lucy excitedly open presents from her parents and her extended family – many of whom had wanted to make her first proper Christmas extra special – it came to time to head out. Rather than attempting Christmas lunch themselves, Lucas and Asher had delegated that task to Maddie and Nick. Rather, they had gratefully accepted when Maddie had asked if they would like to join them for a double celebration: it wasn’t just Christmas, but Tom’s twenty-seventh birthday.
“Are you ready, Lucy?” Lucas asked as he pulled on his coat. It was freezing outside, a pathetic smattering of snow falling, but they had decided to walk over. It was only a few minutes’ walk, and it could easily take double that in the car when it came to getting Lucy buckled into her car seat and following the one way system.
“Yes!” she cried, jumping from board to board in the hallway in her wellies. She was proudly wearing almost every item of clothing she had been given for Christmas: the dress from her parents; the festive leggings from her granny and grandad; two different hair bands from lolly and pop, and the cardigan that her nana and grampa had given her. She had tried to put on two pairs of leggings before Asher had stopped her, instead wrangling her into her warm winter coat.
“Have you got the present for hammy and hara?” he asked, standing by the door as he went through his mental checklist. Lucy nodded and held the box up above her head. “What about the one for Auntie Mika and Uncle Tom?”
She shook her head.
“I’ve got it,” Asher said. “We’re all good.”
Satisfied that the house was in order and would still be standing when they returned, Lucas locked up once Asher and Lucy were outside and he took her hand, Asher on her other side. It was nearly silent on the other side of the door. Almost everybody was tucked up in front of their log fires, celebrating Christmas with their families in the comfort of their own homes. The wind seemed to have a vendetta against them, sharp and cold, and Lucy walked with her scarf pulled up over her nose and her hat almost covering her eyes.
Five minutes felt like an eternity when the wind was pushing them back. Lucas felt as though he had glass splinters in his cheeks by the time they made it to his grandparents’ house, and that feeling only worsened when Maddie welcomed them inside and the sudden blast of heat made his skin burn.
“God, it’s freezing out there!” she cried out as she hugged them each in turn, paying special attention to Lucy. She was as proud a great-grandmother as she was a grandmother, and a mother. “You look wonderful, Lucy.”
“Thanks, hammy,” Lucy said, grinning with pride. “A present for you!”
Maddie chuckled when the present was thrust at her. “Thank you, darling. Hara and I have a little something for you too, if you can find it under the tree.”
Lucy gasped and held Maddie’s hand when she offered it, leading her great-granddaughter through to the sitting room. Lucas and Asher followed them to find Nick, Tom and Mika warming themselves around the fire with cups of tea and glasses of mulled wine. Christmas seemed to have some kind of exception surrounding it when it came to drinking in the day.
“Merry Christmas!” Nick cheered as he pulled Lucas into a hug and then Asher. Mika did the same, her body warm from the fire, before the two of them hugged Tom. He was coming along well in physio, though he hadn’t yet regained the strength or confidence to leave his wheelchair. It had become a part of him over the past twenty months.
“Happy birthday,” Lucas said as he hugged Tom.
Tom grinned. “Thanks,” he said. “Good thing I’m not big on all the faff, seeing as it always gets a bit overlooked.”
“Oh, shush,” Mika said with a laugh, her hands on his shoulders. “I always prioritise your birthday.”
That was true. She had known Tom for twenty-one years now and not once had she forgotten his birthday, nor had she ever lumped it together with Christmas. Even when they were children, years before they had begun dating, she had made sure to give him separate birthday and Christmas cards. He’d known she was the one, long before he’d even known what the one meant.
Lucas took a seat near the fire to slowly thaw his chilly body, his fingers numbing even though he had worn gloves, and he watched with a grin as Maddie got down on her knees to help Lucy search for a present with her name on.
“You didn’t need to do anything, hammy,” he said.
“Oh, don’t be silly,” she said with a laugh. “There’s one each for you two in here, so you’d better get down on your knees later.”
Asher had to stifle a chuckle, though it didn’t go unnoticed by Mika, who widened her eyes as a blush rose to her cheeks. No matter how long she had known him, she would never quite get used to the way his mind worked compared to her innocence. She had never intentionally made a dirty joke, and Lucas wasn’t sure he’d ever heard her swear, or Tom. As a couple, they were the picture of purity, and he thanked his lucky stars on their behalf that they had found each other.
“So,” he began once he had a glass of mulled wine in his hand, while Lucy was busy diagnosing her grandfather with her new doctor’s kit. “What’s the latest? How’s it going?”
Mika and Tom sat curled together on the sofa, where they had migrated to for a little more comfort, and they looked at each other with a smile before Tom took it upon himself to answer.
“Well,” he said, his hand finding his wife’s, “we’ve decided to adopt.”
“You have?” Lucas sat straight, a beam jumping onto his lips. “That’s fantastic! Oh my goodness, I’m so glad.”
“So are we,” Mika said. After three failed attempts at IVF, using up her three free chances, she and Tom had decided to take another break from their search for parenthood to revaluate their options.
“Seeing you guys with Lucy…” Tom trailed off as he glanced over at his great-niece, his smile growing. “Well, that gave us the push we needed, I think.”
“We’ve talked to my mum about it a lot,” Mika said. “She grew up in the care system and she said she spent years wishing someone would adopt her before she realised it would never happen, and that killed me. If we can help even one child, I think that’d be pretty amazing.”
“It is, it so is,” Lucas said, bubbling up with love and emotion. “It’s the most phenomenal feeling. And you two … you were born to be parents.”
Tom chuckled. “I’m glad you think that. We want you and Asher to be our reference, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course! Oh my goodness, of course we will. Anything to help you, seriously,” Lucas said. “Really, anything we can do at all.”
“What’s this?” Asher asked, dropping down next to Lucas on the arm of the chair, his hand resting on his shoulder.
“We’re adopting,” Mika said, the words bursting out of her like a jack-in-the-box. “We want you guys to be our reference. And if you ever want a babysitter, we’d love to help you out.”
Asher launched himself off the chair almost as soon as he had sat down to throw his arms around Mika. She laughed when he hugged her, an infectious grin on her lips. The twinkling fairy lights were reflected in her eyes, the warmth of the fire radiating off her smile, and she and Tom were the picture of perfection.
“Absolutely,” Asher said. “Oh my God, this is amazing. About time!”
“I know, right?” Mika chuckled and tucked her hair behind her ears. “I mean, it might be a while, still. We only just submitted the application, so it’ll be at least six months. We haven’t had any of the checks or anything, but we made the first step.”
“It’s going to fly by,” Lucas said. “It can feel like it’s dragging, but it will fly when you look back at it.” He looked over at Lucy, who was wearing a serious expression as she listened to Maddie’s heart with her stethoscope. “Can you believe we’ve been parents for a year?”
“I know,” Asher said with a smile. “It hits me sometimes. In a good way, of course. Well, sometimes a bit terrifying,” he added. “No, but really, it’s incredible. You guys deserve it more than anyone.”
“Well, I don’t want to sound up myself, but I think we’ve been through the ringer enough,” Mika said. “If anything stops us from adopting, then that really must be the last sign that we’re not meant to be parents.”
“You will be,” Lucas said. “You have to be.”
*
After the most indulgent roast lunch with three kinds of potatoes and ten different vegetables, hardly anyone could move. For almost three hours, the seven of them had sat around the table, chatting and eating and picking away at leftovers even after hunger had subsided, and when Maddie had brought out two different puddings – just for choice – both had been demolished within thirty minutes.
Lucas groaned when Lucy bounced onto his lap, pressing on his stomach. “Careful, hun,” he said. “I’m far too full for that.”
She giggled and poked his stomach with a wand she seemed to have magicked up out of nowhere. Maddie’s and Nick’s present to her seemed to be some kind of unlimited supply of dressing-up clothes, and she had switched from doctor to wizard to fairy since arriving.
“I’m magic!” she said, prodding him again. “Abbadacabba! More pudding!”
He laughed and took the wand from her, tapping it on her head. “Abracadabra: time for a nap.”
She frowned, pouting her lips and crossing her arms. “It’s Christmas. No naps on Christmas.”
“Daddy needs a nap,” he said, stretching out his arms. “Have you shown Papa your wand?”
She didn’t answer but she darted off to the kitchen in search of her father, who was giving Nick a hand with tea and coffee. Tom was in the bathroom and Maddie had drifted off after lunch: Lucas and Mika were the only ones left in the sitting room after Lucy danced off, and Mika joined him on the sofa.
“Lucas?”
“Mmm?” He sat up a little straighter, though all he wanted to do was lie down.
“Would you do it again? Adoption, I mean. Would you ever do it again?”
He pursed his lips. He and Asher had talked about it, contemplating their future, but they had come to the same answer eventually. “I don’t think so,” he said. “Not because it was too hard or anything like that,” he then added, backtracking when he realised how it sounded. “Just because everything’s so perfect now. We don’t feel the need to have more kids.”
Mika smiled. “You must be the first Langley to say that,” she joked.
“Seriously, I think I am,” he said with a chuckle. “If we ever want another child, then we’d absolutely do it again. No hesitation. Just because we probably won’t doesn’t mean we wouldn’t. If that makes any sense.”
“Yeah, yeah, I think it does,” she said, hugging her knees. “I know it sounds stupid, but I get this flutter in my tummy every time Lucy calls you Daddy. It’s just … ugh. I can’t explain how much I want that, and I used to think it wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t my child saying it, but you’ve changed my mind. Well, Lucy has, I suppose.”
“She’s ours, through and through,” Lucas said. “I know biology doesn’t come into it at all, but she’s ours. Sometimes she’ll do something and I’ll think, oh my goodness, that’s Asher. Or she’ll say something and I’ll think, yes, she’s definitely my daughter.” He gave Mika a sincere smile. “I think kids absorb more of what’s around them than what’s in them.”
“You do?”
“I do,” he said, nodding. “So any child you and Tom adopt will be the kindest, most genuine little genius in the world.”
She laughed like a song, her eyes glistening. “Thanks, Lucas.” She let out a long sigh. “Wow. This time next year, we’ll probably be parents. That’s insane.”
“It’s fate.”
“I hope so.”
He squeezed her knee. Lucy raced back into the sitting room and climbed onto the sofa, crawling onto his lap. He chuckled, hugging her, and met Mika’s eye over the top of Lucy’s head. “I know so.”Â
+ – + – +
throwback to the years when i woke up at like 4am on christmas day and now i have to be dragged out of bed for church at nine XD
 i can’t believe HOH has hit 100,000 reads! i never in a million years thought it would ever reach that goal, let alone before it’s even finished, but you guys are phenomenal and your support means the world to me! there are now only three chapters left, and then straight into nanowrimo! unfortunately i’ve got so into planning for nano that i haven’t left enough time to finish both hoh and my halloween short story, so that’ll have to wait now – i may still write it before my christmas novella comes out!
also, i am now back on snapchat (hennwick) so add me for behind the scenes snippets, random bits of life, and if you just want to chat!
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