Chapter 9

Lou managed to move one arm so he could caress the damp red hair. “You’re something else.”

George looked up at him. “Merry Christmas.”4

Curled against George’s back, Lou slept all night and most of the next morning. Whenever he started to wake, the presence of the man breathing at his side reassured him and he drifted back to sleep. He loved having someone to hold onto.

When he finally had to wake to relieve his bladder, he found himself alone. He stumbled into the bathroom, hoping George had not fled. Some of the details may have escaped him, but he suspected he would never forget that starlit place where George took him last night and hung him in the sky like a stupid Christmas tree ornament.