Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The place Demmy had driven them to was more upscale than Margie’s, or even Antonio’s.
For one thing, they had valet parking. For another, a couple of pretty young women were all smiles as they greeted them from behind a hostess stand.
It was a thirty minute wait for a table, but there were a number of benches in the entryway, and he and Demmy settled on the end of one they shared with an elderly couple.
From the conversation Cody could hear, the couple was arguing about the best time of day for the husband to take his cholesterol medicine.
Demmy made a couple of attempts at conversation, but Cody’s brain couldn’t seem to keep up, so he eventually stopped trying. He kept his leg pressed against Cody’s the entire time, however, and the touch helped.
When their table was ready, the hostess led them through the dining room, chatting over her shoulder about the weather and other niceties.
Cody let Demmy do the interacting as he checked the place out.
The walls were exposed brick, and a massive field stone fireplace sat in the middle of the dining area, open on two sides.
He had to look pretty closely as they passed it to tell that it was gas. Fancy.
The waitstaff wore all black with dark red aprons, and less than a minute after they’d been seated, a bus boy brought a small loaf of warm, freshly baked bread, glasses, and a carafe of iced water with lemon slices floating in it.
Their waiter, Asher, was young and handsome, almost pretty, and he picked up on the fact they were a couple pretty quick.
After that, he smiled even brighter and brought Cody two extra au jus for his prime rib.
“Asher’s gotten much friendlier while he’s been serving us,” Demmy said.
“If he’s trying to become a third for two sugar daddies, he’s barking up the wrong trees,” Cody replied, and they both laughed.
But further conversation proved more taxing.
Cody’s brain jumped from the food before him to the most recent horrors they’d faced, then way back to March when he’d sat with Felicia as she had quietly passed.
Demmy asked a few questions, but Cody couldn’t really connect with them.
He kept looking around the place, his heart beating a little too fast and his breathing a bit too shallow.
He was distracted by sitting in an entirely new place, filled with people he didn’t recognize, and being served food that, while incredibly delicious, was very different from what they were used to back home.
When Asher asked if they’d saved room for dessert, Cody was glad Demmy declined first. Even though Asher tried his best pretty little pout, Demmy stuck to his guns and requested the bill. Cody didn’t even ask to look at it. He didn’t want to know.
He used the restroom—more exposed brick with stainless steel fixtures and gleaming porcelain—and was glad to find it empty.
After using what had to be the cleanest urinal he’d ever seen, he washed his hands and then splashed water on his face.
Leaning on the black marble vanity, water dripping off his face, he stared at his reflection.
Was that really him? Where had the years gone?
A man in his forties entered, CrossFit body and smile filled with capped teeth.
Cody returned to the table to find Demmy signing the bill, so he stayed on his feet until Demmy got up as well and led the way to the door.
Outside under the covered drop-off area, Demmy handed over their ticket and the valet, another handsome young man fresh out of a catalog, sprinted off across the parking lot.
“I like this place,” Demmy said.
“Yeah, it was all right. They didn’t have meatloaf on the menu, though. What’s up with that?”
Demmy smiled. “You should post a review and mention that.”
The truck rolled up and they got in. It looked and smelled like the valet had wiped off the top of the dash with a cloth dunked in lemon water.
They were quiet again. Cody put his head back and closed his eyes, soothed by the sounds of the tires on the road and the night air rushing through the partially open windows.
“Want to make a stop?” Demmy asked. “Or would you rather go right home?”
Cody frowned and turned his head. “I’m not in the mood for Amelia and the gang, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Oh, no, not a visit with anyone. Just us two. That okay?”
“Yeah, that would be good.”
As Demmy drove, Cody looked at his profile. The button-down shirt hugged his chest and shoulders, and the color made his blue eyes pop even more in his tanned face. He’d showered and shaved before they’d left the house, and the cut of his jaw was sharp and strong.
“You look great,” Cody said.
Demmy glanced at him. “Yeah? Thanks, so do you.”
“I’m glad we met on our first day of school.”
Demmy’s face glowed in the light from the dashboard, and he smiled softly. “I am, too. And I have been, every single day since.”
At Morley Trail, Demmy slowed and turned onto the sandy road that circled Parson’s Pond.
The truck bounced and rattled, the high-beams jostling over ferns and tree trunks.
The damp smell of the pond, the rich scents of the soil, and the clean, fresh smell of greenery filled the cab, overtaking the lemon-scented wipe down.
Out in the pond, something splashed as it jumped.
Cody told himself it was a frog or a fish and nothing else, and was surprised when he believed it.
Demmy passed their usual pull-off spot where they released the critters, driving instead to the small clearing where Dave and Oliver had gotten married. How long ago had that been? Five lifetimes? Demetrius backed into the space with the truck bed facing the pond, and he shut off the engine.
“If you brought me out here to murder me, please make it quick,” Cody said.
Demmy grinned and shook his head. “You’re stuck with me, babe.” Then he got out, so Cody did, too.
“I noticed you avoided saying you didn’t bring me out here to murder me, don’t think I didn’t.”
“No more true crime podcasts for you.” Demmy lowered the tailgate and boosted himself up into the bed. “Come on up, big guy.”
“Okay, big guy can go either way from compliment to insult.” Demmy was busy with something at the other end of the truck bed so Cody sat on the tailgate. “Did you hose the bed out after our last job?”
“Oh my God,” Demmy whispered from behind him. “You are in a mood, aren’t you?”
Cody swung his feet, hands braced to either side of him. The night air was cool on his skin, and frogs were trying to outdo each other all around the pond. Demmy was moving around the space behind him, and Cody looked over his shoulder.
Demmy had rolled out a thin pad along the hard plastic bed liner, and topped it with a comfortable blanket. Two pillows lay at the other end, and a small lantern glowed softly to one side. Demmy knelt by one of the pillows, smiling at him.
“What’s all this?” Cody asked, turning to fold one leg up on the tailgate.
“Just a date night with my handsome husband to look at the stars.”
“Yeah?”
Cody got to all fours, wincing at the protest in his knees, and crawled onto the blanket.
The padding underneath was comfortable, and he sighed as he stretched out on his back.
Demmy lay beside him, turning to put his head on Cody’s chest, and Cody slid an arm around his shoulders to get him in a little closer.
The stars were out in force, packing every square inch of the night sky visible through the trees. Cody’s body softened into the padding, and his thoughts slowed and quieted. He listened to the sounds around them, felt the warmth of Demmy’s body pressed against his own.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t very good company tonight.”
Demmy ran his hand back and forth across Cody’s chest. “I enjoyed every minute of being with you.”
“Even when I’m not good company?”
“Even when you’re not up to full conversations.”
They were quiet a while, watching the stars watching them back.
“It was hard,” Cody said. “Going there tonight. But I think it will be good for me over time. And for Zee.”
Demmy brushed his lips against the underside of his jaw. “I’m glad you went. I know it was tough, I do, but I think it will help you a lot.”
“Yeah.”
Silence again, and Cody imagined their heartbeats syncing up to beat in time.
Then Demmy said, “If you ever need to talk about anything, I want to listen. I want you to know that.”
“I know. The same goes for you.”
Another pause.
“I didn’t know I was holding onto so much,” Cody said, surprised to hear the gentle quiver in his voice. Demmy tightened his arm across Cody’s chest, and it felt good, like Demmy was the anchor holding Cody there, keeping him from flying apart.
“You’ve lost a lot of important people. Felicia was just back in March.”
“Feels like it was years ago.” Cody lifted his free hand and swiped his cheeks dry.
“Yeah, trauma and grief can really fuck with your sense of time.” Demmy started moving his hand again, slowly, fingers lightly tracing the placket of Cody’s shirt.
“I know we say it a lot, and I like that we do, but I hope you know just how deeply I love you.” Demmy lifted his head to see his face.
“Heart and soul, all the way through. You are, and always have been, the perfect match for me, and I’m so very grateful we’re together. ”
“Babe.” The word had to be whispered around the burning in Cody’s throat.
He pulled Demmy up his body and held him close for a long, deep kiss.
“I can’t imagine my life without you. You’ve always been my very best friend, and I wish I had been smart enough to know sooner that we needed to be together in every possible way. ”
“No looking back.” Demmy kissed him, but it was quick. “Just ahead.”
“Deal.”
Demmy rested his head on Cody’s chest again, and they looked back at the stars.
“How long until we have to deal with alien invaders do you think?” Cody said.
“Oh my God.”
Demmy turned his face into Cody’s chest, his breath warm and damp as he laughed. Cody laughed as well, hugged Demmy a tiny bit closer, and kissed the top of his head.
At the end of every day, even hard ones, he was, indeed, a very lucky man.