Page 27 of Starved Until Sunset

“Good.”

Margie’s was busy for a Monday, but she stopped by their table long enough to give both their shoulders a squeeze. When they left the diner, the sun had gone down, and a lopsided, waning moon was peering sleepily over the tops of the trees. They paused to admire the twinkle lights in the garland they’d wrapped around the lamp posts.

“Nice night,” Demetrius said, pausing to breathe in the crisp air scented with the smells of autumn and maybe a tang of Antonio’s marinara.

“Yeah, as long as we’re not swarmed by bats,” Cody said, squinting up into the sky.

“That must have been pretty scary.”

“Scary and gross.” Cody gave him a quick side-eye. “And I don’t really want to know why.”

Demetrius shrugged. “Okay. Maybe they were attracted to your smell or something.”

“My smell?”

“I mean, you put out a heavy dose of pheromones.”

“Heavy?”

Demetrius linked his arm through Cody’s and leaned into him, resting his head on Cody’s shoulder. “I know sometimes all those pheromones make me do crazy things.”

“Sometimes?”

“All right.” Demetrius smacked him on the chest and pulled his arm free as they reached the truck.

Cody checked the sky once more as he unlocked the doors, and they both got inside. “Ready to go home? Anywhere we need to stop?”

“Nowhere I can think of,” Demetrius said, then added casually, “Oh, right,” as if the thought hadn’t been trading places between front and back of his mind all day. “You wanted to continue some conversation we were having earlier out by that first road sign. What was that about again?”

Cody put his elbow on the console between them and leaned in closer. Lowering his voice, he said, “Are my pheromones getting to you? You feeling a little drunk on Bower-love?”

Demetrius laughed even as his stomach tightened with anticipation. “Don’t ruin the mood.” He closed the distance between them to deliver a slow, soft kiss. “And, yes, I think I’ve been overserved on Bower-love pheromones.”

Cody’s expression was serious in the glow of the streetlights. “I hope Lucia’s not on patrol, because I’m running all the stop signs.”

“But they’re so clean and shiny,” Demetrius said. “They’re hard to miss.”

They were a block from home when Demetrius’s phone buzzed.

“Ignore it,” Cody said.

Demetrius grinned as he shifted to pull it from his pocket. “It’s Otis.” A shiver of fear went through him. His aunt’s boyfriend rarely called him. “I need to answer it.”

Cody blew out a breath. “Yeah, I know.”

Accepting the call, Demetrius held the phone to his ear. He tried for casual and friendly, hoping if he put that kind of energy out into the universe, the universe would respond in kind. “Hi Otis. What’s up?”

But apparently the universe had other ideas about how things worked.

“Demetrius?” Otis’s voice shook. “Amelia’s in the hospital.”

The emergency care unit at Parson’s Hollow Memorial Hospital sounded like a TB ward. People slouched in clumps around the waiting area, coughing, sniffling, and looking miserable. Demetrius hadn’t been able to get much information out of Otis over the phone other than the fact that Amelia had been in a car accident and was in the emergency room.

Cody had immediately pulled a U-turn and sped toward the hospital, saying reassuring things Demetrius didn’t even hear. His brain was too busy imagining the worst. As Demetrius approached the check-in desk, Cody hung back, staying close but still giving Demetrius space as he inquired about Amelia. The nurse gave him a tired look, her eyes shifting to take in Cody behind him before coming back to Demetrius.

“Family only.”

“He’s my husband,” Demetrius said, hating that he still felt the nervous flutter when he said that to a stranger. Lifelong trauma and guilt, anyone?