Page 106 of Dark Obsession

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.”