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Demetrius felt a chill even as the sun baked the skin of his shoulders. Was this it? Was this the moment that being in a gay relationship had broken Cody?
“Oh? And what did you say?”
Cody looked at him with an expression full of guilt. “At first, I dodged the question. Seeing him caught me off guard, you know? I did a lot of duck and cover distractions and tried to keep turning the conversation back to the job. At the end of it, I finally told him you and I were married, but it took a long time for me to get to that point.” Cody ducked his head and shrugged. “I’m sorry.”
Demetrius grabbed him in a hug, which seemed to surprise Cody for a moment until he hugged him back. They were both shirtless, and their sweaty skin was sticky as the smell of Cody’s sweat filled Demetrius’s nose and shot straight to his crotch. When Demetrius stepped back, Cody wore a slightly dazed smile.
“What was that for?”
“For being the love of my life and willing to break people’s perceptions of yourself to make me feel safe.”
Cody frowned. “But I didn’t come right out and tell Devin we were married.”
“You did at the end, right?”
“Well, yeah, but…”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned about being gay all these years, it’s that you never stop coming out.” Demetrius took Cody’s hand and squeezed. “Ever. And that goes for being bi, or trans, or ace, or pan, or anything other than the heteronormative expectation. There will always be a Devin around to challenge you. And as long as we know we love each other, none of the rest of them matter.”
Cody wiped away a tear and squeezed Demetrius’s hand back. “Why didn’t I know enough for us to date in high school?”
“Because you had to date most of the women in this town first to make our lives that much more difficult.”
They both laughed before Cody leaned down for a quick kiss. “I love you.”
Demetrius smiled up at him. “I love you, too. Now bare that beautiful ass so we can go swimming.”
“You know I’ve already got a semi, right?”
“I would expect nothing less.”
Turned out they both were sporting semis, but when they jumped into the water, the sudden bite of cold handled their conditions for them. They swam slowly toward the middle of the pond, the water good and cold against Demetrius’s overheated skin. Cody ducked under the surface and came up scrubbing at his forehead, then turned toward Demetrius as they treaded water.
“Did I get it all off?”
“Looks like it.”
“Fucking pigeons.”
“Everything shits.”
“But I didn’t get everything else’s shit on my forehead.”
“Good point.”
Something brushed against Demetrius’s foot, and he started.
“You okay?” Cody asked.
“Yeah, I just touched seaweed or a fish or something.”
“Let’s hope it wasn’t one of the dick biting fish.”
“Another lovely Bower family memory.”
Another brush of something against his foot, and Demetrius jerked his leg up, then swam a short distance away. “There’s something over there. I’ve cooled off now. I think I’m ready to be done with this swim.”
He turned back toward shore and bumped up against something. With a shout of surprise, he jerked away from the long, pale object, splashing loudly. Seaweed floated around one end of the thing, and it looked like someone’s clothes had gotten tangled up on it. Was it a log?
