Rockets and Romance by Wendy Qualls

Author:Wendy Qualls [Qualls, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-64405-454-3
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2019-04-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

THE AIR got cooler as the afternoon wound down. Julian and Cody read silently for quite a while, which should have been awkward but wasn’t. The sun eventually went behind the clouds for good, though, and Cody was the first one to call it. “All right, I’m getting chilly. Hungry?”

“I could eat,” Julian said. And wouldn’t mind putting down this stupid book. The first half had been interesting, but the setup that had promised to be an interesting ethical dilemma about the aliens’ apparent immortality suddenly devolved into a lot of the main hero shooting everyone because Humans Are The Best At Everything. Julian had picked it up because of the eye-catching cover—there was no doubt this book was going to be ’50s pulp sci-fi at its most pulpy—but some things didn’t age well.

Cody led the way back to his truck. The parking lot was still half-full and more cars were coming in as Cody and Julian pulled out. “I’d love to bring you back here for one of the summer concerts on the docks,” Cody declared. “Lotta local bands, all different genres of music, and people bring picnics to come hang out. Mom and Dad used to take us to something similar when Allison was still little enough to sleep through everything.”

That would be fun. And it was encouraging to realize Cody expected they’d still be hanging out several months in the future. “You guys sound like you’re close,” Julian said.

“Me and Allison? Closer than you’d think for the nine-year age gap.” They wound through several streets lined with small houses and large trees until suddenly they were on a main road again. “I won’t say I fought with Zoe, exactly, but she and I never had as much in common. She was all into fashion and ponies and dolls, and I couldn’t have cared less about all that. Then when Allison came along, she looked up to me and got excited about everything I liked right alongside me.”

“What was that?”

“God, I don’t even know.” Cody made a face. “Astronauts were one I obsessed about for a while, probably no surprise, but I also spent a long time wanting to be a fireman. And a famous baseball player, and a scientist, and a robot. That one never panned out, for obvious reasons, but a lot of cardboard boxes died in pursuit of the perfect robot costume.”

“That’s the best kind of recycling.”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

Out of nowhere, Cody’s stomach declared itself with a loud rumble. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “So on that embarrassingly loud and abrupt change of topic,” he said dryly, “what are you hungry for?”

Julian had to think about it. “I honestly don’t know,” he finally admitted. “I assumed you had a destination in mind.”

“Not particularly—I’m just driving. But I am hungry.”

“In that case… hmmm.” Letting Cody introduce him to a new restaurant would be good and all, but after their comfortable day together what Julian really wanted was to curl up somewhere and watch TV together.

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