Page 46 of Between Brothers

The topics shifted after that and within the hour, Aaron, Disney’s boyfriend came through the door with an armload of gifts.

“Truck’s here!” Shelly declared and the women rose. I pitched in and helped, bringing packages and gifts in from the back of the box truck to those with children nearby so they could keep an eye on their kids while things moved to and fro.

I helped wrap the first wave, but being around so many people, while it was nice, I needed time to myself before my shift the next morning. That, and, I wanted to spend some time in my studio; at least begin the drawing for the latest window I was supposed to be doing.

I looked up into a pair of sparkling blue eyes framed by jet black hair when I went to call to Mel that I should get going. I stopped and kind of shyly smiled back at Dani.

“Hi,” she said and I licked my lips.

“Hi.”

“I just wanted to tell you that I think he’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him.”

“Which one,” I asked quietly, blushing furiously.

“Blue, but Cell too, in a way.” Her words were frank, no judgment and no recriminations. I looked up sharply from organizing the table I had been wrapping at.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” she said and then, “I totally get the over stimulation… I’ll totally let Blue know they were taking too long and that you had to go.”

“Oh, no, it’s not that,” I said, lying through my teeth, sure, but it sounded so rude to bail out before my boyfriends got back. “I just have a side job that I need to work on a little bit tonight, and I have a really early morning.”

Dani smiled brightly and said, “Sure, we’ll go with that, but Hayley, you don’t have to explain anything to us or worry that we’re judging you for anything or anything like that… We’re a family, and you being with Blue… and Cell, makes you part of that family.”

“Um, thank you…” I didn’t know how to feel about that. I really didn’t.

“I can see that right this second, I’m just making things worse.”

“Oh, no! I don’t want you to feel that way at all!”

“That’s no reflection on you,” she said with a wink and touched my arm over my sweater.

“I just really wanted to say thank you for making Blue happy. He’s like my best friend and he deserves it.”

“I didn’t really do anything, though…”

“You did enough by just being you.”

With that she smiled, turned, and stepped back through the chaos of gifts being wrapped and those wrapped packages going back into the club somewhere to be stored. I couldn’t help but smile, too.

Blue had said she was insightful on one of our dates and he hadn’t been lying. I went and found Melody and told her I needed to go. She was gracious about it, as were the rest of the wives and girlfriends of the club members. Thanking me and hugging me with cheerful and glad cries of ‘see you later.’

I slipped out into the gathering dusk and took a deep, cleansing breath letting it plume the air. I zipped up my coat and went to my car and made a clean getaway after that, though I was a little sad that I didn’t get to see them or say a proper goodbye for the night.

I went home and up to my room, hanging up my clothes and changing into some comfy sweats. I took my phone with me, which also doubled as my alarm clock for the morning to the studio with me and about a half hour to forty-five minutes after my arrival home, and a good ways into my drawing for this latest window, it rang.

‘Blue’ flashed across the screen and I swiped where indicated to answer, excited.

I put the phone to my ear and said, “Hello?”

“Hey, little one.”

“Hi.”

“I am so sorry it took us so long to get back…”

“It’s no problem. What happened, though?”

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