I hold each of their stares as Brandon wraps his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him and placing a kiss on my temple. From the way their eyes flare, the act surprises them at seeing their older brother display affection like he’s never done before. And it’s possible that he hasn’t. From what I understand, Brandon never had a romantic relationship when he came back home.
“I’m late for work,” Malcolm says, breaking the tense silence and turning toward the door. Evan and Ford look after their brother like they don’t know him.
If I was in their shoes, would I react the same way?
The slamming of the front door has us all jumping.
“Well, as long as you two are happy, we’re happy,” Ford says with a smile, and I’m grateful that he’s accepting. “Looks like Mom is getting a daughter-in-law after all.”
“Whoa,” Brandon says, slowing them and me down. “We’re not quite there yet.”
“Oh, please. You told us. Now your next step is the parents.”
“And look how well Malcolm took it,” I mutter.
“Well, we approve. We know you’re not your brother. And Malcolm will understand that,” Ford claims, and he really does look like Brandon in this instance. “B, will you take us home? Malcolm insisted on driving us even though he knew he had to work.”
“Yeah,” he looks down at me and makes sure that I’m okay after the last thirty minutes.
“Go. I have to get ready for work anyways,” I tell him and wave bye to his brothers.
Once I hear their chatter fade and the front door close, I rush through getting ready for work with Malcolm’s fire department in the forefront of my mind.
I pullinto one of the empty spaces in front of the firehouse. Windows that frame the upper half of the building follow a path to the front door. My context clues are telling me that if I go inside, I’ll find Malcolm. I’ve never stepped foot inside a firehouse before. Most of my experience comes from television shows, and I decide to go that way but veer toward the open garage where I see some of the guys working on the trucks.
“Hi, I’m looking for Malcolm,” I ask one of the guys.
He sizes me up, maybe thinking I’m a scorned lover, before nodding. “Be right back.”
I walk a few paces away from the open area, pulling my coat tighter to ward off the December chill, when I hear footsteps.
“What?”
I turn around and face him. “You have some nerve,” I begin.
“I have nerve?” he asks, like he wasn’t totally out of pocket earlier.
“Yes! Your brother is happy for the first time in his life. Do you know how nervous he was to even tell you guys?”
He crosses his muscular arms over his chest in a defensive pose. “I’d be happy if it wasn’t you.”
“You wanna yell at me? Do it. You wanna throw a teenage tantrum? Go ahead. You wanna yell at my brother? I can give you directions to the cemetery and his plot number.” The furrow in his brow smoothes when I yell that out. “Ihatemy brother for doing what he did to your family. I hate him! Do you think this was easy for either of us? He’s a Hayes, I’m a Taylor. We knew that people would either come to the idea of loving us together or they’d revolt.”
“So break up,” he says, like it’s that easy.
“I can’t,” I tell him and bite my bottom lip to stop the trembling, but he notices. “Your brother is light and goodness and brings so much happiness to me and everyone around. I’ve seen it every day for the past six months. But you’re so hellbent on winning the race for Best Son that you are on a fast track to pushing everyone away. From pushing him away.”
Over his shoulder, I can see we’ve garnered the attention of his co-workers.
“I love your brother, Malcolm,” I whisper, my throat tight from emotion. “He anchors me to this world when I’ve needed something—someone to keep me in it for years, and by some twist of fate, we fell in love. You don’t have to agree with it or love us together right away. But hating me, and continuing to loathe your brother over some one-sided competition fueled by your jealousy, willcause you to lose him, and you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.”
I wait for him to say something. Anything. But the longer we stand here, the quicker I realize that Malcolm will be the toughest of the Hayes brothers to accept mine and Brandon’s relationship.
“When you’re ready to be an adult and have an adult conversation, I’ll be working at Blue Pint Outpost until closing.”
With a tired sigh, I hop back into my car and head to work. We can’t force people to accept our relationship right off the bat. I mean, we kept our relationship a secret for months because we wanted to be sure that we were more than temporary. So, of course, it’s going to take more than six seconds for people to be happy for us. But his brothers are different. I don’t know what their home life was like after James, since they still had each other. And maybe that’s on me for assuming that just because James died, they kept their joy.
I’m wiping down the bar from my last customer when a familiar figure in a gray hoodie, dark-washed jeans, and a dark blue jacket over top with a dark maroon beanie takes a seat at a barstool in front of me.
