Delay Tactics

It’s fitting that September is the month for National Procrastination Day because if I could avoid this month—more specifically, this day—forever, I would.
“Hey,” my brother calls as he steps out of his car to open the passenger side for me. I’m waiting for him outside because I haven’t been living in the apartment he pays for in over a year. I can’t tell him that, because instead of living here, I’m living with my husband, who just so happens to be his best friend.
Obviously, my brother has no idea about Gavin and me.
Killian, Killer to his teammates, kisses my cheek gently, then tugs me in for a hug. His intake of air is what kicks off my tears and by the time he releases me, I’m a sobbing mess.
“I know,” Killian says and Laps, his poodle, whines from the backseat. “Daisy wanted to come, but I told her I couldn’t let her see me like this and I figured you’d feel the same.”
I nod. “You told her?”
“Last night, yeah. I felt she deserved to know.”
Today would have been our brother’s twenty-third birthday.
But Justin hasn’t been here to celebrate one in six years.
Climbing into my brother’s new SUV he bought when he found out the girl he’d been hooking up with was pregnant, I turned and patted his pooch on the head. “Hey Laps,” I say in greeting, then stretch to scratch him behind the ears.
I’m greeted with a return lick from my chin to the tip of my nose, and even under grim circumstances, it makes me giggle. The trained service dog has a way to always make that happen.
“Did Mom and Dad call you after me?”
“Yup,” I answer. “They sounded like they always do on his birthday.”
Killian sighs. “Having Callie…” His voice hitches as tears catch in his throat. “Becoming a father, it brings a different level of understanding to their grief.”
I nod again. I can’t even imagine.
Clearing his throat, my brother changes the subject. “What have you been up to?” Killian asks. “Gavin mentioned you guys did something the other—”
“What?” I ask, my nerves ramping up because Gavin has reached the end of his rope in hiding our marriage from my brother. “What did he say we did? We didn’t do anything.”
Killian gives me the side eye and I know I’m making matters worse and giving him reason for being suspicious, but I can’t help my reaction. “Whoa. Hey, what’s going on with you and Gavin? Did you guys have a fight or something?”
“Nothing. Nothing is going on with me and Gavin. Jeez, Kill. He’s your best friend who, might I add, you stuck on me. There’s nothing going on. My god!”
Okay, see there? That may have been a little much.
Killian remains silent for a beat, then looks in my direction. “Well, something isn’t right. Either you’re hiding something from me, he is, or you’re both up to no good. If this is the gay thing, I don’t know why he—”
My brother got it into his head Gavin was gay while we were in Vegas with the team. I may be slightly to blame, but it was a ridiculous assumption on my brother’s part. I’m not taking responsibility for his absurdity.