Sin snorted. “Makes you want to run for cover before the Apocalypse strikes, doesn’t it?”
Braden shoved him good-naturedly.
“Ow,” Sin said again, slapping at Braden’s hand. “I told you I was wounded. What are you going to do next, break out the salt cellar and rub it in?”
This was the first time since she’d met him that she truly saw her husband relaxed and unguarded. There was even an air of good humor about him.
Ewan grabbed her up and hugged her hard. “Welcome to the family!” He planted a kiss on her cheek.
“Put her down before you hurt her,” Sin snapped.
Ewan growled at him, and refused to release her. “Now, lass, why would you be wanting to marry his surly hide when you had me and Lochlan to choose from?”
“Because you didn’t ask her?” Sin said wryly.
“Aye, well, we might have had we seen her first.”
“Well you didn’t, now put my wife down.”
Ewan set her back on her feet, then winked at her. “Possessive of her. Now that’s a good sign.”
“Aye,” Sin concurred, “but a bad omen for you if you don’t be keeping your hands off her.”
Lochlan laughed. “You talk like that, braithar, and I can almost hear the burr in your voice.”
Sin scoffed at him. “Wishful thinking on your part.”
“You know…” Braden indicated Simon with the tilt of his head. “We still don’t know who he is and why he knows so much about us.”
Sin stepped back and pulled Simon forward to meet his brothers. “Aye, you do know him. At least by reputation. He was one of my foster brothers.”
Braden smiled and offered his arm to Simon. “You must be the one who annoyed him on my behalf. “I hope you did a good job at it.”
Simon shook arms with him. “I certainly tried to, anyway.”
The men laughed as Aster herded them back toward the table. Callie watched and listened to the brothers and marveled at the changes their presence had on her husband.
With them here, she was hoping to corner one of his brothers and find out more about why her husband was so unwilling to accept her.
Most of all, she wanted to know why he hadn’t bothered to tell her he was a Scot.
Ten
The men sat for hours bantering and laughing. Callie listened, her heart warmed by the brotherly love they had. The MacAllisters even accepted Simon into their midst and unlike her clansmen, they had no problem whatsoever with his English breeding.
She learned much of their past, including a lot of information about their brother Kieran, who had killed himself. But she learned very little about Sin. It was almost as if they knew his past hurt him and so they sought to only mention tiny slices of it.
It was the wee hours of the night before they decided to find their beds. Callie yawned as she showed the men where they were to sleep.
At last, she found herself headed to her room to be alone with her husband.
Sin was still smiling.
“You’re very handsome when you do that.”
“Do what?”
“Smile.”
