Braden broke away with a laugh. “Trust me, lad, one day it won’t be icky to you.”
“If that day ever comes, you can take me head and stick it on a pike.”
“Go eat,” Maggie said, her voice filled with laughter.
Connor didn’t need any more encouragement. He bounded off at a dead run.
“You know…” Braden traced the contour of her cheek with his fingertips, “you never really did answer my proposal. Will you marry me?”
Maggie bit her lip, her brow furrowed. “Now why should I be wanting to do that? All you’ve ever done is torment me. And now you thought I would be cold enough to just toss a boy out on his own.”
“You thought I’d be so cold as not to want the child at all.”
“That was your own fault. You’re the one who said children smelled.”
Braden laughed. “I did say that, but I didn’t mean it.” He cupped her cheek in his hand as he stared into those amber eyes that touched him all the way to his unrepentant soul. “In truth, there is nothing more on earth that I would ever want than to have a smelly, messy child with you.”
“Truly?”
He nodded.
Maggie’s bright smile lit her entire face. “Well then, Braden MacAllister, I will gladly marry you, and have lots of smelly, messy children with you.”
Epilogue
Two months later, Maggie stood in the midst of her wedding celebration with trembling hands. She still couldn’t believe it was real!
All the years she had spent dreaming of this and none could compare to the reality of it.
Pegeen, Merry and Ceana chattered around her, offering their congratulations.
But Maggie’s attention was focused across the room where Braden stood with his brothers, her brothers, Connor, and Robby MacDouglas, drinking ale and laughing.
Sin was again dressed as an Englishman and his left arm was no longer bandaged from the burn. If not for the very subtle way he favored it, no one would ever know he’d been injured.
Connor darted between the men as he basked in their patient indulgence of his youthful exuberance.
Ewan stood above them all, his face grim, but every now and again, Maggie caught a twinkle in his eye as he traded insults with Braden or Lochlan, or brushed his hand through Connor’s hair.
And Robby... It was still strange to see him standing with them. No one would ever guess that just a few weeks ago they had all been mortal enemies. She couldn’t fathom the change Ceana and her babe had made in the rough laird. But then love was strange that way.
At this moment, all was right in the world and she was truly grateful for the miracle.
“Oh, Maggie,” Pegeen exclaimed. “What beautiful shoes you have.”
Maggie looked down to see her left shoe peeking out from beneath the hem of her skirt. The soft, black leather slippers with tiny rose blossoms stitched into them had been a wedding gift from Braden.
Smiling, she remembered Braden’s story of Enos and his words about her footwear, as well as her husband’s vow that she would never again own a pair of ugly shoes.
“Thank you,” she said to Pegeen.
Braden joined her then. Taking her hand in his, he placed a gentle kiss across her knuckles. “I wondered where you had wandered off to.”
“I’ll never be far away,” she said. “I can’t afford to be since there’s no telling whose bed I might find you in.”
He laughed. “You know better than that, little blossom. There’s only one woman who can satisfy me. And speaking of...” He bent and whispered a proposition in her ear that left her cheeks scalding.
“Braden!” she gasped in surprise. “Are you never sated?”
