Page 30 of Gift-Wrapped in a Kilt

"Hey," he said.Way to charm the socks off her.

She pursed her lips. "Mrs. Darroch is trying to play matchmaker. Do you know what she called you?Mo luran. It means 'my pretty boy' in Gaelic."

"That an insult or a compliment?"

"It's an endearment, Gavin. Means she likes you." Jamie stabbed her spoon into the soft mound of chocolate ice cream. "She never called Trevormo luran."

Maybe Mrs. Darroch liked him, but he wouldn't count her on his team yet. Everyone sided with Jamie. He wasn't at all sure they were wrong. Still, it made him uneasy being surrounded by an army of hostile Scots bent on destroying him.

If Calli were here, and he'd spoken that sentence out loud, she would've slugged him in the arm and told him to stop being so damn paranoid. She would've been right.

But she wasn't here to rein him in, so he blundered ahead on his own.

"Wanted to talk about last night," he said. "Why didn't you ever tell me you had a serious boyfriend before me? You never mentioned Trevor at all."

Her eyes, always bright with life, turned dull. Her focus retreated into a distance he couldn't see. "He was more than my boyfriend. We were engaged."

Gavin stumbled backward a step. "What? You never told me —"

"I'm sorry. It's not a time in my life I like to dwell on. Things ended badly." She stared down at her ice cream, her shoulders folding in. "I had no idea Trevor would be at the party."

"Yeah, I know." Gavin couldn't prevent his lip from curling when he muttered, "Rory invited him. Interfering bastard."

Jamie leaped off her stool. The spoon tumbled from her grasp to clatter in the bowl. "Rory is not a bastard."

Gavin winced. He seemed to do that a lot lately, probably because he kept screwing up. "Sorry. I meant bastard as, like, sort of a general term for an annoying guy."

"Annoying?" She lodged her hands on her hips. "Rory is my brother. Do I tell you Calli is annoying?"

"Calli isn't irritating. She's sweet and kind."

Jamie rolled her eyes and sighed in melodramatic style. "Calli's a perfect angel, of course. You won't hear a bad word about your sister, but I'm meant to sit here and take it when you insult my brothers."

Where had this conversation gone wrong? The second he'd opened his mouth, that's when.

Gavin shoved both hands in his hair and scrubbed his scalp. It didn't loosen up any common sense that might've been stuck in the back of his brain. "It's not the same. You get along with Calli."

"Have you ever tried to get along with my brothers?" She whapped a hand down on the island. "The answer is no, you haven't."

"I tried, but they hate me."

She threw her hands up and unleashed a frustrated noise. "They donnae hate you. The problem is yours, not theirs."

Gavin couldn't help it. Anger seared his chest and tensed his whole body. "Right, your brothers are the most amazing guys ever to walk the earth. They've got no faults, no prejudices, just layers and layers of awesomeness."

She buckled her arms around herself, head drooping.

He should've shut the hell up, but an anger he couldn't understand drove him to keep going. "Wake up, Jamie. Rory brought in your ex-boyfriend to try to get between us."

Her head snapped up, and though she glared at him, her beautiful eyes shimmered with gathering tears. "Are you implying my brothers are the source of our problems?"

"No, I'm flat-out saying it. They want me gone."

"Ahmno listening to this."

She stormed out the door, her shapely figure dwindling out of sight as she raced deeper into the castle.

Gavin stood immobile at the island. His gaze flicked from the doorway to the ice-cream bowl, back and forth, his focus split by warring needs. Find Jamie and apologize. Hide in here. Chase after her. Run out the front door.

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