Luckily, the English prick lost the battle and the war.
Gavin had rejoined the MacTaggart clan and the ranks of the blissfully happy.
Even the sole single person at the gathering, Iain, joked and laughed. Nothing much bothered Iain, as Gavin had realized over the past couple months. Despite Iain's unshakable demeanor, Gavin got the impression one thing did unsettle the odd Scot — his lost love, the unnamed American woman he'd fallen for more than a decade ago. Gavin planned on talking to Iain about that later. Maybe the guy needed a neutral party to kick him in the butt and encourage him to go after what he clearly wanted.
Over dessert, things got really interesting.
Jamie leaned close to whisper in his ear. "Should we tell them yet?"
"Sure. Want me to do it, or would you rather?"
"You should do it."
He laid a hand on her thigh under the table. "Anything for my girl."
Gavin pushed his chair back, rose, and tapped his fork on his wine glass.
All eyes focused on him.
"Jamie and I have an announcement," he said, rolling his shoulders back. "We're getting married on January twenty-sixth."
A round of clapping and a few whistles ensued.
Jamie beamed up at him.
He beamed right back at her.
"About bloody time," Lachlan said with a teasing quirk of his lips.
"Sure you're legal?" Aidan said. "Can't have the groom arrested at the altar."
"He's legal, Aidan," Rory said. "Can't say the same for you, though, after seeing your pickup in a no-parking zone in Loch Fairbairn."
"I didnae see the sign," Aidan replied with a tone and an expression of mock innocence.
While everyone else teased and joked, Gavin sat down again and spotted Lachlan and Erica engaged in a secret conversation several chairs away. After a moment, Erica tapped her wine glass with a fork. Once all gazes gravitated to her, she seemed to lose her nerve, biting her lower lip.
Lachlan hooked an arm around her shoulders and whispered something in her ear.
Erica shook her head. She sat up a little straighter and said, "I hope we aren't horning in on Jamie and Gavin's news, but we couldn't wait any longer to tell you guys. I'm pregnant again."
Cheers. Whoops. Glasses raised and clinked in a disorganized toast.
Aidan, seated next to Lachlan, grasped his brothers shoulder and shook it. "Good going, Lachie. Keep your woman by keeping her pregnant. She'll be too busy herding your bairns to get bored with you."
Calli elbowed her husband in his side. "You should talk."
Silence fell over the group as Gavin and apparently everyone else in the room wondered what Calli had meant. They needed to wait only a moment.
Aidan took his wife's hand and kissed it. "Tell them."
Calli bumped her shoulder against his and then faced the crowd. "I'm pregnant again too."
More cheers. More whoops. Another disorganized round of raised and clinked glasses.
"Jeez," Gavin said, shaking his head at Aidan, "let my sister have a break sometime, will you? She just had a baby and now you've got another bun in her oven."
"I am not an oven," Calli said. "Though Aidan is hot as an oven, and I can't stay out of the kitchen."