Every single one of them sat forward, completely alert.
“I, um …” I tried to remember what I’d gone over with Arran last night. He’d dropped me off at the lodge without coming in, teasing about wanting it to be like a proper first date. But before that, we’d decided we wouldn’t give everyone too much detail about how long we’d been seeing each other or how it had only been casual at first. “Arran and I are dating.”
Stunned silence greeted me.
I looked to Mac, who was frowning.
“Our friendship,” I hurried on, “has been important to me, and, um, to Arran, but we realized it’s more than that. So we’ve decided to date. Each other. Just each other. We’re seeing just each other, no one else. Not that I was, anyway.” I laughed nervously. “But Arran is just seeing me. There’s no one … yeah, we’re dating.” I clamped my mouth shut to stop the nervous rambling.
Arro’s expression was careful as she processed. Robyn chuckled, and Regan practically bounced with glee on the couch, her hands clasped together over her breast.
Mac … Mac had moved on to scowling.
Arro, following my gaze to her fiancé, sighed at his expression. “Mackennon, you know I was the first person to warn Arran off Ery last year.”
She was?
“But he’s different now. He’s different with her. I think this could be a good thing.”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “So now you trust your brother with Eredine?”
“Aye, I do.”
Mac scoffed. “He’s a player.”
“No, he was. I have to have faith that he’s become a mature thirty-six-year-old man who respects his family enough not to fool around with and potentially hurt someone we love. I didn’t give him his due all those months ago, but now I want to. I need to.”
Relief flooded me at her defense of her brother.
But her fiancé was still frowning as he turned back to me. “You’re happy?”
I smiled at his question. “I am.”
“Then that’s all that matters.”
Robyn snorted, smirking at her father. “You’re going to threaten to kill him if he hurts her, aren’t you?”
Mac took a noncommittal sip of his tea, but both his fiancée and daughter laughed, so I guessed that meant he was going to threaten Arran’s life.
And I thought about this with positivity.
Because it meant Mac cared about my well-being.
They all did.
“I’m happy for you.” Regan reached out to squeeze my arm. “I saw sparks between you from the very beginning and was hoping this would happen. You’re so good for him.”
Just like that, the sweet relief I’d felt from their reaction, from Mac’s protectiveness, died a sudden death.
Because I wasn’t the one they needed to worry about.
Arran was.
He was the one in danger of being hurt here.
He’d already confessed the darkest part of his past to me.
And yet … he didn’t even know my real name.
I doubted I’d ever be able to tell him.
Right then, it hit me in a way I hadn’t allowed before. If things went south with us … I could lose the Adairs.
I could lose everything.
22
ARRAN
As soon as Thane returned from upstairs where he’d left the kids to do their homework, I commandeered the conversation. “So I need to tell you something.”
Lachlan sat on a stool at the island, nursing a beer, while I stood on the other side of it, nursing mine. Thane slid onto the stool next to our brother and said, “We assumed so, since you asked Lachlan to be here.”
I had requested the men to gather at Thane’s, but Mac hadn’t shown, and Lachlan told me he was at Arro’s book club, which meant it was up to Eredine to tell him. I hoped to Christ that went well.
I looked between my brothers. “Let me preface this by saying that I respect this family, and I would never go into anything lightly that would affect them or someone they loved.”
“This sounds ominous,” Lachlan replied dryly.
“I’m seeing Ery,” I blurted out, and then took a long chug of beer.
Thane smirked knowingly.
Lachlan … well, he glowered at me like he wanted to take my head off my shoulders. “Explain,” he bit out.
Not particularly relishing the fatherly tone he’d used many a time when I was younger, I pulled back my shoulders and tried to keep the defiance from my tone. “I care about her. As more than a friend. She feels the same way. So we’re dating. And it’s serious. For me, anyway.”
At that, my eldest brother’s expression softened, but I saw the worry in his eyes. “Is it serious for Eredine?”
“I think so. I hope so.” I shrugged, running a hand through my hair. “She gives me what she can of herself, but I know there’s a lot she’s hiding. And she specifically didn’t make any promises of being able to give me more.”
“And you can handle that?” Thane frowned.