I raised an eyebrow. “He did? What else did he tell you?”
“Only that he had some sort of reaction when you shook his hand or something,” Callum said.
“Or something is right,” I replied.
“Is he Cauld Ane?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. He seems like it, but he has tattoos. A lot of them.”
“Lucky,” he said. “I wish I could get one.”
“First of all, even if wewerehuman and you could, Dad would kill you.”
“I’m a grown man, Dad can’t tell me what to do.”
“I don’t care how old you are, Dad would still give you a right hiding. And secondly, you would look silly with a tattoo.”
“How can you say that? I’d look like a total bad ass. Like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, or the lead singer from Roses for Anna, or Popeye the Sailor Man.”
“Popeye was a bad ass?” I burst out laughing.
“The ultimate,” Callum said. “He was strong. He’d smack the shite out of Bluto whenever he’d make a move on his girl, and he was a vegetarian way before it was cool.”
“Hewas a smoker,” I argued. “That’s a big turn off.”
“He smoked a pipe,” he countered. “The coolest of all the ways to fill your lungs with a toxic cloud of death.”
“Okay. You’ve convinced me,” I said, nearly out of breath from laughing. My brother had always been the best at cheering me up and distracting me from my problems, but I knew Arric was a problem that wasn’t likely going away easily.
I filled my brother in on everything that happened with Arric during that day, right up to the point when Catriona had left us alone.
“There’s more, Cal,” I said, my eyes going to the floor.
“What?”
“I kissed him. Or he kissed me. I’m not sure, but we kissed.”
“What the hell? You just said he tried to strangle Dad.”
“I know, and I think he’s a great big jerk wad, but…”
“But, what?”
“I also can’t stop thinking about him,” I admitted.
“Is he going to be at dinner?”
“Oh, my God. I don’t know.” I gasped. “I hadn’t even thought of that. If so, I’m not going. You know what? I’m not going either way. Just in case.”
“You have to go,” Callum said. “It’s not only the traditional post-games dinner, but also the largest gathering of Cauld Ane together in one place for almost one-hundred years.”
“Exactly,” I exclaimed. “Cauld Ane and family, and Arric Mann is neither of those things, so why would our uncle invite him to the dinner?”
“You don’t know that he has for certain.”
“Arric said he was Uncle Kade’s invited guest. You know as well as I do, that means the royal treatment.”
My brother nodded. “So, what’s your move?”
