“So, I'm guessing you're one of these Howlers I've heard so much about?”
“I am. Born and raised here.”
“Are you all really untrusting of strangers, and a person has to live here for at least ten years before they are accepted?”
Her laugh was a small huff of breath, and Brad had the urge to pull her closer. Instead, he eased back.
“That sounds about right. Although we're shallow too. We accepted Branna, who writes as Rosanna Howlling, and her dad, DJ O'Donnell, right off because they're famous.”
“That O'Donnell wastheDJ O'Donnell?”
She nodded.
“And Branna is Rosanna Howlling.”
Brad whistled. Reading was something he'd come to late, but he wouldn't be without a book now, and had read a few O'Donnell books late into the night when he should have been sleeping.
“I can see how you'd hold on to them.”
Her laugh was more a giggle this time.
“It helps that they’re nice people.”
The woman smelled soft and sinfully sexy.
“You be nice to my girl here, brother.”
Ethan bumped hips with Brad, and he felt a jolt at the contact. Ethan had always been way more comfortable with demonstrative gestures than the rest of the Gelderman siblings.
“She's special, this one.”
He managed a nod, but didn't add any words. Annabelle then draped an arm around his neck, and Brad felt like he'd broken out in a rash. All this touching was unsettling.
“What's with you people?” he muttered before he could stop himself.
“What's the problem, brother? You don't like being touched?” his new sister-in-law asked.
“Not so much, and I don't remember you at the dinner table.”
“We're related through marriage now, Brad, so suck it up,” she said, planting a smacking kiss on his cheek before she fell into her new husband's arms.
“They're happy and want everyone to be the same,” Macy said, moving closer to him, close enough that he could read the expression in her eyes. “Spare a thought for me, I'm surrounded by them. Nearly all my friends are paired up. It's just me and a couple of others left now.”
Her words may have been light, but he was sure there was some longing in there too.
“It’s not for me,” Brad said, watching his brother kiss his new wife. “I’m not the marrying kind.”
“I thought I was, turns out I was wrong.”
“Just because it didn’t work the first time, doesn’t mean it won’t the second.”
“I don’t think so. I don’t want to feel that miserable again.”
She wasn’t looking at him; her eyes were on Ethan and Annabelle.
“I don’t know anything about marriage, or being in a relationship, but I don’t think everyone is miserable.”
“I know that, Brad. But I was, and don’t want to repeat that anytime soon.”
