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“Can I help you with anything?” Manners dictated that I offered, though I really didn’t want to leave Ciaran’s side.

“No, but he can.” Emily jabbed a finger in Sean’s direction.

“I don’t know how to cook.”

“I don’t need you to cook, just to carry something heavy. That’s within your limited capabilities, yes?”

The way Sean trooped out of the room after her gave me the distinct impression that Emily wielded a lot of power around here. She probably had to assert herself with such intensely masculine brothers to contend with. I’d only been in the presence of all three Reilly men for a couple of minutes and I was already suffocating from the testosterone.

“Annie.” Ciaran pulled out a chair on the left side of the table. He helped me to sit and then took his own seat at the head of the table. I was glad he’d put me closest to him. “Will, set a couple of places for yourself and Emily and pour the wine.”

His imperious tone set my teeth on edge, but Will either didn’t notice or he was used to being bossed about by his older brother. Being an only child, I didn’t understand sibling dynamics, so I held my tongue and watched as Will fetched silverware from a drawer in the dresser at the side of the room. He found plates in the cabinet and set two more places. Then he grabbed both bottles of wine from the center of the table.

“What’s it to be, Annie? We’ve got red or…” He glanced at the label on the second bottle. “Red.”

“Then I guess I’ll have red.”

He filled my glass first, then the others, starting with Ciaran’s. He took a seat just as a crash came from the kitchen, followed by Emily yelling at Sean about being an idiot. I bit my bottom lip, but nobody else seemed concerned by the noise.

“The answer is yes, before you ask,” Will said. “We are always like this. We can be loud, but I promise you, we’re all good friends here.”

I sighed in relief. “That’s good. I’m an only child, so I don’t really get the whole brothers and sisters thing.”

“Give it a couple of weeks and you’ll be joining in,” Will said.

“Oh, I won’t be here in a couple of weeks.”

“You planning on breaking up with my brother already?”

“No, it’s just that I’m heading home tomorrow.”

Will glanced at Ciaran, whose expression was unreadable. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I might have detected a little tension around his mouth.

“Yeah? Where’s home?”

“Scotland.”

“Ah, I wondered about the accent. I thought it might be Irish.”

It was interesting. I’d always imagined my accent was distinctly Scottish, but since I arrived in Detroit, several people had asked where I was from.

“I have some Irish connections in Detroit, though.”

Beneath the table, Ciaran’s hand landed on my leg. It felt like a warning.

“Anyone we’d know?” Will asked jovially.

“Perhaps. I’m distantly related to….”

“Not now, sweetheart.” Squeezing my leg in a definite command to drop the subject, Ciaran cut me off. “We’re here to enjoy my sister’s birthday, not to untangle your family tree.”

His rebuke stung, but I supposed he was right. He’d already made his opinion of Danny Mulhearn clear and if his siblings felt the same way, it would sour the mood. I’d accepted at this point I would never meet my American relatives, anyway.

With the atmosphere in the room dampened, we didn’t speak again until Sean came into the room, carrying a casserole dish out in front of him as if he was displaying some grand prize. He held it up for us all to see and then set it down at the center of the table with a flourish. It seemed Ciaran’s brother had a flair for the theatrical. Emily came in a moment later with a basket of bread and a dish of steamed cabbage.

“It’s nothing fancy, I’m afraid, Annie, just a coddle.”

“Coddle?” I had a vague recollection of the dish. “That’s a stew, isn’t it?”