“We saw each other not long before she married your brother. Why?”
“Do you know she’s expecting a baby?”
It occurred to her after she asked that Anna might have liked to have broken that news, herself. She issued her sister-in-law a mental apology, but knew she would add, in her own defense, that making conversation with Bran wasn’t exactly an easy task. She found herself saying things just to get a response out of him.
“Is she?”
Bailey noted that he didn’t look particularly surprised. “You already knew?”
“She must be very happy about it,” he commented, neatly avoiding her question. “Anna has always wanted children.”
“She and Dean are both thrilled. So am I. I can’t wait to be an aunt. And you’ll be an uncle. Won’t that be fun?”
Bran seemed to be more interested in her. “Wouldn’t you like to have children of your own?”
She felt her cheeks grow warm. Avoiding his gaze, she imitated his careless shrug. “Sure, someday. But I’m the old-fashioned type. I’d prefer to be married before I have a child. And it doesn’t look as though that’s going to happen anytime soon.”
“Why not?”
His bluntness took her aback. “Well, it just… I don’t know. I haven’t met the right guy yet.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m twenty-nine. How old are you?” she asked wryly.
“I have celebrated my twenty-fifth birthday,” he replied carefully.
She lifted an eyebrow at his odd wording. “Then you’re younger than I am.”
He smiled then. “Not exactly.” Before she could demand to know what he meant by his teasing, he spoke again. “I would have thought you’d already be married and have children by now. Most women do so by your age, don’t they?”
“I think you’re even more old-fashioned than I am.”
He smiled. “Quite likely,” he murmured.
He had a decidedly strange sense of humor. Bailey couldn’t follow him at all. “You’ve never been married?” she asked, trying to lead the topic back to him.
“No. You’re a very attractive woman, Bailey. I wouldn’t have thought you’d lack for suitors.”
She choked. “And you accused me of being outspoken!”
“I’m sorry. Have I offended you?”
“No,” she admitted. “I’m not easily offended. And it isn’t as though I haven’t dated. It just never seemed to work out for me, relationship-wise. The guys I date all seem to have some sort of emotional baggage to deal with, and—”
“Emotional baggage?” Bran repeated, looking confused.
“Surely you’ve heard the term. It refers to emotional scars—you know, garbage left over from past experiences.”
“I see,” he said slowly. “And all the men you’ve dated were scarred?”
“That’s an odd way to put it, but—well, yeah. I guess most of them were. I’d do my best to help them, and then, as soon as they got their confidence back, they’d move on to someone who didn’t know them as well as I did by then. It seemed to embarrass them that I knew their weaknesses.”
“Perhaps you’ve been dating the wrong sort of men.”
“Obviously. But it isn’t going to happen again. I’m out of the meddling, ego-bolstering business for good. Folks can just solve their own problems from now on. I—darn it, you’re doing it again!”
“Doing what?” he asked blandly.