Page 100 of The Laird who Craved her

Douglas came to stand beside him, folding his arms across his broad chest as he surveyed the celebration below. "Busy place."

"Aye."

Douglas nodded thoughtfully. "I remember another morning." Finn already knew which one he meant. "The northern fields."

"The very same." Douglas chuckled to himself. "Ye stood there lookin' half frozen, covered in mud, insisting ye'd sooner wrestle a wild boar than take a wife."

Finn sighed heavily. "I said nothing about the boar."

"Nay?" Douglas scratched thoughtfully at his beard. "Perhaps I added that part."

"I've no doubt ye did."

"It makes the story better."

Finn shook his head, though a faint smile remained. "I've regretted telling ye anything for the last ten years."

Douglas grinned without a trace of guilt. "And yet here ye are." His gaze drifted toward the castle. "Marrying."

Finn followed his gaze instinctively. The heavy doors remained closed. She was somewhere inside. His chest tightened with a profound feeling he still struggled to name, though it had become as familiar as breathing.

Douglas watched him from the corner of his eye. "I've waited a long while to see that look."

Finn frowned slightly. "What look?"

"The one where ye've forgotten the rest of the world exists."

Before Finn could answer, another voice interrupted. "I was beginning to think I'd find the pair of ye hiding somewhere."

Leo MacSween crossed the battlements with the easy confidence of a man entirely at home among friends, his grin impossible to miss. Finn inclined his head. "MacSween."

"Laird." Leo stopped beside them, looking Finn up and down. "I've been deciding whether today should end with a wedding... or a murder."

Douglas barked out a laugh. "I told him the wedding might be more memorable."

Leo nodded gravely. "Aye. I've postponed killing ye."

Finn raised one eyebrow. "Generous."

"Dinnae thank me yet," Leo said, folding his arms. "If me cousin ever writes telling me ye've made her cry..." He let the deadly sentence hang in the air.

Douglas cleared his throat dramatically. "I'll help bury what's left."

Finn looked from one man to the other. "So I've allies on neither side."

"Nay," Leo replied easily. "Ye have witnesses."

For a heartbeat, the three men simply looked at one another. Then they laughed. Douglas clapped Finn hard enough on the shoulder to nearly knock him forward.

"Who would've thought?" Douglas mused.

"The Devil of the North," Leo finished for him. "Marrying for love."

Finn looked back toward the castle, his smile coming easily now. "There was a time I believed every battle had to be won." His voice grew quiet. "I was wrong. Some are worth surrendering."

Neither man teased him. They understood exactly what he meant. At that moment, Mrs. Campbell appeared in the courtyard below, waving both hands until she had everyone's attention. Her broad smile could have lit the entire castle.

"The bride is ready!"