The defensiveness in her tone surprised him, and he shook his head. "I know, it's cool," he told her seriously. "I was just fucking with you. But seriously. You shouldn't have to worry about getting shit for yourself, because you haven't been bitten yet. I'd rather you not risk it, you know? And I'm sure your family would, too." Whether they were the most attentive people or not. The joke about Alghren made him smirk. "She was a little more then a stripper back then, too. Easiest chick I ever met." At least, to everyone but Brandon.
Brandon had certainly not meant a single negative word about his niece. He was just going with the flow of conversation. He tended to do that a lot, and stick his foot in his mouth more often than not. As a matter of fact, he hadn't even realized that he'd done it this time. "Oh, well good. Wouldn't want any mixed signals coming from you, anyway." A statement that held a lot more truth than he was saying.
Making fun of her? Brandon laughed. "Ha! Well, it wasn't what I meant, but it was an accidental bonu—I mean consequence—of the situation..." he gave her a wry grin and shrugged a shoulder. "So, uh... sorry about that." He clicked his teeth and winked at her playfully.
The face that Brandon made when Maddie yelled made it very obvious that he wasn't going to win this contest any time soon. Every eye in the whole room was on them, all in varying degrees of horror and disgust and Brandon had to physically try and hold his laughter in. It wasn't an easy thing to do, but for the first few seconds, he managed.
After that, he turned to her and let a small chuckle escape. "I think you win," he mumbled, keeping his one good hand clutched tightly to his tray as he followed her to the seats they'd be sitting in. Only when he sat down did he allow himself to burst out laughing.