Cooper filled Park in on the events at the zoo and Eli. Part of him was hoping Park would just laugh it off and say Oh, that’s quintessential Eli. Wait ’til I tell you about the dogsled story, but instead Park sounded deeply disturbed. Far more than Cooper had even anticipated.
“And he really didn’t say anything at all about why he was there?” Park questioned yet again.
“I told you everything, word for word.” He had. What he hadn’t said was just how exhausted Eli had looked, the real note of urgency in his voice when he asked them to buy him time. “Look, don’t mention this to your family, okay? He was really adamant about no one knowing he was there.”
“They’re his pack. They probably know more than we do.”
“Maybe they’re not anymore,” Cooper suggested. “Maybe he took a page out of your book and left too.”
“Eli wouldn’t do well without a pack,” Park said firmly.
“Yeah, he seemed to be doing super well when I last saw him wandering around naked and panicked in the zoo,” Cooper said sarcastically. “Maybe I’m wrong. But you said yourself it was weird he was out of town when you visited and Helena wouldn’t say where.”
“I thought that was because—”
Park cut off. Cooper waited.
“I thought maybe he heard about us getting married from the others and didn’t want to see me,” Park mumbled eventually.
He sounded embarrassed, and Cooper wondered why. He waited a beat, hoping Park would elaborate, but he changed the subject instead. “Everyone says congratulations, by the way. Or something like that. They don’t get why we’re doing it, really, but they think it’s hilarious.”
“I live to make others laugh,” Cooper said wryly. “How’s it going up there?”
He listened to Park catch him up on various family gossip, relieved to hear it wasn’t going nearly as badly as he’d feared. When his eyes started to drift closed, the pleasant rumble of Park’s voice in his ear, Cooper grabbed the last of the wine, his glass and the poker, and went upstairs to their bedroom.
“Are you going to bed now?” Park asked.
“Yeah, I’m beat.”
“I’m in bed, too,” Park said in an odd tone, almost like Cooper was forgetting something.
“All right, so we’re both bringing shame to our age group.” Cooper set the poker up, leaning against the nightstand.
“I’ve been thinking about you a lot today,” Park was saying. “I wish you were here with me right now.”
Cooper snorted. “In your family manor? While you tell your traditional relatives all about how I’m Lady Macbeth-ing you into claiming key pack territory? With my arsenic allergy? Hard pass. I’m good here where only Boogie can judge me.”
“All right. Then I wish I were there, too. With you. Not the cat. The cat’s downstairs.”
“Is she?” Cooper asked, nonplussed. He realized he hadn’t seen Boogie since coming back inside when Park had called. A trickle of anxiety started down his throat. Had she followed him on to the porch somehow? She’d never shown an interest in nature before. But this was a new house, a new outside.
He abandoned his wine on the nightstand and went back downstairs, turning on all the lights. He searched her favorite lounging spots—only half listening to Park now and getting increasingly tense when he didn’t find her.
“Is something wrong?” Park was asking. “You sound off.”
Cooper flicked on the laundry room light. Finally. Boogie sat in a basket, nesting in a pile of Park’s clothes, looking supremely annoyed to be disturbed. Seemed like he wasn’t the only one missing their third musketeer.
Cooper scratched her head, relieved. “Just jumpy, I guess. Overtired.”
“I can think of one way to relax you.”
“Been there, drank that. What do you think I am, an amateur?”
Park sighed very gently, sounding almost disappointed.
“What? What’s the matter?” Cooper asked.
“Nothing,” Park said. “I’m just—I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.”
“Me too,” Cooper said, and the raw honesty in his own voice made his cheeks heat.
Soon after, they said their goodbyes and hung up. Cooper put the house to rest once more, went upstairs and got ready for bed. It was near embarrassing how much more settled he felt after talking to Park. His body was warm, relaxed and lingering on the edge of a tingling sort of awareness that could tip into simple excitement for Park’s return the next evening or into full-blown arousal, depending on which way he pushed it.
He stripped down, watching himself absently in the bedroom’s full-length mirror—a big brass-trimmed, freestanding antique that Park had brought with him from his old place so Cooper couldn’t even veto it on sight. That hadn’t stopped him from proclaiming the mirror was a cursed heirloom that would kill them in their sleep, of course, though secretly he’d grown a bit fond of it. At least it was ostentatious and useful.
Cooper scratched at his belly and let the touch shift into a lazy, ticklish brush of fingertips over skin, hair. Such a simple, silly pleasure to know the one you missed missed you. Was thinking about you. Wanted to be in your bed, like you wanted them in your bed. Had said so, voice gravelly with desire...
Cooper froze and blinked at himself in the mirror. “You fucking idiot,” he said.
He lunged for his phone and called back.
“What’s wrong?” Park asked immediately, voice tense.
“Nothing’s wrong. I just—” Cooper searched for the right words, feeling suddenly, inexplicably nervous. “Were you trying to start something? Something on the phone before? With the I’m in bed and the wish you were here and one way to relax you stuff?”
Cooper winced. Hearing it all together...yeah, okay, so he’d been distracted, all right?
He could practically hear Park smiling fondly. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m not worried about it,” Cooper retorted. “I just... Do you still want to? Do something? Christ, I sound like a tenth grader.” He blew out a noisy breath and sat on the upholstered bench at the end of the bed. “Do you want to get each other off over the phone?”
“Well, don’t ease me into it too subtly,” Park said wryly. Then added, “Yeah, I want to. But only if you actually want to and not just because you think I want to. ’Cause I’m fine.”
“I’m fine too. You’re fine. We’re all fine. Now that’s settled—can we do the sex now?”