Cooper snorted and put the poker down, leaning against the table. “Busy pining for the lover who abandoned me.”

“Mmmm. He sounds like a fool. You can do better.”

“Are you better?”

“For you? I better be,” Park murmured.

Cooper laughed, poured himself another glass of wine and relaxed back on the couch. Even with just the sound of Park’s voice in his ear, the house felt fuller, more familiar. “Speaking of finding better men in your life...”

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.