“Thanks for the tip.” He screwed up his face. “Didn’t take long to break that rule.” A curious expression crossed his face. “Does this mean I owe you a favor?”

Laughing at his wariness, I stirred my drink with a finger. “This makes us even.”

He returned to his food prep, back facing me, hauling out steaks and dashing them with spices. Watching him fascinated me. Where my family assaulted the kitchen, Graeson moved through it with practiced ease, comfortable in his space, revealing a new facet of his personality.

“You like to cook.” More than having a fancy preparation area, he knew how to use it.

“Wargs like to eat.” He popped a slice of zucchini in his mouth to illustrate the point. “With Marie, it was either learn to cook or accept I’d be driving into town to pick up chicken nugget meals for dinner every night until she was old enough to drive herself.”

I held my breath, expecting his fluid motions to stutter or his voice to catch, but his tone remained rich and amused. He was healing. It was a beautiful thing to witness.

“So,” he said casually, “I hear you’re going to Kermit.”

Right to the punch. “My, what big ears you have, Grandma.”

“You know how the pack bond works.” He made it sound like any eavesdropping on his part was accidental. “I can’t help what filters through.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Were you going to mention you were leaving, or was I going to knock on your door one morning and find you gone?”

Ah. Here we grappled with the root of the problem. “I would have mentioned it to you for the sake of my family.”

The knife in his hand thunked to the cutting board. “What about my sake?”

“I wasn’t going to ask for your permission, if that’s what you’re insinuating should have happened.”

Giving up on the vegetables he was slicing, he turned back to me and planted his palms on the bar top. “What has your panties in a twist? You’ve got that look in your eye like you’re spoiling for a fight.” He huffed. “What did I do this time?”

“You went home with Imogen.” I hadn’t meant to say it, was horrified as soon as the words left my mouth, but there was no calling them back.

He hung his head and shook it like he couldn’t believe I’d called him out on it either. “You don’t think much of me, do you?”

“She was creeping up your leg like a poisonous vine when I left you, and you went home with her.”

Funny thing about anger. It lubricated me until things I never would have said out loud to another man slid right past my filters.

“You left me to fend for myself.” His head lifted, expression cool and unreadable. “I thought you didn’t care she was pawing me.”