to be done on Grandmaâs list without you.â
She was right and he knew it.
Paul leaned against the wall, folded his arms, and watched her put the rest of the food away. âYou canât tell me that they didnât want more. And that not getting anything more, they werenât ticked off. I saw the way they acted when Dusty was in the grocery store this morning trying to sweet-talk a woman into going out with him. She said no, and he didnât like it.â
â Nothâ¦thing happened. All right? Give it a rest .â
At least nothing life-threatening, though the Coopers were lucky Paul and Allan hadnât witnessed it. They would have been in serious trouble with a couple of hotheaded SEAL wolves. It all had to do with their wolf nature. Even a really loose-knit pack would treat this as a pack matter. Just as his parents would have done when he and Allan were young.
Lori closed the fridge door and turned to frown at Paul, letting him know that she wasnât going to put up with anything related to the business with the brothers.
Paul couldnât help feeling wired and aggressive about this. He swore Lori was trying to hide her feelings from him, but he could smell that she was upset. He was certain the men had given the ladies a hard time about not getting more than just a swimming excursion at the lake.
If nothing had happened, why would she be so ticked off at him?
When she was done putting away the groceries, she changed the subject. âI know itâs getting late, but before the sun sets, do you want to pick huckleberries? This is the perfect time to harvest them, and I bought the ingredients we can use to make jam. Iâd normally gather the berries earlier in the day, but I want to have the jam ready for breakfast.â
âHell, yeah. Now would be the perfect time. I havenât had fresh huckleberry jam in years. We can make it tonight so we have all day tomorrow to work on the projects.â He remembered countless times as a boy when heâd picked the berries for his mother to make into jam, or just ate the berries straight off the bushes when running around in the woods with Allan.
âWe only get you for a few hours,â she reminded him.
âAbout thatâ¦â He took two of the pails she had retrieved from a closet. âIâm willing to stay here long enough to get everything done that Emma wants taken care of. Iâm fine with it.â More than fine with it. He realized that this was the first occasion heâd had to spend any real time with Lori without other pack membersâ involvement. âAllan and I will get together after I put in some work here. Heâs got dates tonight and tomorrow night anyway, so he might even need the extra time to have the place to himself.â
She raised a brow at Paul as they headed outside and began to walk through the woods.
Paul shrugged. âThe auction was good for him. He got lots of attention.â
âToo bad you didnât luck out with some dates too.â She sounded serious and even a tad concerned that he might have that in mind for the rest of the time they were here.
âHell, why would I want to date anyone when Iâm having so much fun here?â
She rolled her eyes at Paul. He laughed. He never dated humans here. He wouldnât when he was way more interested in a wolf named Lori.
âI imagine he wonât mind helping me finish up when weâre here scuba diving at the end of our vacation,â Paul said, âif we donât get everything done before that.â
âScuba diving,â she said as they sauntered down the path through the woods.
He wondered if Emma hadnât mentioned it to her. âYeah. Itâs not going to be a problem, is it? We donât have to stay here if you have other plans.â That immediately made him think of Lori and Rose having other guys up there.
âNo, no, uh, I was wonderingâ¦â She
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