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“Right.” My voice faltered when I met his interested eyes, and I quickly shifted my attention back to his brother. Safer territory. “Each season, we take in orphaned cubs, and part of my work involves rehoming them with mothers already raising babies.”
“Oh my gosh,” Zara breathed. “That’s so interesting. So you just, like, drop the babies off and the mom accepts them?”
“Kind of,” I said, nodding. “We have a pretty good idea which females are likely to adopt, and those are the ones we’ll try. And yeah, we just kind of sneak the baby in with the other cubs.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Sly asked, sounding kind of pissed off.
I glanced at him, confirming that he looked mad too. I had a chilling memory of a similar discussion with Zach. “Um. Yeah, it can be. We’re pretty careful.”
“You have a kid.”
My eyes touched Katie, assuring that she was okay, and then found his face again. He was frowning, but there was something in his disapproval I’d never felt with Zach. Like Sly was being protective. I sensed his point, but also didn’t need my high school crush weighing in on the appropriateness of my career choice. “I see your observation skills have improved since we were in high school.”
He frowned. “What’s that mean?”
“Maybe not your intelligence, though.” I rose, wishing I hadn’t said the words out loud as Beckett burst into laughter. I headed out to the lawn to join Katie, though she clearly didn’t need me. Mostly, I needed to get away from Sly. Without consulting me, my brain had obviously decided that the best defense would be a good offense, and now I’d been rude to my host’s son.
“Dinner is ready!” Violet called out the back door.
I busied myself helping Katie get her hands washed and get to the table in the dining room where Violet showed us our places, studiously avoiding eye contact with Sly, who I could feel watching me as we entered the dining room.
“Here you go,” Violet said, waving me into a chair at his side.
“Oh, um...” I couldn’t exactly demand to sit somewhere else.
“Have a seat,” he growled. “I’ll try not to let my lack of intellect ruin your meal.”
Shit. I turned to him. “Sorry about that,” I said.
He lifted a shoulder, his face revealing nothing. I doubted it was possible to hurt the feelings of a guy like him. He’d been named sexiest man on the ice by some regional magazine, after all, and I’d seen a profile on national television about him. The opinion of some girl from his small-town past surely didn’t bother him. And it wasn’t like I actually meant it, anyway. I’d tutored him in math for a little while one year, and he was every bit as intelligent as anyone else.
The rest of the meal was tense. Sam hardly spoke, and Beckett and Zara seemed to be always in secret communication between the two of them, sharing some love language no one else was in on. Katie was busy slurping spaghetti noodles one by one. No matter what I did, she insisted on eating noodles this way. Sly held himself stiffly at my side, and every time I glanced at him, his face was stony and hard.
“I think it’s going to be just beautiful,” Violet was saying. She’d been describing the venue for the wedding through most of the meal, not seeming bothered that her table mates were all preoccupied with other things. “There are tiny cabins, all situated around the lake, and the main lodge is just gorgeous. Very chic, really, for a rustic resort.”
“That’ll be so nice,” I said.
Violet beamed at me.
“So Katie lives with her dad while you go out hunting bears?” The question came from Sly in a voice so low it was practically a vibration between us.
I frowned at him. “No. Katie really doesn’t see her dad.”
“Why not?”
This guy really had no boundaries. “That’s not your business.”
He met my eyes then, narrowing his gaze as if he’d be able to see the answer if he just focused hard enough. “Hmmm.”
I put down the piece of garlic bread I’d been holding. “Hmmm? What? You want to pass another judgment on a life you know nothing about?” I whispered this, not wanting to involve the entire table in whatever was happening between me and Sly Remington.
“Sorry, do you have a monopoly on that?”
I shook my head, holding his dark-eyed gaze. “What?”
His eyes stayed locked on mine, and the rest of the room faded away as our focus melded together. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find smoke rising from between us, since the intensity of the look was turning my insides to some kind of unrecognizable mush, and my brain was stuttering in my head. And then, with what felt like effort, he pulled his attention away and stuffed a huge bite of pasta into his mouth, leaving me to practically collapse against the back of my chair.
Crap. Whatever fascination I’d held for this guy was clearly still there. Only now, he seemed intent on playing with me. Or pissing me off. I couldn’t tell what his motivation was, I just knew I needed to stay away from him.
