Page 69 of Warlander Grizzly

“Nothing! I was just being nice!”

“Cut the shit, what do you want.”

“Can you see how far away the girls are on that phone-tracking app? I haven’t seen Cadence in three hours.”

“I thought it was boys’ night,” she told them as she pulled her phone back out and checked the tracking app. She could see Cadence and Jenna’s location, and they were somewhere in the vicinity of the parking lot. She laughed. Stage-five clingers, all of them.

“They’ll be here in approximately thirty seconds,” she announced, nodding to someone down the bar who was signaling they needed another drink.

“Yessss,” Kru hissed, pumping his fist. “We need two girly drinks when you get the chance.”

She snorted. “Have you met your mate? She can shoot whiskey better than you.”

“Fair,” Kru muttered as he and Lucas twisted around to watch the front door.

“It’s so hot watching you work,” Landon said low.

“Well, I had a feeling you would show up here tonight, so I wore this shirt for you.”

His eyes darted to the low V in the T-shirt’s neck, and she reveled in the hungry smile that took his lips. “I can’t wait to get you home.”

Her skin heated under his compliment, and butterflies filled her middle. She loved nights with him.

“Guess what I did today?” he asked as the others went to greet Jenna and Cadence as they walked in the door.

“Ummm, helped your dad torture the Boarlanders.”

“Ha,” he laughed. “Well…yes, but that only took an hour. I went to see your dad.”

She stopped mid-shake on a margarita. “What?”

Landon’s eyes filled with seriousness, and God, he looked so handsome tonight. He wore a thin white T-shirt with a silver necklace that disappeared into the neckline. She had gifted it to him for a belated birthday present, and he wore it anytime he didn’t think he would Change and destroy it. His muscular arms pressed against the short sleeves as he leaned forward onto the bar. “I asked him if it was okay that I date you.”

“What did he say?”

“He smiled and he said he’s known since two years ago.”

“He saw it?”

Landon nodded, and she could see the gooseflesh painting his skin. It matched her own. Chills, chills, chills.

“Why wouldn’t he tell me?”

Landon shrugged. “I don’t know. He gave me a knife.”

“Let me see it,” she said, feeling breathless.

He reached into his back pocket, flipped the blade open, and set it on the countertop.

Chills, chills, chills.

Throat tightening up, she pulled her knife from her apron and set it beside his. Beaston had made Landon a bigger version of the knife he’d made for her years ago. The handle was larger and more fit for his bigger hands. Even the woodgrain of the handles matched.

“My vision is wrong, isn’t it?” she asked him.

Landon’s eyes softened, and he nodded. “It has to be. Your dad wouldn’t have given me this if he thought I would hurt you. Just in case though, I dragged a cage up to Smashland before we came here.”

“The one from my painting?”

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