Page 53 of What a Wolf Wants

“Yeah, me too. Though there were several parties who wanted it for salvage. Coming here makes for the perfect date,” Charlene said.

Ethan had her stand in front of the vessel and took a picture of her and it, but then he took one of them together. After taking several more pictures of the vessel, they walked to a Civil War military installation that had been guarding the mouth of the Columbia River up through World War II. Then they hiked two miles around Coffenbury Lake and saw the South Jetty observation tower where visitors used to see views of the Columbia River.

“This is just so neat,” she said, holding Ethan’s hand.

“Yeah, this is great.” With Charlene especially.

They walked another trail through the park and thenfinally got into his car and headed back to the house. He was glad he hadn’t been shot in the leg! He wished he could go running with her as a wolf again. Maybe tonight.

“Ribs for dinner?” Ethan carried the ice chest into the house and then emptied it.

“Yeah, that would be good.”

“I was thinking we could run as wolves after dinner.”

She set their backpacks on the table and gave him a serious look. “Your arm needs to heal up more. Besides, we got lots of exercise today. I was thinking of watching a movie. Since you have to leave at two in the morning for your stakeout, we’ll go to bed early.”

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly. “You just want to go to bed early because—”

“Hmm, yeah. You caught me.”

He chuckled and they kissed each other again.

Then they made dinner and sat outside to eat. “I love your view,” he said.

“It’s like having the most special seat at a restaurant, though when it’s chillier out, we can enjoy indoor seating and we’ll have the same great view.”

“And we won’t have to tip the hostess to get the best seats in the house.”

She laughed. “You’re right.”

They ate their meal, then went inside to have hot cocoa and enjoy the movie, settling down in the living room together on one of the couches, snuggling, watching a science-fiction thriller where a teen could make others see things that weren’t there.

“Now that would be a cool power to have,” Charlene said.

“Especially for criminal pursuits.”

“Yeah, you could take down criminals. What if you could make them think that you were one of the bad guys so they would spill the beans to you, and then you could just arrest them without anyone shooting you.”

He smiled. “That would come in handy.”

“You could make the bad guys think they were armed with bananas instead of guns.”

Ethan laughed. “You would be a handful if you had a power like that.”

“You had better believe it.” She kissed him and sighed. “I love that we can pick this up whenever we want to.”

“Hmm?”

She began kissing his mouth. “Let’s finish the movie sometime later. I’m thoroughly enjoying it, but I just keep thinking of something I would rather do with you right now. You have to get up early and we need to make our own kind of magic together.”

“I’m always up for that.”

“I noticed.”

He turned off the TV, she raced off down the hallway, and he chased her into the bedroom to make love.

***