Page 57 of What a Wolf Wants

“I will. Love you.”

“Love you too, honey,” Ethan said.

Then she answered the knock at the door and smiled brightly at Renault. “Well, this is a pleasant surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I was in the area, and I wanted to come by and see you.”

“Come in. Do you want some coffee?”

“Yeah, sure. That will be great. You have a nice place here.” He walked over to the windows that looked out on the deck and the Pacific Ocean. “Beautiful.”

“Yeah, I love it here. It’s been so nice, and it’ll be fun to see it during the different seasons.”

“For sure.”

“Let’s sit out on the deck and have our coffee,” she said.

“Perfect.”

They settled on a couple of chairs on the back deck and drank their coffee.

“So the reason why I’m here is that I wanted to apologize to you for not telling you the truth.”

About the roses he’d sent her, she thought. “Oh?”

“Yeah, I um, sent the roses to you.”

She smiled. “Well, that was sweet of you.”

He sighed. “I never thought Ethan would win you over.”

She laughed. “We just hit it off from the very beginning.”

“When we raided your place, that was the first time youhad met him?” Renault sounded like he couldn’t believe they would be that enamored with each other that quickly.

“Yeah.” She sipped her coffee. “Well, thanks for the roses. They were lovely.”

“I bet Ethan didn’t bring you any.”

“He did.” She laughed. “Twice as many. But yours were beautiful too. Why did you send them to me anonymously? That’s what I couldn’t understand.” Except that she knew he was a beta male.

“I knew Noah had gotten Ethan’s job. Then here you were at the house we raided, and he hadn’t said anything at all about you already being in Portland. So I assumed he and you had split up. I called him and asked, and he said no. I knew you would have moved there together if you had still been a couple.”

“Okay, but the other thing that puzzles me is why did you send the flowers to me when we live so far away from each other? I mean, it would be impossible to date much,” she said.

“Yeah, but I knew you and I’ve always liked you and I wanted to see if we could make it work. Noah didn’t appreciate you like I did. Maybe you would have even wanted to return to Portland to be with me if things had worked out between us.”

She smiled. “Do you want another cup of coffee?”

“Yeah, sure. I would love some. I…kind of thought Ethan might be here.”

She sensed something was going on with Renault, but he was having a hard time coming out with it. “He went to getsome groceries. I called him to tell him you were here. He said he would try to see you before you leave. But he’s also running some other errands, setting up his bank account, and other stuff.”

“Oh, seeing Ethan would be great.” Renault smelled a little nervous about the prospect of meeting up with Ethan at her house.

Maybe he was afraid Ethan wouldn’t like it if he knew Renault was visiting her alone when he had sent her the flowers. She was thinking that this might be a great way for Ethan to talk to him and maybe get at the root of what was going on with Renault without tipping his hand. Noah would have to go to the DEA house and stay there without Renault seeing him though.

“Let me text Ethan to see if he wants to have lunch with you. I know he would love to connect with you since you worked so close together.”