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Charlene was so relieved when Ethan returned to sleep with her.

She d had a devil of a time getting back to sleep after he had left because she missed his comforting cuddles.

She was dying to know what he and Noah had seen while they were on surveillance, but she knew they had to sleep too so she had kept the talking to a minimum once Ethan returned to bed.

She woke to find Ethan had already left the bed and was in the kitchen making coffee. She hurried to dress and joined him, hugging and kissing him. Good morning, you, she said to him.

Good morning, honey. So would eggs and ham be all right to fix? I probably need to go to the grocery store and pick up some more groceries. I left the food I had bought at the house for Noah so he would be all set up.

That was sweet of you. Eggs and ham for breakfast will be great to have.

Last night, one of the cars that arrived at Oakley s house was Renault s.

No way. Are you sure it was him? Maybe someone else was driving his car.

Charlene just couldn t imagine that Noah s friend was the mole in the organization.

He always seemed really nice. But for the right price or even blackmail, an agent could be turned.

Oh, poor Noah. He must be angry or upset about it.

He was kind of quiet once he learned of it. I hope he doesn t confront Renault about it, trying to discover if Renault is involved with these guys. I just don t want either of us to jump to the wrong conclusions.

I agree. She poured cups of coffee for them.

I hear Noah s car pulling up now. Hey, after we do this, no matter the outcome, I m ready to return home and take a nap with you.

She laughed. Yeah, wolfish naps are the best. Especially if you have a cuddly wolf to snuggle with. I couldn t wait for you to return home to me so we could spoon each other again after your surveillance mission.

He smiled. The feeling was mutual. Being at home with you in bed was preferable to drinking coffee in Noah s car with him and collecting license plate numbers of all the vehicles that dropped by Oakley s house.

Poor Tori. I kept her awake for most of the time we were doing surveillance, feeding her all the plate numbers so she could track down who owned them.

But nobody you were looking for dropped by? Charlene set the table for breakfast for the three of them while Ethan went to get the door for Noah.

Unfortunately not or we would have taken them in right then and there. Ethan opened the front door before Noah could knock. Good morning. I told Charlene what we learned last night. I hope you got some sleep.

I did, though I was still perturbed about the situation with Renault. But you were right. We have to just put that on the back burner and deal with these other guys, then sort out what s going on with him, Noah said, walking into the dining room with Ethan. Morning, Charlene.

Morning, Noah. I hope you re not as tired as I am, she said, and I didn t even stay up as long as you guys did.

I know you were worried about us, Noah said, though he gave her a wink like he didn t really mean she was worried about him, just about Ethan.

Of course I was. I know you dodge bullets well, but Ethan? She smiled at Ethan.

Ethan chuckled. Okay, ham and eggs. Or omelets with grated cheese? He took over the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

Ham and eggs, both Noah and Charlene said.

She was impressed. She figured she was going to be making breakfast for the guys again, which was fine with her. They had a job to do. She could relax for the rest of the day. Well, sort of. She would be worried about Ethan and Noah while they carried out their mission today.

Once they finished breakfast, she said, I ll clean up. You guys be safe.

We will be, Ethan said. Then he kissed her. I m not going to be quiet about it any longer. I have to tell you that I love you, honey.

She smiled brightly at him and hugged him tight. I love you too and I didn t want to wait any longer to say it either. It was so easy to say that to Ethan. Though she had planned to reveal it to him when he returned to her to take a nap.

She realized that she and Noah had never said they loved each other, but with Ethan, it came so naturally, and she really meant it. She thought Noah had already left, but he was standing near the front door watching them.

He smiled a little but didn t seem to be offended or upset about it. She was glad because she wanted to be friends with him. As lupus garous belonging to such an exclusive and small group of people, it was important.

She and Ethan kissed each other again and the guys left, and she cleaned up the kitchen. Later, she heard someone pull up in the drive. It wasn t Noah s car, so she wasn t sure who it could be. She peered out the window and saw it was Renault. Ohmigod, what was he doing here?

She took a deep settling breath and called Ethan, hoping he wasn t in the middle of a bad situation. Hey, Ethan, I hope I m not interrupting anything.

No. We ve been watching to see if Oakley arrives at his great-aunt s house, but he hasn t yet. We ll keep observing to see if he arrives or if his great-aunt goes to church on her own. What s going on there? Ethan sounded like he was concerned something might be wrong.

She was glad he was intuitive like that. Renault just drove up to my house.

Shit.

He s not going to hurt me. He doesn t know that I know about him parking his car at Oakley s house. I just wanted to make you aware that he s here. He s still sitting in his car.

You be careful with him, Ethan said, sounding worried about her.

I ve got this. She wouldn t have worried Ethan, but she didn t want him being upset with her if she hadn t told him that Renault had come by and something had gone wrong.

Okay, well, you call if you have any trouble at all.

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 you had 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 get some 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.

Okay, yeah, that would be great, Renault said.

She thought Renault might say he had to run, so she was surprised when he agreed to it.

Great. She texted Ethan then. Having lunch with you and Renault at the house. He s eager to see you. You re out running errands, grocery shopping, setting up a bank account.

Ethan texted back: Okay, my car is in your garage, but Noah can take me grocery shopping and I can bring some home. What do we need?

She gave him a list. Get one of those roasted whole chickens. We can make mashed potatoes and green beans to go with it for lunch.

Ethan texted: Got it. No luck here. Great-aunt went to church with a couple of women. No sign of Oakley.

Charlene texted: Okay, see you when we see you. Stay safe.

You too.

Okay, Ethan is picking up a roasted chicken so you can have lunch with us.

It s not really too much trouble, is it? I don t want to put the two of you out in any way. Renault sounded like he didn t want to get on Ethan s bad side.

Nope, not at all. He s eager to see you.

So how about if we go for a walk on the beach.

I ll just let Ethan know where we ve gone to if he gets home before we do.

She wanted to let Ethan know that she and Renault wouldn t be home so Ethan could sneak into her house while she and Renault were gone.

Otherwise, Renault might wonder how come he didn t hear Ethan s car return to the house.

Not that Renault was a wolf and could hear things like they could as wolves.

But the rumbling sound of a garage door opening, or lack thereof, was another story.

Charlene texted Ethan: We re walking on the beach so you can drop by the house anytime you want. I ll let you know when we return.

Ethan texted back: Good plan. We ll try to hurry. We re almost to the grocery store and then Noah can drop me off at the house.

She texted: Perfect.

She grabbed her backpack and added a couple of bottles of water. Are you ready, Renault?

Yeah. I haven t been to the Oregon coast to walk on the beach before, so I look forward to it.

Then you re in for a treat. She took him down to the tide pools where she d taken Ethan before.

Sure, it was special to do this with Ethan, but she was on a mission to make sure that Ethan could get home with the groceries without Renault catching him arriving home with Noah. That would take a lot of explaining.