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Ethan couldn t have been more thrilled that Charlene seemed to have forgiven him for wrecking her house and was willing to have dinner with him tonight.

As soon as he arrived at the office for his faux retirement ceremony, everyone cheered him on, and he was especially glad to see his red wolf friends there.

Of course he was glad to celebrate with the men he worked with all the time too.

Once he was gone, he would still be seeing his wolf friends.

And they had helped him out with situations more times than he could count.

He wished Charlene could have been here too, but he totally understood why she hadn t wanted to be.

So —Tori clinked her glass of apple cider against Ethan s— it appeared things were working out okay between you and Charlene. I had thought of inviting her to your retirement ceremony but—

She had to get on her way. She wasn t too fond of the other men on the team who did all the damage to her place.

Sure.

I had invited her because I knew you were going to ask that question next. You make a great detective, you know, Ethan said.

Tori smiled. Yep, that was my next question. I overheard the two of you exchanging phone numbers and addresses. That s a good start. And you stayed and visited with each other for a while longer. That s a good sign. You re leaving for Oyster Bay after the party, right?

Yes, and as long as I don t celebrate here for too long, I can have dinner with her tonight.

The place was so noisy he was glad that with the wolves enhanced hearing, he could make out what Tori was saying without humans overhearing their conversation.

Wow, that s great. I was going to suggest that you get on the ball with that. You never know when some wolf might run into her on a visit to the area and you would lose out. Tori smiled and sipped her apple cider.

A date with Charlene? Adam asked, emphasizing that it was a singular event. Good show.

One date, Ethan said. We ll see how it goes. We might not be compatible in the least.

After she bit you and you re both still speaking to each other, Cassie said, joining them, I would say you re doing all right.

Leidolf agreed. It was just a wolf s way to get to know you.

Ethan laughed. A lick or a nuzzle would have been lots more welcome. His arm where she had bitten him was healing, but the bite mark would still be visible for a couple more days. Which was why he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt around his fellow law-enforcement friends.

A date? For when? Tonight? Sierra asked. And you re still here?

Yeah, Ethan was ready to chase Charlene down, caravan with her, and then get settled into his place before he picked her up at her house to take her somewhere nice for dinner.

Actually, flowers were in order, and he would make a reservation at the nicest place they could go to.

He would tip the hostess to make sure they had a window seat so they could see the sunset while they had dinner.

Not having had serious relationships with any she-wolves before, he had never worked so hard to win a she-wolf over, but he figured she deserved it.

After we hit the wrong house, we didn t think Ethan was ever going to come out of the woman s house, one of his DEA team members said, laughing.

Well, he had to make right by the lady. Don t tell me you wouldn t have been trying to help her out after the mistake we made, another of his men said.

I bet he ll ask her out on a date.

Are you kidding? The way she was glowering at him and then at us? No way.

Yeah, he ll ask her.

Did you ask her on a date?

Ethan laughed.

Hell, he did!

No way. Really?

Ethan smiled. They knew him too well. Dinner tonight.

You lucky dog. Why isn t she here tonight?

Pete Cohen asked. He was one of the men who had torn up Charlene s kitchen to such an extent during the raid, according to another of Ethan s team members.

And then ended up rushing into the bathroom to come to Ethan s aid when he heard him call out in pain.

Known to have a sweet tooth, whenever Cohen was on surveillance with anyone, he would have a package of candy bars to eat while gathering intel. Even now, he had a candy bar in hand.

After seeing you guys and what you did to her place? Ethan asked.

Cohen shrugged. Yeah, I guess so.

The other men who had been at the raid shook their heads.

If anyone can turn ordinary metal into gold, it s Ethan, Manx Ryerson said. Hell, I would have stayed and helped her clean up her place.

As if, Renault said. You ve probably never cleaned up after yourself ever, from seeing the sight of your desk. The notion of you cleaning someone else s place up? No way.

The other guys laughed, but Ethan agreed with them.

Manx was a slob. He had at least three half-empty coffee mugs on his desk at all times and food wrappers from fast-food restaurants stacked on top of his desk or stuffed in his desk drawers.

Ethan wondered if he was that bad when he went home to his wife.

His good friend Pete Cohen was the opposite, almost obsessively neat.

Even when he ate his candy bars on a stakeout, he had a trash bag with him that he would put all his wrappers in.

Ethan couldn t see the two of them working together, let alone being such close friends.

Ryerson said to Ethan, We ll miss you.

Cohen scoffed. You re glad Ethan s leaving so he doesn t hassle you about your messy desk any longer.

Ryerson shook his head. No. Renault will take his place and he ll hassle me instead.

You re damn right I will. As soon as Ethan said he was retiring, I knew one of us would have to pick up the slack, Renault said.

Though Ethan was having a good time at his retirement party, he knew several of the people had to get back to work—even his wolf friends—while he didn t want to miss his window of opportunity to have dinner with Charlene.

Off I go, Ethan finally said. He gave his wolf friends hugs and received lots of slaps on the back from his DEA team members. He spoke with his boss, who took him aside to ask about his wound.

I need a doctor s report, Grainger said.

Yes, sir. Thanks for working with me all these years. I ll have my doctor send you the report. Frankly, Ethan had forgotten all about it.

I hate to see you go.

Then Ethan told his boss goodbye and he d keep in touch. He headed out to his car and drove off. After working at the agency for so long, it seemed unreal that he no longer had a desk he would work at there.

He was barely out of the suburbs of Portland when he got a flat tire, then a second and a third one.

What the hell? That s when he saw a bunch of cars pulling over with flat tires both behind and in front of him.

Then he saw the culprit. A big construction truck in front of the cars had accidentally dropped a bunch of nails on the highway.

Ethan counted about thirty cars with flats on the shoulder by the time the truck ran out of nails.

He immediately called Leidolf. That was the thing about a pack. They could provide better services than anyone, but boy, if Ethan missed his date with the she-wolf tonight because of this mishap? He was going to be royally pissed.

The problem was that though one of the men in his pack was getting the replacement tires for his car, the city had to send out a highway maintenance vehicle to clean up the road or they would all just be driving over the same area where the nails were located.

He decided he d better call Charlene to tell her he was on his way but experiencing some trouble, just in case this took longer than he planned.

He pulled out his phone and called her number.

Hey, Charlene, this is Ethan. I m on my way, but I barely made it out of the suburbs when a construction vehicle dropped a payload of nails all over the road.

Oh no.

Yeah, they still need to clean up the road before someone can come with three more tires that I need to change out.

Oh, wow. And you called me because? Charlene sounded amused as he heard running water in the background, and he immediately thought of her being in the shower.

But he knew she couldn t be in the shower while she was on the phone. I just wanted to let you know I m picking you up for dinner, but I m having a roadblock that might take a while to clear out.

Okay. Well, we still have time. You have a three-hour drive to get to Oyster Bay, and if you are delayed as much as by an hour and a half, you ll still be here on time for a date.

He smiled. She didn t tell him that if he ended up reaching her place later than the allotted time, she would give him some leeway. All right. Well, I ll be there when I get there.

I ll see you in a little while. Then they ended the call. He waited and waited and waited for the county maintenance truck to come to clear the road. He felt like he was on a stakeout. Police cars had arrived to block off the road until it was cleared of nails.

A half hour passed, which seemed like hours, and then a maintenance truck swept the area with a magnetic metal collector. Ethan was grateful it had arrived. Then the truck finally drove off and Ethan was hopeful that his new tires wouldn t get any new nails.

Ethan called George. Hey, if you can get here now with the tires—

I m just on the other side of the police barricade that they re now taking down, sitting with all the other vehicles bringing tires to their customers.

Thanks, George.

Sure thing. George finally parked behind Ethan, then helped Ethan change out his tires. I ll let Leidolf know you re taken care of.

Thanks. Ethan was so glad to get on the road again. He wanted to call Charlene and tell her he was on his way, but he figured she would think he sounded way too needy.

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