I woke Dad up with my vacuuming in the living room.

"Does this mean the date went badly?"

"She's coming over for dinner tonight."

A long pause. The vacuum stopped. Dad had unplugged it.

"Son, it's not even six in the morning. Have you slept?"

I shook my head no.

Dad came over, putting his forehead against mine.

"There's time. You need to sleep. If you are anxious in your own home, how do you think she'll feel? You need to relax."

Derrick chose that moment to drag himself out of his room, looking at me bleary-eyed. Apparently, I woke him up as well.

"Why don't you go for a run with Derrick? Pound some of that anxiety out with your two feet."

Dad threw a look Derrick's way. "If you don't mind? I'll put some coffee on for you."

Derrick gave a yawn but nodded yes and headed back to his room to change.

"Son, it is the man that is filled with tension. The wolf is fine, trust me. Keep yourself all man."

I only nodded as Dad pulled the vacuum from my hands and wound up the cord.

I thought about what Dad said as Derrick and I ran side by side, our breath frosting in the early morning air.

The wolf knew it had to wait until the she-wolf was ready. Until then, the wolf worked on being familiar and liked, proving skills and support, so that when the time came, his advances would be accepted.

It was the man who was a nervous wreck!

I slowed down when Derrick hollered out. I had to wait for him to catch up.

"So what the hell happened? You get dumped?"

"She's coming over tonight to meet my dad."

"Parent meeting already? She must be something!"

I just grinned. I really did need to run off some of my excess energy.

"Yeah, she is! Hey, if you can't keep up with me just head back to the house."

The look in Derrick's eyes said it all- challenge accepted. Ten minutes later, I was sitting on the curbing waiting for him to catch up again.

We ran for another half-hour before heading back. The whole way back, Derrick was pushing himself to keep up with me.

Even though Derrick was struggling for breath by the time we walked in the living room, he managed to make one comment before heading in to shower.

"All the energy you got, you must not have gotten any."

I know I blushed when I saw the grin on my dad's face.

"Come on." Dad grabbed my arm and pulled me back outside, heading to his truck.

"Where we going? Let me get cleaned up first."

"Don't worry about it, you're just going to be getting dirty in a little while."

I got in the truck, wondering what he had in mind. He drove to a home improvement store. He led me in, refusing to answer my questions. We made our way to where they kept their garden stuff. Dad stopped in front of the manufactured little fire pits they had available.

"No good, " I told Dad, "a fire needs a connection to the earth."

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He didn't argue, just grabbed one of their roll carts and headed for the blocks they stocked. We did some quick math to figure out how many blocks we would need. Dad threw in a few bags of sand, some patio tiles, and a simple bench.

"Dad, it's too much," I protested. "It's only a rental. I don't even know if the owner will let me build a real fire pit out there."

"Consider it your birthday present. If the owner doesn't like it, you can always offer to restore the yard later. And I don't want to hear 'it's just'. It's where you lay your head. Grab that shovel. You'll need one to clean the pit out now and again, not to mention digging it out in the first place."

No arguing with Dad when he got stubborn. He even grabbed a few flowers to plant. We still had a good thing going between us and I wasn't about to ruin it, not when I really did like the idea of having my own fire pit.

We spent most of the day working in the back yard. While I measured the spacing for the stones and dug out the pit, Dad put the bench together. I knew he didn't buy the bench for me; I would have been content on a blanket.

We finally had the stones set, the sand poured, and a small patio area set with the bench. I looked at Dad, feeling my lack of sleep by this point.

"The only thing missing is firewood," I? said wryly.

"I got that covered. Go get cleaned up and take a nap. I got dinner. Go."

He gave me a shove and I went. After cleaning up, I fell across my bed, feeling much better than I had this morning.

When I woke up, I felt disoriented for a moment. I could hear voices, too many voices. I couldn't see Dad letting me sleep if Mahina had arrived.

I got dressed in black jeans and one of the shirts Dad had bought me instead of my regular tees. I debated shoes and decided against them for now. The food smelled great and I realized I hadn't eaten all day. Feeling slightly nervous, I gave the bed cover a quick twitch before I left my bedroom to find out what exactly was happening in my house.

I paused at the end of the hall, trying to make sense of the scene in front of me. Mac was on the couch with my dad playing some combat video game. Running Elk and Derrick were standing behind the couch, making comments about what was happening on the screen.

My cousin Anna poked her head around the corner from the kitchen.

"About time you woke your lazy birthday ass up! Go out and make sure that brother of mine isn't making a bonfire in your fire pit."

I couldn't help the wide smile that graced my lips as I tried to squeeze through the dozen of my female friends and cousins that were chatting in the crowded kitchen.

"Hey, Little Wolf! Happy birthday!"

I got smiles, hugs and greeting from the lot, as well as a few hand slaps as I tried to sneak a nibble of this and that as I worked my way through them.

When I got to the back door, I just had to stand there for a second. I know I should have expected it from the group in the kitchen, but still...

There was a row of tents set up in the empty lots behind us, as well as a half dozen vehicles parked along the far curb. Somehow I don't think my friends and cousins were worried about the neighbors or local authorities.

And Anna was right, her little brother was pulling another choice piece of firewood over toward the already-large fire in the pit.

I stalked over and grabbed it from him. "Are you trying to burn the neighborhood down? This is a back yard, not an open field!"

"Sorry, I just figured since we were christening a new fire-pit for your birthday that you would need a good bed of ash. I brought the makings for s'mores later!"

I just laughed and made my rounds greeting the guys. After a bit, I went back in and came up behind Running Elk. He was still leaning against the back of the couch. I leaned up next to him. That was the beginning of our silent conversation.

A snort from me. No advanced warning Cuz?

A sheepish look from him and a shrug while using his thumb to point back over his shoulder. It's your birthday, what did you expect?

I glanced at the busy kitchen. Quite a crowd!

He rolled his eyes toward my dad, then a more questioning look toward Mac. Your dad suggested we come up. What do you have going on with the big guy?

I made a fist. Fighter...

Dad growled without even turning around.

"You two keep it up I'm gonna have you conjugating verbs."

"What?"

"What?"

Running Elk and I said it at the same time, with the same wounded-innocent inflection. Dad just shook his head.

"Watch out for those two together, Mac."

Dad looked up at the same time as I started to move toward the front door; both of us had heard a car pull up. It was with nervous butterflies I reached to open the door.