I walked into my apartment, making sure to lock all 3 locks behind me, and went straight to the shower. Behind me, I left a trail of chicken feathers, egg, and dust. The skip I had been chasing had a backyard chicken coop and decided to hide inside. I chased him in and managed to stun gun him and he fell face first into the morning collection of eggs, breaking most of them, and spraying them all over both of us. Just another day at the office for me. I'm Stephanie Plum and I'm a bounty hunter for my cousin Vinnie. He's a bail bondsman and when people don't show up for court, it's my job to chase them down and bring them back into the system. I'm not always the smoothest at it and my captures can get messy sometimes, but I can make my own hours, wear what I want, and I feel like I do some good in the world.
While I was in the shower I heard my text message alert go off on my phone. Once I had removed most of the feathers and egg from my hair, I rinsed off and checked my phone. It was from my on-again off-again boyfriend, Joe Morelli. We were currently in an "on" phase. We occasionally talk about getting married but he hates my job and I'm not quite ready to settle into the housewife kind of life. Plus, there is the constant disagreement over my mentor, friend, and sometimes employer Ranger. I trust him implicitly and we help each other often with various projects. Morelli thinks he is a lunatic and wants me to avoid him at all costs.
The text just said "dinner tonight… my place?" I replied "sure, want me to pick up Pino's?" His reply was instant and said "I'll take care of dinner. Dress nice… maybe the red dress" I didn't know how to take that. What did he mean he was taking care of dinner? Did he have leftovers? Did he already order pizza? Why does he want me to dress up to eat dinner at his house? I wasn't sure how to reply so I just said "ok – see you at 7" and went to get dressed.
The red dress seemed like overkill for dinner at Morelli's house. I settled on a fitted jersey dress that was comfortable but still sexy. I tamed my curls and put on a few extra coats of mascara. I slipped into a cute pair of strappy sandals and headed down to my car. Currently I was driving an old Chevy S-10 that I got on a deal because the engine had blown up twice. But as long as I didn't need to drive it over 65 mph it ran just fine. And I like driving a truck.
I walked into Morelli's house and was immediately ran over by Bob, his big goofy dog. Morelli came over the haul him off and kissed me hello. "No red dress?' he said, appraising my outfit.
"Seemed like overkill for dinner at your house." I replied.
He winked at me and said "I think it would've been just fine, but I like the choice you made, hopefully you keep making good choices tonight. "
Wondering what that meant I followed him into the kitchen and was immediately surprised. He usually had a billiards table in his dining room, but this was gone and he now had a beautiful dining room table. Which was formally set for dinner for two complete with flowers and candles. I could smell roast chicken coming from the kitchen. "Oh, my god, Joe! What is all this?" I exclaimed.
"I'm just getting ready for a change, "he said, "I felt like it was time to make this a real home."
"But what about your billiards table?" I asked.
"I had some guys from the force come over and help me move it downstairs. It took about 10 of us to get it down there and I'm pretty sure we all have hernia's now, but it made room up here for a real table and we can still shoot pool downstairs." He explained.
"I'm ready to make more changes in my life also," he continued from behind me while I admired the place setting with the matching patterns and beautiful flowers on the table. I turned around to find him on one knee. "Stephanie, I love what we have together and I want to make it permanent. I know we've talked about this over and over again and we've always just let it go. But I want you in my life forever. I want you to be Stephanie Morelli. Cupcake, will you marry me?"
I couldn't do anything but stare at him while he pulled a ring box out of his pocket and opened it. Inside was a perfect princess cut diamond ring with two smaller baguettes cut diamonds on either side. I was stunned.
"Cupcake, you gotta say something. You can't just leave me down here." Joe said, a look of anxiety crossing his face.
"yes" I whispered. Then, a smile breaking across my face I looked directly in his eyes and shouted "YES!"
He didn't need any more encouragement and jumped up, grabbing me and pressed his face to mine giving me one of the most passionate kisses of my lifetime. When we finally broke apart, he took the ring out of the box and slid it onto my finger. It was a perfect fit.
"I snuck one of your rings out of your jewelry box for sizing the last time I was at your house. I hope you hadn't thought you lost it."
I rarely wear rings and hadn't even noticed one was missing, but the thoughtfulness touched me that he thought to have it sized before he gave it to me.
"Dinner can wait," he said into my ear while planting kisses on my neck. "Right now, I want to see you upstairs wearing nothing but this ring."
I couldn't think of anything I would rather do and ran upstairs, pulling him behind me, to celebrate our engagement.
After we had properly celebrated our big relationship change, we headed back down for dinner. Morelli pulled roast chicken with rosemary potatoes and fresh asparagus out of the oven. "Where did all of this come from?" I asked. Because this was all clearly homemade and neither Morelli nor I had any skills in the kitchen. He smiled and said, "When I told my mom that I was finally going to propose she was so excited and she and Grandma Bella made a full dinner just for the two of us." He poured me a glass of wine that he had chilled and we sat down to eat. I couldn't stop staring at the ring on my left hand every time it flashed in the light. "I'm going to have to go straight to my mother's house in the morning. She is going to be so excited." I beamed.
Morelli agreed, "Your Mom has wanted you settled into Burg life with a couple of kids for years. This will make her so happy she won't need to do any extra ironing for a month. Especially knowing she won't have to hear about your cars exploding or chasing skips through the mall while you were in the middle of getting your hair done anymore."
"I'm not going to quit my job just because we are getting married" I said. "I like my job and I want to keep doing it for now at least. Maybe someday I'll be ready for a family but right now I think getting married is a big enough change for me."
"I moved my pool table downstairs and bought a dining room table and you aren't willing to make any changes" he retorted.
"What did you expect?" I shouted back at him. "Did you think as soon as I got a ring I'd happily give up my entire life, move in here, and starting putting dinner on your brand-new dining room table?"
"I expected you to make some changes! Relationships are compromise Cupcake. You don't just get to keep doing everything you want and expect me to make all of the changes."
"Joe, I don't want to fight with you. I love you and I'm ready to marry you, but I'm not ready to give up my whole life. What kind of compromise can we make here? I want to keep my job and I'm not ready to be a mom yet."
"Fine," he said, "I don't expect you to quit right now. But I need you to stay away from Ranger. I don't trust him and I know how he feels about you. And I don't want him around you."
"Joe, I work with Ranger! I can't just stay away from him." I explained.
He looked at me and shook his head. "You don't work with him anymore. He doesn't work for Vinnie. You work for him whenever he decides he wants you around. And shows up to seduce you whenever you're feeling vulnerable."
"He doesn't just show up and seduce me. And I work for him when he has a job that he can use my skills for because he values my input" I said as I pushed away from the table and started clearing dishes. This was not how I expected the evening to turn out after the way it began.
"He looks like you like you're lunch and he's always following you around like a stalker. Its creepy." Morelli insisted. "I can't have my fiancé or my wife having a relationship with a guy like that. I can't be committed to you knowing that you are out there with him. That's the compromise I can make. Keep your job. We can wait on the kids. But, you gotta stay away from Ranger. I can't do this with you if he's in the picture."
As much as I didn't want to admit it, he had a point. Knowing my history with Ranger, I could see him not wanting me to continue to be around him. "But I can't do my job all the time without him. There are skips that I'm just not able to get on my own and I need his help. And I can't make ends meet without working for him."
"Cupcake" he looked at me eyes softening, "if you lived here with me, you wouldn't need to worry about making ends meet. And have you ever considered asking me to help you. I happen to have some skills in the catching criminal's department."
"I guess that would work" I conceded. "I'll have to talk to Ranger tomorrow and explain to him. I can't promise he will stop tracking me, but I'll ask. And I can call you for help with skips that Lula and I can't handle."
He smiled and pulled me in close to him. "I knew we could work this out." His lips found my earlobe and then down my neck. He slid his hands around my waist. Our lips found each other and the kisses deepened until we decided to go back upstairs to celebrate our engagement one more time.