Independence Day

By Lisababe

Reposted for the occasion:)

I stood in front of Connie's desk scanning over files of the latest bail jumpers. I heard Lula give a low whistle and I glanced over at the couch. She was looking out the front window, and I assumed Ranger had pulled up at the curb.

Boy was I ever wrong.

I heard the office door slam behind me and felt the floor shake with the force of the door closing. I jumped and turned around. Morelli was standing just inside the doorway, anger radiating from every pore on his body.

Shit.

"Stephanie I need to speak to you outside."

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Outside. Now."

I shifted into rhino mode at turbo speed. "You have something to say just say it."

He sneered. "If that's the way you want to play it, FINE."

He jerked something out of his pocket and threw it at my chest. I watched as a black pair of panties bounced off my chest and slid to the floor. I could see the embroidered RangeMan logo staring up at me.

I thought I had returned all my RangeMan underwear to Ranger's apartment. I guess I missed a pair.

Damn, to bad luck.

I saw Connie stand up behind her desk and lean over staring down at the floor. I heard her suck in a breath as she fell back into her chair. She picked up a file from the desk and started fanning herself. I heard Lula whisper.

"Holy shit! Does them drawers say Ranger?"

"They sure the fuck do, and I want an explanation." Joe said.

I put my hands on my hips and stepped toward him so we were almost nose-to-nose.

"Ranger's housekeeper got a new sewing machine and she got a little carried away with embroidering the RangeMan logo on everything. It doesn't mean anything." I said.

"Do you know how it makes me feel knowing you're walking around Trenton with his name sewed on your underwear?"

"I don't know how it makes her feel but it's giving me a hell of a hot flash." Lula muttered.

I gritted my teeth and hissed, "It doesn't mean anything. You need to get over it."

"You should have never put them on in the first place, how would you feel if I wore a pair of boxers with another woman's name on them."

"If it would get a rise out of you I might like it." I spat.

"Are you trying to insinuate that I'm not sexually satisfying you?" He asked incredulously.

I smiled snidely. "You work too damn much. The shower massager's getting old."

"What do you want me to do, Stephanie? Quit my job so we can have sex when ever you want?"

"No, but more than once a month would be nice."

I heard a door open behind me and I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

I couldn't fucking believe it. Ranger had been in Vinnie's office the entire time.

He walked over and picked up the underwear off the floor. He slipped them in his pocket and smiled at me.

"I'll put these with your others in my apartment." He slid a glance at Lula and Connie. "Ladies." He ignored Morelli and walked out the door.

Morelli stared at his back as he walked out the back entrance to the office. He turned to me.

"We'll continue this discussion tomorrow."

"Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, I have plans."

"Maybe this would be a good time for us to take a break." He said.

"Sounds good to me." I said.

He stormed out the door and I walked over and flopped down on the couch.

Lula looked over at me. "Damn girl, why can't shit like that ever happen to me? You got the hottest man in Trenton's name on your undies, and Trenton's finest ass is jealous. That's fucking unbelievable."

I gave her a dirty look. "Yeah how could life get any better?"

"Well I do have the hottest black stud from RangeMan in my bed, I guess I can't complain. You think Ranger's housekeeper would make me some of those undies? Makes me hot all under just thinking about RangeMan gracing my snatch."

Connie snorted coffee all over her desk. "You all can have the word RangeMan on your panties, I would much rather have Ranger in my panties."

I smiled.

Connie pointed at me. "That's the look of a woman who has experienced Ranger in her panties."

I jumped up and grabbed my files off her desk. "Got to go catch some criminals."

I heard Lula squeal as I ran for my car.

I walked into my dark apartment and threw my purse on the kitchen counter. I'd spent the afternoon at my parents for the traditional Fourth of July barbeque. Valerie and Albert asked me to attend Trenton's annual fireworks display at the park, but I was in a funk over Morelli and declined the invitation. He usually went to the cookout with me and then we spent the evening watching fireworks.

Not this year.

I sighed as I opened the fridge and grabbed a Corona. I screwed off the top and took a long pull from the bottle. I walked in my bedroom and opened the window. I crawled out on the fire escape and sat down hoping to catch the fireworks display over the treetops. Ten minutes later, I started to see the bright colors light up the sky. I heard the distant boom as the colors changed. I smiled, as a kid the noise of the fireworks was what excited me the most. I saw the headlights of a car pull into the parking lot below. I sucked in a breath when I saw Ranger angle out of his Porsche and start walking across the lawn below me. He glanced up at me and flashed me a gorgeous smile in the darkness. I felt my heart flip-flop in my chest. He climbed the fire escape and sat down beside me he tossed something in my lap and I glanced down at a box of sparklers. I smiled at him.

"How did you know these are my favorites?"

"My sisters always had a contest on the fourth of July to see who could write their name in the air first before their sparkler burned out, I figured it was a girl thing."

I laughed. "You're right; Valerie and I did the same thing."

"My sisters always argued because Celia always won. It's hard to write Anastasia, Marcella, and Francesca before a sparkler burns out."

"I know how they feel, Valerie always beat me too."

He looked at me. "I bet you didn't cry when you lost."

"No I took the rest of her sparklers and the lighter and ran."

We both laughed.

I looked back up at the sky. The fireworks were getting more intense the grand finale was approaching.

"Babe why aren't you at the park watching the fireworks?"

"Didn't feel like fighting the crowd."

"Morelli working?"

"I haven't a clue."

"Babe if it's over the panties…"

"It's been coming for a while. It's not just the panties; we haven't been on the same page for a while now."

He reached over and opened the box of sparklers in my lap. He pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit the end of one. He smiled and handed it to me.

I took it and wrote my name in the air then I motioned for him to light another one. He lit it and handed it to me. I stood up and flapped my arms in the air and acted as if I was twirling a baton. I was really getting into it when I looked at him out of the corner of my eye.

He had lit one and was waving it in the air in front of him. I stopped and looked at him. I was amazed that badass mercenary man was enjoying a sparkler. I sat down beside him.

"You wanna race?"

"Babe."

"What's the matter afraid you can't write Carlos before I can write Stephanie?"

He looked as if he was contemplating an eye roll.

"I could probably write Ricardo Carlos before you could write Stephanie."

"Oh you think so?"

He smiled. "I know so."

"You're on big boy."

"Big boy?"

I grinned. "Are you ready?"

"Go." He said.

He wrote Carlos and beat me. "I thought you said you would write Ricardo too, you cheated."

"How fair would it be for me to write both names just so you could win?" He asked.

"It would be the gentlemanly thing to do."

He stared at me until I thought my panties would melt.

"I'm not feeling like a gentleman tonight."

I swallowed and looked away. I saw that my sparklers had both died. He lit another one and handed it to me. I watched as he lit one for himself. I thought about Valerie writing her boyfriend's name in a heart with her sparkler. So I laughed as I wrote Ranger and made a heart around his name.

"Babe."

"What?"

"You better watch Morelli might do a drive by and see you. I'd hate for the veins in his forehead to explode."

I smiled. "You really do have a sense of humor."

He smiled and handed me his sparkler. I took it, and on impulse, I wrote I love you Ricardo Carlos Manoso. As I ended his name, they fizzled out. I felt him slip his hand on my neck. I looked into his eyes and they were soft with emotion.

"I love you too Babe."

I leaned in close and covered his mouth with mine; I heard the fireworks in the distance and felt some personal ones of my own. I pulled away and rested my forehead on his.

"I know its Independence Day but I'm not feeling very independent right now, would you like to spend the night?"

He whispered against my lips. "Yes."

"Does that mean in the morning we'll be a couple?"

"In every sense of the word Babe."

All felt right in the world as he pulled me into his arms while we watched the final fireworks light the sky.