All belong to Janet Evanovich. I'm having fun with them.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Listen." Stephanie barked standing over her ex-boyfriend, "Joe, it's over between us. It has been for along time! What are you doing here?"

Joe Morelli was sitting on her old sofa. "Cupcake, I wanted to see you. I thought maybe we could work things out."

"So you let yourself into my apartment! There is nothing to work out!" Her hands were moving and Stephanie was trying to keep them from settling around the cop's throat very tightly.

"Cupcake."

"Cupcake my ass, you ass!"

Joe held up a small black box he found in the apartment. "I found this and thought you were ready to settle down with me."

Before she could say a syllable, there was a tingle and her front door closed.

"Ranger!"

Stephanie ran out the entrance door to see the tail of Ranger's black Porsche pulling out.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Listen," Stephanie said in a determined tone meeting Ranger's eyes as she took the seat across the table. She was nervous, too. A breath made a slight sound as she gathered her thoughts. "It's not what you thought. Joe wasn't proposing to me. He found something. It wasn't for him." Her curls were swaying as she spoke in rush.

She followed the Man of Mystery to Miami. After explaining everything the stupid cop did to Tank, he booked Stephanie on the next flight so the lovebirds could work everything out.

Stephanie stopped speaking trying to read the unreadable man staring at her.

"He got it, finally. We aren't meant to be. I bought this for you," she whispered across the table. Her lips the man across the table watched because Stephanie's voice was low and quivering.

On the tablecloth in front of Ranger, a silver ring was placed with shaking fingers.

Mocha latte fingers picked it up and his dark eyes studied the band with a gentle rolling scroll encircling the outside. In the engraving of the polished metal were the letters 'RCM' worked into design. It was a slight etching in the silver. The inner ring was inscribed with 'Love, Stephanie'. To anyone else it would appear to be a brushed finish or scratches on a worn ring, but he saw his initials patterned in the waved line and in the center of the 'C' an inset diamond.

He looked at the piece of jewelry in his palm, it was warm from Stephanie and his body heat. Her lips were in a pout as he watched her bite the inside of her lip waiting for any reaction.

His curved ever so little. "Babe, is this an engagement ring for me?" Ranger let out a low laugh.

"It's a present," Stephanie replied quickly unsure of herself more now. Ranger didn't 'do' relationships or rings as he had told her, but she and he were closer than most married couples she knew. He was her very best friend who looked out for her and Stephanie loved him. She wanted him in her life for always anyway he wanted; she didn't think he would ask her. So, when she picked it out at the jewelers, she made a promise to herself to 'pop the question' maybe. "Maybe, if you want?" she questioned hesitantly with her blue eyes not meeting the dark ones directly.

The apprehension was displayed all over the face of the one woman Ranger Manoso would love for everyday breath was in his body. All his travels he never found anyone to capture his heart, drive him bonkers like she could, and challenge Ranger before the morning turned to Noon if she was awake. It took him landing his wandering self in Trenton, New Jersey and meeting a girl from 'the Burg' for him to want to stay in one place longer than he had ever been. Once he got tired of one city, he moved on to the next office, but he wanted to stay with Stephanie. Even Edna Mazur couldn't scare him enough to stay away from 'his Babe' most of the time.

"That's a first," he smirked. Those blue globes had that 'deer in the headlights' wideness gauging his thoughts or any crack in his perfected blank face. He heard the sharp intake of Stephanie's breath when he laid something in front of her just as she did to him.

"Oh God, he's giving it back," Stephanie thought when her gaze went down to the table top expecting to see Ranger's silver ring. Right there was a diamond ring sparkling at her. The wide blue eyes met Ranger's. "That's an engagement ring!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Listen," Stephanie began but her mother wasn't listening.

"Stephanie, where have you been? I called and left messages. You never called me back. I had pot roast and you never showed. Joseph was hurt you never showed."

"I was busy."

"Too busy to eat with your family?"

Ranger had enough. "We were celebrating." He held out his left hand showing his ring and Stephanie's was right next to his with her sparkling diamond and wedding band.

"Those look like wedding rings?" Helen Plum surmised.

"They are," the groom clarified for Stephanie's mother, father, and grandmother.

"W-H-A!" Helen didn't finish slipping down.

Frank caught her going down pushing a chair over. His wife was hanging over it like a rag doll. "The floor was just waxed. I wouldn't want your mother to scuff it up."

"Yahoo!" Grandma Mazur was dancing around. She stopped momentarily placing Stephanie's hand over Ranger's. "Hold it," she said snapping a picture with her cell phone. Next, she was texting. "I got to get that rock on Insta-gram."

"Let's go to the Falcon's to celebrate," Frank Plum suggested hugging his daughter and new son-in-law.

Ranger gave his wife an eyebrow. "How about Rossini's?"

"That's way better," Grandma bellowed grabbing her purse. "The girls at the beauty parlor will be jealous I was out on the town with the hottest couple in 'the Burg'."

"What about Mom?" Stephanie asked her father locking the front door as the answering machine was going off.

"She'll be fine," Grandma said waving at the house. "Helen will wake up eventually and she can get the messages."

"I'm celebrating. I won't have to listen to "Frank, that's a salad fork. Use your dinner fork. Someone will see you in public. Why me? I have a husband who can't use the proper silverware. I don't give a rat's ass about the forks. Helen's why we don't go out much. I may eat with my fingers!"

"Let me get that on Insta-gram. She'll be passed out for a week from hyperventilating. We're drinking ain't we?"

Ranger kissed Stephanie chuckling. "Babe, your family."

"Listen, you married me."