I do not own anything from Janet Evanovich. This came from my experience from staying at the street festival and waiting to meet her so she could sign my book in NJ, I am very badly burned LOL. I was there for 16 hours ha-ha!!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4pm.
I drove my newest P.O.S car back into the underground garage at RangeMan. I had been out all day and I was dog tired. My day started at 9 a.m. I was going to a street festival to apprehend my new skip Larry Cagan. I went and stayed there from the time they started to sit up everything till it began to rain 10 minutes ago.
It was a nice day for June. It was in the high 70's to low 80's and cloudy. For a while I sat on this bench outside a bookstore just watching the crowd for any signs of Cagan. Mothers with kids would come by and would stop to play the games that were behind me, and the dancing cow came and tried to play with m e. I played along for a little so I could blend in with everyone. A little while longer sitting there I thought what the hell go win some games and mingle in the crowd, maybe Cagan will show up.
I walked up and down the street, spinning wheels and winning prizes like movie tickets, coffee mugs, and scratch off lottery tickets. Not seeing any signs of Cagan I got me a couple of slices of pizza from a vendor and a cold bottle of water, returned to my trusty bench to eat and resume watching.
Around 1 o'clock and elderly man came and sat down next to me. We chit chatted about the weather, the festival, and the joys of getting old. The sun decided it wanted to come out and shine and I heard allot of people cheer when it did. About 20 minutes later the sun went back behind the clouds again and a groan let out over the festival.
I got up again and walked around. I played a few more games, tried some cheese from a cheese place, grabbed a few do-nuts from the tasty pastry booth, and had a water ice. Returning again to my bench I sat and scanned every man that walked by me. Hearing my cell phone I picked it out of my pocket.
"Yea?" I asked
"Babe"
"I'm still at the festival so far no sign of Cagan" I tell Ranger
"Maybe he's not a festival kind of guy"
"Probably" I sighed
"You coming in anytime soon?" he asked me
"Yea, just a few more hours and then I'll call it a day" I said and he disconnected
I didn't get a chance to stay those extra few hours, the sky opened up and started to pour. Rushing to my car I sat there waiting for my turn to go. As I sat there in bumper to bumper traffic my neck started to itch. I took my hand and scratched it and found that it really hurt.
"Oww, what the Hell" I said looking in my rearview mirror
"Oh Shit I look like a boiled lobster" I said looking at my reflection and then the pain started to come in from the burn
Finally traffic moved and I was on my way to RangeMan. I got out of my car carefully and walked over to the elevators and got on. My shirt rubbed against the burn and I yelped. Riding the car up to 5 I stepped onto the floor.
"Jeeze Steph what happened to you? You look like a pickled beet" Lester said when he saw me
"The sun was only out for 20 minutes" I say
"You ever hear of sun block?" he asked laughing
Everyone got real quiet and I saw Lester slink away. A hand touched the back of my neck and I jumped 10 feet into the air.
"EEOOWW DONT TOUCH ME" I screamed and everyone sucked in a breath
I whirled around to see Ranger standing there with his hands on his hips looking at me with his one eyebrow raised.
"Babe" he said seeing me good for the first time
"I'm burned...BAD"
"I can see that" he said keeping his eyes on me
Ranger walked up to me and placed his hands on my forearms. He leaned in to kiss me on the forehead but I jumped back. He looked at me and grinned.
"Go upstairs and take your clothes off. I'll be up in a few minutes" he said
"No sex, I can't move" I tell him
"Babe I'm not gonna jump you, I'm gonna help you"
I gave him one last look and then walked passed him to the elevators. Going up to 7 I went into the bathroom and took a better look at myself and was horrified. My forehead, cheeks, nose, and chin were all red. I moved my shirt away from my neck and winced as it was dark red and blistered.
"BABE" I heard as Ranger walked in
"In here" I told him easing my shirt back in place
Ranger came up behind me and wrapped me up in his arms. He chuckled as he watched me wince and flinch at his touch.
"You look like a boiled lobster" he said to me
"I know and I feel like one too, look at me I'm awful" I told him
"Take your shirt off, I have something to make you feel better" he said
"I bet you do" I said giving him the eye
"STEPH"
"Ok, Ok" I said as I took the hem of my shirt and tugged it over my head trying not to cry as I did so
Ranger walked me over to the bed and set me down. He took a can out of one of his cargo pants pockets and shook it. To me it looked like a miniature spray paint can. Shaking it some more he aimed it at me.
"What is that?" I asked scooting away
"I went and asked Bobby what would help a bad sunburn and he gave me this, said it would help you"
"What is it?" I asked again
"Solarcain, says to help relieve pain, itching, burning, cools, moisturizes, and sooths" he read off the can
"SPRAY ME"
"Babe hold still, your jumping around like a child" he said squirting me
"You must be doing it wrong, because you're hurting me; it's supposed to feel good right?" I asked jumping away again
"Stephanie, Stop moving"
"Your hurting meeee" I said moving again
Finally he managed to coat me good enough and I sat back on the bed. Ranger looked me up and down and licked his lips.
"NO, don't even think it" I said
"It'll make you feel better too"
"NO"
"Fine but you owe me" he said
"I always owe you" and that got a smirk from him
A week later when I could finally wear clothes again and I had peeled, I was walking out of the bonds office when up the rode I saw Larry Cagan. I tossed my bag down on the curb and ran up the street and jumped him. After rolling around for several minutes I finally cuffed him. Bringing him back down to the office Ranger and Tank were standing there smiling at me.
"You never disappoint me Babe" he said giving me a quick kiss on the lips
"Want Tank to deliver him?"
"NO way, he's the one I got burned over. I'm taking him" I said pushing him towards my car
"See you at home?" Ranger asked me
"See you at home" I said and then took off to take Cagan in and to collect my receipt
THE END