What can I say? Janet Evanovich owns these wonderful characters.
It had been quite the day. Winter was slowly backing off and there was a heavy slush laying on the roads. The sky was the color of lead gray and downright dreary was the long range forecast for days to come.
Skips had been few and far between but Stephanie was on the hunt. Ryan Marshall had missed his court date and the recovery fee for returning his sorry behind to the police station was a cool $5,000, enough for all her bills to be paid and even a side trip to Macy's for a new spring wardrobe.
Unfortunately Ryan had been quite unwilling to allow her to return him to the system and had taken exception with her polite explanation. Before she could react and pull out her stun gun, he had picked her up and tossed her in the hog entrails barrel at the pork processing plant where he worked. Luckily for Stephanie, the barrel had tipped over and Ryan had slipped in the ensuing mess knocking himself out trying to flee.
The supervisor had assisted her with dragging him to the car and even provided her with a plastic sheet for the back seat for her FTA and one for her in the front.
Adding to the insult was the fact that a relative of a member of the Trenton Police Force had phoned the station and the people inside had already been alerted to Stephanies' situation. Officers had met her outside the station with clips on their noses and camera phones in their hands waiting.
Her cell phone was already turned off and she could just imagine the messages piling up. Of course, her mother and Joe would be the most insistent, but Grandma Mazur could be counted on to add one wanting the juiciest details for her next trip to the Cut 'n Curl. Mary Lou would be understanding, leaving a message, "let's do lunch". Ranger would have left a brief message, "Babe".
Driving to her apartment building, she was actually hoping for a spot near the dumpster to park. Carefully pulling the two plastic sheets out of the car, she rolled them into a ball and with a flick of her wrist she launched it into the bin. If she wasn't afraid of being cited for indecent exposure, she might have just undressed and tossed everything she was wearing in at the same time. Instead, her shoes and her favorite jacket followed the plastic.
Mrs. Bressler was manning the elevator and looking Stephanie over as she entered, her only comment was: "Bath Shop, second floor."
Stephanie limped down the hallway to her apartment.
Leaning against her apartment door were two boxes; long boxes; boxes that probably held flowers.
Stephanie pulled the keys out of her back pocket and looking down at the packages she unlocked, then opened the door, letting the boxes fall into the entranceway.
Using the insole of her socked right foot she pushed them into the entranceway and closed the door, automatically locking and putting the security chain in place.
Right now, her most pressing priority did not include checking out the packages so she walked past them and continued on into her bathroom grabbing a large garbage bag from the box under the sink. In Stephanies' world, the box seemed more useful there rather than in the kitchen. Tossing everything in the bag as she undressed, she sealed and placed it by the door then jumped into her shower, setting the temperature to almost scalding.
Washing herself until the water began to run cold she turned off the tap, then stepped out and wrapped a bath sheet around herself and a towel around her hair. Now that she could stand herself, she made her way out of the bathroom.
Rex III was running on his wheel and she dropped in a piece of carrot from the little bag in the fridge.
"Rex, you wouldn't believe my day", Stephanie murmured. Unfortunately he had disappeared and all she could see was his furry little butt hunched in his soup can. She shrugged. Men!
Her curiosity was now propelling her to the entranceway where the boxes still lay. Looking down she noticed that the delivery instructions stated the same florist had delivered both boxes.
Looking at them both, she literally chanted: eeny, meeny, miney, mo, picking up the box on the right.
Lifting off the lid, tied together with a white ribbon and a pretty bow lay a dozen coral colored roses. Tucked in the bottom there was a note. It read.
The boys miss you. Happy Valentine's Day, Cupcake.
She sunk down on the mat and looked at the rose box now on her lap. Joe had been in her life for so many years and while she believed that he truly loved her, there was just something missing from the relationship. Saying that, coral meant pizza and sports. Coral meant balls to the wall sex. Coral meant leaving her dingy apartment for a house, a yard with a white picket fence and a dog. Coral meant demands to quit her job to marry and have kids. Coral meant supper at six and pot roast on Sundays. Coral also meant safe, but oh so boring. Coral meant never being allowed to fly.
Stephanie looked at the other box. She placed the opened florist box to the side, then pulled the second box to her, gently setting it on her lap
She slowly lifted off the top of the box. There, nestled inside on a soft layer of tissue paper lay a single long stemmed deep red colored rose. There was no card.
Stephanie thought back on the past few years. She was 38 now and even she thought that it was time to think of another occupation.
Lula had left Plum Bonds to buy into a large house in Philadelphia. They had laughed at possible names for the recent addition to the Philadelphia business community and the winner appeared to be a hit, if only to Lula and Stephanie in private. Lula's Shag 'n Gag was garnering a lot of attention in this stately location. While it was a very exclusive club, they appeared to be hiding in plain sight, so far. Her past had dragged her back in as the money was just too good to dismiss. Lula had held firm that she would be the woman in charge, the Madam. She had the contacts and her own version of a spidey sense was working overtime. Clients were accepted, or not, and so far Lula and both her ladies and gentlemen were conducting business with land office success. Lula and Stephanie talked on the phone or tried to meet every month or so in a neutral location for a quick visit. There was no judgement on occupations, just a promise to 'be careful'.
Vinnie had given her the heads-up that Harry was pulling his support and unless he could find another source of backing and soon, they would all be out of a job.
Her mother had finally given up her verbal pleading to 'find a man, any man', but she was still holding onto the faintest hope that her youngest daughter would get lucky.
The living room lamp lit up the room from the automatic timer but Stephanie didn't seem to notice.
She slowly looked up as her lock turned and the security chain slowly lowered not even striking the inside of the door.
Ranger walked in surprised to see Stephanie sitting on the floor by the door. She was surrounded by coral petals as if they had been flipped like playing cards. The box in front of her held a dozen lonely-looking stems empty of their petals. The white ribbon and bow lay discarded in the box.
Ranger knelt down and placing one arm under her knees and one supporting her back, he then stood up with her tucked against his chest. Closing the door with his foot and smoothly flipping the lock, he walked to the couch, sitting down with her on his lap. She was holding the red rose in her hands.
He spoke. "Hear that you had a tough day, Babe. Were you hurt when he tossed you in the barrel?"
She shook her head remembering how embarrassing it had been to drag Ryans' sorry ass to the police station. He had complained all the way that the cuffs were too tight and he was planning on charging her with excessive force.
Phones were flashing here and there as she waited for the duty sergeant to complete the receipt. The police officers had made a big production of holding their noses and shaking their heads, all the while checking to see who had won the latest pool.
RangeMan had, of course been alerted to the scenario both at the processing plant and the police station but the men had waited on Ranger's orders since there had been no gunfire or explosions to mar the take-down.
Lifting up her head, she looked at the man with his strong jaw, five o'clock shadow, and eyes showing concern. He had begun to sport a few crow's feet and there was a white hair or two now making its appearance.
"Ranger do you really mean it? Or is this just you thinking it's the thing to do because it's Valentine's Day?"
Ranger kissed her on the lips softly and held her to him. She could feel his strong, steady heartbeat as she leaned into his embrace.
"Babe, if we take THAT rose apart, every petal will mean I love you."
She looked back at the hallway filled with rose petals laying on the floor. To all outward appearances, they had already begun to shrivel up. Would that have been her life if she had chosen coral?
She relaxed in his strong embrace. Deep down she knew that he was her rock of support, her voice of reasoning, and most of all, the man she wanted to spend her life with. Could they ever get past their commitment issues?
His hand was slowly rubbing her back up and down, up and down, up and down. It was hypnotic, and caring, and loving, and well, did she want his hand to stop? Did she want him to stop?
She looked up at him and smiled.
"I heard that besides love, a single deep red rose means freedom to be what we want it to be. Can we talk about that, but not tonight?"
Ranger smiled at her cuddled in his lap.
"As you wish, Babe. After all, it's Valentine's Day.
A/N – not beta'd and unfortunately, no muse in sight to keep me on track. I know, it's been awhile since I posted something, anything. I continue to write but I haven't liked any of it well enough to put out there.
Myrna