A Holiday Romance

All characters are not owned by me.

Last time in A Secret from Santa...

When I had the paper off the small blue box, I stood there staring at the box in my hand. It was a small Tiffany's box. I shook as I opened it and was confused by the fact that the box was empty. I looked over at Ranger and he wasn't there. I looked around and saw that he was on the floor in front of me holding out something in his hand. He looked up at me and said, "I've waited a long time to say this Babe, so here goes. I know this is a bit unexpected, but will you marry me?"

I looked down at Ranger and looked at him like he was completely and absolutely mad. I looked around at all the faces staring at us and smiled before saying, "I think Ranger and I need a bit of private time. Don't wait up boys."

I held my hand out and watched Ranger take it and then led him down the hall towards the elevator. I took Ranger's keys out of his hand and pressed the button that scrambled the cameras and led him into the elevator and then into his apartment on the 7th floor. During our trip, neither of us said a word, but the smile he gave me when he proposed was still on Ranger's face. I laughed inside when I thought about the fact that his face must hurt because never smiles this long. His face muscles must be getting sore.

As soon as we were inside the apartment, I dragged Ranger over to the sofa. He sat down and looked up at me, still holding my hand. I smiled at him and took a deep breath before saying, "What the hell is wrong with you Ranger?"

The smile slipped from Ranger's face as I continued.

"The last time we talked about our feelings, you told me that you couldn't have a relationship. You also said that you loved me, but that your love comes with a condom and not a ring. What the hell has changed so much in the past year? We haven't even gone on a proper date. You went from no relationships to marriage. I think we've skipped a few steps, don't you?"

Ranger was looking up at me and his face looked crestfallen. He looked down at his hands and asked, "Does this mean that you won't marry me?"

I kneeled down in front of him and lifted his face so that I could look into his eyes and said, "No, it does not mean that I won't marry you, but I also can't say 'Yes' just yet either. I would like to get to know you better. You know practically everything about me and I know next to nothing about you. Would you be willing to answer some questions for me?

Ranger nodded and said, "I will answer what I can, but you must understand that there are some things I can't tell you."

I sat down beside him and faced him before saying, "I understand about your military background and any classified missions. Anything else should be fair game. Are you ready?"

Ranger nodded and stood, walking away from me. I was a bit annoyed by this, but when he returned with two bottles of water, two wine glasses and a bottle of wine, I calmed down a bit. Ranger took his time opening the wine and pouring. He handed me a glass and said, "As your questions Babe, my life is an open book, or as much as possible."

I repositioned myself on the sofa and got comfortable. I took a sip of my wine for courage and said, "OK, why have you changed your position on relationships?"

The corners of Ranger's lips curled and he said, "Well, if I'm honest, I regretted those words as soon as I said them. The reason I have changed my mind is because my contract is over and I no longer do work that would take me into the wind. I can concentrate on growing my business and I only have to travel on RangeMan and family business if I choose.

"Also, I have realised how stupid it was to send you back to Morelli. I always thought that you wanted the life he could offer you. A Burg wedding, house and family, but it turns out I was wrong. The life he offered wasn't at all what you wanted, and when you ended it this last time, I realised I needed to tell you that I wanted to offer you what you wanted."

I must have had my mouth open because Ranger reached over and used his hand to close my mouth. I was still staring at him, but I managed to say, "And you chose to go from nothing to marriage? Why not ask me out on a date?"

Ranger looked a little uncomfortable before saying, "I thought about that, but I know how we feel about each other. We have a connection that I can't explain and I already know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I only hoped that you felt the same way about me. I guess I was wrong."

The look of rejection was written all over Ranger's face. It was almost painful to watch, so I decided to put him out of his misery.

"Ranger, you weren't wrong. I feel the same connection. I know when you're near, I know when you're injured, and I do want to spend the rest of my life with you. My problem is that I know so little about your personal life and I want to know that stuff. For example, I don't want to call my husband by his street name. What would you suggest?"

"Most of my family calls me Carlos, so you could call me that if you'd like."

I smiled and said, "OK, I'll call you Ranger for work related business. The rest of the time I'll call you Carlos. Next, tell me about your family. Is it large?"

Carlos spent the next 15 minutes telling me about his family. He is one of 5 children who are scattered across the country. His parents, grandmother and eldest sister live in Newark. His brother and one sister live in Miami. His other two sisters are still in college. One is in New York and the other is in California. He also mentioned all of the spouses and nieces and nephews, but I couldn't keep track of everyone. There were a lot of them.

I let Carlos talk about his family without interruption. When he stopped talking for a few minutes, I knew that I was never going to remember all the names. I looked around and said, "I should write this stuff down. I'm going to forget everyone and make a complete fool of myself when I meet them."

Ranger smiled and said, "Don't worry Babe, it will be much easier once there's a face to go with the name anyway. I can't wait to introduce you to them all. They'll love you as much as I do."

I finished my glass of wine and watched as Ranger topped up both of our glasses. I took a sip and asked my next question. "What is your relationship with Julie and her mother like?"

"Things with Rachel are pretty amicable to be honest. Ever since the whole Scrog incident, Rachel has relaxed a lot and let me play a bigger role in Julie's life. I speak to Julie at least once a week on the phone and I try to see her once a month. With my missions, it wasn't always possible to see her, but I'm hoping that things will be a little easier now that I no longer have be away for weeks and months on end. Julie deserves something a bit more structured and Rachel does too."

I nodded and moved on to my next question. "How do you think Julie will feel about us getting married?"

Ranger smiled and said, "Julie loves you Babe. She asks about you every time we talk. I think she'll be so excited to have you as her a stepmother."

The idea of being a stepmother made me a little queasy. Not because I was afraid of Julie, but it's a lot of responsibility. Something I'm not sure I'm cut out for if I'm honest.

Ranger's ESP must have been in tip-top shape because he looked at me and said, "Babe, you'd be a wonderful stepmother. I'm also pretty sure that you'd be a wonderful mother as well."

"Whoa there Nelly, what happened to the whole condom and ring theory? Was the condom taken off the table when the ring was placed back on?"

Ranger paled a bit and said, "I guess so. I never really wanted more children because I didn't know if I could be around to spend time with them or not. Things have calmed down quite a bit and now I'm beginning to reconsider a lot of things in my life. I'm not saying that we have to have children. I'm just saying that I'm no longer completely closed off to the idea. But Babe, please don't ever call me Nelly again. It's not very manly."

I kind of zoned out at that point. When I was with Morelli, the idea of kids scared the crap out of me. I think maybe that was because I knew I would have to do everything pretty much on my own. Joe loved his job and he wouldn't be around all that much, especially at the early stages when sleep is hard to come by. Even though Ranger has a time consuming or full-on job, I was pretty sure that he would be involved as much as possible if we ever did have kids. Ranger waved his hands in front of my face to get my attention and I refocused on him.

"OK, I won't call you Nelly again. The whole kid thing scared me a hell of a lot with Morelli, but that was because I knew he would do little to help out. That was the woman's job in his mind. I know you'd be different."

Ranger nodded and said, "If we do end up having a child of our own, you're damn right that I'll be involved. I'll do midnight feedings, I'll change diapers, the whole lot. I missed that all with Julie and I'll never miss it again if I'm given the opportunity."

I smiled at Ranger and asked my next question. "If you hadn't joined the army, what would you be doing now?"

Ranger grimaced and said, "Twenty to life or nowhere at all."

The confused look on my face must have been obvious because Ranger elaborated. "I'd probably be in prison or dead. My life was heading in the wrong direction when I joined the army. It straightened me out and probably saved my life. It's a long story, but the highlights are that I was caught up in a gang, shipped off to live with my grandmother, went to college and got involved in the gang again. I was arrested and given a choice, army or jail. The choice was easy and it was the best decision I ever made."

"I'll ask more questions about your childhood later. For now, I want to know where you've travelled while in the Army. I don't mean any classified stuff, just regular tour of duty locations."

"Well, I did most of my training here in the U.S., but I served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Central America. I also spent some time in Germany while training with the Rangers. I have spent short periods of time in Russia, Japan, South America, Israel and Africa while I was participating in joint training exercises with different countries and governments."

"Wow. I have barely been outside of the United States. I've only been to Mexico."

"I'll do my best to rectify that Babe. There are many places I'd love to show you in this world. I can't wait to show you some of my favourites."

I let my mind wander at the thought of travelling alongside Ranger to exotic places around the world. Ranger brought me back to reality by touching my face with his hand. I looked at him and asked, "How many languages do you speak?"

Ranger thought for a moment and then said, "I am fluent in 5 languages, but I can get by in another 3 or 4 if necessary."

I raised my eyebrows causing him to elaborate. "English and Spanish are my first languages. I can also speak French, German and Arabic fluently. I know enough Russian, Japanese and Portuguese to get by. I also know a little Mandarin."

Again, I was amazed at the man sitting beside me. There was so much that I didn't know about him and I was looking forward to learning more. I'd have an entire lifetime to learn them. There wasn't a huge rush right now. That's when the events of the evening came back to me, so my next question was about the gift exchange rather than Carlos.

"My next question is about today. How did you change all of the names in the bowl all to mine, and how did I get yours?"

Ranger grinned like a fool and said, "I watched you write out the names of the men and lock the bowl in your desk. I also spoke to all the men and they all told me that they hoped to get your name. I came up with the idea to swap all the names and replace them with your name and Lester and Tank agreed to help me. The next morning, before you arrived, I swapped out the contents of the bowl so that it contained only your name on every single piece of paper.

"I had a feeling that you'd select either Lester or I before you went last. We both had a piece of paper with my name on it clutched in our hand. We would simply take the two remaining pieces of paper with your name and leave the one with my name in the bowl for you to pick, and that's exactly what happened."

I thought for a moment and then asked, "How did the guys know what to buy me? Every single one of them bought me something I wanted or needed. A lot of them were things I'd never mentioned to them."

"That was easy. We just talked to your friends and family. We were given loads of ideas. Lula was a font of information, as was Mary Lou. All the guys wanted to give you something you really loved, but none of them were brave enough to buy what your Grandma Mazur suggested, all except me of course."

Carlos winked at me and I laughed so hard I actually fell off the sofa. Once I righted myself I said, "I can't believe that you listened to Grandma Mazur, almost as much as I can't believe that you just winked at me."

Carlos was grinning and asked, "Do you want to know what I bought?"

I thought for a moment confused and said, "It wasn't her that suggested that you propose was it?"

Carlos shook his head as he walked into the bedroom. He returned a few moments later with two wrapped presents and said, "No. That was all my idea. She suggested certain items from two shops in town. I couldn't give these to you downstairs in front of the guys because they're a little bit personal. I wanted to have you all to myself when you opened these."

Carlos handed me the smaller of the two presents and watched as I ripped into the paper. I wasn't as patient or as careful as he was with his present, but that didn't matter to either of us. I pulled back the paper in the box to reveal a very sexy piece of lingerie in leopard print. I looked up at Carlos' smiling face and said, "She even suggested the print, didn't she?"

When Carlos nodded I said, "That woman is obsessed with animal print. She's even worse than Lula."

I pulled the second present towards me and gasped when I saw that it was filled with various items from the Pleasure Palace. It had massage oils, chocolate body paints, a hand-held mini vibrator and a pair of fur-lined handcuffs. I looked up at Carlos and tried to raise an eyebrow but only succeeded in opening both eyes wider. Carlos laughed and said, "These were the tamest of the items she suggested Babe. I honestly don't think she expected any of us to go there and buy anything .I think she liked seeing Hal blush. He was with me and Lester when we ran into her at the mall."

I couldn't believe he bought me lingerie or sex toys on Grandma Mazur's recommendation either and expressed those thoughts in between bouts of laughter. Carlos laughed along with me and finally pulled the box from me and set it on the coffee table. He pulled me close and said, "I look forward to seeing you in that animal print Babe, but let's get back to the questions. I want to tell you anything and everything you want to know."

I gave Carlos a quick hug and said, "I think I'm done with questions for now. Let's move on to something a little more serious."

Carlos nodded and sat back, pulling me along with him so we were both leaning comfortably against the back of the sofa.

"Carlos, I think we should move in together but, I don't think living in your RangeMan apartment will really be help us in moving forward as a couple. I love it here, but this is your place. I will always associate this as your place. I want to live with you but somewhere that we pick out together. Somewhere close by, but separate from work, somewhere that we can make into a home together.

"I realise that your job is important to you, but we need a place that is separate from work. You can keep the apartment and stay here when the need arises, but I think we need our own place away from here. We need privacy and time that is not ruled by RangeMan."

Ranger looked at me and moved close enough to place his hands on either side of my face. He said, "Does this mean that you will marry me Babe?"

I smiled at him and said, "Yes Carlos, I will marry you, but not yet. I'm a traditional sort of girl and I'd prefer for us to go through the typical steps a couple goes through before they get married."

Ranger nodded and said, "Let's go to your parent's for dinner tomorrow night. We can tell them that we're dating and take it from there."

I agreed and asked, "Your place or mine tonight Carlos?"

Carlos stood and stretched and then said, "Yours. I will call an estate agent first thing in the morning and then we can get some boxes and supplies and start packing up our apartments. I'll take the day off tomorrow. I know the boss and it is the 20th of December after all."

Ranger hurried to pack a bag for himself and took me by the hand and led me out the door. We stopped on the 5th floor so I could get my handbag and keys and found almost all of the guys down there. As soon as they saw us, we were inundated with questions about my answer to Carlos' proposal.

When we were just about to climb into the elevator, Lester yelled, "Did she say 'No' Boss man?"

I didn't want the guys to think I rejected Ranger so I said, "No Les, I didn't say 'No' to Carlos."

Lester smiled and said, "So you said 'Yes' then?"

I smiled back at him and replied, "Not yet," just as the doors closed and we were lost from his sight.