Chapter 2

Cookie's was twenty minutes from everywhere in Trenton. Well, twenty minutes from everywhere that mattered to me. Steph got there in ten. I guess once she made up her mind to talk to me, she didn't waste any time.

I was nursing a cup of coffee having heeded Ranger's warning, at least for the moment, and turning down a third piece of pie.

Steph piled into the chair Ranger had recently vacated. She was dressed today for skip chasing -- jeans, T-shirt, hoodie, boots.

"Get your man?" I asked.

"Yep," she replied. "Piece of cake." She snapped her fingers giving me a self-satisfied smile.

It was good to see her confident.

Cookie appeared with pie and coffee. He set it all down in front of her along with a fresh pitcher of real cream and a sugar shaker.

"Cookie, you really know what a girl likes," she told him adding the sugar to her coffee and carefully pouring the cream so the dark liquid turned a perfect shade of mocha latte.

Her cheeks flushed and as I watched her it occurred to me that her coffee was now the exact color of Ranger's skin tone. She stared into her cup and then took a long slow sip.

Cookie refilled my cup, looked at Steph and said to me, "This the one that's gettin' married?"

Steph choked and spit coffee half way across the table, "What!" she gasped, "What did you say?" She looked at me, "He didn't really say what I thought he said, did he?"

"Ain't that what the young fella said?" Cookie looked to me for confirmation, but didn't wait for my response.

Steph's face reflected fury and panic in equal measures.

Cookie went on, "I told my wife, if I were you, I'd go for that other guy. Seems to me he's got it together better. Just my opinion understand." He stood waiting for Steph to reply.

"Wife?" she squeaked, "Other guy?" Now her face showed only panic. That was probably good for me. Once she realized this was my fault, the fury would be aimed in my direction -- rightly so.

I felt terrible. Steph and her mother were always talking about the 'burg rumor mill. I'd pretty much ignored the whole concept thinking it was women's business and none of mine. Looked though like Cookie was pretty much tuned in and my off-hand remark to him might just start the old wheels turning.

Steph had her head buried in her arms on the table when her cell phone rang. She let it go to voice mail.

Seconds later my phone rang too. I looked at the ID. Nothing but trouble. "Steph........uh, Pumpkin? It's your mother."

She kept her head down. The phone stopped ringing. There was an ominous silence. The phone started ringing again. That was worse. A low moan escaped from under the mop of curls in front of me. The phone kept ringing.

"We don't answer, she's going to call 911," I said. "You know that. Joe will be back to see if the pie is poisoned."

Head still down, Steph raised her hand waving it like a flag of surrender. I answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"No, Ellen, I'm fine. Just didn't get the phone out of my pocket in time." So I fibbed.

"What's that?"

"You say Stephanie's not answering her phone."

"No, I don't think she's dead." Steph looked up, rolled her eyes. Banged her forehead on the table.

"How can I be sure?"

"Because I talked to her just a few minutes ago." Steph sat up frantically shaking her head. I signaled that I could handle her mother.

"No, she called me."

"Why would she be avoiding you?"

"Who told you she was getting married?" Steph's eyes went big as saucers.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't believe everything you hear."

"Now I'm sure if she was really getting married she would tell you."

Steph trained her gaze on me.

"Yes, I'm sure she knows how hard it is to get a hall for the reception. Goodness knows you've told her enough times."

"Good idea, you go back to ironing. I'll be home soon and I'll tell Steph to call you if I hear from her again."

End call.

"That went okay, don't you think?"

I realized that Steph was suddenly looking at me through narrowed eyes. I might have some explaining to do.

"Why did you say Joe would be back? And what did Cookie mean by the 'other guy'?"

A hard look to go with the hard questions. Maybe I had screwed up.

"Sweetheart. Pumpkin."

"Daddy....!" Just a little tone of warning.

I caved. "All right. I've been worried. Seemed like something was bothering you. I thought maybe Joe and Ranger....

"Ranger!" she broke in.

"...maybe Joe and Ranger had an idea what it was."

"And did they?" she asked, if possible, her eyes narrowing even further.

"Ranger said he and the guys had noticed a slight lack of focus recently and Joe mentioned that he'd asked you to marry him."

"Joe mentioned that, did he?"

"Yes, he did," I acknowledged.

"Joe mention anything else?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"You mean like the fact that you would quit bounty hunting, leave RangeMan and never see Ranger again?" I added.

"Yeah, like that."

"He might have said something about that."

"In front of Ranger?"

My look said it all.

"Terrific," she said. "Daddy, how could you?"

"Tell me something," I replied. It was my turn to ask some hard questions. When exactly did Joe pop the question?"

Her eyes began to wander looking everywhere but at me.

"Steph?"

"Oh, I don't know. Three weeks? Give or take."

"Man asks you to marry him and you can't remember when it happened?

"Uhhhh." Eyes still wandering. "It was maybe right before I moved out of his house and back to my place."

I was beginning to get the picture. "So let me see if I can put this together. Joe asks you to marry him, but has some conditions. You're not crazy about his ultimatums, but instead of telling him no you move out and pretend the proposal never happened. Do I have it right so far?"

"Well. Uhh. Yeah, I guess," she replied in a very small voice.

That's my girl -- denial, denial, denial.

"Don't suppose it occurred to you that Joe might interpret your silence to mean you were actually considering accepting?"

"Guess not."

"Pumpkin...." I waited for her to look at me. "You need to talk to Joe."

"Yeah, I know."

"Understand, I'm not telling you to marry him. I am not your mother. But, you need to let Joe know your answer before this whole thing gets out of hand."

She was suspicious again. "What do you mean gets out of hand?"

"In addition to your mother renting a hall, Ranger might want to kill him."

"What!!!"