Chapter Two
After lunch, Ranger and I went back to my apartment. We determined that I would move into the seventh floor apartment on Haywood with him that afternoon, so we decided to pack up all my stuff. Also, we had a meeting with the realtor later that afternoon to start discussing what we would be looking for in a house, and he thought we might want to talk about it privately first.
We entered my apartment, immediately going into my bedroom to start packing. While we were placing my clothes into suitcases, we started discussing what things we desired in our new house.
"I need to be able to upgrade the security," Ranger mentioned.
"What does that entail?"
"Well, we need plenty of room outside for a main gate that needs a pass code, and then maybe another gate. I'm thinking solid brick would be good," he said offhandedly. "Plus if there is a large backyard, we could have friends over." I nodded, imagining Bobby, Lester, and Tank trying to barbeque in the backyard.
"I'd like a pool," I added. He smiled thoughtfully.
"How many rooms do you think we'd want?" he asked cautiously. His caution seemed more than a little odd to me.
"Well… obviously a really nice master suite would be ideal. Other than that, I don't guess I'd have any other major qualifications."
"I'd want a home office. Would you be okay with sharing with me, and maybe working from home more? Or do you want your own?" I shrugged, replying that I'd be happy to share with him.
Ranger nodded, and then mentioned bedrooms. "I was thinking that I would like to have a room for Julie, if that's okay with you?" he requested. I smiled.
"That would be great," I replied. I knew that since the Scrog disaster, they had been keeping in touch, and she had expressed interest in wanting to visit Trenton a few times. Rachel didn't want Julie staying in the building on Haywood, though. So, so far she hadn't been able to come up. "We'd have to let her decorate it herself." He inclined his head in agreement.
"Babe, I want this to be the first and last home we buy together, so I want to ask you a question and I hope that you won't freak out." I glanced over at Ranger, thinking he sounded a little crazy. "It's just… do you think you might want to have kids some day?" he inquired in a rush. I dropped what I was holding and sat down heavily on the bed.
"I think there is a chance I might want to have a baby someday," I spoke in a soft voice. "But you said that you don't want kids."
"No, I said I didn't do them. When I said that, remember, I was doing work for the government. I'm done with that Babe. I'm not suggesting that we have kids right away, but I'm open to the possibility of it occurring down the road. And if we want to do that, we should make sure that we have enough rooms for that possibility," he responded. I slowly bobbed my head. Ranger sat down next to me.
"What are we going to do about furniture? My stuff is really mismatched, and I can't imagine that you would take everything out of the penthouse." It had only just occurred to me that we would need to furnish the whole house.
"I have plenty of money and Ella has an eye for interior design. If you wanted, I'm sure that we could just let her loose, so there's nothing to worry about. Regarding your furniture, if you want to keep it, we can. Or we could give it away, or even tell Dillon to rent your apartment fully furnished," he concluded. I stared at the wall intently, considering my options.
"I wonder if we could do that," I thought aloud. "I'm going to ask Dillon now, while I tell him that I'm moving out. I'm sure the owners will be ecstatic. They've been through hell with me living here." He smirked.
"I'm sure that you've made life much more interesting for them." I gave him a mock death glare. Ranger told me to go ahead and talk to Dillon while he kept packing upstairs. I gave him a quick kiss then took the elevator down to Dillon's.
Dillon wasn't too sad about me moving out of the building. It seemed that he had had to fight on my behalf, a couple of times, with the owners of the building. He agreed to offer my apartment as furnished, and told me that I had until the end of the month to get my stuff out. I had lived there so long that the lease was month-to-month, so I didn't have to pay to break the lease.
I headed back upstairs, where Ranger had finished up my clothes and was looking through the cabinets in the kitchen.
"Babe, you have practically nothing," he pointed out, pulling out the very few pots and pans I had.
"I never needed anything really. It'll make moving way easier. But this does bring up the question; who's going to cook at our new place?" I asked.
"I can cook. Or I can hire a cook. Either way, we'll have food," he assured me. I nodded in acceptance. I relayed what Dillon had told me about the furniture and how long I had to finish packing up. Ranger picked up the suitcases that were filled and told me that we'd have to come back when we had more boxes for the rest of my stuff.
We went to RangeMan to drop off my clothes and make-up, and then headed over to the real estate agent. After explaining to Sandra Ronson what we wanted and her telling us that she'd get in touch with us within a few days, we decided to go back to RangeMan and just watch a movie and spend some quiet time together.
We went to the bedroom and lay down with Ranger. He started a movie and wrapped his arm around my middle. About halfway through he started tickling me, obviously growing tired of the movie. I fought back against him, and finally pinned him to the mattress.
"Aw, you let me win. How cute," I laughed.
"Cute? That just dropped my testosterone level*," he muttered. I laughed again and leaned down to kiss him. Just as things were starting to get interesting, my cell phone rang.
"I'm ignoring that," I mumbled against his lips. Ranger sighed heavily.
"They'll keep calling back. Answer it," he told me. I rolled off of him, grabbing my phone and reading the display. Mom. Great.
"Hello?"
"Stephanie? Why did I get a call from Hazel DeLuca about you and Ranger being in a real estate office?" I groaned. It had already gotten out to the Burg network? Mom was still prattling on about what the neighbors thought, but then she demanded our presence for dinner. I made an agreeing noise and finally got off the phone. I looked over at Ranger.
"We're expected for dinner at my parents'," I told him, glancing at the clock, "in about an hour." Ranger groaned, but nodded reluctantly.
This was going to be fun.
* quote taken from TS.
