Thank you to the wonderful authors who inspired this story and gave me permission to use some of their ideas.

I appreciate all your reviews, thank you so much for all your ideas and suggestions, I sure can use them!

Vielen lieben Dank to Stayce, my fantabulous editor and friend!

This chapter wrote itself practically, and chapter 1 was so short, I thought you deserved more, so I'm posting it today. I don't know how much longer the muse will stay, don't get used to the new schedule...LOL

Chapter 2

Mama, can you help me try to understand!

It was one of those moments where you could hear a pin drop. I could hear the ticking of Vinnie's clock in his office, the gurgle of the water cooler, the hum of the AC, because I was holding my breath. And Connie was holding her breath too, waiting for my reaction.

I must have heard wrong, I decided. Connie had whispered, after all.

'What?' I meant to ask, but only a croaking sound came out of my mouth. I cleared my throat and tried again. "What?"

Connie pushed her chair back a couple feet and bit her lip. The urge to strangle her was back.

Vinnie yanked his door open again. "He's getting hitched," he said. "Probably knocked up a catholic girl, is my guess."

Connie sucked in a breath, her mouth hanging open. "Vin…" she started, but he had already shut the door behind him again.

She shook her head disapprovingly. "I'm so sorry you had to find out this way, I'm real sorry, it's just that…"
I held up a hand to stop her, closing my eyes. I don't remember taking steps back, but when the back of my knees hit the couch I practically collapsed onto it.

"Ranger is engaged?" I asked, stunned.

Connie just nodded, watching me closely.

"As in getting married?"

She nodded again.

I just sat silent for a long moment, waiting for my heart beat to slow down.

Engaged? Ranger?? Wait a minute…I suddenly realized I hadn't asked the most important question!

"How do you know?"

I looked up at Connie just as she was turning tomato red. She bit her lip again and studied her fingernails.

"Connie? How do you know?"

I was getting over my initial shock and now I was becoming suspicious. Was this Connie's idea of a practical joke, one she got Vinnie to play along with? Maybe it was her way of getting me to admit my feelings for Ranger?

I sighed. That's what it was, for sure. Oh, this was so not funny. What the fuck? Friends don't trick each other just because one of them is in denial! Connie knew I loved Ranger, even though I never said it out loud to her, I was an open book whenever he was around.

I narrowed my eyes at Connie, but there wasn't even a hint of a 'Gotcha!' grin on her face, she was still blushing every shade of red. Which didn't make sense either, now that I thought about it.

"What are you not telling me?" I asked, my suspicion in control over my shock now.

Connie was still studying her hands.

"Connie? Come on, you have to tell me! Did you make it up? Were you just pulling my leg?"

Funny, if Connie would have laughed and yelled 'Gotcha!' at that point, I would have totally forgiven her. Maybe later I would have been angry, but right then, I would have been too relieved to care.

But she didn't. She finally looked up and met my glare. "I'm sort of seeing a guy."

I blinked, completely confused now. Was she trying to change the subject?

"Connie if you're trying to…"

Connie interrupted me. "I didn't tell anyone because it's kind of embarrassing, he's a lot younger than I am and…"

"What the hell are you talking about?" I wanted to know.

If she was going for a distraction, it wasn't working, and I was all out of patience.

"That's what I'm tryin' to tell you!" Connie said and now she stood up to pace in the little space behind her desk. "I'm 35, he's 28. You know how I always said I'd never date a younger guy?"

I took a deep breath and heaved myself off the couch. "You know what, Connie, I…"

"I'm getting to it," Connie protested. "That's who I heard it from!"
"Who?" I asked.

"Hal," Connie said with a sigh.

She wasn't making any sense. "Connie, if you made it up, that's OK, you can tell me."

"I wasn't," Connie said. "I'm confessing here. I'm dating Hal and he told me."

Whoa, what? "What??"

She plopped back down in her chair. "Hal. RangeMan Hal. We're kinda seeing each other. There, I said it."

A while ago, my laptop crashed. All of a sudden, the little icons were gone and instead there was a royal blue screen with some gobbledygook on the screen. Right now I felt like that computer. Input overload.

"Ranger is engaged to Hal?" OK, as soon as that was out of my mouth I realized I was talking nonsense now.

"What?" It was Connie's turn to be confused.

She got up from her chair and sat down next to me. "OK, do-over. I am dating Hal and he told me Ranger got engaged over the weekend." She put her hand on my knee and squeezed it lightly. "Am I making more sense?"

"Oh," I said when her words sank in.

Not a joke then. And not Burg gossip. Hal was one of Ranger's men, a Halosaurus kind of a man. He wouldn't spread rumors about Ranger unless he didn't care much for his job. Or his life.

I was clinging to one last straw. "You sure you heard him right? Maybe he meant Ranger was engaged in a new mission or something?"

Who knows what he and Connie had been doing at the time, her mind may have been totally elsewhere. Oh, I so didn't want to go there.

"I'm sure," Connie said. "I know because I asked him about three times if it was true. He wouldn't tell me who he was engaged to, I think he didn't know, but he knew for sure Ranger is engaged to be married. To a girl, a woman, well you know, the real kind of engaged."

She was babbling nervously now and I think she noticed and made herself shut up.

"And you thought I was the lucky bride?" I asked.

She nodded. "You were the only one I could think of and I was so mad you hadn't told me."

"And you're seeing Hal," I said.

Connie nodded again, again watching me carefully. Probably she was waiting for a breakdown or something.

I snorted, shaking my head. It just couldn't be true. Probably dating a Merry Man was the best she could come up with because she new it held water, so she fibbed about that part. "I changed my mind. If this is a joke, I don't think it's funny and I will be pissed at you into the next century."

"I didn't think it was funny," Connie said. "I didn't mean to tell you that way, I didn't want to be the one to tell you. And trust me, I would have never told you about Hal, you have to promise not to tell a soul."

"I won't tell no one," Vinnie yelled from his office, which got Connie to stomp off to her desk and search it for bugs.

That gave me some time to think it over. I believed her. I didn't want to, but I knew Connie. If she'd made it up, she would have burst out laughing a minute into it. She didn't have much of a poker face, probably why she wasn't in the family business. So that meant…it was…true?

And why should that shock me so much that I was numb? What did I care, right? It's not like we were dating or something. It wasn't like I was in love with him or anything, right?

I sighed. It was exactly like that, and I couldn't deny it any longer. I'd admitted to myself that I loved him, but now I knew I was in love with Ranger. Sometimes I just needed a big whack on the head to see the truth, what can I say? And as far as whacks go, they didn't come much bigger than this.

Connie finally found the bug stuck to the bottom of the pencil holder, pried it off and smashed it under her pump heel.

Vinnie stormed out of his office. "What are you doing? These things don't just grow on trees you know?" He was gesturing wildly as if somehow, he was the wronged party here. "I'm gonna dock your week's pay for this, just watch me!"

"Stop bugging the goddamned office and I won't have to smash your bugs anymore," Connie told him and gave him the finger for good measure. "You don't pay me, I won't come back. I can find another job like that!" She snapped her fingers and glared at Vinnie, daring him to say any more.

It was a great distraction. As long as I could watch them, I didn't have to think about Ranger. And this was better than TV, it was my own personal show.

Vinnie turned red with anger and looked like he was thinking about telling her to go ahead and leave, but then he obviously changed his mind because he turned on his heel and stormed back into his office, slamming the door behind him.

"Little prick," Connie grumbled and disposed of the destroyed gizmo in her waste basket.

"Great, by dinner, the whole Burg will now I'm robbing the cradle," she said and took her place behind her desk again. "Just what I needed."

She smoothed her skirt and came back over to me. "You okay, Steph?"

"Sure, why wouldn't I be?" I asked her, trying to put a blank face on.

"You're looking kinda pale," she said.

Damn, how come every man in my life can pull off a perfect blank face, you can never tell what they're thinking, and all my face does is turn colors.

"I haven't had any coffee," I lied. "I'm not really awake yet. I'm going to get us some coffee and donuts." I jumped off the couch and grabbed my shoulder bag. "I'll be back in no time!"

I was going for chipper, hoping I could at least fool Connie to get out of the office and back into my bed under the covers. I wanted to pinch myself and wake up safe in my bed.

"Are you sure you…" Connie started but then her eyes fixed on a spot behind me. "Oh boy."

Just from her reaction, I knew who was just about to enter the bonds office. And if he was this close, he'd seen me. If I tried real hard, I could maybe fool Connie. No way in hell could I make Ranger think I was OK, no matter how good a liar I was.

Shit!

TBC

A/N: So, what do you think? Will Ranger tell Stephanie himself? Will Steph let on that she knows? Will Steph find the courage to tell him how she really feels??