Chapter Six


Stephanie

"So, how was your day?"

Well mom, if you must know, I'll tell you. I woke up to a very blunt, large, black women rummaging through my fridge, learned out I was some sort of 'comic book' bounty hunter, went after an old man, he tried to set me on fire, broke down in front of Morelli and now I'm getting bounty hunter tips from Ranger who told me he'd keep in touch and to call him whenever I needed him. Apparently, I have his phone number in my cell.

And my cabinets are still empty so I'm mooching off of you even though you drive me crazy. How's that!?

Of course, I didn't say any of this out loud.

"It was fine." I told her, keeping my head down. That was one thing I learned from my father because, at the moment, he was shoving food in his much as quickly as possible. It had been same old when I came home. My mom greeted me, asked me how I was, My Grandma Mazur made crazy, inane comments and my father kept his eyes glued to the T.V set. Why, if I hadn't have woken up in a hospital yesterday, I wouldn't have believed, from their indifferent reactions, that I had gone into a coma.

"Really? Are you getting the hang of everything?" I saw her glanced at the cabinet where she stored her liquor. I understood her worry. My job was a disaster. She must have been wringing her hands every day.

"Yeah, it's a blast."

But my mom wasn't letting up. "If you want, you can stay with me. The doctor said that your amnesia should wear off in a few weeks. You can stay with me until then."

Why don't you just run me over a few thousand times? "No, mom, I'm fine. I swear. It doesn't even feel like I have amnesia. I'm comfortable." Yeah right. "Besides, I'm sure the doctor would want me to be in familiar settings to trigger my memory quicker, right? This is a good thing." Damn, that was a good point. I almost never made good points!

My mother nodded in silent surrender.

"Well, you still gonna be bringing men over here right?" Grandma Mazur asked. "I like men."

I did too. Maybe a bit too much. "Did I use to bring men over here?"

"All the time! Why you even had a boy-"My Grandma was cut off by my mother's not to inconspicuous kick under the table.

"Wait! What were you about to say!? I what!?"

"Nothing."

"You're lying."

"Stephanie, it's not our place to tell. If Joe wants you to know that you two were dating then let him tell you." My mom froze, realized her mistake, covered her mouth and muttered, "Oops."

My eyes widened to the size of bowling balls and I gaped at my mom with a look of disbelief.

"Oh phooey." Grandma Mazur pouted. "I wanted to tell her."

I felt stars dance in my eyes and I closed them, breathed in and then exhaled out loudly. It all made sense now. How comfortable he acted around me, waking up to see him first, what Lula and Connie hinted at. Man oh man. When I reopened them, my father had left the table and my mom was smiling at me sheepishly while my Grandma Mazur was cutting into the dessert cake.

"Are you okay sweetie? I didn't want to tell you because well...'cause you didn't really know him now and because I thought it'd be best if he did."

I stared at her for a beat, turned and grabbed the cake platter from my Grandma. When she started to protest, I sent her a glare and she hushed. Then I stood up, with the cake in my heads and rushed out.

I needed it more than she did.

********

Let me tell you something: eating a whole cake and going to bed? Not such a good idea. Not only because my stomach was bubbling but because my body was on a sugar rush and my eyes were playing tricks on me and showing me a figure standing at the bottom of me bed. I rubbed at them, berated them mentally and then squinted into the dark.

The figure was still there.

Terror hit me hard but when I opened my mouth to scream, nothing came out. I grabbed my pillow and chucked it at the silhouette. Oh yes, the fluffy pillow of death. Fear it!

"I know kung fu!" I screamed desperately. I know, I know. What an amateur mistake. If I knew Kung Fu then I wouldn't be baring my other pillow as a weapon. The light suddenly flickered on and I blinked at the tall frame of Ranger. His lips were twitching. Was he laughing at me!?

"What the hell are you doing here!?"

"Training you." He replied calmly. Then he reached behind him and threw something at me. It landed on the covers and I eyed it warily. A bottle of water.

"What's that for? And how'd you get in here?! You do know that I can call the police, right? This is breaking and entering."

His head tilted to the side a bit and his eyes narrowed slightly. He looked annoyed. "You asked me to turn you into a kick ass bounty hunter, right? That's what I'm doing. Get up. We're going jogging."

I turned towards the clock. "It's four o'clock in the morning!"

"I know. We're late."

"You're insane."

His lips spread in a slow, almost wicked smile. "Babe, it was your idea."

"NO! I asked you to show me a few things not to break in my house at four in the fucking morning and drag me out to go running." I huffed, curling back in my covers. "Get out before I call the cops."

"Who're you going to call? Morelli?" I heard rustling and looked up to see that he was holding out his cell phone. "By all means; do so."

I narrowed my eyes at him and a sudden thought came to my mind. "Morelli said you killed people." I randomly blurted out.

I still wasn't a hundred percent positive of that statement. I mean, yes, he had somehow gotten into my house but Lula had too. Everyone seemed to have some sort of pathway into my apartment. Besides, I wasn't in any position to listen to Joe Morelli. He hadn't told me about our...previous 'relationship'. I nearly groaned thinking about it. What had possessed me to get involved with him again? Probably his eyes. Damn those murky, brown eyes.

Ranger looked slightly taken aback by the statement but recovered quickly by shrugging. "Do you believe him?"

"You haven't given me a reason not to, have you? You appear out of thin air, always dress in black and say virtually nothing about yourself. Why should I even trust you when you say we use to be friends?"

He suddenly took a step forward. Not a threatening one, just a small one that shortened the gap between us and made my cheeks inflame from the idea of having on nothing but a tank top and panties under the covers while he was fully dressed.

"You're mother is named Ellen. You love birthday cake. You often have a hard time buttoning the top of your jeans. Your birthday is October eleventh. You were married to Dickie Orr for a short period of time. You're extremely stubborn, don't especially enjoy kids, you have a sister and you don't think I'm a bad guy. You're just concerned about my ethics." He raised his eyebrows slightly. "Am I right?"

He was right and that was the frustrating part. Damn it. I stuck out my tongue. Very mature, I know. "Well...I do think you're a bad guy." Lame comeback, I know. But I needed a rise out of him to feel victorious!

But, of course, he only shot me that almost-smile and said, "Either get up and get dressed or you're going in your pajamas."

"Yo-You can't keep bossing me around, ya know!" I stuttered out. "I'm an independent woman."

One of his eyebrows rose in question and he stared for a beat. "What does that have to do with anything?

What the HELL did that have to do with anything? Nothing at all. But it wasn't my fault. I was tongue tied. This guy could make me sound like an idea with just his eyes. Okay fine, maybe I was partially to blame for sounding like an idiot. I did have control over my mouth. At times.

"Just get out so I can get dressed." I sighed tiredly. He smiled slightly and then walked out without a word.

In a way, I had brought this on myself. It was like hiring your own personal trainer, I suppose. I just had the unfortunate luck of getting one who thought four am was late, sent my hormones on a rage while both terrifying and intriguing me. Oh God, I could only imagine what he'd think of me when we actually started running.

I was in no shape for jogging. I ate cake for my exercise.

*********

Ranger

I was starting to think that jogging wasn't the best course of action for the first step in 'Get Stephanie to Fall for Me while Getting her Fit' plan.

I was having doubts because, four minutes into the jog, she passed out. At the moment I was staring down at her while she fidgeted on the ground, trying to hold back a sigh. I should have expected this. She was horrible when it came to any form of exercise. It occurred to me that no matter how hard I tried to hide my true colors, they show through in all their glory. I dragged her out here, not only to help her accomplish her mission of becoming a better bounty hunter, but because I wanted to spend time with her.

Yet all I managed to do was make the woman faint. And not in the good way. I wasn't skilled at being a softy. I wasn't familiar with showing my emotions. That was going to be my downfall. Either she was going to push me away or die. So, how in the hell was I suppose to show her how much I cared without completely dropping my professional, stoic side?

Maybe if I refrained from barging in her home? I couldn't help it. It felt too regular to stop. What did she expect me to do? Use the door?

I could cool my tough guy act. Then again, she might not want that. Stephanie was usually attracted to my tough guy act. Or so I thought. There was no way I'd turn into a little bitch though. That sure as hell didn't suit me.

Stop dressing in black? Nah.

Oh Hell, I was stressing over it again. Wrinkles were going to begin appearing on my head. I was going to start losing my hair. I was going to get a stomach ulcer. I should have never quit yoga.

"Ugh." Stephanie opened her eyes and rubbed at her head. She moaned again and sat up on her elbows, glancing around. "Where am I?"

"You passed out in the park."

Her eyes turned to me and I saw something flicker in them. Something familiar. And for a second, I let the hope of her having gotten her memory back enter my mind.

But then she narrowed her eyes and said, "Maybe if we would have started later then I wouldn't have!" She grumbled angrily while she got to her feet, swatting at my hand when I tried to help. "Four am...ridiculous....late.....insane....jogging....cars...men in black...cop idiots....want sugar..." She turned to poke me in the chest. "I demand doughnuts!"

I twitched my mouth and tried to keep the amusement from my voice. "You really shouldn't eat junk food before you jog. Defeats the purpose."

"It doesn't matter because we're DONE jogging! I've jogged enough. I've jogged enough to last me for a good ten years. I probably lost twenty pounds from this jog."

"Babe, you barely went twenty steps."

Her face got bright red and she puffed out her cheeks. I struggled to keep a smile from my face but it broke through. I couldn't help it. She looked cute when she was angry. "I SEE that smile!" I wiped it off and followed after her while she stomped over to a bench, muttering angrily to herself. "My life sucks. I got amnesia, I suck at my job, I figure out I use to...or, in a sense, am dating Morelli and now my mentor is a exercise freak that makes me look bad because he has the body of a sex god."

I slouched down beside her and turned to say, "You think I have the body of a sex god?"

The expression on her face told me right away that she hadn't meant to say it aloud. She turned away and mumbled nervously, "I didn't say that."

Smiling, I sided up closer to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. I could see the blush darkening her cheeks and smiled mischievously. Then, something hit me and my smile dropped. "Morelli told you?"

Stephanie blinked up at me in confusion. "Told me wha-Oh, no. My mom told me..." Her eyes narrowed as she trailed off. "Wait a minute, you knew?"

"Everyone did."

"But me!" She groaned and hung her head in what could only be called dread. Damn it, she looked cute when she was upset too. Not only that but she was upset about being involved with Morelli. Great news to my ears.

"So," I started, leaning over to whisper in her ear. "What was that about my sex god body again?"

I saw her stiffen, blush deeper and she laughed nervously. "Oh Jeez, we need to start jogging again right?!" Then she bolted from beside me and raced down the path. I watched her go with a smirk.

I was getting to her.

*********

Stephanie

Ranger was getting to me.

He was too aware of his good looks. It was making me nervous and embarrassed and erratic. I needed to stop mumbling to myself in his presence. I don't know how I had managed to avoid him in my pre-amnesia life and end up with Morelli. UGH. I still couldn't believe that one. Maybe I was over exaggerating but I still considered Morelli scum. Cute scum but scum nonetheless for omitting details. But it wasn't like I considered Ranger any better. He was scary. Sexy, scary albeit but that was the worst kind. That type of scary lured you in and spit you back out cruelly.

My pre-amnesia boyfriend Joe Morelli was scum and my mentor Carlos whatever-his-last-name-was was scary.

I glanced up to stare at Ranger while he jogged ahead of me. I wasn't even going at a pace that could be considered a jog. My lungs were on fire, my heels hurt, my stomach ached and I felt a cramp coming on. I really needed a doughnut.

While I was in pain, Ranger looked completely fine. He hadn't broken a sweat, his breathing wasn't labored, his pace remained the same and he looked perfectly in ease. Son of a bitch.

I swerved off to the side and sat down on the ground. I pulled out the water and downed it all in one gulp. Not bad. I would have traded it for a beer any day but not bad. He made two more laps around and then came to stare down at me.

"Taking a break so soon?"

"Shove it."

He sat down next to me and leaned his head towards me. I could see his smile. He was amused. "You're being very uncooperative, Babe."

Damn it, he needed to stop calling me that. Not because I didn't like it but because I liked it way too much. "You're lucky I came out here in the first place. I'm not like you. I don't do this every morning."

Ranger's eyes traveled out to stare around the park. "Tell you what," He started, a smirk coming to his lips. "If you do three more laps then we can call it a day."

I thought about it. It sounded good in retrospect but three laps were A LOT. I would know. I didn't even finish my second one. Oh no, if I did three laps, I wanted more from it. "If I do three more laps then we'll call it a day AND I get to ask all the questions I want AND you have to answer them....AND uh...you have to help me get old man Olikski and buy me a dozen doughnuts."

He cut his eyes to me. "I would have done those things without bribes."

"Oh really? Fine then what-"

"Do your laps." He laid back on the ground and put his hands behind his head. I smiled, got up and started to jog. Hah, now I could ask him everything I wanted to know. Like, for instance, if he was human. I had better ones than that, trust me, but that one was on the top of the list.

Halfway through my first lap, I wasn't as jubilant. I felt like I was going to throw up, faint, die, come back alive and repeat the cycle. I glanced over to where Ranger lay, clenched my teeth angrily at how lazy and gorgeous he looked in the sun and wanted to bash his face in.

I should have said he'd have to become my sex slave for a week. Yeah, running three laps would have been worth that.


That's all for now, folks. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Coupons and Candy until next time.