Chapter 7

At some point while I was hiding from the world, I fell asleep. I woke up the next morning with the mother of all cricks in my neck, bride of Frankenstein hair and such massive raccoon eyes that they were more like panda eyes.

I stumbled to the kitchen and got the coffee going while I jumped in the shower to try to get myself looking presentable. Maybe the hot water would help with the crick in my neck. I stumbled out of the shower and went unerringly to the coffee pot. Caffeine should help. I swallowed a couple of ibuprofen with my coffee and sat back down on the couch to wait for the combination of hot water, drugs and caffeine to wake me up fully.

Eventually, I was awake enough to notice the time. Oh holy crap, it was only seven in the freaking morning. Why am I up this early? Jeez. But I was wide-awake now from my coffee and shower and I didn't think there was any way that I could fall back asleep.

So I did the unthinkable. Yes, that's right, I went on a run. I know, it's insane but I was wide awake, it was way too early to go to the bond's office and I was kind of liking the ability to consume massive quantities of junk food and still be able to button my jeans, but I'd rather not have to suffer though the flu again for that ability.

I came back in and took another shower and then made a respectable dent in my junk food stockpile from my dad.

I made it to the bond's office just a little after Connie arrived. She was pretty surprised to see me there so early, but we sat down and chatted while the office coffee pot was making it's carafe of happy juice. I had a couple of new files and Connie reminded me of my outstanding files from before I caught the flu. Time was running out on their bond and I needed to find them soon or Vinnie would forfeit the bond.

I had just gotten in the car when my phone rang. It was RangeMan.

"Yo," I answered.

"It's Tank."

"Hey, Tank. What's up? You feeling any better now?" I asked, not really expecting an answer from the man who was even more reticent than Ranger, if that were possible.

"Feeling better. I saw your note about the stuff you did. When are you going to come in and show me how to use your new stuff?" he responded.

"Um," I said as I tried to find a way to explain that I'd probably never be back at Haywood after my fights, yes plural, with Ranger.

"I kinda had a fight with Ranger before he left and I'm not sure if he would want me working at RangeMan or not," I finally told Tank.

"He left a message telling me to hire you and for you to show me all the improvements you made," Tank informed me.

Hmm. Wonder if that was before or after? "What time did he leave the message?"

"About eight last night," he said. Alright, that was after I kicked him out so I guess he hasn't given orders to shoot on sight. And I really did need the money after being out of commission for almost a week. I probably should have come home and chased skips instead of moping in the woods, but I think I needed that time away.

"You want me to come by now or after lunch?" I asked Tank.

"Now if you're free."

"I could be there in fifteen," I said and I waited to hear a reply. When I didn't after several seconds, I looked down at my phone. Call disconnected. Yep, he'd hung up on me. Why am I not surprised?

I continued my drive by of one of my skip's house, but I didn't see his car parked out front so I drove past the house. I backtracked towards the bond's office and went on to the RangeMan offices on Haywood.

I used my key fob to let me into the garage and parked next to Ranger's Turbo. Yeah, working here was going to make it really difficult not to think of Ranger, and unfortunately thinking of Ranger really made me sad. I considered him one of my best friends, but he'd never paid any attention to any of the things I'd told him. I know I tend to ramble but he could at least pay a little bit of notice to the things I say. Right?

By the time I'd finished my musings, the elevator doors opened to the fifth floor. It was better staffed this time, but there were still a lot fewer men in black than usual. Several guys called out greetings to me as I walked by, and I smiled at a paler, slightly thinner Lester when I walked by his office. He smiled back and beckoned for me to come in.

"Hey, Beautiful. You feeling better?" he asked.

"Hi Les. Yeah, lots better than before. How about you?" I said as I kissed his cheek.

He grimaced. "Okay now. That was a nasty flu bug," he said and I only nodded in agreement. Yep, it was.

"So I heard you stayed on seven with Ranger while you were sick," he said with a grin.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Was kidnapped, you mean. I was too delirious and sick to make more than just a token protest when he and Bobby kidnapped me."

"Bobby said you were pretty sick."

"Yeah, it wasn't fun, that's for sure," I told him. "I tried to ask him about you but he was so out of it, I don't even think he recognized your name."

Lester laughed. "He said Ranger was pretty damn frantic," he said with a glint in his eye. I ignored his comment.

"Well, I gotta see Tank. Can we catch up later?" I asked in a not so subtle attempt to change the subject.

"Sure, just stop by when you're done."

"Okie dokie."

I walked out and over to Tank's office. It was open so I just rapped gently on the doorjamb. "Hey Tank."

"Stephanie," he said as he motioned for me to close the door. I closed it and sat down on the couch across from Tank's desk.

"What's up?" I asked him.

He looked at me for a minute. "Think your fight had anything to do with why Ranger was in a pretty pissy mood last night?"

I winced. One the one hand, it was none of his damn business. On the other hand, Tank was a friend, to both us. "Probably, but it's not like I've figured out how he thinks," I finally told him.

"What happened?" Tank asked as he leaned back in his desk chair.

I sighed. How to explain this? "Well, I guess it started a couple of months ago when I broke up with Joe for good. Before that, Ranger always seemed to be around, little touches, kisses in the alley, that sort of thing. Once I'm single, he vanishes for all practical purposes. The only times I see him are when Joe is around too. And I'm tired of being a freaking rope being jerked around so one of them can win some stupid macho competition."

Tank looked a little surprised but just nodded slightly.

"So I've been trying to get back out there and date. Ranger didn't really like that but it's not up to him. So I've had a couple of evenings out and all of sudden he's back to the touchy stuff. I'm trying to actually find a nice guy who likes me for me and he's starting that crap up again? So I asked him to stop. Then I told him to stop. He didn't. It pissed me off that he'd completely ignore my request, my decision. So we fought about the fact that he never listens to me and that he won't respect my wishes," I told Tank.

"So, to sum up, Ranger's upset because you're starting to date other people and you're upset because you don't want him putting the moves on you," Tank said succinctly.

"Sounds about right," I admitted.

"So what's different now? You didn't seem to mind it when you were with the cop."

I sighed. "As Ranger had pointed out, I was in an unhealthy pattern with Joe. The thing is, this macho bullshit with Ranger is also unhealthy."

"How so?"

"Because it's not what I need."

"What do you need?"

"A relationship," I said quietly after a brief pause.

"And why can't you have that with Ranger?"

I snorted. "He doesn't want that."

"What do you mean?"

"He's the one who insists that he doesn't do relationships. And I need more than casual sex, which is all he says he can offer me," I finally told him after having an internal debate.

Tank did look somewhat shocked. "He said what?"

"You heard me."

"Could you have misunderstood?"

"He's said it multiple times, so no, I don't think I could have misunderstood."

"Fuck."

"Yep." I paused for a moment. "So you see my dilemma. Ranger's one of my best friends, but I can't let it be more than that anymore. But he doesn't seem to quite understand this so I've been mostly trying to avoid him. With limited success."

Tank leaned back in his chair and studied me for a moment. "You let me know if he goes beyond your boundaries and I'll kick his ass for sexual harassment," he said with a glimmer of a smile.

I had to laugh. I'd seen Ranger and Tank spar, and they were pretty evenly matched, so I'm not sure that Tank really could kick his ass. But it would be entertaining to watch him try!

"Is there any type of dating policy for RangeMan?" I asked. I figured it was better to find out now than to go out with Lester again and find out I was in deep doo-doo for it.

Tank's eyebrows lifted. "There's no policy on it," he said. "You planning to date someone here?"

I wiggled uncomfortably in my seat. "Um, maybe?" I said weakly.

"Do I need to know about it?" he asked me calmly.

"It's only been one real date so far, we're still getting to know each other outside of work stuff, so I don't think you need to know about it. But if it starts to move beyond just friends hanging out, I'd discuss it with you," I told him. "I'd appreciate it if you kept this to yourself. The boss," I rolled my eyes, "really does not need to know this!"

I got the partial smile again. Then a slight nod. You know, for guys who spend so much time in the gym, you wouldn't think they needed to conserve energy so much that they can't actually smile or nod like normal people. Sheesh.

"So about you working here," Tank said, effectively ending the more personal portion of our chat. He went over the duties of the position and my responsibilities as a RangeMan employee. My eyes bugged out slightly when I saw the salary for the half-time position.

"Are you sure this is right? I think this is the number for full-time," I said as I handed it back to him.

He took a quick look. "No, that's right. Full-time is a little more than double that figure." He handed me another set of papers that was for full-time employment.

Holy shit. Even the half-time salary would keep Rex in hamster nuggets for a long time. I wouldn't have to worry about paying my rent. I could stop going to my parents' house to mooch food. Hell, the full-time salary would be enough for me to move out of my crummy apartment and to actually have furniture that was even semi-matched.

I flipped through the contracts while Tank went back to answering emails. Essentially, the job conditions were the same for both. I'd have to eat Ella's food, like that was a major hardship, always carry my gun when on duty, practice at the gun range and work out at minimum three times per week on average. Ranger had included a little note about getting in extra workouts before or after I was indisposed, to use his language. Yikes, he'd put in a clause about my freakin' period! That's pretty embarrassing, I'm so glad he's not here to see me read this. But it would be nice to not have to worry about getting in a run when I wanted to murder people from PMS or had killer cramps.

I could live in the building for pretty cheap rent if an apartment became available, or I could choose to live elsewhere at long as it was within a 15 minute commute. Yeah, no way in hell was I going to live in the same building as Ranger. That would make it nearly impossible to try to move on. I loved Ella a lot, but not that much.

The job duties would depend on whether I was full or part time. Full-time was mostly extended involvement in the half-time job duties. So more time spent on office management, searches and the investigative side of things, with some field work. Yay, so excited to spend more time on stakeouts. Or maybe not.

"Can I think about it for a day or two?" I asked Tank.

He turned back to face me. "Sure. Just let me know when you've decided."

"Okie dokie."

"Can you show me the changes you made now?"

"Sure. Scoot over!" I said as I walked around the desk and took command of his mouse. I pulled up the new programs I'd installed and walked him through them step-by-step. By the end of my little demonstration, Tank was looking at me like I look at chocolate cake. It was a little unnerving, actually.

"It will really cut my paperwork time that much?" he asked me in a slightly skeptical tone.

"It should. I've done the time consuming part already, putting in the basic info and building the database. Now it should pretty much just be a matter of putting in the time worked in the appropriate categories and exporting it for the accounting firm. So after the first time or two, when we've fixed any bugs, it should be a pretty easy process," I told him.

"You're pretty good at this, aren't you?" Tank asked as he stared at me.

Now how do you answer a question like that? If you say yes, you're arrogant. If you say no, you've got poor self-esteem or you're incompetent. "I guess."

"How'd you know about all this?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I have a business administration degree. I used it a couple of years at E.E. Martin, but after they closed due to shady business practices, no company would touch anyone with management experience from there with a ten-foot pole. So I blackmailed Vinnie into giving me a job, and you know the rest."

"The changes you've made seem to be working pretty good so far. And you made those just because you were bored, if I understood Ranger," he said with a slight smile.

"Yeah, well Bobby was sleeping and Woody and Cal were way too out of it to be able to have a conversation and watch the monitors at the same time. I don't do bored well, so I had to find something to do. This seemed like as good of a way to spend my time as any."

"Well, it's good work," he told me.

I beamed. "Thanks!" I felt all warm and fuzzy. Tank's 'good job' was almost as good as Ranger's 'proud of you, Babe.'

I collected the contracts Tank had prepared for me and stopped by to see Lester, as promised, before I left. He must have been on the phone with one of his Stark Street contacts because he was speaking in ghetto.

He motioned towards his chair as he threatened his phone buddy. "I'll bust a cap in yo ass if yo double cross me. Ya dig, bro?"

I grinned at him. Lester was a joker but he was also really smart, so I knew the Lula-speak must have been for a reason.

He threatened the caller a little more before finally hanging up with a growled warning. "Don't fuck with me. Or I be yo worst nightmare."

"Having fun scaring the shit out of gangbangers?" I asked once he'd disconnected.

He just leaned back in his chair and nodded with a grin. "Always fun to play gangsta Lesta," he replied. "So what's up, Beautiful?"

"Tank and Ranger have offered me a job here and I'm trying to decide what to do."

Lester's face froze for a minute. "Temporarily or permanent?" he finally asked. Huh, what was up with that?

"Ranger insists it be permanent but it could be part or full time. Why? What's wrong with that?" I asked.

"Can we talk about it tonight?" he asked. Then he lowered his voice to a whisper. "The walls have ears!"

I burst out laughing at his over the top impression of a super paranoid conspiracy theorist.

"Do you also see dead people?" I whispered back.

He nodded seriously. "Sometimes I make dead people," he deadpanned.

I laughed again. "You should probably try to keep that to a minimum, you know."

He shrugged with a grin. "I'll try. But I'm still too tired to chase down a bad guy, so I'd probably just shoot him and be done with it."

I just grinned at him, shaking my head.

"So I'm off at five," he said. "Can I bring over Pino's and we'll talk about it then?"

"Les, when have I ever turned down Pino's?"

He grinned at me. He knew the answer to that was a resounding never. "So I'll see you around six then?"

"Sounds good. I'll let you get back to your dead people and walls with ears then," I said with a smile. "I have my own bad guys to go threaten."

Lester winked at me as I hauled myself out of his guest chair and left.

I drove by Mooner's house on the way home to check to see if Dougie was back. Turns out he'd just gotten a phone call from a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Dougie had been doing some transportation tasks that were best left unexplained when he'd gotten sick and had stopped at a cheap no-tell motel on the side of the interstate to sleep.

It was the flu, of course, and he'd been delirious for days before a housekeeper had finally gone into his room despite the do not disturb sign and found him. Since he had no ID on him, and he'd registered at the hotel as James T. Kirk and paid cash, he was a John Doe as far as the hospital was concerned. So no one knew who he was until he recovered enough from the bad case of secondary pneumonia that had landed him in the ICU. Seems that living off of crab puffs and marijuana wasn't exactly the best nutritional plan if you're going to catch the flu, and his body hadn't been able to fight it off so he'd ended up way sicker than any of the rest of us.

Even if Ranger says my diet will kill me, I must be doing better than Dougie. I'll take what I can get.

Dougie was recovering now and would be back in a couple of days unless there were any complications. I reminded Mooner to have Dougie call me as soon as he was back to get rebonded before his bond expired and Vinnie showed up to take ownership of the big screen TV in the living room, which had been listed as collateral for the bond.

Mooner looked horrified and I had a feeling he'd turn in Dougie himself before he'd miss out on Gilligan's Island marathons on the big screen. So I wasn't too worried about getting Dougie back in the system. And I was glad to know that my Spidey senses were working. Dougie had been in danger, it was just from a stealthy virus rather than a crazy old lady with a grudge like last time.

I picked up a friend of my grandma's who had been arrested for public nudity. What is it with old men and nakedness? Turning into an old woman already scared the shit out of me, but having to deal with old men made it seem even more horrifying to contemplate.

I got back to my apartment and straightened up a little before Lester came over. I didn't think this was a date and the look on his face had me a little worried that it was going to be a somewhat unpleasant conversation, but the girl in me needed my apartment and me to look good for whatever happened.

Lester showed up a few minutes before six. He had the promised Pino's and I tried to stop myself from ripping the pizza out of his hands and shoveling it in my mouth. It had been a long time since breakfast and I'd been too concerned about food safety to eat the food of dubious origin at Mooner's for lunch.

"Hot damn, Beautiful, you're going to rip my arm off!" Lester said as I gave in and snatched the box from him with a loud moan.

"I haven't eaten since breakfast and I'm starving!" I said as I marched over to the coffee table with the pizza box. "Sorry!"

Lester just laughed. "It's nice to hang out with a girl who doesn't pretend like she only needs two lettuce leaves per day," he reassured me.

"Lettuce is not food. Lettuce is the stuff they make you eat before they bring you food."

That just made Lester laugh harder. "I see why things are hard with Ranger then, Beautiful. That man thinks salad is its own food group."

"Isn't the Army supposed to screen out crazy people?" I asked as he sat next to me and snagged a slice of pizza.

He just laughed and shook his head. "When he joined the Army, he ate normal people food."

"So what happened to him?" I asked, knowing that Lester was Ranger's cousin and probably had more insight into his deplorable eating habits.

He just shrugged. "Long story, and not mine to tell."

I nodded reluctantly, my curiosity making me slightly nuts. We made small talk while we finished off the entire pizza.

I finally took the bull by the horns, so to speak. "So you want to tell me why your face froze back at Haywood?"

He sighed. "First, are you going to work at RangeMan permanently?"

I shrugged. "Not sure yet, but it's looking like a pretty good option. I'm getting pretty damn tired of rolling around in the garbage chasing skips for Vinnie. And I'm good at administration and that sort of thing, and seems like you guys need someone who can do that sort of thing. Apparently Tank hates doing payroll."

Lester just snorted. "You're not kidding! I have to listen to him bitch about entering payroll every single week. You're also the best at searches. So as long as you don't blow up the building, it would be nice to have you around."

"There's a but in there," I told him. "I can feel it."

He sighed again. "But if you're going to work there permanently, I'm not sure whether we should be dating," he said in a rush.

I just nodded. I'd thought the same thing.

"You're great, Stephanie," he rushed to reassure me. "Really great. And I think I could really fall for you if I just let myself. But that might not be a good idea if we're working together all the time. You know?" he said anxiously.

"I know. I thought about the same thing once Ranger asked, okay, demanded, that I come to RangeMan and do the payroll and searches and stuff. I really like you too and I think I could fall for you too. But as screwed up as things already are with Ranger, would it be a good idea to run the risk of bad feelings with you too if things didn't work out?"

Lester looked both relieved and sad at the same time. "I want you to do what's best for you professionally but it just sucks that we didn't try to get together sooner. If we'd been dating for a while before you started working there, that would be one thing. But to really just start seeing each other when you start the job… well, that could be awkward."

"Yeah," I agreed. "The timing sucks."

Lester grinned at me. "Of course, I could be persuaded otherwise if you've already fallen for the legendary Santos charm."

I rolled my eyes at him. "I've managed to restrain myself so far."

"Damn. I should have tried harder."

I laughed. "Wait, are you trying to convince me we should just be friends or that we shouldn't?" I said with a smile.

"My head says we should just be friends," he said.

"I'm so not going to ask about the rest of you," I said with a wry smile.

He shot me a killer grin. "You sure? I'm good at show and tell."

I burst out laughing again. He always made me laugh. Why oh why couldn't we have started dating earlier? Or my decision to stop being a bounty hunting joke wait a few more weeks or months?

"Beautiful?" he asked.

I was caught up in my musings and hadn't answered. "I'm ignoring that comment."

He just grinned at me. "I like you. I like you a lot. And we're going to be good friends and we're going to hang out frequently."

"Bossy, aren't you?"

"Well, I am part owner of RangeMan so I would be your boss," he said with another big grin.

I snorted. "Yeah right. Ask your cousin about how well it works to tell me what to do."

Lester just chuckled. "Yeah, I've seen how well that works. But I'm way more persuasive than he is, so I'm sure I can find a way to make you want to hang out with me."

I smiled at him. "You're fun and I like you. So I already want to hang out with you."

"See how persuasive I am?"

I grinned. "It's truly astounding."

"Thank you. Thank you very much."

I snorted. "You're welcome, Elvis."

Lester wrapped one arm around my shoulders. "I'm glad we're on the same page with this. I was worried you'd hate me."

"Me too. I don't hate you. I'm typically not big on hate, but I am big on revenge. Keep that in mind for future reference. I'm sorry we won't get to go out dancing though, learning to salsa was a lot of fun!"

"I can still teach you to dance," he offered. "Friends can dance together, right?"

I shrugged. "I don't have a lot of guys friends outside of the Merry Men and former skips, so this is kind of new for me."

He grinned at me. "Friends can go dancing together," he said in a very decisive tone.

I shot him a grin and a half-assed salute. "Sir, yes sir!"

He shook his head at me and grinned before settling back against the couch. "We'll let the pizza digest a little and then I'll teach you the mambo."

I groaned. "My stomach is way too full for any kind of movement!"

"That's why we'll let it settle first."

"So you're planning to move in, then? Because I ate so much it will take days to settle!"

He just shook his head. "Probably I shouldn't move in if we're going to stay just friends, Beautiful. You're too damn hot for any straight man to live with and not go crazy if he can't do anything."

I was trying to decide whether that was a compliment or if I should be insulted when he just laughed and grabbed the remote control. He turned on the TV and channel surfed until he found a Vin Diesel blow 'em up movie.

Lester spent the next almost two hours loudly explaining what Vin Diesel and his cronies did wrong. "Holy hell, there's no way they could infiltrate a compound like that! Where the fuck is the sniper support? And who in the name of God belly crawls half a mile on fucking cobblestones just for the hell of it?"

"Lester, shut up! You're ruining my eye candy," I complained.

"Eye candy, my ass! These so called commandos are even worse than you are at being sneaky!"

"Hey!" I retorted. "I'm plenty sneaky!"

He snorted so I drove my elbow into his ribs. His breath whooshed out as he laughed. "Damn, Beautiful, that hurt!"

"Then keep your damn mouth shut about my skills!"

He leaned against me with an adorable grin. "Want to show me some of your other skills, Beautiful?" he whispered in my ear. I had to suppress a shudder as his warm breath washed across my sensitive ear.

I stared at him for a minute before elbowing him again. He blocked me this time. "What the hell happened to just being friends?"

He looked surprised for a moment. "Sorry! It was a reflex!"

"You lied to me," I said accusingly, trying to keep from grinning.

"I've never lied to you!" he replied indignantly.

"You said you weren't really a player. How the hell do you justify hitting on me with "reflex" if you aren't a player?"

His eyes widened. He was trapped and he knew it.

"If any woman in all of the world was going to make me reform, it would be you, Beautiful!" he finally replied dramatically. "The gods must hate us to keep us apart!"

I burst out laughing. "Nice try, but no cigar."

He shrugged and grinned. "Worth a shot."

"You are such a player," I told him.

"Don't hate the player, hate the game!"

I snorted. "No, I can hate the player just fine, thank you very much. Me working at RangeMan may have saved you from a slow and painful death if you ever tried to play me."

Lester turned my chin so I had to look at him and he looked uncharacteristically serious. "Beautiful, I would never play you, no matter what."

My gaze softened. "Thanks, Les."

Then his grin returned as his green eyes twinkled. "Plus, I heard what you did to Morelli with your Buick."

"He deserved it!"

Lester kissed my forehead. "What me to get rid of him for you?"

I laughed. "I think the broken leg was sufficient punishment, thanks. And no more making dead people!"

Lester had laughed at that and we'd gone back to watching the movie.

We'd finished the movie and then Lester had tried to convince me to learn the mambo but I begged for a raincheck. "Nooooo, too tired to learn a new dance!" I'd moaned as he physically picked me up off the couch. "Please!"

He just laughed. "Fine, but you're going out with a bunch of us on Friday night then. We'll teach you to dance."

I glared at him. "I do know how to dance, you know, I just don't know all these Latin dances! But I can waltz your ass off, Santos!"

He leaned in and kissed the top of my head. "Not sure this particular dance club does the waltz, Beautiful."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I know how to dance," I insisted.

He grinned at me and heaven help me, but I was having a hard time remembering why we were going to stay friends with his gorgeous green eyes dancing and his dimples flashing in the low light of my apartment. The man was hot.

"You're a great dancer," he chuckled, "but I'd enjoy teaching you some more of the Latin dances I grew up with. That better?"

I unbent enough to smile. "Much better."

I followed him to the front door, enjoying the view, and stopped at the edge of the door as he opened my door and instinctively checked for anyone loitering outside. "You want to meet me and Bobby for lunch tomorrow and talk about your options for working at RangeMan?" he asked as he surveyed the empty hallway with alert eyes.

"Depends. Where at?"

"Pino's?"

"I'm in!"

Lester grinned at me. "See you at noon," he said as he kissed my forehead. "You're a fun date."

I stepped back and smiled my sex kitten smile, determined to get him back for the reflex comment. "You have no idea," I purred as I closed the door in his face.

There was a moment of silence before he started laughing. "Not fair, Beautiful!"

"It was a reflex!" I retorted through the closed and now locked door.

He just laughed harder. "I'll get you back for this," he promised.

"Bring it, Santos," I told him. "But first, I need a shower. I feel… dirty."

"Holy hell, Beautiful! Let me back in! We have to renegotiate this whole staying friends thing!"

I just grinned silently at the door. "Beautiful?" he asked.

I didn't say anything.

"Ah hell, she's going to be the death of me," he muttered.

I couldn't resist saying something after that. "But what a way to go!"

"Stephanie!" he laughed. "Let me in!"

No way! If he turned those bedroom eyes on me, odds were good the whole staying friends thing would fly out the window. "Bye bye, Santos. Time for my shower."

"Oh mother of God, you're an evil woman," he muttered but I heard him walking away. I peeked out the peephole to see him walking a little funny. Heh. I did a little happy dance that I'd won. I did stack some pots and pans in front of the door just in case he came back to get his revenge and headed off to the shower. The shower massager might be getting a workout tonight.

Author's note: Thank you all for the reviews and for following along!

I've gotten some feedback that Stephanie is being too whiny or bitchy, so I'd like to share my take on the Plum-verse. For years now, Steph's been told that Ranger doesn't do relationships and all that BS, so she believes it. But she's really making an honest effort to improve her life and Ranger doing his normal things, like kissing her senseless, doesn't really help her to move on. So while she absolutely knows that he cares about her, and that she cares about him, she's ready for a relationship that is based on more than just sexual attraction and friendship. She wants the whole shebang, and she knows that Ranger can't give her that. So I don't view it was whiny, I see it as self-defense. But it's so great to know that you are invested enough in my story to write and tell me what you think! Keep it coming!

I'm having some health woes right now and the doctors don't know what's wrong with me yet. So I'm wearing a heart monitor for the next 30 days to see if they can get a handle on why my heart wants to race constantly. But until they know what's causing the tachycardia, they can't give me anything for it (or the symptoms and side effects, like crushing fatigue). So I'll do my best to keep posting regularly but please forgive me if I'm a bit late. Any cardiologists in the Plum-verse fandom should feel free to call!

Please review, they make me smile!