Standard Disclaimer Applies, they're not mine they're hers.
Chapter 8
Steph stood frozen that sentence reverberated in her head. Damn she had to call Mary Lou to find out what started that rumor. She looked at the clock, five o'clock. Mary Lou was probably getting dinner ready.
Steph called her anyways. "Hello." A little voice answered the phone.
"Hi its Steph is your mom there?"
"Yeah Auntie Steph one second. MOM!" Steph yanked her head away from the phone too late.
"Hello?"
"Mare its Steph."
"Oh My God, tell me it's true."
"It's not. Do you know who told you?" Of course she did any burg woman would. All burg women knew who their source was, just in case they passed on wrong information they could easily point the finger at the person who told them.
"Janice Bludby told me and she couldn't believe that I didn't know. I figured you would have told me if you were. She said that Sarah Rattely told her the news that morning while they were in the checkout line of the grocery store. Sarah told Janice that Emily Heniwich had told her that she heard it from her husband that you guys had eloped."
"Her husband?"
"Yeah and get this Emily's husband Dan said he heard about when he was at Shorty's picking up their pizza."
"Shorty's?"
"Yeah."
"Did he say who he heard it from?"
"Said he didn't who they were. You know how guys are. He only passed on the info because Emily was all over him on how long it took him to get back home. So he told her the news that you were eloping to get her off his back. It didn't work though because then she was all over him for not getting more info on your elopement."
"Damn, so he doesn't know who told him."
"No that's not what I said. He was in Shorty's and he over heard someone talking about you and Ranger eloping."
"Well who would be talking about us eloping?"
"Dan says it was a couple of guys that were all in black."
Steph froze for the second time in an hour. "All in black?"
"Yeah sound like anyone you know?"
"What the hell?"
"Yeah that's the only reason I thought it might be true."
"I got to go Mary Lou I have to plan a mass murder."
"Let me know if you need a get away driver."
"I don't think that will be necessary but what I do need is Emily's number."
"Sure thing." And she rattled it off.
"Thanks Mary Lou, bye."
"Let me know how it goes bye Steph."
Sometimes it was refreshing talking to someone that actually said bye at the end of a phone call.
Steph decided to call Emily next to see if she was able to get any more details out of her husband.
"Hello?"
"Emily? Stephanie Plum."
"Plum?"
"Yes, Emily I didn't elope."
"Oh."
"I was wondering if Dan said how many guys were talking about me eloping."
"Hang on Stephanie he just walked in the door." Stephanie listened to the two of them talking before Dan came on the line.
"Stephanie?"
"Right here Dan."
"Look I didn't mean anything…"
"No it's all right Dan, I was just wondering if you knew how many guys there were?"
"Yeah it was only two and they were in line behind me. The only reason I noticed was because of the size of their order, it was huge and I had turned to see who could eat that amount of food."
"Do you remember what they looked like?"
Steph was sitting at the bar in Ranger's kitchen with a pen in one hand and a pad of paper on the counter hoping that Dan would give her some liable information. Her concentration was focused on getting Dan to tell her something that would let her know exactly which two had gossiped about her.
"My men did this?" Ranger asked reading what she had written down on the pad from her conversation with Mary Lou. Steph hadn't heard him come in and had to fight the squeak that threatened to come out. What she couldn't hide was how high she had jumped when he had spoken.
"Sorry Stephanie but I saw that they were carrying and I didn't look at their faces." Dan continued on in her ear.
"Okay thanks Dan, you remember anything let me know."
"Sure Stephanie."
Steph turned to face Ranger, "Maybe it is a male trait to not end a phone call properly."
"Babe?"
"He didn't even say good bye he just hung up, Mare said bye."
"What do you know?"
Steph told him everything that she was able to find out about their impromptu elopement while they ate the delicious meal that Ella had brought up for them.
"There is no reason why any of my men would be spreading lies."
"He said that they were dressed all in black, I guess they could be someone else."
"Babe."
"I know that is what I thought slim to none chance of that."
"I have the take down tonight, Babe." Ranger told her as they were cleaning up their dishes. "I shouldn't be home too late, but you don't have to wait up." Ranger leaned over and kissed her forehead and left.
Steph was left to stack the dishes on the tray for Ella and then went to go use the Bulgari in the shower. Steph spent little time in the shower due to the fact that Ranger didn't have a shower massager.
Steph set her bag on the bed and pulled out her pajamas then she looked over at Ranger's closet. He wouldn't miss one of his shirts. She grabbed one of his shirts to sleep in instead and crawled under the covers that smelt of Ranger.
It felt like she had just closed her eyes when she felt the bed dip.
"Ranger?"
"Go back to sleep Babe."
"Time?"
"After midnight, go to sleep."
Ranger sat on the bed taking his boots off and watched Stephanie sleep for a second before he got up to take a shower.
When he got into the bed Steph automatically draped her self over him like she had done when they were in New York. And like when they were in New York he pulled her closer to him.
