My apartment was located ten minutes away from anything important – the bonds office, the police station, Rangeman and my parents'. Rangeman was, however, the perfect location. It was five minutes from the police station, ten minutes from my apartment, and twenty minutes from my parents' on a normal day. With Ranger driving and in a pinch, we'd be able to get there in twelve. Since Ranger was a particularly punctual person, we didn't have to use his Indy skills that afternoon.

My parents lived in a small three-bedroom, one-bathroom duplex in an area of Trenton commonly known as the Burg. At one time, it was primarily filled with Italian immigrants. Now the area had branched out and become a multicultural melting pot, with residents all having one thing in common. They were all looking for a safe place to establish their lives, to dig down roots. Residents were characterized by a willingness to work hard and fueled by the desire to be the first to have the neighborhood gossip.

My grandmother, mother and father lived in my parents' house. Grandma had moved into my parents' home when my grandfather left to see if the grass really was greener on the other side – I guess it was because he didn't come back. With her youthful exuberance, Grandma was a trial to my mother in a way that my sister Valerie and I never were, and she's a pain in the keister to my father, who had never imagined living with his mother-in-law when he got married. Shortly after I moved out of the house, my father retired from his post office job and quickly discovered that he had three plausible options in front of him. First, he could have a heart attack from the stress of dealing with my grandmother all day long. Second, he could kill her, and third, he could get another job. While his favorite option was to kill Grandma, he also suspected that might be the option that was the most upsetting to my mother. So he did the next best thing and shortly after he retired he bought a taxi. He had enough regular fares that he was able to write off the car expenses on his taxes, and he spent the rest of his time at his social club spending all the money that he made driving a cab. He was a man who generally suffered in silence, although when Grandma said something particularly inflammatory you could often hear my father muttering to himself under his breath. I periodically wondered what he really felt, but then I thought that maybe I didn't want to know.

My mother was the glue that held the family together. If my family was a turkey dinner, my mother would be the turkey – without it there would be no turkey dinner. My grandmother would be the cranberry sauce, bright and sparkly and adding a punch of color and intense flavor to the dinner. My father would be the mashed potatoes, solid and substantial and an anchor to the family. My sister would be the gravy, since she had developed a fondness for it during each of her five pregnancies and used to drink it from a wine glass during each of those nine months. And me? I'd be the candied yam casserole, complete with baby marshmallows – something that should be dessert but was masquerading as a main dish and pretending it was healthy.

In an effort to get the juiciest piece of gossip, my grandmother regularly visited the Cut 'n Curl, the local salon and regular hot spot for gossip. Over manicures and pedicures, washes and sets, information was exchanged and lives dissected. By the end of a half-hour appointment, often stretched out to two hours by the time you had caught up on everything that was happening, you had taken a pretty good pulse of the neighborhood.

While my grandmother's favorite place to gather information was the salon, my mother's was Giovichinni's, our small local independently-owned deli/grocery store. What they didn't have in selection of grocery items they had in neighborhood gossip, and my mother went every day to get her fix. My grandmother appreciated that practice, as it allowed her to disseminate the news that she had found out at the Cut 'n Curl. In the competition of gossip, the first one to spread it was the winner – and my grandmother liked to win.

When we arrived at the house, my grandmother was standing at the door looking out. While she was happy to see us, I knew she wasn't standing at the door waiting to greet us. Instead, she was standing at the door to try to catch anything interesting that was happening on the street, and she would call out her observations to my mother at the back of the house as she saw them. This practice was acceptable when it was about the other people on the street. They couldn't hear her. It got a little embarrassing when she was reporting on the neighbor's habits though. Between my grandmother's loud voice and the proximity of my parents' house to the other half of the duplex, our neighbor could hear every word that was said. It wasn't so bad when the neighbor was bringing home groceries, but it got a little embarrassing when Grandma spotted something that she shouldn't have seen, like when our neighbor was away and had a house sitter in, and the house sitter walked into the house with three prostitutes and five boxes of condoms. Since I knew the house sitter was only there for three days, I thought five boxes of condoms were ambitious. My grandmother wanted to go next door and offer to help work through all those boxes. She said that she'd like to experience the difference between the various options of ribbed and smooth, lubricated and not, and glow-in-the-dark and plain. Personally, I thought glow-in-the-dark was a bit redundant. If you couldn't find it in the dark, you had a problem. You shouldn't need a beacon.

We walked up to the house, and my grandmother grinned. "This is a nice surprise", she said. "We were glad you called today to ask if you could come for dinner. When we heard you would be visiting, we made a special trip out to Giovichinni's to get a pot roast big enough."

"I'm sorry", I said as I gave her a hug. "I didn't realize that you'd have to make a special trip. I thought you were always planning on having pot roast."

"We were, but your mother wanted a bigger pot roast. She said that she wanted to make sure that Ranger had enough to eat since he didn't eat dessert. He can't fill up the same with one less course of food at dinner."

"I'm sure it would have been fine", said Ranger.

"Well, we got a larger pot roast now, so I hope you're hungry."

We walked into the living room. My father was sitting on his chair watching television, where he normally was. I went over to him and gave him a hug and a kiss. "Thank you for giving your permission, Dad", I said quietly in his ear.

He kissed me on the cheek. "I like him. He's far better than Dickie ever was. I never liked Dickie."

I looked at him in shock. "I thought you had wanted me to marry Dickie?"

He snorted. "Your mother wanted you to marry Dickie. I thought he was a good-for-nothing schmuck."

"But you like Ranger better?"

"He may drive only foreign cars, but he otherwise has good taste. He takes care of you, and unlike Dickie he had the decency to ask me for your hand. I like him."

I gave my father another kiss. "Thanks, Dad."

"Let's see the rock."

I held out my hand and my father smiled as admired it. "Very pretty. Your grandmother will be envious. We'll have to hear about her desire to get married again."

I grinned. "I'm sorry."

My father harrumphed. "You don't look sorry."

"I'm too happy to look sorry."

A soft smile appeared on my father's face. "That's the way it's supposed to be, Steph."

"Did you want to come through for the reveal?"

My father laughed. "I'll listen from here. I always hate it when your mom and grandmother squeal at the same time."

I laughed, patted my father on his shoulder, and walked into the kitchen, where my grandmother was starting to mash the potatoes and my mother was making gravy. "What's happening at work?" said my grandmother as Ranger and I hugged and kissed my mother.

"Lots", I said. "Ranger is completely reworking the organizational chart for the company and getting ready to hire new staff. In addition, he has purchased the property next door to the Rangeman building and has been working with an architect to design the tower and the bridge joining the two. When the tower is built, all residences will be moving into the new tower and the tower that we are currently in will become solely for the business."

"That's great", said my mother. "It sounds like your company is growing fast, Ranger."

"It is. I'm amazed at how fast it has been growing."

"Who are your clients?" said my grandmother. "Would I know any of them?"

"I'm sorry", said Ranger. "That information is confidential. That is something we offer to our clients – extreme privacy. We don't talk about our client list or what we have done for them at all."

"I've asked Stephanie many times", said Grandma. "She won't tell me either."

"Stephanie has signed a confidentiality agreement. She's not allowed to talk about our clients. She could get sued otherwise."

"Yes, but you wouldn't sue her", said my grandmother. "You're her boyfriend."

My mother turned the gravy down to a simmer, and cut and plated the roast that had been standing on the cutting board. She took the bowl of vegetables out of the oven where it had been keeping warm and, as I took the mashed potatoes out to the table and Ranger took the bowl of vegetables and my grandmother took the roast, my mother decanted the gravy into the gravy boat and brought it out as well.

We all sat at the table, my father and mother at the head and foot of the table respectively, and my grandmother on one side of the table and Ranger and I on the other. I waited until the food had all be distributed and grace had been completed before I said, "I have a secret to share, but it has to stay a secret. No one, Grandma, absolutely no one outside the immediate family can know. So Val and Albert and the kids can know, but aunts and uncles and cousins can't know." Valerie and Albert were my sister and brother-in-law. "Can you keep this a secret?"

My grandmother sat forward in her chair, her nose vibrating in excitement, and not for the first time I thought that my grandmother was very similar in reactions to my hamster, Rex. Both were curious; both got excited easily. Luckily, that's where the similarity ended. I don't think I would like it if my grandmother made her bedroom a treasure trove of stored treats.

My grandmother nodded and my mother looked interested.

"I need to hear you say it", I said to my grandmother. "And when you say it, I need to see your hands to know that you aren't crossing your fingers at the same time."

Grandma looked disappointed, but she held up her hands and told me that she would keep it quiet. She looked at me expectantly.

I held out my left hand across the table into the space between my mother and my grandmother. My grandmother squealed and my mother started to cry. "This is wonderful, Steph", said my mother. "I'm so happy for you."

"That's beautiful", said my grandmother. "Are you the fiancé?" she said to Ranger.

Ranger smiled. "Yes."

"Thank God. I like you."

"You liked Morelli too", I said.

My grandmother smiled. "I didn't like Dickie though."

"That's a coincidence. After a while, neither did I", I said.

"Are you planning on starting a family?" asked my mother.

"Isn't this a little early to be talking about that?" I said. "After all, we just got engaged last night."

"Why did you want it to be a secret?" asked my grandmother.

"This will be a funny marriage", I said. "Because of Ranger's past, we don't want to have the public record associated with getting married. We don't want people to know for the same reason. It's that 'loose lips sink ships' mentality. However, it's important to us to say the words in front of God. Because of this, we will have a commitment ceremony instead of a marriage ceremony. This is the same as a marriage ceremony. It just doesn't include the signing of the register. However, while the state won't recognize that we are married, in the eyes of God we will be and that's what is important to us. I will retain my last name and will retain my apartment just to slow down or stop any links between me and Ranger. However, we do want that ceremony, and we do want to be married to each other."

"When are you planning on having the ceremony?" asked my mother. "Show your father your ring, Steph."

"Dad has already seen it. He saw it when we came in."

"You knew she was engaged and you didn't tell me?" my mother asked my father.

"Ranger asked for my permission yesterday", he said. "So, when they came in Steph told me that she'd accepted." He sounded proud of himself, and pleased that he'd had the latest gossip before either my grandmother or my mother.

"No wonder you were in such a good mood last night", she said with a shake of her head.

My father smiled.

"We are hoping to hold the ceremony at the end of February or early March", I said. "We are basically just inviting immediate family and a couple of very close friends to the ceremony. We plan on having it at Ranger's family's restaurant and shutting the restaurant down for the day. After the ceremony, we want to have a dinner for everyone at the restaurant. So it will be a private party. However, after the new tower is built, we hope to have a catered reception in the new staff lounge. That will probably be next fall or the spring afterwards. That will be the official opening of the new complex and although the guests won't know it, it will also be our official wedding reception. To that party, we'll invite all staff and a wider group of friends and family."

"What about presents?" said my grandmother. "If you don't let people know that you are getting married, how will people know that they should buy you a present?"

"Presents aren't necessary", I said. "I've never been comfortable with the concept that you need to get married so that you can raise money for your future. I know of people who have chosen to get married because they want to be registered for a china pattern or new household items. I never thought that was right."

"That's true", said my mother. "The most important thing is that you are getting married."

"So, babies will be soon?" said my grandmother.

"Who says we have to have babies?" I said.

"Isn't that why people get married?" said my grandmother. "After all, if you can live together without being married, why would you ever get married?"

"I don't know if I want a baby", I said.

My grandmother looked serene. "I didn't want them either, but look where we are now."

"Ma!" said my mother. "Are you telling me that you didn't want me?"

"Not at first, dear. I was having too much fun living footloose and fancy free, and I didn't want kids to tie me down. However, having children was the best accident that ever happened."

"I wasn't planned?" said my mother. Her eyes strayed to the whiskey glass and I could tell that she was disappointed that it was empty.

"Of course not", said my grandmother. "You were an accident. So was your brother, for that matter." My mother looked at my grandmother in horror as my grandmother calmly took another bite of pot roast. "This meat is particularly good tonight", she said as she ignored my mother. She looked up at everyone looking at her. "What? It is good tonight."