Not mine. Thank you for the reviews. Rainbow, thanks.

Love at the Drive-thru

Chapter 11

The couple settled in to open gifts, both hoped the other liked the biggest gifts they had for each other. Staci gave him eight boxes to open. The gifts varied from pants and shirts to a couple books that he didn't have. Much to his disappointment no whoopee cushions were among them not that he really expected it. His last present she told him to wait until later to open after they came home from the Mañoso's. Lester handed her tons of boxes of various sizes.

Her presents were all kinds of clothes including three dresses that she loved at Macy's when she and Steph were picking out clothes for the party. Steph had them laid back and returned to purchase them later for Les. The tops she had liked and skirt he had liked when they were out getting supplies for the apartment a couple books for her to have to enjoy. She hugged him when she opened the laptop. He had made a picture of them at the start of the Christmas party her wallpaper. Looking at the picture on the computer she realized they were in love then. She thought about the old adage, the eyes don't lie. Their eyes told the truth.

He handed her one last box. In it was a toy car and a set of keys. She looked at him strangely. "Let's go to the garage."

They rode the elevator to the garage level, in there sat a two year old maximum steel metallic gray Dodge Durango R/T with a huge red bow and ribbons. She pushed the button on the key that would unlock the doors and it chimed. Deep down she wanted to be mad but she couldn't instead she hopped up in it and looked around. It was beautiful with black heated leather seats that had R/T stitched in the seat back, leather wrapped steering wheel and every other option you could imagine. If she remembered right this was a top of the line model.

"Ya know I am not surprised about this. You have been itching to buy me a vehicle. I love you, I love it and it is beautiful. Let me guess this is why you were really late and it didn't involve the skip."

Lester let out the breath he had been holding in fear of her being pissed and admitted he had been at the dealership the biggest part of the time. Another, smaller part of the time he had been washing and cleaning it up after the drive on the slush covered streets. The rest of the time he had been gone he had been helping Steph with the skip for all of thirty minutes.

"Who all knows or has seen it?"

"Steph was with me and followed me home so you wouldn't be suspicious if you saw her and not me. Of course Ranger knows and then anybody watching me clean it up on the monitors. Ram and Hal helped me clean on it too. Ram installed the trackers for you. Hal installed a couple compartments in the back for when we are out in it I can store my extra guns."

"Why do I have trackers on it?"

"All of our vehicles have them. Even the Challenger has two on it. It is just a safety feature we install on them. It has saved Stephanie more than once when she has gotten into trouble. So ... you like it?"

Staci nodded in understanding before answering. "Yes, I love it!" she squealed. Looking at the SUV a little longer, she smiled and turned to give him a deep loving kiss, one to convey how she truly felt about him and what he had done for her. After she admired Lester and the SUV a few minutes longer they returned to the fifth floor to look in on Steph and the conference room. Upon their arrival, Staci told Steph all about the SUV. Steph was glad Les wasn't in the dog house with Staci over the vehicle.

"When Les showed me the SUV, I hoped you would like it. It is beautiful."

"I do. The room is so wonderful." she commented as she looked around. "I think this will be the best Christmas I have ever had," Staci admitted.

The room looked gorgeous, Steph had out done herself. The room had red, green, silver and gold streamers going across the ceiling. Banquet tables lined one wall where the food would be set up and serving would be done buffet style, table cloths used for the buffet were covered in Christmas village themes, while smaller 'village type' scenes adorned the tables throughout the room. She had even gone as far as to set up a village with a train circling it. The tree was in the corner with a hand quilted tree skirt around it, there were a few gifts around the tree one for each person working tomorrow. She and Ranger usually bought something small for each of the men who worked on Christmas Day. Steph liked to get something that usually reflected the person receiving the gifts personality. Ranger usually included a bonus check of some dollar amount for giving up their day. The bonuses were usually high enough that the ones who volunteered to work Christmas had done so for the last four years. They didn't want the others to know how much it was they got, but it was well in the four figure range for the single day.

Tank showed up at Rangeman around thirteen hundred he had spent the morning with Phoebe before taking her to the airport. She was spending Christmas Day with her parents in Atlanta and coming back home on New Years Eve as it stood. Since he was going to be alone it was decided he would go to the Mañoso's house with everybody else. It wasn't the first time he had spent the holidays with the Mañosos and probably wouldn't be the last.

Staci made a few other items for the men to have to snack on tomorrow, the biggest being cookies. She made chocolate chip cookies with Splenda rather than regular sugar, that would make Ranger happier hopefully, Steph had assured her she would handle Ranger. Ram had asked if she could make some Chex mix for them to have as well, she gladly made it along with a batch for him to have in his apartment. With the last of the baking done, Staci started getting ready to go to the Mañoso's home tonight.

She was looking forward to the visit even though she was nervous and a little scared. Steph tried to reassure her that the family would love her since Lester did. She picked out a pair of black dress slacks and a Christmas sweater with snowmen on it. On a shopping trip with Steph, Staci had gotten a pair of low heeled ankle boots, she was going to wear those.

A short time later Les came in after a run with Daisy. As he headed towards the shower, he asked her to pick out something to wear. His only requests was no black and no jeans his abuela Rose would have his hide. Staci laid out a pair of navy dress pants and a cream colored cashmere sweater. With his shower taken, he came out into his bedroom to inspect the clothes she had laid out for him, she had done well in his mind.

They all rode together since the parking situation would be atrocious, on the way they talked about what each other had gotten for Christmas. Tank asked Staci if she liked her SUV. She told him she loved it, Les had done well she added. Ranger and Steph had loved the gifts from Les and Staci.

Ranger and Steph had donated a thousand dollars in Lester, Staci and Daisy's names to the animal shelter. In addition to that Steph had gotten a heart that was cut in two pieces with two necklaces. One had on it "Two beat as Les &" the other half had "hearts ing one Staci" Together they said "Two hearts beating as one Les & Staci" The couple had already put them on and was wearing them tonight.

Ranger warned Staci about the family and the chaos that would ensue upon their arrival. Lester's dad and grandfather would be present at the party tonight. "When you meet Lester's dad and grandfather it will explain why Les is the way he is," Ranger advised her.

"Carlos that is not nice," Steph said admonishing him. "Staci they are wonderful men, handsy but at least you know Les comes by it honestly."

Staci looked at Les, he shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah they are a handful. But they will treat you with nothing but respect. They already love you."

"How can they love me when they have never met me?"

"Because you love me. That makes them happy."

When they arrived at the Mañoso family home it was packed, after parking they gathered the gifts that were to be given here and started up the sidewalk. "Tonight, Ranger is Carlos, and Tank is Pierre. We don't use our street names in the family home," Les told Staci.

She looked at Tank, "Your name is Pierre?"

Tank growled at her, "Hey I love it, down beast, I think the name suits you," she laughed. He wrapped his arm around her as they continued up the sidewalk.

"Outside of my momma, there are only four women that can call me that, until a few moments ago there were only three," he told her before placing a kiss on her forehead.

Carlos' mom met them at the door. She hugged Steph first before her son. Pierre had his cheek patted and then kissed as he entered. Lester was next, she stopped him, "You let this lovely lady in first, your Papi and Grandpapi taught you better than that. You must be Staci, I'm Carlos' mom call me Maria. I have heard so much about you."

Before Staci could reply the woman pulled Staci in for a hug, "I'm so glad you are here." As Maria released Staci she turned towards two older versions of Lester and called out, "Come here."

Lucian Mateo Santos II, and Lester's grandfather, Lucian Mateo Santos I came towards Staci, the closer they got the more she realized she was seeing what Lester would look like as he got older. Both men were handsome. Maria took over introductions. Lester held her hand and smiled his goofy lopsided smile at her before finally being able to speak, "Papi, Grandpapi this is the love of my life."

She noticed both men had the same smile as Les, she fell in love with both of these charmers as well. Lucian II spoke first, "It is wonderful to finally meet the woman who has stolen my son's heart, we have heard so much about you. Please either call me Papi or Mateo." He gently took her hand from Les' and kissed the back of it.

Lucian I then spoke, "You are more beautiful than Les described. Are you sure you want to be with a youngster like him? You could learn a lot from an old guy." Lucian then waggled his eyebrows at her and kissed the back of her hand before hugging her. When he released her he told her to call him Lucian.

Staci tried to learn everybody's names but quickly learned it was no use. She couldn't keep Carlos' sisters straight and forget the nieces and nephews. One thing she did learn that even though it was predominately Carlos' family, she was welcome and had gained a family of her own. They made her feel welcomed and wanted, finally realizing Staci was struggling to remember them, each one had given her a tip on how to remember their name.

Celia, Carlos' oldest sister told her she was the oldest of the kids, the letter 'C' was before most. Nicole told her to remember 'Naughty Nicole', Nicole expanded on that by telling her a story about how she, Carlos and Lester had gotten caught skipping school one day. Les teased her that she was naughty for skipping, the nickname stuck from then on. She was Carlos' youngest sister.

By the end of the evening she was catching on. Lucian and Mateo were sweet men, both wanted Lester to bring her around so they could get to know the woman he was going to marry. She agreed to come back soon, but was surprised about the marry part.

"Sweetheart, it is in his eyes, I had the same look when I married his mother. He looks at you with nothing but love in his eyes, it has never been there before," Mateo told her before they left.

"My grandson has made an excellent choice. If you decide you want an older man, I am available. Mateo is right, Les looks at you with pure love. We know the boy. Welcome to our family," Lucian told her then gave her a hug.

Staci was quiet on the ride home, Les was not sure if she was tired or overwhelmed, either was possible the family can be a bit over the top.

Les was right on one account, she was overwhelmed, Staci had not realized that Les was as serious as the elder Santos' made it sound, they would know, after all they knew him best. She knew he wasn't playing around but she didn't think the relationship had progressed that far.

Back at Rangeman, the couples went to their apartments while Tank went to an extra on four. There was no point in going home to an empty house, Phoebe wasn't there and chances were good, she wasn't coming back. She told him this morning she wanted a divorce, she missed Atlanta and wanted to go back. His home was Trenton, and he had no intentions of leaving. He knew it had been coming, her visits back to Atlanta were lasting longer and longer. In the short time they had been married she spent close to half of it in Georgia. He didn't think there was someone else in her life, but then again he hadn't really checked. From the time they were married he felt that neither one of them were vested in the relationship and that was sad. He knew she was a good woman, too good for him he thought. After the holidays he would tell the crew they had split, he didn't want to bring the others down at a festive season such as this.

Lester and Staci were in their apartment, she excused herself to go change into more comfortable clothes. She found Les in his bedroom sitting on his bed. "Are you ready for your last Christmas present?" she asked.

"Absolutely."

She dropped her robe to reveal a beautiful white teddy. He pulled her to him wrapping his arms around her and putting his forehead against her stomach, he knew what the last gift was, herself.

"Pea, I love the gift but ... I can't. I have grown used to the idea of waiting until we are married before I make love to you. Please lets wait."

"But I thought you wanted this?"

"Believe me, I do, but we're not married yet and I love that idea more. It will make our wedding night even more special."

"You're sure."

"Positive, please put on your flannel pjs before I can't control myself then come sleep with me."

She went to change into the other nightclothes, she was a little disappointed that she was not going to experience sex tonight, but pleased that he wanted to wait. He had the covers flipped back for her to crawl in beside him.

Instead of having a woman snuggled up to him, he had Daisy, she beat Staci. They laughed at Daisy but snuggled up to the pooch just the same. They went to sleep closer than ever before. It was just a matter of time before Lester would ask Staci to be his wife, he was thinking around Valentines Day or maybe later in March, he couldn't decide. Even though it was a bit soon, his heart knew it was right.