Chapter 21

We woke several times during the night, and that box of condoms was significantly lighter by the time we woke up late in the morning. I had a perma-grin on my face that nothing could wipe away.

"Good morning, gorgeous," a rumbly voice told me. I rolled to my side and kissed my lover.

"It is now," I purred. Ram chuckled as I tucked my head against his shoulder.

I wrinkled my nose at the smell of slightly sweaty man and sex. "We need showers," I told him.

Ram laughed. "Yeah, someone kept making me get all sweaty," he replied.

"Was that a complaint?" I demanded.

"Hell no!"

"Then stop whining about it, and let's go. Besides, you did say you wanted to be present if I used your shower massager…" I reminded him.

He was out of the bed like he was shot out of a cannon. I giggled as he leapt out of the tangled sheets and held out a hand to me.

"Your wish is my command," he told me in a smoky voice filled with promise.

After nearly an hour, we were squeaky clean, but I felt like I had no bones left. The SEAL truly was phenomenally gifted in the water. Thank God he had a big shower. And that I'd gotten more flexible working with Ram and the guys, because otherwise, some of the things that I really enjoyed wouldn't have been possible.

We staggered, okay, I staggered and Ram swaggered, out of the bathroom and threw on some clothes. The dogs were whining piteously, and I figured they were either really hungry or in desperate need of a bathroom break.

Ram opened the backdoor, and both dogs shot out of the house. Twenty minutes later, Colt pawed at the door and let out a short bark.

We were eating breakfast, and Ram had already poured a healthy amount of kibble in their bowls for their eventual return. They snarfed up their breakfast with happy little doggie sounds. Rex ate his grape and baby carrot without making any types of noise, he just shoved them in his cheek and dove head first into his soup can, his furry rear twitching slightly as he ate in privacy.

"So what do you want to do today?" Ram asked casually.

I just shrugged. "Honestly?"

He nodded.

"I'd pretty much planned to do you."

His grin could have lit up Yankees Stadium. "Yes, ma'am!"

I laughed at his eagerness and he grinned sheepishly. "Well, was there anything else you wanted to do today? Not that I'm not completely and totally fine with your plan," he hastened to add.

I just smiled. "Nope. We can just hang out if that's okay with you."

I got the toothpaste grin. "Absolutely fine with me, gorgeous."

We loaded the few dishes into the dishwasher and then wandered outside to sit on his deck. He sat down on a chaise lounger and pulled me into his lap. I just snuggled in closer.

We spent the next hour just enjoying the cool breezes as we sat in the shade and watched the dogs alternate between chasing each other with frantic abandon and lying panting on the grass. Between the yelps and the woofs of doggie delight, Ram and I just talked.

I was curled against him, lying on my side with my head pillowed on his bicep, when his cell phone rang. He glanced at the display. "It's my mom," he said apologetically. "I should probably answer."

I grinned. "You're a momma's boy?"

He swatted my rear lightly as he answered. "Hi, mom."

I could hear his mom talking, but I couldn't quite make out everything she was saying. I perked up when I heard the words "high school reunion" come out of the phone.

"I probably won't go," Ram said.

There was another long stream of chatter while I looked at him. "Mom, I don't need you to set me up with some girl I went to high school with!"

More chattering.

"Because I'm already seeing someone!" he finally exclaimed.

I could hear the silence for about 0.25 seconds before I could clearly hear the "who?" She must have practically yelled.

Ram sighed and I stifled a giggle. That earned me another light swat for laughing at his pain. I didn't even pretend to not listen to his side of the conversation. I didn't have to hear his mom's side to know what was going on.

"Her name is Stephanie Plum, and she works with RangeMan, too."

"Divorced, but no kids."

"We haven't talked about kids, mom."

"A couple of months."

"Because I knew you would interrogate me worse than anything the Navy could throw at me."

"No, you'll scare the poor girl."

"Yeah, she does have a gun, and I'm working on getting her to carry it all the time."

"I'm tempted to shoot you!" he said with a laugh.

I could hear laughter from the phone, and Ram continued to laugh with his mom. She made another comment.

"She's absolutely gorgeous. The most beautiful blue eyes you've even seen, long curly brown hair and an amazing smile. You'll like her mom, I promise," he said.

He shot an indulgent smile at me. "Yeah, I do like her. A lot."

I smiled at him and pressed a kiss to his shoulder. His arm tightened around me a little.

"Maybe one day, if you promise to leave the interrogation at Gitmo," he finally said.

They chatted about other stuff for a minute or two before he prepared to hang up. "Yeah, I'll tell her. Bye mom, love you too."

I sat up to look at him. "Tell me what?"

He groaned. "That my mom's looking forward to meeting you."

I stuck my hands on my hips. "And why do you sound like that's the worst thing you could ever possibly imagine?"

Ram threw one arm over his eyes. "Because she'll adore you and all I'll ever hear from then on is how great you are and how I need to hurry up and marry you before you get away."

I burst out laughing. Ram looked pained.

"I'm not kidding," he insisted, "she's ready for grandkids, and since Ashley not in any hurry, as the oldest, it's my job."

I grinned at his discomfort, mostly because I had been there with my mom so often.

"You think she'd like me, huh?" I queried.

He took his arm off his head. "I'm absolutely sure she'll love you. Probably more than she loves me."

"Oh, stop. You know no mom…" I trailed off. "Well, your mom's probably not insane, so she'd never love anyone more than she loves you and your sister."

He sat up and wrapped strong arms around me. "Sorry, gorgeous. I didn't think about how talking to my mom might bring up some unpleasant issues for you."

I just shrugged against his shoulder. "You can't stop talking to or about your mom because mine's insane. Don't worry about it."

"You okay?" he asked gently.

I nodded. "Yeah. It still sucks, but it is what it is."

He rested his chin on the top of my head. "Yeah, but it does suck."

We sat in silence for a while. There was really nothing to say. But… there was something I could do to get my mind off my mom.

I pressed a soft kiss to Ram's throat and smiled when I felt his arms tense around me. I pressed another kiss just under his ear and was rewarded with a slight shudder from the SEAL in my arms.

"Ram?"

"Hmm?" he responded slightly breathlessly.

"Have you had enough fresh air for now?"

He stood up with me in his arms and double-timed it to the house. Answer enough, I supposed.

Much later, I let out a sigh of happiness. Ram's chest rumbled in response.

"Damn, woman," he said, but I could hear the grin in his voice. His very raspy voice. I'm not RangeMan's queen of distractions for nothing!

I snuggled closer contentedly, and got a rumbling chuckle from my pillow.

"You're going to be the death of me," he admitted. "But I'll happily go anyways."

We snuggled for a while longer until hunger pains drove us out of the bed. It was well past lunchtime, but since we'd eaten breakfast so late and had, ahem, worked up an appetite since then, it didn't matter the time, just that we were hungry. We had sandwiches and fruit while sitting on rocking chairs on the porch.

I checked my phone and saw a text from Les, asking if I was coming over to hang out today. I knew he'd hear something in my voice, so I settled for texting him back to say no instead. I just got a frowny face in response a few minutes later.

I knew Les would understand. If he had a chance to get some on his day off, he'd be gone faster than the Flash.

"I was thinking," I started a bit later while Ram was reading the book he'd brought to the front porch.

"Uh oh," he teased.

I stuck my tongue out at him and he grinned at me, flashing one of those delightful dimples my way.

"Could you help me scout out apartment buildings that are safer than mine now?"

He put aside his book. "Of course. You really want to move?"

"I want to at least explore options. I don't want to live where every psycho and their cousin can find me anymore, if I can help it," I admitted.

"I'm sure we can find you something. But I'm serious, you're welcome here as long as you like."

"And I appreciate that, but I don't want to screw things up by rushing them," I told him with a smile. "Hopefully I'll be around still, so you won't be able to miss me too much."

"As long as I know where you live, I'll just come find you when I start to miss you," he replied as he pulled out his cell phone. "How about if we start by checking the apartment complexes that RangeMan provides the security for? We'd know you were safe then."

I pulled a face. "As long as it's not too intrusive. I don't want one of the guys in the control room to know every time you come over or I leave the house."

"Noted."

He spoke with one of the guys on the phone and explained what he needed. When questioned why, he told him. "Steph's thinking about moving, and I'm helping her look at some places."

He printed the list out from his email a few minutes later. We split up the list and started Googling the various places. A few were clearly outside of my budget from the get go, and a couple listed waiting lists on the web sites. Patience is not my middle name, so I marked those off.

"Check this out," Ram said. I stood, stretched slightly and padded over to him. I tried to lean over his shoulder to read, but he simply scooted his rolling chair back slightly and pulled me into his lap.

I squeaked slightly and then settled into his lap with a slightly affronted look. He grinned and pointed at the screen, so I started reading.

Hmm, interesting. I took control of the mouse and scrolled down. This building was about as far away from the Burg as you could get and still be in the monitoring zone for RangeMan. Truly, it wasn't the most beautiful complex I'd ever seen in my life, but considering my current apartment was a big red brick wart and my only view was of the Dumpster, I wasn't going to quibble about aesthetics.

Ram reached around me to click on one of the floor plans for a one-bedroom apartment. It was bigger than what I had now. Of course, I think my freshman year dorm room was possibly bigger than the apartment I have now, so that's not saying much. The pictures of the apartment, however, were much nicer than my current place. The bathroom looked like it was at least from this century. And not one bit of brown and mustard anywhere!

"Vacancies?" I asked as I hit the back button.

"Taking applications for vacancies in August and September," Ram reported. "When could you end your lease?"

I had to think about it for a minute. My lease is up on June 30, and it was currently mid-May.

"July 1," I told him. "Not sure whether they'd let me stay another month, though."

Ram shrugged. "We can get you a rental unit and you can stay here. No problem."

I nibbled on my lip. "You might be tired of me in another couple of months."

"Bet I won't."

"But you could."

"Extremely unlikely. Negligible risk."

"What if you are?" I pressed.

"Then you should have me admitted to the hospital for my head to be shrunk."

I laughed at his super serious tone.

He cracked a grin. "Seriously, I don't see a problem. I like having you here. I get that you want to have your own space, even if I do think it's a waste since I'll be there or you'll be here whenever possible, but I understand. But if you need a place to stay for a couple of months while waiting on an apartment, just stay here. There's plenty of room, the dogs already love you more than their favorite bones and, well, I really like having you here too."

"Like it, huh?"

"Yeah."

And there's the quiet, almost stoic Ram I know and love.

Wait, love?

"So you maybe want to check it out tomorrow?" He checked the dive watch on his wrist. "Probably closed by now, it's after six."

I looked at the photos online again before nodding. "Yeah. It's the only one that's in my price range and location requirements so far. Meaning far, far away from the Burg."

"I figured that would be a prime selling point," he admitted.

"You know me so well."

"I'm trying. Now, if I know you very well at all, you're probably starting to get a little hungry again. Am I right?"

I nodded guiltily. I was feeling a bit hungry. Okay, so the truth was, I could eat a wildebeest.

"Stay in or go out?"

I thought for a minute. I wasn't quite ready to share him with others yet. "Stay in?"

"Fine by me. We wanna cook or go get take out?"

"Any preferences for you?"

"Nope. As long as I can eat something other than a MRE, I'm good."

"Easy to please, huh?"

"If I don't have to hunt it, kill it, clean it and cook it, I'm good."

I gagged at that thought. I was not cut out for survival training.

Ram just grinned.

"Chicken has always and will always only come from Cluck in a Bucket," I informed him. "It was never anything else before it was a nugget or a strip. And I refuse to listen to anything otherwise."

That earned a chuckle. "Channeling Scarlett again with that denial?"

"Hey, if it ain't broke," I teased.

"Alright, Ms. O'Hara, what's for dinner then. Turnips?"

"Ick."

"Guess the root vegetables are out, then," he mused.

"Good guess."

"So any ideas from the peanut gallery?"

"You can never go wrong with a good pizza."

"Pino's or Shorty's?"

"Either's fine with me. I'm easy."

"You couldn't have mentioned that a couple of months ago?"

I elbowed him in the gut and he grinned before kissing my nose lightly. "You saying it wasn't worth the wait?" I demanded.

"Yep. But just because I wore Navy blue doesn't mean that my ba… Oof!"

That shot to the stomach was a bit more forceful. "Aww, poor widdle baby. Want me to kiss it and make it all better?" I cooed in a fake voice.

He got a wicked grin on his face. "Yes, please."

"Screw you, Ramsey!" I giggled.

"Again, yes, please," he retorted.

"Maybe later. Feed me first."

He let out a groan that I think was only partially fake. At least one of his reactions couldn't be faked, and I felt that one under my tush.

We kept up our banter while we decided on pizza. I was still reluctant to face the Burg reaction at Pino's, so we called in a pizza to Shorty's. Ram's house was outside of their delivery zone, utter sacrilege, so I clambered into his big truck with him to go pick it up. I'd stay nice and hidden in the truck since I was wearing a ratty t-shirt and shorts that must have shrunk in the dryer at some point. While Ram definitely didn't complain about how the thin material hugged my curves, I didn't particularly want to show off my assets to the usually sketchy clientele at Shorty's.

I was getting antsy and ready to risk life and limb to go look for Ram when he finally ambled back to the truck.

"Geez, did they have to grow those tomatoes?" I snarked as the heavenly scent of pizza hit my nose as he handed me the big pizza box and climbed in the driver's seat.

Ram grinned. "Nah. But some of the guys were in there and giving me shit. I finally told them that you were waiting on pizza and I'd be sure to explain why it was cold when I got it home. You and your stomach are legendary, so they finally let me leave."

"Punks," I muttered under my breath.

Ram just grinned and put the truck in gear. I was nearly drooling by the time we made it back to Ram's house, and only a tiny sliver of self-control I didn't know I had kept me from eating in the truck.

As soon as that pizza hit the table, all bets were off. That cardboard box better run or it was getting ripped apart.

I was actually able to converse after I finished moaning over my first piece. Ram just shook his head and handed me a napkin. My face probably looked like a red Rorschach test.

"Yeah, you've got some on your face too," I told him. At least I wasn't the only one.

He just shook his head slightly and wiped his face.

We ate the pizza, watched TV for a while, and then decided we were both extremely tired (read: horny) and went to bed extremely early. Not much sleeping took place for quite a while, however.

Author's note: So… I'm not dead! Seems like I start everyone one of these with an apology. Sorry for dropping off the face of the planet. Between car issues (I got a new to me Hyundai SUV I've named Lester Santa Fe) and my laptop dying, taking with it my most recent draft of this story, so I had to try to piece it back together from memory.

I've also not been able to respond to reviews and PMs due to not having a computer and having to use a loaner one that was slow as molasses in January blizzard, but I'll be better about that now! Pinky swear.

Please let me know what you think! Should Steph move, or should something happen to keep her from moving to the new building so she continues to stay with Ram and the dogs? When should Steph meet Mama Ramsey?

Thanks for reading and reviewing!