**Thank you guys for all of your wonderful words and PM's. I love writing and it just gets to me that people want to be so critical of things that you are doing as a form of free entertainment for them. I love this site, and love what it represents.

My chapters are not beta'd, so all mistakes belong to be. Also, as much as I wish Ranger doesn't belong to me either, even in an alternative universe.

Thank you guys again for getting me out of my funk and I hope this chapter will show you guys how much I love writing for you.

-Nicole

Chapter 20

SPOV

I woke up in the bed and moved my arms around only to realize that my Cuban sex god was gone. I stretched and made my way to the bathroom to shower to try to take a shower and clean myself up for the day. When I reached the bathroom door there was a dress bag and a pair of sandals along with a note in Ranger's beautiful script.

Please take a shower, get dressed, and meet me downstairs for breakfast.

Love,

-R

I got a shower, put my hair back in a French braid since it wouldn't do what I wanted it to do and pulled out a knee length black and dark blue swirled beach dress that went perfectly with my sandals. As I was finishing getting dressed I realized that my engagement ring was gone. I frantically looked around the room and in the bed, but did not find it. Maybe I dreamt him asking me to be his wife. I decided to put on a happy face and go downstairs to eat; I wouldn't let Ranger know what had happened.

As I got to the bottom of the stairs at the breakfast bar there were a dozen roses along with another note.

Explanations of Love

There is a place where love begins and a place
where love ends.There is a touch of two hands that foils all dictionaries.There is a look of eyes fierce as a big Bethlehem open hearth
furnace or a little green-fire acetylene torch.There are single careless bywords portentous as a
big bend in the Mississippi River.Hands, eyes, bywords-out of these love makes
battlegrounds and workshops.There is a pair of shoes love wears and the coming
is a mystery.There is a warning love sends and the cost of it
is never written till long afterward.There are explanations of love in all languages
and not one found wiser than this:There is a place where love begins and a place
where love ends-and love asks nothing.

-Carl Sandburg

Babe-

My love for you is endless. Your life does not have to be defined by Joe Morelli, Helen Plum, The Burg or anyone else. It just has to be what you want it to be, and I truly hope that you want it to be with me.

I fell in love with you the first day in the diner, even though you were a married woman and I knew better. You brought something into my life that no one had been able to bring back in so long, laughter. Shortly after that you brought back love in my heart.

I know that you notice by now that your engagement ring is missing, and when you come outside to eat with me I will return it. I just wanted you to realize that last night was not done out of jealously, envy, or anything but sheer love. I had already planned on proposing to you last night, just not the way that it happened. I don't want you to ever look back at last night and think that I did it out of pity because Morelli is an asshole.

te amo más hoy que lo hice ayer, pero no tanto como lo haré mañana

(I love you more today that I did yesterday, but not as much as I will tomorrow)

Carlos

I walked to the dining room and was Carlos on one knee and he said "Babe, will you marry me and make me the happiest man on the face of the earth?"

"YES!" I screamed at the top of my lungs "I love you, you crazy man!"

We ate breakfast and talked about our future together. For once the idea of having a husband, kids, and a house didn't freak me out and I finally figured it out. It wasn't me, It wasn't Joe, it was just we weren't with the right people. At that point I felt all the guilt and shame from my failed marriage disappear, and it was replace with happiness.

**Review and tell me what you think :)