"We need to leave in ten minutes," Ranger said, coming in to the bedroom. "It's going to take us almost three hours to get there, and that's if traffic is light."
I was trying to finish packing for our weekend trip to New York for Julio's and Kevin's wedding. I had everything packed except for the dress I was going to wear to the ceremony.
"I can't figure out how to get my dress in my bag without creasing it," I said. "I should have bought a dress bag so that it could just lay flat."
"You can put it in with my suit," Ranger said, handing me a hanger. "My bags are in the car."
After putting the dress in the garment bag, getting Bob and his food loaded and doing one last check to make sure no appliances were left on, we piled into the Cayenne and headed to my parents' house. Despite having done well on an overnight alone, we didn't quite trust Bob enough to leave him alone for almost three whole days, so he was going to stay with my parents until we came back from the wedding on Sunday.
Ranger pulled up in front of my parents' house and I jumped out, grabbing Bob and his supply of food. As we walked up to the porch, I reminded him to be a good boy, not to ruin anything in anything in the house and to listen to his grandma, grandpa and great-grandma. He practically dragged me the rest of the way to the door as he started to smell the beginnings of dinner preparation.
"Thanks for watching Bob," I told my mother as we walked in the house. "He's been doing really well since he's been living with us and hasn't destroyed anything. But if you see him getting the shifty eye, just remind him that Ranger won't take him on runs if he chews up anything."
"He'll be fine. Be safe, and we'll see you on Sunday," she said, taking the bag of dog food. "What time do you think you'll be back?"
"It'll be evening," I said, reaching the door. "We're stopping in Newark for lunch with Ranger's family. They want to take every chance they can get to see Julie while she's with us. I'll call you when we're heading back to Trenton."
I bid everyone good-bye and hurried back to the car. Upon learning that Ranger and I would be at the wedding, Julie had started asking if she could come back with us and spend some time in Trenton, seeing as the only time she'd been here was when she was kidnapped. Ranger had told her she would need to ask her mother and father first, as he wouldn't even discuss it unless they gave their consent. Rachel had been nervous about the idea, but had listened to Julie and Ron when they reminded her that Ranger wouldn't let anything happen to her, and agreed to the trip. Ranger had asked me if I was okay with her staying with us, as she would likely spend a significant amount of time with me because of his work. He was planning to cut back some while she was in town, but he could only pass so much work off to Tank. I had agreed because not only was I looking forward to seeing Julie, but I could tell that Ranger was eager to have her spend time with us, even though he tried not to show it.
Traffic was heavy as we went through northern Jersey and into New York. It ended up taking us close to four hours to get to the resort, but we'd left ourselves plenty of time in order to get checked into our room and get changed for the dinner. The resort, called The Stonebreaker, was an expansive place on top of a mountain. I'd checked out its website and found that the resort was set up for both families with children and adult couples. There was a section of the lodging that was for families with children under sixteen or people looking for cheaper accommodations and a section that was only for adults and children over sixteen, separated by the expansive lobby and gift shop. There was also an adults-only spa, a restaurant called Riley's, a bar called Shenanigans, and a building specifically designated for children of all ages. We checked in at the front desk, indicating that we were there for the wedding. We were given our room key, which was on the second floor of the adults-only portion of the resort, and a packet of information about both the resort and the arrangements for the wedding. Our room was one of the most basic rooms they offered, but it was incredibly nice and very spacious. There was a king-sized bed in the middle of the room, with a small seating area in front of a gas fire place, a small balcony, and a beautiful bathroom with an enormous Jacuzzi and separate shower. It seemed like the kind of place couples would go to on their honeymoon, not just a simple place to stay to attend someone else's wedding. I walked around the room and peaked out of the curtain, finding a spectacular mountain view. Ranger wasn't fazed by any of it, but started unpacking his bags and reading the information given to us by the concierge.
"The rehearsal starts at six, with dinner served in the restaurant at seven," he said.
I followed Ranger's lead and began unpacking my own bag, setting aside the black skirt and green blouse I was planning to wear. The clock on the wall said it was five o'clock, so I would need to start getting ready. I wanted to look nice when I met Rachel and Ron for the first time. I knew Ranger had a good relationship with both of them, and he had said they were eager to meet me, but I still wanted to make a good first impression.
By five-forty-five, the top half of my hair was pulled back in a clip and my make-up was done to the point that I looked good, but didn't look like I was trying too hard. My green blouse had sleeves that just covered my shoulders and bunched just below my breasts, presenting the nice illusion of cleavage without looking slutty, and my black skirt fell to a couple of inches above my knees.
"Are you ready to leave?" Ranger asked, coming in the bathroom. He was wearing a black dress shirt tucked into black dress pants.
"No gun?" I asked. He shook his head.
"Julie, Olivia and Tony will be there," he said. "It'll be one thing when Julie is at home with us, but I never keep my gun on me when I visit them in Miami, so I didn't plan on changing that while we're here."
"That's really sweet of you to be so conscientious around the kids," I said, giving him a kiss on the cheek before walking out of the bathroom.
"You really need to stop using that word to describe me," Ranger said, opening the door to the hallway and holding it for me. "People are going to hear you one day and think you've lost your mind."
We headed down to the first floor and across the lobby to the Great Room, which was where the wedding would take place. The Great Room had high ceilings with an elaborate chandelier in the center of the room. With the exception of a gorgeous stone hearth, the far wall was nothing but ten-foot windows overlooking the same view we had from our room. The carpet was a deep brown with intricate swirling lines in beige. There were ten rows of chairs on either side of a path that led to the fireplace, with six chairs on each side of the row. There were a few older people sitting down in the front rows, talking amongst themselves while several children ran around the room. Kevin and Julio were by the fireplace talking to a woman in a gray dress, and several other adults were standing in groups around the room, talking and laughing.
Ranger pulled me towards a corner in the back of the room, where a petite, blonde woman and a tall, skinny, brown-haired man stood talking and going over a list that the woman was holding. The woman looked up as we approached and her face broke into a smile. She touched the man on the arm and said something, making him look our way.
"Hey, I'm glad you made it," she said, walking over and hugging Ranger. "Julie's been looking out for you since four."
"We just got in about an hour ago," he replied, turning towards me and putting his hand on the small of my back. "Rachel, Ron, this is Stephanie."
Rachel was wearing a yellow wrap dress that showed off cleavage that I couldn't achieve on my best day. Her blonde hair was cut into a shaggy bob, and she wore three-inch silver heels, which still left her a few inches shorter than myself. She had high cheekbones, and her green eyes were framed by long dark lashes. Overall, Rachel Martine was hot.
"It's wonderful to finally meet you, Stephanie," Rachel said, shaking my hand.
"Likewise."
Ron also shook my hand. "It's great to meet you, Stephanie. We'd hoped to meet you when we were in Trenton a couple of years ago to pick up Julie, but we always seemed to miss you at the hospital."
I was about to reply when I heard Julie's voice behind us. "Finally!"
I turned around to see Julie walking towards us. She was wearing a purple dress with spaghetti straps, and looked like she'd grown a few inches since I'd seen her the last time. Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her skin tone, a couple of shades lighter than Ranger's, was a shade of light brown that couldn't be achieved by hours spent in the sun or a tanning bed. She had his intelligent brown eyes and dazzling smile, and I knew without a doubt that Ranger and Ron would have to tag team to beat the boys off during her teenage years. She surprised me as she threw her arms around me and pulled me into a hug.
"I'm so glad you're here, and I can't wait to go back to Trenton with you," she said excitedly.
"I'm happy to see you too," I replied, returning the hug. "You've grown a lot since I last saw you."
"Well, yeah. You haven't seen me in almost three years. Of course I'm taller," Julie said, rolling her eyes.
She moved onto Ranger and hugged him as well. I'd never actually seen the two of them interact, as Ranger had been shot when he got to Julie when she was kidnapped, and I'd never witnessed them together at the hospital afterwards. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the top of her head.
"Are you sure you really want to come to Trenton?" Ranger asked. "It's about one-fifth the size of Miami, and pretty boring."
Julie rolled her eyes again. "I remember. Besides, Stephanie and I will be hanging out and doing fun stuff while you work. She lives there, and she's awesome, so there must be something fun to do."
Poor Julie. I'd obviously never be telling her that most of the fun I had in Trenton involved getting her father naked, so I'd have to make sure to take her to plenty of things she would enjoy. I didn't want her to find out that I wasn't really awesome.
Over Ranger's shoulder, I saw Kevin and Julio making their way towards us. Both were wearing black dress pants, but Kevin's shirt was green while Julio's was gray.
"Has your ex-wife informed you of the nonsense she and your former mother-in-law have been up to in planning this ordeal?" Kevin asked, shaking Ranger's hand. "I no longer claim them as family."
"So I get stuck with them?" Ranger asked. "I was technically only part of the family for ten months."
"Your kid is family, so that's good enough to force you to claim them," Kevin said, ruffling Julie's hair. "But I'll still claim Jules."
Julie ducked out from under her uncle's hand, smoothing down her hair and smacking Kevin on the arm.
"Ha, ha," Rachel said sarcastically. "If my big brother is getting married, he's going to have a wedding. And since we knew neither of you would be planning anything, we took the initiative."
Julio put an arm around Kevin's shoulders. "Look on the bright side, if your family hadn't done it, mine would have. And it would have been twice as big, but not nearly as nice. So don't think even think about running, or I'll find you and drag you back."
"I may have to use that line for my wedding vows someday," Ranger asked, smirking at me. I gave him a pissy look, which made all of the men laugh. Rachel smacked him on the arm as she walked past.
"You're terrible. Excuse me, but I need to make sure we have dinner to eat after the rehearsal."
"So you are going to marry her someday?" Julie asked Ranger.
"Maybe," Ranger replied, putting his arm around my waist. "If she doesn't destroy any more of my cars."
"If that's the litmus test for marriage, then I can guarantee we'll never get married," I said, nudging him in the side.
Julie let out a disgusted sigh. "You two are impossible."
Rachel called for everyone to take a seat a few minutes later so that the rehearsal could start. Ranger and I took seats in the second row next to Julie. Ron was sitting in the row in front of us with his younger children, Olivia and Tony. Olivia was nine and Tony was six. They both had light brown hair and blue eyes, and were very thin like their dad.
The rehearsal took half an hour, and then we were all dismissed to the restaurant. There were about twenty-five people in the group, not counting Julio's newborn niece. The seven kids sat at a round table next to the rectangular one where the rest of us were sitting. I was seated between Rachel's grandmother, Penny, and Ranger. Penny was a nice woman around Grandma Mazur's age, but was very hard of hearing and talked very loud. I was fairly certain I'd have some hearing loss in my left ear by the end of the meal. Rachel and Ron were seated across from us.
"What plans do you have for Julie's time in Trenton?" Rachel asked.
"We're having dinner at my parents' house on Sunday on our way back to Trenton," Ranger said, cutting his grilled salmon. "And then we're going back on Saturday to spend the day. Other than that, Stephanie will have to answer."
"I figure we'll go to the beach at least a couple of times while she's there," I replied. "On Thursday, we are meeting Lola, Celia and Celia's daughter Katrina in Short Hills for lunch and shopping. I figure we'll wing it on the other days. Is there anything special she likes?"
"Julie would live at the beach if we'd let her," Rachel said. "She likes the quieter, less tourist-riddled beaches. Her favorite is Palm Grove, which is right by her grandparents' house."
Ranger and Ron chuckled, and Rachel shook her head. "I don't think I'll ever be able to tell her the truth."
"I don't follow," I said, taking a sip of my wine "What's so funny about that?"
"Julie was conceived on that beach," Ranger whispered in my ear, making me choke on my wine.
"Yeah, don't tell her that. You'll scar her for life," I said. "I was unfortunate enough to be informed a few years ago that I was named Stephanie because I was conceived while my parents were watching a movie with my mother's favorite actress, Stephanie Zimbalist. It was a similar situation for my sister, except they were watching re-runs of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, so she ended up named after Valerie Harper."
Ranger, Rachel and Ron all laughed. "It's official—I'm never telling her," Rachel said. "I can't ruin her favorite beach for her."
After dinner, Rachel and Ron asked to meet us in the bar after they had the kids to bed so that they could get to know me more. Ranger and I went back to our room, where we changed out of our outfits into t-shirts and jeans.
"I can't seem to figure out your type," I told him as we changed. "Between myself, Diana and Rachel, there aren't really any similarities. Diana is black, Rachel and I are white. Diana and I both went to college, but Diana went on to law school, whereas I barely graduated with a bachelor's. Diana and Rachel are both petite and gorgeous, and I'm pretty average in looks and size. I have brown hair and blue eyes, and Rachel has blonde hair and green eyes. Do you even have a type?"
Ranger watched me for a moment, not saying anything but looking thoughtful. "I've been with women of various ethnicities, body types and backgrounds. If I have to identify a type that I'm drawn to it would be intelligent, petite, white brunettes. In general, I've pursued the women I found beautiful."
I shook my head. "I feel a bit like Sarah, Plain, Tall and Flat-chested in comparison to Rachel. I can see why you slept with her. I'd consider sleeping with her."
Ranger's lips twitched. "I don't think Ron or I would have any complaints if two wanted to give that a shot, as long as you let us supervise."
"She may not look as good as she did the last time you saw her naked, but I think she'll still look better than me."
"The last time I saw Rachel naked, she was eight months pregnant. She didn't look bad, but you look better," Ranger said, pulling on running shoes.
"You slept with her while she was pregnant?"
"We were married," Ranger said. "Pregnancy hormones got the best of her, so whenever I visited she wanted to have sex. She said that as long as she was going to be married to me, she was going to reap the benefits."
I could relate to that. I'd taken advantage of time with Ranger, especially during breaks in my relationship with Morelli.
Ranger's cell phone pinged with a text message forty-five minutes later, signaling for us to head down to the bar. Shenanigans was not what I had expected it to be, given the name. It was a classy bar, looking more like somewhere businessmen would stop for a drink at the end of the day instead of a place where people would be breaking pool cues over each other's heads. Rachel, Ron, Julio and Kevin were seated in a corner booth at the back of the bar. The room was full of vacationers who were starting their night with beers, large glasses of wine and margaritas. Ranger held my hand as we weaved through the tables to the back corner. The booth was situated on three sides of a square table, and the section of booth that was against the wall and had the best view of the room was empty. Clearly this crowd knew Ranger well.
"What are you guys drinking tonight?" a server asked as we took our seats.
"Um, just a glass of white wine," I said. "My alcohol tolerance isn't that great."
"Try nonexistent," Ranger said, squeezing my knee. "I'll have a beer."
"Tell us how you two met," Rachel asked me once the server had taken everyone drink orders. "Ranger never tells us anything."
"We met because I'm pathetic as a bond enforcement agent," I replied. "The office manager, Connie, gave me his number to help me learn the ropes when I first started five years ago. We were the Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle of bond enforcement."
"I'm sure you weren't that bad," Rachel said kindly. Ranger and I both laughed.
"I've fallen in dumpsters, been soaked in red paint, had my eyebrows singed off, and have had more break-ins, fire bombs, death threats and destroyed cars than some countries have during wars. I don't always carry my gun, and when I do it generally isn't loaded. My stun gun is only charged about half the time, and I frequently have to substitute my pepper spray with hairspray. Overall, I'd call that pretty pathetic for someone chasing after criminals," I said, taking a deep breath after my long-winded confession.
"Is she serious?" Julio asked Ranger incredulously.
"Yes, and she forgot to mention that just a few days after meeting me, she had to call me in the middle of the night to come save her after one of her FTAs broke into her apartment, ambushed her while she was in the shower and ended up handcuffing her naked to her shower rod," he replied, smiling. "That was one of the best phone calls I've ever gotten after midnight."
"I'm officially in love with Stephanie Plum," Julio said as the server brought us our drinks. "Is it too late to swap out Kevin for her at the wedding tomorrow?"
Kevin turned his head slowly to look at Julio. "You're going back to being straight the night before you're supposed to be marrying a man?"
Julio put an arm around Kevin's shoulders. "Call it one last hurrah."
"If you can live through the ass-kicking Ranger will give you if you try to put the moves on his girl, then I'll give you my blessing," Kevin said, smirking.
I bless out a dramatic sigh. "Darn, Julio. We were this close to being together at last," I said, holding my thumb and index finger half an inch apart.
"In the next life, honey," he replied, toasting me with his beer. "Ranger only gets dibs on you in one life at a time."
"One lifetime with her is all a man can manage," Ranger replied. "But she's worth it."
"That was romantic," Rachel said sarcastically. "How she managed to resist that charm for so long amazes me."
"Some people aren't as taken in by his charm as you were," Kevin commented. "At least Stephanie waited more than one day after she met him before letting him see her naked."
Rachel, who was sitting next to her brother, smacked him on the back of the head. Julio and Ron had fought smiles while Ranger had rolled his eyes.
"But all's well that ends well," Kevin said, nudging his sister. "I decided not to kill Ranger for sexing you up on a beach, and I got my favorite niece as a result."
"You managed not to kill me because Kinsey was lacing your food with a tranquilizer," Ranger said. "So you can't really take any credit for not killing me for those first three weeks."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Kevin asked, looking shocked. He turned to look at Julio, who avoided his gaze. "Did you know about this?"
"Is this really the conversation we want to have the night before our wedding?" Julio asked, looking sheepish.
"If he weren't dead already, he would be now," Kevin said. "I can't believe he drugged me."
"Speaking of Julie," I said, bringing the group around to a better subject. "I hope you all have a plan for beating off the boys once she's in high school. It could turn out to be a full-time job."
"We've had this plan worked out for years," Ranger said, indicating himself and Ron.
"Background checks on all of the boys in her school will be the first step," Ron said. "Once we know she is starting to date a certain boy, Ranger and I'll invite him over for a nice talk about why he's interested in our daughter, and to lay out the expectations of what he will and will not do to her."
"Which means that, until both of you are dead, Julie will be a virgin whose romantic life consists of a series of great first dates with guys that will never call her again," I summarized.
"It's practically poetry when you say it like that," Ron joked, making all of the men chuckle.
I enjoyed the next hour of talking and laughing with everyone. Ranger's relationship with Rachel and Ron was beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Part of me wondered if things had always been this good, or if it had reached this level after Ranger rescued Julie. Around eleven o'clock, Rachel said she needed to go check on the kids. I volunteered to go with her, as I needed to stretch my legs and find the restroom.
"You guys have a great relationship," I commented as we exited the bar. "My ex-husband and I couldn't get along that well if we had people holding guns to our heads."
Rachel laughed. "Yes, we've managed to make our situation work. Not that I had ever planned to get pregnant at eighteen by a one-night stand, but I'm lucky that it was him. He immediately took responsibility and asked me how I wanted to handle the situation. He was really good to me during the time when we were married, and our divorce was the easiest in history," she said, pulling her key card out of her pocket. "He told me that he would let me be the one to make decisions regarding Julie, since he was in the Army and would likely be heading back to Jersey once he was out. I was young and still a bit immature, so I told him that I would call him if I wanted him to come around. I have some regrets with how I handled the situation when Julie was younger. Getting married to Ron has helped me have a better perspective on things. He really likes Ranger and has always pushed me to let him be more involved in her life. I always hesitated a little, until Julie was kidnapped. When Ranger worked to find her and then nearly died saving her, I knew Ron had been right. J ulie told me when we picked her up in Trenton that she wanted to see him more, and I agreed with her. He's always been so emotionally closed-off, it's been hard to tell how he felt about things, but since he's been coming around more often, I've realized that he must have wanted to be a bigger part of Julie's life than I had let him."
"Julie's lucky to have three parents who take such great care of her," I told Rachel after she checked on the kids. "I know Ranger told me in the past that he had kept himself emotionally distanced. I had always thought maybe he didn't want Julie to get hurt from getting too attached to him, since he said he was only as involved as you wanted him to be, but I think part of it was also to keep himself from getting hurt. I've watched him when he talks to her on the phone, and it has made me see how much he loves her. I know he's excited to have her come stay in Trenton, though he won't be obvious about it."
"I think you have had a lot to do with the changes I've seen in him," Rachel said. "Especially since the two of you started dating. He's more open and relaxed than I've ever seen him. Granted, he's still not what I would call normal, but I think it's as close as he's ever going to get."
"We've been through a lot together, especially in the past year. It's changed us both for the better."
When we returned to the table, Ranger and Kevin were both gone.
"Ranger got a call from his office and said he was heading back to your room to manage it," Julio said, pushing a fresh glass of wine towards me. "Kevin said he had a headache and went back to our room. That or he's running away. He said something about marrying the worst gay man ever tomorrow. I'm not sure why he called me that."
"Probably because you said something about how unfair it was that Ranger always managed to get hot women like Rachel and Stephanie," Ron answered, putting his arm around Rachel. "I think hearing his future husband call his sister and his friend's girlfriend hot was just too much for him."
"You think I'm hot?" Rachel and I asked simultaneously. Julio's face broke into a wide grin, and Ron gave Rachel a disbelieving look, who shrugged. "What? It's nice to be appreciated by someone who isn't obligated to think I'm hot."
"Just because I think a woman is hot doesn't mean I want to have sex with her," Julio told the group.
"Said no straight man ever," I replied. "Tell Kevin not to worry, you're still very much a gay man."
We all finished our drinks and left the bar. Julio and Kevin were staying in a room two doors down from Ranger and me, so we walked together across the resort.
"Are you nervous about getting married tomorrow?" I asked Julio.
He shook his head. "Nope, I've known for years that if I ever had the chance to marry Kevin that I wanted to take it. I was the one to ask him to marry me the day we turned in our retirement papers," he replied. "We had gone home and were talking about where we wanted to go after retirement. I said I'd only live someplace I could be married to him. He was stunned for a minute, but then he asked if that was my way of proposing. I said it was and asked if he was going to give me an answer, or stand around asking stupid questions all day."
"There's no way he could turn down such a romantic proposal," I joked.
"It surprised us both that I ended up being the one to do it," Julio said, stopping at a small seating group near the stairs. "Let's sit for a minute, and I'll tell you the love story of Julio Garcia and Kevin Hutchins."
"I was straight when our unit was formed," Julio said after we both sat down in cream-colored club chairs. "Always had been, and had no doubt I always would be. I could have any woman I wanted, and I always did. When I first met Kevin, I felt an immediate draw to him. He was serious and quiet, but had this biting wit that would come out from time to time that made me laugh. I tried to be his friend during the first couple of months after our unit was formed, but he treated me like shit and I couldn't figure out why. I was struggling with how I was feeling, but had told myself it was nothing. I kept telling myself I was straight, and Kevin likely was as well, so I suffered in silence. It was about four months after our unit was formed that Ranger got Rachel pregnant. Kevin and Ranger had been close up to that point, but after that they weren't. Kevin was isolating himself, which wasn't good in our type of work, so I forced my company on him. He resisted at first, but eventually started to tolerate me more. Unfortunately for me, the more time I spent with him, the more I became attracted to him," Julio said with a smile.
"He could tell something was bothering me, as I was becoming more distracted by the week. He and I were paired up a lot to go out on two-man jobs, as he wasn't speaking to Ranger, or Kinsey by association, unless he absolutely had to. About six months after Ranger and Rachel got married, Kevin and I had been on a surveillance job in Afghanistan when we'd nearly been caught. After we had left the area and headed towards the town where the rest of the unit was, he told me to talk to him about what was bothering me. He said we were going to get killed if I didn't get my head in the game. I wouldn't tell him at first. The Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy meant I would have been discharged if word got back to a higher-ranking officer, but eventually I told him what was going on, though I omitted the part about him being the man I was attracted to. He asked if the man I was talking about was gay, and if so why didn't I just say something to the guy. I had no idea what to say to that, so I just came out and told him that he was the guy. He had been driving, and I thought for a minute we'd be going off the road. He stopped the car, and I asked if he was going to report me, hit me or both."
I laughed at the image that came to mind. "I can't believe you just told him like that. He could have taken you both out before you ever got to know what he thought."
Julio laughed as well. "Not the best time, I realize, but I couldn't keep it in any longer. It had been weighing on me for almost a year. He just looked at me for a minute, before shaking his head and saying I should have been asking him whether or not he was gay. I nearly pissed myself when he went on to answer the question by saying that he was gay, that he'd been attracted to me since the first time we'd met, but that he'd kept himself distanced because he figured there would never be a chance. He told me that he knew this was hard on me, and that the ball was in my court as to what I wanted to do. After that I knew I wanted to be with him, but couldn't get up the nerve to tell him. I was finally able to two weeks later, once we were back at the base in Georgia. I went to his apartment that first night that we were back, and when he answered the door, I just blurted out that I wanted to be in a relationship with him. He told me that I didn't need to look like I was headed to the electric chair, and invited me in. He gave me a beer and told me to watch the Knicks' game with him until I was relaxed enough to actually talk. It took three beers and the entire game, but I eventually got there. I ended up spending the night, and we've been together since."
"Wow," I said, curling my legs up in my chair. "I can't imagine what that must have been like for both of you, especially when you couldn't be open about your relationship."
"It wasn't bad when we were in that unit together. Everyone figured it out pretty quickly, but no one minded. They'd been expecting it for a while. We were together for two years when Ranger and Kinsey decided to leave the Army when their tours were up. After that, the unit was disbanded and I was reassigned to a regiment that was based out of Fort Lewis in Washington. Kevin stayed in Georgia and was put in charge of a new unit that was similar to the one we had been in together. Over the next four years, we only saw each other fifteen days total. We talked on the phone every day that we could and emailed, but it was tough. Kevin was selected for a different unit that was based in California, so for about three months we were able to see each other more often. When his unit needed a specialist in computers, he recommended a man from his old unit, Julio Garcia. That's how we ended up being back in the same place together after four years apart, and it's how we spent the last six years of our army careers."
"That's amazing,' I said. "I'm even happier for you now than I already was."
"Glad we managed to catch you two before you eloped," came Kevin's voice. We turned to find him and Ranger standing a few feet behind us.
"After you called me the worst gay man ever, I thought it was for the best," Julio joked, walking over to Kevin and giving him a brief kiss.
We all said goodnight and went to our respective rooms. Once we were safety ensconced in our hotel room, Ranger peeled me out of my clothes and pushed me towards the bed. As we made love, I thought about what it would be like to not be able to have him right next to me for four years. I couldn't fathom not waking up next to him every morning, smelling Bulgari Green every time I walked in the bathroom, or seeing his health food every time I opened the refrigerator. I started to cry as I tried to put myself in the position, appreciating how horrible it must have been for Julio and Kevin. It put things in perspective for me about my fear of getting married again, even more so than the fight with Ranger had.
"Babe, what's wrong?" Ranger asked as he stopped moving inside me. He brushed my hair back and wiped my tears with his thumbs.
I shook my head. "Talking to Julio about being separated from Kevin for four years really got to me. I tried to imagine that happening to us, and this is the result."
Ranger kissed me gently. "That won't happen to us. The only way I'm leaving you is when I'm dead. So if you get tired of me, you'll have to kill me in my sleep."
I let out a noise between a sob and a laugh. "Good to know, but I'll keep you around. We've got too many things to do before we get to the point that we start wanting to kill each other."
"Such as?"
"Getting married," I said, running my hands up his chest and over his shoulders. "Julio told me he always knew if he had the chance to marry Kevin that he would take it. It's made me think about us, and that I have the opportunity to marry you anywhere I want, not just in certain countries. And I want to do it."
Ranger looked down at me for a minute before kissing me and starting to move again. His kiss was intense, and he pulled one of my legs up over his arm, allowing him thrust deeper into me. When we finished a few minutes later, he held my head in his hands and gave me a searching look.
"Are you sure about this?" he asked.
"Yes."
