Mr. Fix-It

Chapter 37

The bell rang on Jim's bakery door. Ranger's nose was assaulted with the smell of warm cinnamon rolls, bread, and taking another sniff, baking chocolate chip cookies.

"Carlos, Good Morning," Jim said from behind one of the glass counters. "Usual?'

"Yeah."

"How is your office building coming?"

"I met with an architect yesterday about the remodeling the building, the new garage, and addition on the beach house."

"Cliff keeps telling me about the collection of cars he keeps seeing at your house. He thinks you keep bringing a different one to see if he's paying attention," chuckling. "Oh here, you may want this."

Jim handed him a folded piece of paper. Opening it, Ranger saw it was Lester's Christmas list.

"He asked for everything. The best item was a picture of the Immaculate Reception."

"Lester's a lunatic. I'll let Stephanie deal with this," Ranger said slipping it into the pocket of his leather jacket.

"He was so excited to see Santa last night. I think he beat out some of the children in the excitement department."

"I don't know what to tell you. Lester's one of my closest friends, but I sometimes question his sanity."

"What can I get you?"

"Give me a dozen bagels, cinnamon rolls, and I'll pick out cream cheese for Stephanie. Oh, and six mini muffins for the girls."

"Mia and Kayla were enjoying themselves I could tell," handing Ranger a box and a bag.

He laid money on the counter, "Yes, they were. Keep the change, Jim."

The bell ringing again as he walked out with his baked goods.

After breakfast, Ranger and the guys were going over to the Bhatt Mann building. Stephanie and the girls were going shopping for Christmas decorations.

Before going out the door, Ranger handed Stephanie the magic credit card. "Have fun, Babe."

The door opened back up and Ranger strolled back in, took his woman in his arms, and bent Stephanie backwards kissing her.

Standing them back up, "Wow!"

"Bye, Babe."

Stephanie was just backing her Rangeman Explorer out of the carport when her cell phone rang.

"Hi, Daddy."

"Hi, Pumpkin. What are you doing?"

"Just leaving to go to the home store to get Christmas decorations for the house. Want to come?"

"Sure. Your mother and Grandma went grocery shopping. I'll see you in a few minutes."

Stephanie pulled into Point Pleasant Home & Garden a few minutes later.

"Daddy, did Grandma make it home last night?"

"About 2 AM and she's walking around grinning. I don't want to know what she was doing. Stanley rode her home again on his scooter in the snow. I saw the tracks."

"You gotta love Grandma. She can really find them."

"Look at all those," Kayla was pointing to all the lighted and animated figures and inflatables.

Stephanie grabbed a flat cart and headed to the garden department to find the perfect decorations.

They loaded garland and wreathes on the cart. Frank decided on an inflatable snow globe with carolers and white lights for the small porch railing.

"What do you think about these, Girls?" Stephanie was looking at a set of white spiral trees. "We could put these along the sidewalk."

Mia was standing next to penguins flapping her arms like the animated birds, "Can we get these, too?"

"I like them," Kayla agreed.

"We can get two big penguins and two little ones so we have four. One for each of us."

Mia asked, "What about Barney and Rex?" .

They kept looking around, not finding any dog or hamster figures, but a white animated polar bear whose head moved. They loaded everything on the cart and headed for the check out.

"I hope we get all this in the Explorer."

When it was all paid for with Ranger's magic credit card, Stephanie bought four penguins, a polar bear, a set of spiral trees, garlands, wreaths, extension cards, surge protectors, and boxes of white lights.

They dropped Frank and his snow globe off and headed to the beach house. Ranger's Cayenne wasn't in the carport when they pulled into the carport . Stephanie unlocked the door so Barney could come out with them.

Kayla stopped and asked, "Ranger won't be mad because we bought so much will he?"

"No. He gave us the magic credit card. Do you know what that means?"

Mia and Kayla shook their heads with red curls swishing.

"Have fun! Spend money!"

"Wow!"

"Let me go get a screwdriver and a mallet so we can start to put this stuff out. If you start to get cold, I want you to go in the house."

"We will," Kayla told her.

Stephanie removed the trees from the box and staggered the three trees along the small sidewalk leading to the front porch. Next, they unboxed the penguins. Kayla and Mia were rolling around the front yard in the boxes that Barney was chasing when Ranger pulled in the carport.

Barney went running over to him and back over to the rolling boxes. Giggles could be heard coming from the boxes.

"What is all this?" Ranger asked.

"Our decorations," Mia scampered out of a box.

Lester jumped in the tree box, tipping it over. He kicked his feet out and started rolling around the yard.

"This is fun!" he shouted almost running over Bobby.

Ranger was looking at the sky, shaking his fists, "Why me?"

Bobby took the polar bear out of it's box. "Let's race."

All four of them lined the boxes by the curb and were going to see who could reach the house first.

"Ranger, yell 'GO' for us," Lester said laying in his box.

He gave Stephanie an eyebrow, "Go!"

Four boxes were rolling across the front yard. Lester and Bobby slowed down theirs so Mia and Kayla were ahead. They rolled to the porch first.

"We win!" the twins jumped out of their boxes as Bobby and Lester came rolling over.

Stephanie clapped, "Good race. How about some lunch? We'll take a break and go warm up."

"Ok."

Stephanie grabbed the garland and lights setting them on the living room floor.

Ranger was heating up clam chowder while Stephanie put meat, cheese, and buns on a platter. Bobby was slicing a tomato and breaking lettuce. Mia, Kayla, and Lester were setting the table.

"Babe, what do you need me to do out front?"

"The polar bear needs to be put together. I have to wrap the white lights through the garland. It's going to be hung along the banister on the front porch. I also want to put garland and lights along the back deck."

"Let's get decorating," Bobby jumped up and started to clear the table.

Just as it was getting dusk after dinner, Ranger, Stephanie, Mia, Kayla, and Bobby were standing in the front yard. Lester was on the front porch. He wanted to hit the button on the surge protector to turn on all the lights.

"5-4-3-2-1," they counted down.

Lester pushed the button. The front yard lit up. The penguins' wings started moving up and down. The polar bear's head went from side to side. The spiral trees illuminated the sidewalk. The garland sparkled with the white lights. Barney was barking at the moving figures.

"It's just like the Boardwalk last night," Mia said breathlessly.

The twins' eyes were wide taking in the front yard.

"What do you think, Ranger?" Stephanie touched his cheek.

Putting his forehead to hers, "It looks like we'll be home for the holidays, Babe."