I was still awake thinking about what Ranger had said when he left, and I was able to steal another kiss before he walked out of the door. I didn't go back to sleep again. I had a lot on my mind, so I had a shower while Tia was happily asleep, and I got ready for the day. I dressed in a uniform. Ella had bought me fatigues in a larger size, and the increased room at my waist was welcome. I still thought it was a little silly to buy bigger pants for a period of another couple of weeks, but I thought I'd be able to wear them again if I got pregnant a second time. At least, I'd be able to wear them until I was into maternity wear.

However, I'd be able to wear a nursing dress to my mom's for dinner. My maternity pants didn't fit me any longer, but the maternity and nursing dresses still fit. I was at that in-between stage again, where I was too big for my regular clothes and not big enough for my maternity clothes. I decided that I hated that stage and could only hope that I wasn't in that stage for long.

After showering and getting ready for the day, I put on the coffee and dug into the fridge to see what I could find for breakfast. I pulled out the leftover sesame chicken. That stuff was seriously good. I believed food was food and that you could eat dinner for breakfast just as much as I believed that you could eat dessert for dinner – after all, there had been many mornings in my past that I'd eaten leftover lasagna for breakfast. Sometimes I had even heated it up. Of course, there were just as many mornings that I'd had banana cream pie for breakfast as well.

I heated the chicken in the microwave and proceeded to finish the leftovers. As I put the last bite in my mouth and used my finger to scoop up the remaining sauce, I realized that the chicken was the first food that I had truly enjoyed in months. Not just satisfying a craving for something that contained a vitamin or nutrient that my body needed and feeling a sense of relief after eating it. No, the chicken I enjoyed. I sent that in a text to Ranger, and seconds later got a "thank God" text back. Seconds after that, he sent another text. "I'll make it again for you in another week. Is there anything you want for dinner this weekend?"

"Turkey?" I typed. "I know it's the wrong time of year for it. It's a cold weather food. But I love turkey. It's one of my favorite foods."

"Better than peanut butter and olive sandwiches?"

"Yes. And much, much better than cabbage rolls." There were only two foods that I absolutely could not stomach – sauerkraut and cabbage rolls. My theory was that cabbage shouldn't be limp. It was supposed to be crisp and served raw, in coleslaw. It was not supposed to be served cooked. I knew that sauerkraut wasn't cooked, but it was also limp and a definite no-no in my books. And don't even get me started on the whole tomatoes and cabbage thing. Those two flavors did not go together.

"I thought anything was better than cabbage rolls."

"True. But turkey is almost – don't quote me on this – but it is almost better than pineapple upside-down cake."

"High praise. In that case, since it's almost better than pineapple upside-down cake, I think we should have turkey."

"With stuffing and cranberry and applesauce and gravy?"

"And mashed potatoes, and sautéed parsnips and carrots?"

"Yum."

"If you get the recipe from your mom, I'll even make pineapple upside-down cake for dessert."

"Now you're spoiling me."

Ranger sent a smiley face emoticon. "You deserve it. Why don't you invite Morelli and Tracy and Tank and Mellie for dinner on Sunday, and we'll have an engagement party for Mellie and Tank. It would be fun."

"Thanks. I will."

"Did you go back to sleep after I left?"

"No. I had the same sorts of things on my mind as you had on yours during the night."

"Did you come to any thoughts?"

"A few." I paused, wondering whether I should say it. Ranger sent a question mark back. I decided that he deserved to know how I felt. "I mostly am a mixture of feeling guilty for wanting time away from Tia, feeling guilty for spending money on something that is just for my pleasure, and feeling amazed and grateful that you would support me in retaining a part of myself." I sent another text a second later. "In the Burg, every woman is dedicated to her family. If she isn't at home with the kids, she wishes that she was home with the kids. They lose themselves in their family and cease to exist as entities outside the roles of mother or wife. I'm never certain how happy the women are, but since that is the way that it is done I never considered that it could be any other way. It's why I didn't want kids. I didn't want to lose myself."

"And now that you have a child?"

"I'm struggling with defining myself. My experience says that I have to give up everything for Tia to be a good mother, and I desperately want to be a good mother. Thinking that I don't have to give everything up though? It's a bit of a mind shift for me. I'm reeling a bit with it."

"Fair enough. Just remember that I think it is better for Tia to see you doing things that make you happy, to see you taking responsibility for your own happiness. It is healthier than being so invested in another person that they have the power to take away your happiness."

"I've always felt like a square peg in a round hole for wanting that."

"I think being a square hole is the healthier way to go."

"I love you. I have to go. Tia has woken up for the day."

"Te amo. Have a good day."

"You too. Good luck."

I took another sip of my coffee and put my cup down on the counter. I walked into the nursery. "Hey, peanut", I said. "Did you have a good sleep? It's just you and me for a little while until Mellie shows up. Daddy had to go to Boston." I picked her up out of the crib and walked her over to the change table. I took off her dirty diaper, cleaned her up and put on a clean diaper, and changed her from her sleeper to an adorable pink sleeveless dress with white hearts scattered across the fabric. I added some soft socks and shoes and, because she seemed a little cool to the touch, I layered a white cardigan overtop.

I carried her into the living room and retrieved the nursing pillow and, after sitting down and arranging myself, I pulled my shirt up and fed Tia.

By the time I had finished, my coffee had grown cold. I carried Tia into the kitchen, threw out the remainder in my cup, and poured myself a new cup. Tia looked bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, so I carried her through to the office and placed her on her sheepskin on the ground. I retrieved the baby gym and put it above her head so that she could play for a while, and I retrieved my coffee and opened up the computer. I sent an email telling Miguel and Dirk that I would be in the office later, and I picked up the phone and called Morelli.

"Hi", I said. "How's it going?"

"Good", said Morelli. I could hear a woman's voice in the background. "It's Steph", he said to the woman. I heard the woman say something to him, and he said, "Tracy says hi."

"Ooh, does this mean that she's staying overnight?"

Morelli laughed. "Yes, it does."

"Good. I'm glad you make each other happy."

"We do."

"I'm glad Tracy is there, actually. Ranger and I are hoping to invite Tank and Mellie and you and Tracy over for dinner on Sunday to celebrate Tank's and Mellie's engagement. I haven't talked to Tank and Mellie yet, but if they can make it are you interested in coming?"

"Let me ask." He put his hand over the phone and spoke for a moment, and came back on the line. "Tracy said that sounds great. She said she has both days off this weekend. What time?"

"Let me confirm with Mellie and Tank and get back to you. Ranger was thinking he'd cook a turkey. He even said, if I get the recipe, that he'd make pineapple upside-down cake for dessert."

"Is he planning on making that amazing stuffing again?" said Morelli. He had come for a turkey dinner that Ranger had made at Easter, and he'd been raving about the stuffing ever since. He'd had other things that Ranger had cooked, but I think the stuffing had been his favorite out of all the things that Ranger had made.

"I would assume so? He didn't say. He's in Boston right now, so I've been arranging this with him over texting."

"When does he come back?"

"This evening. He just left this morning."

"I was wondering whether he was away last night, and that's how you were able to send me that report."

I laughed. "Ranger had to work last night as well and Tia was sleeping, so I just went ahead and finished the report."

"I'm going to talk to the girlfriend this morning. Do you want to tag along?"

"I'll express a bottle of milk right now, and I'll be ready to go. What time were you thinking?"

"When are Tia's feeding times?"

"Roughly quarter to eleven and two-thirty this afternoon. However, I'm due at my mom's for dinner tonight."

"Poor you. When does Mellie get there?"

"At eight-thirty."

"I'll pick you up then, and I'll meet you in your apartment."

"I'm wearing a Rangeman uniform. Do you want me to change?"

"Yes. This will be something you are representing the police on. I will introduce you as a consultant to the force, so look professional."

"Got it. Sweats and a t-shirt." I was referring to the time when he was at my house unexpectedly overnight and had been surprised with an emergency call-out. The problem was that he had worn sweats and a t-shirt over to my place and he hadn't had a chance to change before he got to the crime scene. His boss had taken him aside afterwards and told him that he had special approval not to wear a suit because it made him look like a member of the mafia, but he really shouldn't show up to work dressed so casually. It was a mistake that he had never made again.

Morelli laughed. "Smart-ass."

I laughed. "See you in about an hour. I have to express some milk."

I hung up seconds later and retrieved the things I needed to pump enough milk to fill Tia, and by the time Amelia arrived I had pumped enough milk to feed Tia one meal. I asked Amelia whether she was interested in coming for a celebratory dinner on Sunday as I marked the bottle and put it at the back of the fridge beside the bottle that I had pumped the day before. Between the two bottles, I had stored enough milk to supply Tia until dinner. Amelia sent a note to Tank to see if they already had plans, but she said she thought it would be good.

I smiled and left the baby with Amelia as I walked into the master and changed into a blue and white patterned nursing dress and a navy blazer, and I pulled my hair back in a ponytail. The dress showed off the diamond necklace that Ranger had bought me when we discovered that we were having a girl. Since I loved that necklace, I liked to show it off as frequently as possible.

I was in the process of sending a text to Miguel and Dirk to tell them of my anticipated activities for the day when Morelli arrived. "Hey, cupcake", he said. He turned to Amelia and took Tia out of her arms. "Hey, cookie", he said. He had started calling her cookie when she was born. He thought it was fitting after calling me cupcake for years. "How are you?" He gave the baby a kiss on the top of her head and sniffed and smiled. "New baby smell", he said as Amelia and I looked at him curiously.

I laughed and finished sending my text, then took Tia from Morelli's arms, kissed her and handed her to Amelia. As we were walking out the door, Amelia looked down at her phone. "Tank said that Sunday is good for him", she said. "He said to make lots and that he loves turkey."

I laughed. "I'll pass the message along."

I sent the message to Ranger as we took the elevator down to the parking level. "I don't anticipate that he will get the message until later", I said. "He is probably just getting on the plane right now."

"You said he's in Boston?"

"Yes. He's visiting the head office of a large multi-national corporation. The system design has involved Lyle, Mike and Ranger. It is a complex system. Not as complex as when they did the rework on the White House or the Newark airport or the United Nations in New York, but as complex as the system they did for the CURE Arena here in Trenton. The company has broken the implementation into four stages – Rangeman is currently designing the facilities in their northeastern region. If they do well at it, their contract will have the ability to be extended to cover the other three phases of the south, midwestern and western regions. The company has also said that, if they do well, they might use Rangeman for their design for their locations around the world. It is a huge multi-year contract potentially worth over a billion dollars, and would vault our company into the big leagues. Luckily, one of the sales people in Boston was on the ball when that request for a proposal came in last February to the Boston office, and he handed it to the staff at head office here. He wasn't sure if we could do it, but with just being bought out he thought that he'd pass along the opportunity just in case. Ranger submitted our proposal in March, a week before it was due, and when the company awarded our proposal with the contract they said that they were impressed with the speed that we had produced a proposal with the details that we had included. It was, from what I understand, a thick proposal with a lot of detailed information about the company and what we'd do for the client. That's why Ranger and Mike and Lyle had wanted to deliver the product before their deadline. They thought it would encourage the company to award us the contracts for the other three phases."

"That's awesome! I hope Ranger wows them with the work that his team has done. I know that what you do is top-notch."

"I hope they wow the client as well. The client employs about a hundred thousand people in the United States alone, and over two hundred and seventy-five thousand people around the world. The company is enormous." We walked out of the elevator to Morelli's car. "Expenses associated with the project are high, but not that high. Rangeman will have a very good year because of this contract."

"Was Ranger nervous about the meeting then, if so much was riding on it?"

"He said he wasn't. His view was that his staff had done the best job they could and he thought we'd delivered a solid system design. He said that, if they didn't agree, then it wasn't meant to be and that was okay. He would know that, if they didn't like the system, it wasn't because Rangeman had dropped the ball. However, he was anxious enough about it to spend a few hours last night reviewing every single detail again just to make sure that he was as knowledgeable about the system as he could be. They actually finished their system design two weeks ago. They let it sit for a week before looking at it with fresh eyes to ensure they didn't miss anything. They hadn't, but it's taken a week to organize the meeting with the company."

"I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will result in the other three phases being awarded to Rangeman."

"Me too." We got to the car and Morelli beeped it open.

"Are you ready to talk to Lorraine?" he said.

I smiled. "Absolutely."