Chapter Six

It was time for Stephanie and Morelli to say their vows. To stand in front of all these people and pledge their hearts and lives to each other until death parted them. Stephanie thought that was a really long time, and she wasn't so sure she wanted to give up her life for the privilege of living with Morelli and coming second to his job, his family, and maybe even Teri.

Stephanie's heart stuttered and she blinked back tears that threatened as Father John turned to Morelli.

"Joseph Anthony Morelli do you take Stephanie Michelle Plum as your lawful wife to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do you part."

Stephanie could see a sheen of sweat misting Morelli's brow. He did his best to smile at her, but it looked more like a pained grimace. "I do."

Father John turned to Stephanie. "Stephanie Michelle Plum do you take Joseph Anthony Morelli as your lawful husband to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do you part."

Stephanie opened her mouth to say I do, but no sound came out. She swallowed past the lump in her throat as Father John looked at her expectantly, his brows knitting together.

"I, I…" Her voice faltered.

The buzzing in her head grew, louder as all the blood drained from her face. She felt dizzy and she swayed a little.

"Steph?" Morelli whispered, giving her hands a little tug. "Are you OK?"

No, she thought. I'm not OK at all. Stephanie could feel the tears welling in her eyes, as things snapped into sharp focus. Father John cleared his throat telegraphing his impatience, and Stephanie gave him the Burg death glare. No one could say Father John couldn't read the signs, he looked a little sheepish.

"Take your time," Father John said and took a cautionary step backward. Apparently, Father John didn't think it was outside the realm of possibility that Stephanie might burn down the church.

"Is this what you want Joe? Do you really want to marry me?" Stephanie searched his face.

Morelli blew out a harsh breath and gave her a lopsided grimace. "No. I don't want to marry you. Or anybody." He rushed to clarify. "I'm not sure if I ever will. I'm sorry."

Relief washed over Stephanie. For once she and Morelli were on the same page.

"There is no reason to be sorry, I don't want to marry you either." Stephanie whispered back. She could hear the low buzz of conversation starting through the church. "So, what are we doing here?"

Morelli shrugged. "What our families wanted, I guess. What we thought was expected."

"But that's not the right reason to get married." Stephanie pointed out.

"I know." He sighed.

"So, what do you want to do."

"Stop this runaway train before it jumps the tracks." Morelli shrugged giving her a questioning look.

"You want to call off the wedding?" Stephanie clarified.

"I do." Morelli and Stephanie both winced at his choice of words.

"You?"

"Yeah, me too." Stephanie confirmed.

Morelli leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Go, and I'll handle this. I'm the one that let this get so far out of hand, I owe you that."

Just then Stephanie heard the door to the church open. Father John gasped and dropped the bible. It hit with a loud whump. Stephanie turned to see what Father John was staring at with his mouth hanging open and a look of pure terror on his face.

Ranger held on to the oh shit handle in the Porsche as Tank took the corner at three times the speed limit. Tires squealed and smoke billowed, but Ranger wished he'd go faster. His heart was pounding and adrenaline was pouring through his veins, but not because Tank was driving like a maniac. No, it was because Ranger was terrified, he'd be too late. His pride had kept him silent, and now Stephanie was marrying Morelli. What if he never got a chance to tell her the truth? What if she had actually gone through with it? It had all become so clear to him. Stephanie didn't want to marry Morelli, not really. She was marrying him because everyone else wanted her to.

The car skidded to a stop in front of the church and Ranger leapt out and bounded up the stairs, throwing the door to the church open. He vaguely registered the six other black SUVs that had squealed to a stop and the small army that had descended on the church. Everyone wanted Stephanie back.

When Ranger entered the church, it was an assault to the senses. He was greeted with an ocean of pink and the sickly-sweet smell of carnations. Ranger's nostrils flared and he squelched a gag. The smell reminded him of a funeral. This was not what Stephanie would have wanted. At least the woman he knew and had grown to admire wouldn't want this. He really hoped that woman was still in there somewhere.

His eyes flew to the front of the church and his breath caught. All eyes whipped to him, but his eyes were only for Stephanie. His heart stuttered. She was beautiful, stunningly so. But the dress. It was wrong, it wasn't her. Nothing about this wedding was her, except for the fact her hands were clasp with Morelli's and they were saying their vows. He felt his gut clench like he'd taken a direct hit.

Stephanie turned to face him; those gorgeous blue eyes gazed at him with childlike wonder. The question of why he was here was written all over her face.

Stephanie's eyes washed over a sea of black and locked with Ranger's. He was standing there arms crossed over his chest flanked by Tank, Les, Hal, Ram, Binkie, Zero, Hector, Woody, Cal, and Silvio. Half of RangeMan was in the church. You could have heard a pin drop. It was like hell had invaded heaven.

She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see her mother stand up, a pinched look of disapproval mixed with shock on her face, like she couldn't quite believe she given birth to such an idiot.

"Sit down Helen." Stephanie's father grabbed Helen's arm and tugged her back down. "Let's hear what the boy has to say."

Stephanie gave her father a little smile of gratitude and he nodded his head. Her father had clearly been paying a lot more attention than she gave him credit for as he shoveled mash potatoes and pot roast in at the dinner table.

Stephanie's eyes swung back to Ranger, waiting. Probably she should have taken his calls. Ranger wasn't a guy that liked to be ignored, and now they got to do this in front of everybody. The Burg gossip tree would be buzzing with such fervor it might catch on fire.

"Don't." His voice was pleading.

Stephanie narrowed her eyes a little. "Why not?"

Stephanie could feel fifty pairs of eyes trained on her. It was like they were watching a tennis match and all fifty pairs turned to Ranger to see what his answer was going to be.

She saw Ranger wince. If he thought this was going to go easy, he was mistaken. If Ranger had something to say he could say it in front of everybody.

"Because I think I love you, and I think you love me too." Ranger held his breath and waited like a condemned man waiting to learn his fate. He was desperately afraid he was too late, that his silence had done too much damage.

Stephanie's heart stuttered to a full stop. She was pretty sure her mouth was hanging open, but no sound was coming out. She felt a warm flush across her body. She thought she must have misheard him. Love hadn't been followed by in my own way. It had simply stood on its own.

"Are you quoting the Partridge family?" She asked. Stephanie was pretty sure she was rambling incoherently, because some song was looping in her head. What was she so afraid of?

Ranger's eyebrow twitched up. "I love you." Ranger repeated.

In a spectacular display of intelligence, Stephanie finally stammered a response. "Oh."

She saw a ghost of a smile play across his lips.

"Oh!" she said a little more forcefully as his words sank in. Stephanie looked over at Morelli.

"Go." Morelli let go of her hand. "I've got this."

Stephanie turned back to Ranger. "Well, why didn't you just say so. I love you too."

Ranger gave her his 1000-watt grin as a collective gasp rippled through the church.

And that was the thing about love Stephanie realized. It was solid, constant, and strong. Ranger was all those things in her life. He'd always just been there for her. The one constant that supported her no matter what. Steady and unwavering. No yelling, no ultimatums just silent strength that let her find her own way and fly. You knew it was love when you could just be yourself, comfortable and secure that you were understood and accepted just the way you were. That was Ranger. A man that always had her back and would fight to the death for her. Sometimes love just snuck up on you with so much stealth you didn't realize it until it had you, and once it did there was nothing to do but let go and surrender to it. Love had its own plan that happened on its own time, and it was best to just roll with it.

Stephanie grabbed her dress and hiked it up. Suddenly she was running straight down the aisle to Ranger. She leapt into Ranger's arms. If it had been anyone else, they might have been bowled over. He held her against him, her feet off the ground. Ranger's mouth found hers. The kiss was neither polite nor restrained, and entirely scandalous. The twittering buzz from the wedding guests turned into a roar and Stephanie heard Les' wolf whistle. She pulled back from Ranger and smiled at him as she slid down his perfect body until her feet were touching the ground.

"Want to get out of here?" He whispered against her forehead.

"Oh, yes."

Ranger grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the church and down the stairs to the Porsche.

"Ready?" Ranger asked.

Stephanie knew he wasn't just asking her if she was ready to leave the church. She held his gaze for a moment.

"Yes, Carlos, I am."

She watched his eyes flicker closed. "Say it again," he whispered.

"I'm ready?"

"No, say it again." He growled.

"Carlos. Get me out of here."

"I think that's the first time you've ever called me by my name. I like it." His eyes were blazing with heat and so much more.

He pulled her into his arms and gave her an unhurried, sweetly delicious kiss, gently coaxing her mouth open. He made a masculine sound of appreciation deep in his throat that caused lightning to flash through her. His mouth trailed lower, and he leaned down and his teeth sunk into the tender spot where her shoulder met her neck, sending a shiver down her spine. The satisfied smile he gave her made her heart melt.

Ranger opened the door and Stephanie backed down into the seat. Ranger wrestled the material of her dress into submission, pushing and beating it into the car, until he was finally able to slam the door. He jogged around and got in. The tires chirped as they rocketed away from the curb.

"Where to?" Ranger queried.

"I don't care. I'm basically homeless." She grinned at him. "I doubt my mother is going to speak to me for about the rest of my life."

Ranger grinned back. "At least something good came out of it."

Stephanie rolled her eyes and gave an inelegant snort.

"You know the thing about Yin and Yang, Ranger?"

"What's that babe?"

"Each has a little bit of the other in it. That's what makes it work. The reason we are attracted to our opposite is because they are our salvation." Stephanie gave a little shrug. "On the surface we may seem totally different, but that's what brings balance to both of us. We complement each other perfectly. That's why I know this is going to work."

"What do you want this to be?" Ranger asked. "I know I really messed things up between us, and I'm going to have to win back your trust, but I'm all in. Whatever it takes as long as it takes."

"Anything we want it to be. I just want to be with you. Whatever that looks like, I don't really care. I just want to wake up to you every morning."

Ranger took her hand. "That's a start and the rest we will figure out. We have the rest of our lives."

They rode along in silence for a while, both contemplating the fact they had agreed to be in a relationship.

"How about the beach?" Ranger finally asked.

Stephanie shrugged. "Sounds good, but I don't have any clothes."

Ranger gave her his wolf grin. "That's perfect, because you aren't going to need any."

Stephanie laughed, and for the first time in months she felt she could breathe again.

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A/N: Thanks for reading! Your comments, feedback, and PMs are always appreciated.