I woke up in the morning and checked my emails, trying to take account of my life. I had my Grandma living with me, my husband wanting to have a baby, my next lingerie line to create, and Grandma had eaten all of Ella's cookies last night.

The other side of the bed was empty, and I guessed that Dickie had gotten up hours ago. I heard noise downstairs and sighed. Time to see what Grandma was up to. At least I could smell coffee.

She was rummaging through the cupboards when I got downstairs.

"I was going to cook us breakfast but you seem to be out of food," Grandma said.

"Yeah, that happens. There's waffles in the freezer," I told her. The only other option was Dickie's super healthy cereal, and ick.

I made us waffles while Grandma poured the coffee, and we sat down to eat together.

"So, Grandma, what are your plans for the day?" I asked, hoping she was over her snit with Dad and was ready to move back home.

"I'm applying for a job as a bounty hunter," Grandma announced. I nearly choked on my coffee.

"You're what?"

"Your cousin Vinnie has a job opening. So I'm going to apply to be a bounty hunter. I think I'd be good at it. I have a gun and everything. Can you drive me to his office?" Grandma asked.

"A job opening? Did Joyce give up on being a bounty hunter?"

"No. His other bounty hunter is wanted for questioning for murder, and my sources at the beauty parlour say that no one can find him. Vinnie had bonded him out for a carrying concealed charge too, so Vinnie is going to be a real pickle. He's going to be grateful that I'm offering to help him."

Ranger. Grandma was talking about Ranger. I'd heard about his carrying concealed charge. It was a new police officer who was a stickler for the rules and didn't understand that most people around here were carrying concealed. I didn't know Ranger well but I wouldn't have expected him to be a murderer. I hoped that Morelli's friend was okay.

Driving Grandma to a job interview as a bounty hunter wasn't on my list of things to do this morning, but what the hell. It would be funny to watch. Hopefully Vinnie didn't actually give her the job. We loaded ourselves into my car and drove over to the Bonds office. I was hoping to get Grandma to visit mom after this.

I texted Val. I have Grandma living with me and she wants to be a bounty hunter.

A return text came through a minute later. Might be easier to cope with a baby rather than Grandma. Thanks Val. Always so supportive.

I had a long shower, made a mental note of what I needed to get done that afternoon, then got ready to take Grandma to what she was calling her job interview. I figured the sooner she worked out it was unrealistic, the sooner she'd move back in with my parents.

I drove Grandma to the office of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds and made a note to stop at the Tasty Pastry afterwards. I was going to need sugar to get through the day.

I helped Grandma out of the car, then followed her into the office.

"I'm here to apply for a job as a bounty hunter," she announced to the receptionist. The receptionist smiled.

"I'll let Vincent know that you're here," she said, then glanced over to me, "Stephanie Plum! It's me, Connie Rissoli. You went to school with my sister Tina."

"Connie! Hello!"

"Oh and this is your Grandma? Vinnie! Get out here! It's your relatives," she yelled towards the back office.

A weasely head popped out of the office cautiously, then he relaxed when he saw who it was. Vinnie was a bit creepy. He was a sleaze, and was forever worried that his father-in-law would find out about some of his bad habits. His wife Lucille was lovely and my entire family had no idea what she saw in Vinnie. It kept Vinnie under control though – his father-in-law Harry the Hammer was rumoured to make people disappear, and Vinnie didn't want to upset Lucille in case that upset her father.

"Mrs Mazur, Stephanie. What a lovely surprise. What can I do for you?"

"I want to be a bounty hunter," Grandma told Vinnie. He paled.

"Well, I don't need any bounty hunters right now."

"Yes you do. You've got one on the run, I heard all about it at the beauty parlour. And you gave a job to Joyce Barnhardt. If she can do it, I can too. What does she have that I don't?" Grandma asked. Best not to think about that one. I glanced over at Connie, who looked like she was holding back laughter. There probably wasn't a lot of entertainment working at a Bail Bonds office.

"Well, your daughter wouldn't like it. And I don't want to upset Helen. Also, I don't think my insurance would cover someone of your age working for me," Vinnie said.

"Someone of my age? That's discrimination!" said Grandma.

"Well, ah, how about I give you a call if Joyce doesn't work out?" Vinnie offered.

"You should! I have my own gun and everything!" Grandma said, brandishing a gun that she'd pulled out of her handbag. We all ducked as she swung wide. Vinnie disappeared back into his office and closed the door. Grandma looked over at Connie and me as she tucked her gun back into her bag.

"Discriminating against old people. That's just not right. We need to work too," Grandma told Connie.

"We need a file clerk, but it involves a lot of bending down," Connie said.

"I can't do that, once I got down it would take me all day to get back up," Grandma said. Connie nodded.

"Thanks Connie," I said, taking Grandma by the hand.

"Anytime! Great to see you, Steph."

"Tell Tina that I said hi," I told Connie, dragging Grandma out of the door.

After that, I needed something with sugar, so we headed for the bakery. I parked outside and left Grandma in the car, choosing a cake quickly and ducking out again. I wasn't quite sure that Grandma could be left unsupervised without getting up to trouble.

When I came out of the bakery, Morelli was leaning against my car, chatting to Grandma.

"Hey Steph! What have you got there?" he asked, looking at the bakery box.

"A cake for my mother," I said, giving him a pointed look. With Grandma around was not the time for innuendo or references to cupcakes.

"That's not my favourite," he said. "What brings you to this side of town?"

"I applied for a job as a bounty hunter with Vinnie," Grandma told him. "On account of his other bounty hunter is on the run, and he's only got Joyce Barnhardt and everyone knows she can't catch anyone." Morelli barely reacted to that. I guess cops get to hear all sorts of surprising news.

"Is Ranger okay?" I asked Morelli.

"I haven't heard from him. He's not returning my calls."

"He didn't do it, did he? He didn't give off a murderer vibe."

"I don't think he did. I'm pretty sure he'd kill someone if he had a reason, but he had no reason to kill Homer Ramos, and he wouldn't have gotten caught on camera if he had," Morelli said.

That wasn't as reassuring as Morelli seemed to think it was.

Pulling up outside my parent's house was a bit strange with only my mother appearing at the door, even if it was because I had Grandma beside me. I looked over at Grandma. She looked like her mood was set to stubborn.

We sat down at the table and I pulled out the cake. My mother got plates for us.

"Are you ready to come home?" my mother asked Grandma.

"Stephanie and I are doing fine together," Grandma said. "Dickie is hardly ever home anyway, so Stephanie needs some company around. It must be hard to be in that big house all alone, with all its bathrooms."

I couldn't blame Grandma for that one. Sharing a bathroom with so many people was a hard thing, especially when everyone was home all day. I remembered it well from when I was a teenager, everyone trying to get ready all at once. So many family arguments would have been prevented with an extra bathroom.

We finished up the cake, and gave my mom a hug goodbye. She looked a bit lost. I told her that we'd visit again soon. I left out that we were in the neighbourhood because Grandma tried to get a job as a bounty hunter.

Once we were home, Grandma and I sat down, and I turned on the television for her and tried to find something for her to watch.

"I feel like a useless old woman," Grandma told me. "I used to look after your grandfather, and now I have nothing to do. There's only so much bingo I can play. And the senior centre is full of old people."

"Why don't you help me with my business? I'm trying to decide what an intergalactic space princess would wear in terms of lingerie," I told Grandma.

"Intergalactic space princesses don't wear underwear, everyone knows that," Grandma said. "Why don't you design some fun brassieres for us older gals that need some more support. All the bras for us are so boring and practical. We need something fun."

"That's actually not a bad idea," I said slowly. Grandma was right. Lingerie for older women was very conservative and boring. Grandma and I could work together to develop something that was familiar, yet more exciting. I thought about it while I did my usual packaging up boxes and stocktake. Plum Blossoms was going pretty well. It might be a good time to start a new line. I pulled out all my fabric samples from the first range and took them downstairs to the living room where Grandma was watching TV.

"These are all my fabric samples. I think we should create something for the older market. Have a look at these while I run to the post office and get lunch and see what you find fun. We can work on something," I said. Grandma's eyes lit up and I saw her eyeing off a hot pink fabric. I figured I'd have to tone down some of her choices but it would be great to have Grandma involved. And we needed a name.

I kept running through names in my head. Plum Vintage stuck out. Enough to convey that it might be for an older market, but not implying anything negative – Vintage was trendy, and in, and a good thing to be. It might work. I'd have to run it past Grandma.

Grandma and I developed a routine over the next week. We'd have breakfast together, work on our ideas, then I'd work while she watched TV, and then we'd have dinner together (sometimes with Dickie too), and then everyone would go to bed. I hoped that it would be boring enough to encourage Grandma back to The Burg, and it worked.

"Your house is too far away from all the nightlife," Grandma told me. By nightlife she meant funeral homes and the Seniors Centre. "Also I think your mother misses me."

"I think she does too," I said. Mom had taken to ringing every day to see what we were up to, and trying to entice me over with dessert.

I dropped Grandma back to my parents' house. When I left, Grandma was explaining to mom that she was now a lingerie designer with me, mom was looking like she wanted say "why me" and head for the ironing board, and I promised to return the next night for dinner and to see how everyone was.

I headed back into my gloriously empty house. Although I'd enjoyed Grandma's company, it was nice to have the house to myself again. Maybe Dickie would start coming home earlier now that Grandma was gone and he didn't have to be so jumpy around her. Ella was due to visit that afternoon and I was glad that I'd gotten Grandma out of the house before Ella arrived. Grandma might never have gone home if she'd met Ella.

Dickie must have good instincts because he appeared before dinner.

"Grandma's gone home," I told him.

"Oh good. I could hear her snoring even from the other side of the house," he said.

"It's quiet now that she's gone," I said. "I have a lot of work to catch up on."

"Have you thought any more about our discussion last week?" Dickie asked me.

"Why? Do you think a week of having a look after Grandma and make sure that another human being was looking after and didn't get into any trouble would encourage me to think having a baby was a good idea?" I asked him. He sighed, overly dramatically. Probably another thing that he'd been practising in the mirror.

"My parents invited us over for dinner tomorrow," I said, doing a subject change.

"I have a late meeting tomorrow," Dickie said. "But let's go out for dinner tonight and celebrate having the house to ourselves again."

We went out, we had wine, and then we celebrated having the house to ourselves again.

The next night I got out of my car outside my parents' house and started walking to the door when all of a sudden, I was nearly knocked down by a yellow blur. I heard a vaguely familiar voice yelling and grabbed on to the blur.

"Stop! Bad dog!"

I looked down. The yellow blur was a giant, fluffy, prehistoric looking dog. The familiar voice was Morelli yelling at the dog. A house, and now a dog. Morelli was trying to domesticate himself.

"When did you get a dog?"

"Someone at work was going to dump him at the shelter. I was thinking about getting a dog anyway. He's untrained though but he's learning quick, aren't you, Bob?"

"Bob?"

"He came with the name. And he knows his name so I don't want to change it. Life is confusing enough for him with all the changes," Morelli said. Bob perked his ears up when we said his name. He was kind of cute. Bob sniffed the air. I think he could smell pot roast.

The front door opened and my mother peered out.

"Stephanie! What are you doing out on the doorstep?" she asked me. "The neighbours will be talking."

"Good afternoon Mrs Plum," Morelli said smoothly. "I was just walking by with my dog and stopped to talk to Stephanie. I wouldn't want to interrupt your dinner plans, I know you weren't expecting company."

Sneaky Morelli. Those were magic words in the Burg, implying that my mother might not be company ready at all times. She sighed. My grandmother stuck her head past my mother.

"Well if it isn't the hottie detective. Are you staying for dinner? It's pot roast. And who is this? What a good dog," my Grandma said, admiring Bob.

"Would you care to join us for dinner, Joe?" my mother asked.

"If it's no trouble," Morelli replied.

"Of course it's no trouble! We have plenty. And it will be a real treat to have a young man at the table. Stephanie's husband couldn't make it, so you can have his place," Grandma said to Morelli. Joe looked across to me. I shrugged and nodded toward the door. This wasn't a scene that I could have pictured when I wasn't younger, but this was okay. I knew Morelli had his own large Italian family, so could handle a dinner with mine.

If my father was confused as to why I arrived with Morelli instead of Dickie, he didn't show it. He may not have even noticed. Or considering that Dickie wasn't Italian and my dad considered that a character flaw, he might have been pleased. Hard to tell seeing as he didn't react or speak except to ask us to pass the gravy.

Morelli just looked happy to have a meal that he didn't have to cook himself. Grandma tried interrogating Joe about recent murders in The Burg, especially the Ramos murder. Joe was cagey and managed not to answer any of her questions.

"I heard that Vinnie's bounty hunter is on the run," said Grandma.

"He didn't show up for his court date," Morelli said. It was common knowledge, so he wasn't telling Grandma anything that she didn't already know.

"How about that. A bounty hunter on the run. Of course, that leaves Vinnie a bit short-handed, so he'll be calling me any day about the job," Grandma said. My mother looked up.

"What job?"

"I applied for a job as a bounty hunter," Grandma told me. My mother looked over at the table to me. I knew that look. Banned from dessert again!