"RangeMan, how can I help you?"

I'd honestly expected Ranger to answer with his casual "Yo!", so I was a bit taken aback by the professional greeting.

"Ranger? Or Carlos? Uh, hi, it's Stephanie Plum." I could hear a soft laugh.

"Hi Steph. I'm glad you called. What can I do for you?"

"I've been thinking about what you said, and I'd like to get an alarm system for the house."

"Great idea. A five year old could get past your locks."

"Do you want to come out and inspect the house?"

"I had a good enough look around the other night when I dropped you home. Why don't I put my idea together into a plan, and then you can visit later this week and I'll take you through them?"

"That sounds great. Tomorrow afternoon?"

"I can do two. Is that okay?"

"That's fine."

"See you then, babe," he said, and hung up.

I sighed. Distraction over, it was time to check on Val. She was asleep on the bed. I put a blanket over her, and then went back to my desk. I had a few more days to safely post orders and make sure that they'd be there by Christmas, and my email kept pinging with new orders. I loved it – the rush of the orders, knowing that Plum Blossoms and Plum Vintage orders would be going out to make women happy (even if they were ordering for themselves).

I was down in the garage looking through the remaining boxes when there was a knock at my front door.

I threw it open to find Morelli. He was a few days past his five o'clock shadow, a few weeks past needing a haircut, and looked like he desperately needed sleep. Things must not be going that well in Vice at the moment. We stared at each other before I moved aside to invite him in.

"I came to see Val," he said.

"I'd hope you were here to see Val. It would be weird if you'd knocked up my sister but was here to see me," I told him.

"Is she here?" he asked, a bit awkwardly.

"She's asleep. I don't think she'll been sleeping well," I told him. He nodded.

"Me neither, but hopefully a weekend gangland murder spree isn't what was keeping her up. I got called into work on Friday night, and I've been sleeping at the station. It's been hectic."

"Where's Bob?" I asked him.

"My mother took him. I hope that he's behaving or Grandma Bella will have put The Eye on him by now."

I took Morelli into the kitchen, made him a giant coffee and toasted both of us a waffle. Once I'd finished eating, I moved into the dining room to finish packing orders. Morelli followed me in, so I decided to put him to work sealing the packages.

"This looks like you're doing well, Cupcake," he said, looking at the orders I had ready to take to the post office.

"Thanks, I think that we are. You'd better stop calling me Cupcake though, unless you want to remind my sister of the reason behind it."

"Right. Good point. I'm a reformed man. No more names for anyone. It will be a change, using actual names, but I'm up for the challenge."

"Is there anyone in The Burg that you haven't slept with?" I asked Joe.

"Mary Lou. You think she'd be up for it?" he said, winking at me. I hit him on the shoulder in response.

We packed for a few minutes in silence, then Morelli sighed.

"I don't even know if I'd make a good husband. Cops tend to be shitty husbands," he said, frowning pensively. I had to resist the urge to smooth the lines out of his forehead. Morelli was good looking in high school, but he'd only gotten better as he'd matured.

"You don't have to get married."

"Yes we do, there's a baby coming. It's what you do when there's a baby on the way."

"You need to talk to Val about this," I told him, not wanting to get involved.

"Yeah, I do. Before our mothers decide to start meddling."

"Probably already too late, but that's a good plan."

I heard a noise on the stairs and went out to warn Val that Morelli had arrived, but he followed me out, and Val stopped halfway down the stairs when she saw him.

"Hi Val," he said.

"Hi Joe," she said softly.

"I'm sorry how I left things on Friday night, I got called into work, and I've been working non-stop since," Morelli began explaining to Val, and I moved back into the dining room to give them some privacy, and to keep working.

Half an hour later I heard the front door close and Joe's truck start up. I went out to see Val. She was sitting on the couch, looking a bit stunned.

"He wants to get married," she said.

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"I don't want to make the same mistakes again. I don't want to rush into it for the wrong reasons. Do I really want to get married again?" Val said. It sounded like she had a lot of thinking to do.

"Maybe you should start with, do you want to marry Joe? Do you love him?"

"I don't know. I like him. I've known him for a long time. He has a good job, he has his own house, he's nice to the girls."

"That doesn't mean you have to marry him though. Think about it, there's no rush," I said.

"Yeah, right," Val said, looking down at her stomach.

RangeMan was located in a seven story office building, only a five minute drive from my house. I found a park down the block and walked in, managing to be on time.

I was surprised when I walked into the building to find the main RangeMan reception desk on the ground floor. It looked like RangeMan took up all of the building. I'd assumed it was a small outfit that took up part of a floor. Looks like I was very, very wrong.

"Good morning," a booming voice greeting me as I approached the desk. The man behind the desk looked to be as big as Tank, but was white, with a short neat haircut. Probably former military too.

"Hi, I'm Stephanie Plum," I said, waving as I walked up.

"Ms Plum, welcome to RangeMan. I'm Hal. Here's your name tag that you're required to wear while you're in the building."

I had an ugly name tag with my name on it fixed to me, and Hal gestured towards the elevator which slid open like magic. Tank was inside, and looked happy to see me.

"Hi Steph! Usually we meet clients in our Conference Rooms but Ranger's on a phone call so he asked if we could bring you up to five."

"I didn't realise your business was so big already," I told Tank.

"This is the control floor," Tank said, as we stepped out of the elevator. I had a look around on the way to the offices on the far side of the floor. There was a bank of monitors being intently watched, a few cubicles, and what looked like the doorway to a break room at the back of the room. Tank nodded to a few of the man at the monitors, and stopped at the break room where he poured us coffees and offered me a muffin from a snack basket. I took the muffin, but it tasted healthy. With some more sugar, it would be fine.

Tank took me to the far end of the floor where there were some offices, and knocked on the door.

"You ready, Ranger?" he asked, pushing the door open. Ranger was seated behind a desk at the far end of the room, bookshelves behind him. Near the door there was a small table with four chairs around it, nearby to the window.

"Sure. Hi babe," he said, getting up and walking to the small table. I noticed a folder on the table. "I thought we could meet in here. It's less formal than the conference room."

"That's fine," I said, sitting down with my muffin. Tank waved and left. Ranger opened up the folder on the table to show me an outline of my house floor plan and suggested security options. I was surprised at how accurate the house was plan was, given he'd only been in my house a few times and upstairs only briefly to check it was safe.

Ranger went through the plan and suggestions with me. He'd suggested three different levels of security, from full video monitoring, to just an alarm system on the external doors. Video monitoring seemed a bit excessive, so I agreed to the alarm system with new locks on the external doors. RangeMan would monitor it, so if it was triggered, they'd call the house to see if there was an issue, then send a car out if there wasn't a reply. It sounded reasonable to me. I still wasn't sure if I would need it, but it had occurred to me that since I was now using our house as a business, and had thousands of dollars worth of stock in the garage and dining room, it was worth putting a monitored alarm on. My insurance company agreed, and with the reduction in premiums, the RangeMan security wouldn't actually cost that much each month.

I signed a contract, and Ranger said he could arrange for the system to be installed next week, just before Christmas. "We're busy with people wanting systems installed before they go away for the holidays, but I'll make sure you get covered off before the holidays," he said.

"It's fine, we're not going away. I'll probably work through the holidays except for Christmas Day," I told him.

"Me too. I take monitor duty so the men with families can be at home."

"Do you have family nearby?" I asked him.

"In Newark. I might make Christmas dinner if it's quiet."

I waved to Tank as we walked out, and Ranger took me down in the lift. I signed out and handed back my name tag.

I ordered Chinese food to be delivered for dinner, and made sure that there with white wine in the fridge ready to go. I had some wifely skills.

The garage door sounded promptly at 7pm and Dickie came into the kitchen shortly after, brief case in hand. He was looking excited.

"I went to see the partners for the new firm that wants to get me on board. It's brand new, and they're open to me being a partner. A partner! This could be great."

"That is great. Is there any catch though? I mean, how much is it going to cost us?"

"That's the best part, Steph! They need someone with my skills, and local knowledge. They're desperate to get me, and they're offering the partnership as the incentive to get me on board. There's no way we can lose," he said, dismissively.

He sounded really excited, and I hated to sound negative, but my spidey sense told me that this deal was too good to be true. I opened up the food cartons and dished up our dinner while still mulling it over.

"I also found out today that I got passed over for partnership this year at my current firm," Dickie said.

"Well this is your first year there," I reminded him. "Maybe you'd have more chance next year."

"I brought great connections to them, they should have made me a partner this year. Anyway, it just shows that this is a good time for me to be moving on to somewhere that appreciates me," Dickie said. It sounded like he'd already made his mind up, and I wasn't going to change it no matter what.

I sighed. Dickie was supportive of me when I wanted to start up Plum Lingerie instead of finding another job, so I guess this was my turn to be supportive of Dickie taking a chance on something new.

Friday night dinner at my parents' house. I thought about not going. It would be easier not to go. I sighed and got into the car. There would at least be cake. I texted Dickie a reminder to see if he could make it. If I was him, I'd come up with some sort of work emergency.

I stopped in at the Deli on the way to my parents, when I saw Margie Horowitz, who was in the grade between me and Val. I saw her look over at me a few times before coming over.

"Stephanie! How are you?" she asked.

"Great, Margie, how are you? How are your kids? Is it two boys that you have?"

"Two boys and a girl now! They're doing great. Anyway, speaking of kids..."

"Yes?"

"Is it true that your sister is pregnant? To Joe Morelli?"

"Ahhhhh..." I said, then turned and left. I was superstitious enough that I didn't want to deny anything, and had no idea what to do, so I just left. My mother, Grandmother, Val and Angie were all at the front door when I pulled up. Mary Alice was galloping around the front yard. I gave the girls a hug, and then indicated to Val that she should join me in the kitchen.

"Ah I was just at the Deli and saw Margie Horowitz, and she was asking about you, and uh… Morelli."

"Oh no. Everyone knows. Everyone! Grandma said they're all talking about it at the beauty parlour. What do I do?" Val asked frantically. "How do I pick up the girls from school knowing that everyone will be talking about me?"

"First of all, not everyone will be talking about you. Second of all, you bagged Joe Morelli."

"That's not exactly a unique point in The Burg."

"Okay, true, it's not like I can argue that point. But not only do you have Joe Morelli recent experience, but you are carrying his baby. And he's proposed! You've managed to get Joe Morelli to settle down."

"Because I'm pregnant!"

"He didn't have to propose though, did he? He wants to make this work with you, Val. That counts for something."

Val looked thoughtful. I think she was trying to be perky, but perhaps carrying Morelli spawn was interfering with her natural resiliency and perkiness.

We sat down for dinner. Angie was sitting at the table already, waiting for us, hands folded, head bowed. Mary Alice galloped up and came to the halt, nearly knocking down Grandma, who was trying to get a good spot at the table. My father was already sitting down. I helped my mother and Val move food from the kitchen to the table. There was a knock on the door right at 6pm, and Dickie walked in, giving me a kiss on the cheek and sitting down next to my father.

We all sat down and served up plates of food, then Angie looked up, made sure we were all ready, then said Grace.

"For what we are about to receive, make the Lord make us truly thankful, in Christ's name, Amen."

"Amen," we all said, crossing ourselves, then started passing the gravy.

We were halfway through eating, with Grandma going into great detail about a shooting at a fast food restaurant that she'd heard about that day, when we heard a knock at the door and Morelli came strolling in.

"Is there room for me?" he asked.

"Of course! I set an extra plate for you just in case," my mother said, jumping up and getting him a plate of food. She fussed over him as he sat down.

I wouldn't have imagined a few years ago that my mother would be so welcoming to have Joe Morelli at our table. The Morelli men aren't known for their good behaviour in the Burg, but somewhere along the line Joe has become a decent human being – and, of course, Val's only chance of becoming respectably married. If she marries Joe, after a few years everyone will stop talking about and pretend to forget the short number of months between their wedding and the arrival of the baby. If she doesn't, well, they're always going to mention it. Luckily the Morellis are always having scandals, so it might just blend in. Of course, no one will ever mention this where Angie Morelli might overhear them. Angie Morelli is the best housewife of the Burg, and, by all accounts, a saint.

Grandma's eyes lit up when she looked at Joe.

"I was just telling everyone about the shooting today. Did you see the shooting?"

"Nope. I investigate things. I don't show up until after shootings," Joe said.

"It must be a pip of the job, always being in danger," Grandma said.

"I'm rarely in danger. I'm in Vice at the moment, so I get there after the action is over."

"But not all the time!" Grandma said. "I heard from Mabel that there was a shooting at Terri Gilman's house last week and you had to jump out of her second story bedroom window! That must have been exciting!"

"Not really," said Joe, eyes flicking over to Val.

"Mabel said Terri was just dressed in lingerie that was a bit see through and barely covered her up. Steph, maybe you should send her some better fitting stuff? Mabel thinks that Terri has had a boob job, did you get a close look? Do you think she'd had one?" Grandma asked.

"Was it a good quality job?" Dickie asked.

"I couldn't say," Joe said.

"You were with Terri?" Val asked. We were all quiet. Joe and Terri were prom king and queen at high school. They might have been destined to be together, except that Terri was a mob princess and Joe was law abiding. His career in the police force meant that they stayed apart permanently, although there had been rumours in the recent years about them.

"Yes, I had to go see her the other night."

"You didn't tell me you still saw Terri."

"I do for work. I told you that I had to work."

"You didn't mention that working involved being undressed."

"Well, to be clear, I was fully dressed," Morelli said.

"It would have been hard to jump out her window so quickly if you weren't!" Grandma said. "Did you have shoes on?"

"Yes, I had shoes on," Joe said. He was getting close to losing his temper again. Joe had a lot of patience for a Morelli, but getting questioned over why he was in a half-naked Terri Gilman's bedroom might be pushing it.

He wasn't the only one who was close to losing their temper though.

"You were in Terri Gilman's bedroom. And she was wearing lingerie. And you had to jump out her window," Val stated, getting louder. We all turned to look at her. "AND SHE WAS WEARING LINGERIE!" she yelled. She got up.

"I'm not doing this again! You put up with one excuse, and then another, and then before you know it your husband is in the closest with the babysitter, but of course there's an excuse and then he runs off with the babysitter and all your money! I'm not doing it again!" she said, and stormed out of the house. My mother looked up with concern.

"It's snowing outside and she doesn't have a coat on," she said, ignoring everything else that just happened.

"I'll go after her," Joe said, and walked out the front, grabbing coats on his way.

"What's a boob job?" Mary Alice asked.