Sorry about the long unexpected break. I will hopefully do better from now on! I decided to go ahead and post this because if I wait to try and get it perfect, it might never happen.

There was still a few minutes to go until pudding time, so I decided to sit outside and think. I hoped that Ranger was okay, and that Julie was with him, but I didn't think that would be the case. Ranger seemed happy with Julie's parents care of her, and I couldn't see him kidnapping his own daughter. And really, the man had been on missions in third world countries, so if he did, I didn't think that he'd let anyone see it happen.

I sighed and walked inside for dessert. Grandma was happily updating mom on the funeral home while my dad sat on his arm chair watching TV and ignoring them. My mom handed me a bowl of chocolate pudding with ice cream.

My dad drove me home after dessert. My mom probably would have except she didn't like to leave dad and Grandma in the house alone together. Dad probably wouldn't do anything, but just like getting rid of dad's gun after Grandma moved in, it was just better not to risk such things.

Dickie was on the phone in his home office when I got home. He waved to me, then made a signal that he was going to be a while. I sighed. I guessed our talk wasn't going to happen tonight.

I took a long shower and fell asleep worrying about Ranger and Julie.

The next morning I woke up alone. I couldn't find Dickie downstairs. I checked my phone and there was a message that he'd had to go into the office. He'd just gotten home! Was he avoiding me? I tidied the living room and put on a load of washing. Next I stacked the dishwasher.

This was no way to have a weekend. I suddenly got tired of waiting for Dickie and decided to go and track him down. I picked up lunch from the deli on the way and decided to surprise him.

I parked outside Dickie's building and headed towards the front door when I suddenly stopped. Was that a ratty head of red hair that I'd just seen disappearing around the corner heading away from the building? That couldn't be Joyce, could it? I took a few steps towards her but she'd disappeared and I couldn't be sure. I couldn't smell sulfur though so it probably wasn't Joyce.

I stepped into Dickie's building, and went up to his floor. I thought that I'd surprise him but his office door was open and he had a view of the hallway.

"Good morning Dickie," I called out to him.

"Hey Steph," he said, walking over to me. "This is a nice surprise visit."

"You don't look surprised to see me," I accused him.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, raising his eyebrows, a look of innocence on his face. Nice try, Dickie, I've seen you practise that look in the mirror. I decided to come out with it.

"Are you tracking me using my phone?"

"Am I what?"

"Are you tracking me using my phone?" I asked again, feeling slightly ridiculous.

"Stephanie, what are you trying to accuse me of?" Dickie asked.

"Whenever you're away, you don't ring or call often. And whenever you do, it's always been when I've been at Rangeman. In fact, you only call when I've been at Rangeman. Even when you were away while Junkman was after me. You only called when I was at Rangeman."

"You think I – what? That I track your movements and call to check up on you? That's ridiculous. And how much time are you spending at Rangeman, Stephanie?" he asked. I opened my mouth to defend myself, then realised what I was going to do.

"Why are you hiding out in your office? I thought we were going to spend time together today," I said, changing the subject.

"We will, Steph. I just had some things to do in at the office first. I got up really early to get it out of the way so I'd have the afternoon free with you. I'm just about to finish up. Let's have lunch, then do something. Let's drive to the shore for the afternoon," Dickie said, taking my hand.

"Well…" I was still a bit mad at him.

"Come on, Steph. You love the shore. We can have hot dogs for dinner."

That won me over. We ate hot dogs, played arcade games, and walked on the sand. I almost forgot that I was annoyed at Dickie.

Monday morning came and I was running late for work. Although I was my own boss and Mary Lou didn't come in Mondays, so I wasn't really late. It didn't count anyway.

There was a woman standing outside the door of Plum Lingerie. She was younger than me, with curly brown hair.

"Stephanie Plum? You're the woman sleeping with my husband. He told me he was out of town all the time on business trips but he was actually here with you."

My heart plummeted. What had Dickie been up to on all those business trips? Was he leaving a double life? What signs had I missed?

"God damn it, Dickie!" I cursed.

"Dickie? Who's that?"

"Dickie Orr. My husband."

"I'm not talking about Dickie Orr! I'm talking about Ranger Manoso!"

I was suddenly confused.

"I'm not sleeping with Ranger."

"I asked around Stark Street. They all said that Ranger Manoso's woman is Stephanie Plum. But you're not his woman, I am!"

"That's not true. Ranger lent me his car once, and that's how that rumour got started."

Carmen squinted at me. "Because he lent you a car?"

"Yeah, I know. Dumb, hey?"

"What kind of car?" she asked.

"Is that really relevant?"

"But you've slept in his apartment."

"Yeah but he wasn't there. I had to use it as a safehouse when I had a slight gang related issue and Rangeman was providing my protection. Ranger and I have a professional relationship, not a personal one," I told her, crossing my fingers behind my back.

"I woke up on Tuesday morning and Ranger had cleared out. Emptied the bank accounts, taken his clothes, left me with nothing. I'm trying to track him down," Carmen told me. I frowned. That didn't sound like the Ranger that I knew.

"I don't know where he is. Like I said, Rangeman is my security company, Ranger and I don't have a personal relationship. Sorry," I told her. She huffed and got back into her car, but didn't drive away. I unlocked the door and went inside my office.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought about that not sounding like Ranger. I tried calling Ranger but he didn't answer. That might have been awkward anyway asking him if he had a wife that I didn't know about. I remembered what Ranger had said about calling Tank if I needed help and sighed. Time to call Tank. I called Rangeman and had to leave a message for Tank. I filled in some time by turning on my computer and drinking my coffee. When my phone rang I wsa so jumpy that I nearly spilled my coffee.

"Ms Plum, how can I help?"

"Oh hi Tank. Um. I have kind of a weird question – is Ranger married?" There was silence on the other end of the line. Apparently Tank didn't know what to think of this question. "Because there's a woman outside my office who is claiming to be married to Ranger and thinks that I'd know where he is."

More silence. Well, this was a good phone conversation.

"She looks quite young, early twenties," I told Tank.

"Is she still there?"

"Yes."

"I'm sending Vince and Bobby. Don't approach her, she could be dangerous."

Tank hung up the phone without waiting for a response.