All familiar characters are Janet's. Mistakes are mine.
"Hey, Mary Lou. Remember when you wanted to be part of a covert mission?"
"It was you who said that, Steph."
"Okay, so it was … but get your butt into something nice anyway. Ranger and I will be there to pick you up in fifteen minutes."
Dead silence.
"Mare?"
"What's goi …?"
"Nope. No questions. Just put on that blue dress you bought when we were at Macy's, fluff up your hair, and you'll be good to go."
"Steph … wait."
"It'll ruin the surprise or shock if I explain. Just do what I say. We'll be there in a few minutes, and I'll tell you everything." I disconnected. "Jeez. For a woman who wants a little excitement in her life, she asks a ton of questions."
Ranger slid an arm around my waist and tugged me close. "When it comes to you, rapid-fire questions are required."
His mouth was quickly lowering to mine, but I jerked my lips out of reach. "Rapid-fire from me? Or for me?"
"Will you bite me if I say both?"
Darn it. I want to stay irritated at that comment, but his lips had moved to my neck and I'm starting to lose my train of thought.
"You're trying to distract me," I accused.
"Is it working?" He asked, scraping his teeth across my pulse point.
"Yeah, so well I'm afraid we're about to stand Mary Lou up."
That got him back on track. "Not gonna happen, Babe. You wanted to marry me ASAP. And now is when it's happening."
He didn't give me much room or time to argue, not that I would have. He kept a hand on my hip as he ushered me through the apartment. He didn't even let me go in order to slide my bag on my shoulder and open the front door for us.
"I promise I'm not going to back out even if you let me go."
"I'm keeping my hands on you because I enjoy touching you, Steph, not because I believe you're a flight risk."
That made me feel almost as good as I did when he was kissing me. My body and my excitement were humming by the time he pulled into my best friend's driveway. Being a gentleman as well as Batman, he got out of the Porsche to open the back door for her.
She's clearly confused yet trying to play it cool. But when Ranger smiled at her in welcome, she stumbled.
I powered my window down. "That a girl, Mary Lou. Get all dolled up and then trip in your driveway."
"I have no idea what's going on. You can't blame me if I'm a little off-balance."
"Sure, that's the reason."
Once she was sitting behind me, she gave me an exasperated glare followed by an outfit scan. "You look pretty."
"Blame Julie for that. I was gonna get married in my jeans, but she insisted on a tour of my closet so she could pick what I should wear. Which is probably the only white, and only discounted designer, dress I own."
"Wait, what? Did you just say get married?"
"Yup, you've been cordially kidnapped to attend our impromptu courthouse wedding."
"Holy freakin' crap! Are you serious?"'
"As serious as the heart attack my mother's gonna have after she hears about this."
"Like the conniption fit she had when Joe went from cop to criminal? Are you really the one behind his current legal troubles?"
"Mare, you know better than to believe rumors."
"I do, but I also know you. You've matured beyond running him over with your Dad's car, but you don't let attacks go when they're personal to you."
Ranger was quiet up to this point, but I felt him tense from my side of the car. "If Morelli wanted to stay out of jail, he shouldn't have broken the law or violated any people or ethics."
It wasn't Ranger's words that put an end to the conversation, it was his tone. In Mary Lou's eyes, he'd just shifted from my adoring fiancé to 'The Ranger Manoso' my mother warned her about.
"Now this is a wedding mood I'm familiar with … nauseatingly stressed," I said, just to break the tension.
It worked. I got a hundred-watt grin from Batman and heard a snort-laugh from the backseat. Ranger spoke to his courthouse contact from the parking lot, so there was zero wait time.
"Yup, we brought witnesses," I said when the Judge was introduced to Mary Lou.
He raised impressively bushy brows at the plural version of the word. Ranger pulled out his cell and a beat later Julie's face filled the screen.
"I'm ready. I even changed to match the occasion," she told us before moving her phone away from her excited smile ... down to the dress worthy of Prom.