My mouth was hanging open, I tried to say something, but no sound came out. I was staring at myself in front of the parlor's huge mirror. After buying three pairs of shoes and a dress, I went straight to a parlor. Three hours later, I had straight hair. It took a minute to sink in. My curls…
"You look beautiful! You look like Barbie!" I whipped my head around to meet my hairdresser's eyes.
"Barbie's blonde!" I narrowed my eyes. I had wanted something different, I asked her to work her magic on my hair. Instead, she had killed it! My beautiful hair was lying limply on my head. It was dead. The hairdresser became upset at my outburst.
"It's not permanent. It'll be all curly again in a month… more or less."
I stared at my image again. It wasn't so bad. I'd always wondered how I looked like without curls. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a middle-age man staring at me. He was sitting in one of the chairs; a woman was working on his hair. He had lust written all over his eyes and I was surprised he wasn't drooling. He realized that I could see him and gave me an embarrassed look. Well Barbie, eat your heart out.
I left the parlor feeling much better. I walked to my car, enjoying the wind that was blowing through my straight hair. I was heading for Morelli's apartment. I took Ranger's advice and calmed myself while in the parlor. I had time to think things through. Of course Morelli would be mad. Hell, I would have killed him if I found out he did the deed with Terri, even if we were on a break.
My plan was to cook him dinner, to surprise him and get him calmed. Or maybe I should just order pizza; my cooking would probably worsen the situation. I was going to have a talk with him.
When I reached Morelli's apartment I was surprised to find his car parked in front of the house. Damn, he was already home, I didn't have a plan B. I parked next to him and braced myself as I slowly got inside the apartment. It was quite and Morelli was nowhere in sight. The air was filled with the unmistakable smell of Chicken McNuggets. Well, that took care of my dinner plans. I should have known that nothing I planned ever worked out the way it should have.
I jumped at Bob's bark and fell off balance as Bob decided to crash into me with all his weight.
"Steph is that you?" I could not answer him for Bob had also decided to taste my face. Bob was suddenly lifted off me. Morelli helped me up and handed me a tissue to use. I wiped myself clean and looked at Morelli. He had a look of shock and his mouth was hanging open.
"Cupcake, you're hair is straight." He reached out to touch it. At least I was able to surprise him with something.
"Yes I know. I usually take my anger out at my hair." Morelli's face became somber, remembering the pressing issue.
"Sweetheart, I'm really sorry. The thought of you and Ranger just gets my blood boiling." I was going to remind him that there was nothing when he raised his hands.
"Hear me out first. I know what Ranger thinks about when he looks at you. I also know that you're attracted to him. But I pray to God that you don't love him, because I love you." Morelli looked deep into my eyes and placed my hands in his.
"I have loved you ever since the day I took you inside my garage. You drive me crazy and scare the hell out of me. My nerves get stretched when I think about all the psychos that were after you. I hate your job because I'm afraid something bad will happen to you. But if that's what you want to do then I will not force you to quit. I will not force you to do anything. I want you to be happy. I never wanted to hurt you. I know that I have not been the best person in the world, always walking out of your life. But at those times I was scared and confused about us. I know you deserved someone better than me, so I walked out of your life. I have been in and out of your life for some time now but now I want to be permanently in it, because I can't bear to see you with another man. I can't bear to think of a life without you." He let my hands go and was frisking his pockets for something. My heart was going kathunk kathunk against my chest.
"I want to do this right." He retrieved a box out of his pocket and held it in his hands. "Stephanie, I love you. I'm not perfect and can be a jerk sometimes but I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to raise Rex and Bob with you. I promise you that I will never hurt you again. I want to share your tears and laughter. I want you to drive me crazy. Stephanie Plum, will you –." His sentence was cut off by a loud explosion.
Morelli acted instantly. Throwing me on the floor and shielding me with his body. After a few minutes he got up and helped me up to my feet. There was no damage inside the apartment, which meant that the explosion came from the outside. We looked out the window and my eyes popped open at the sight of Morelli's car, or what was left of it.
Shit. What was this about? Hell, I wasn't after and skip and all my enemies were either dead or in jail. The sound of sirens weren't far off. I looked at Morelli. He seemed irritated with the fact that his proposal was disturbed and looked uncertain at the box in his hand and then me.
I opened my mouth to tell him what my answer was but he cut me off. "We'll finish this later. I want you to think about it." He gave me slow kiss before he walked towards the door.
"I love you too." I whispered the words and saw him stop in his tracks. He turned around to look at me. I ran to him and threw my arms around him. He caught me and hugged me tightly. He released me and kissed me hard. Taking the ring out of the box he looked at me once again. I nodded and he slipped it on my finger. I was feeling very emotional at the sight of the ring on my finger. Morelli had done it right. It was perfect. Except for the explosion, but if I pretended they were fireworks… Oh God! I loved him so much! Tears were running down my cheeks. He leaned and kissed the tears on my cheeks and on my eyes.
There was knock on the door and Morelli looked me in the eyes. "Where did you get the bomb?" I punched him lightly on the chest, choking on my tears as I tried to laugh. He grinned at me and kissed me again before he went to answer the door.