Chapter 3

My ears where still ringing from Mary Lou's squeals. She'd take care of telling everybody about the news, calling her first would save me the time, plus the fact that she'd kill me if she heard it from someone else.

I felt my heart beat fast as I called my parent's house. I prayed they would believe that this time it was for real. Morelli wasn't thinking about sex when he proposed to me. It wasn't to lure me into staying with him in the mean time. He wanted a lifetime. I felt a fresh batch of tears roll down my cheeks.

My mother picked up before I could control myself. I gave her a quivering hello, and heard her suck in her breath. "Stephanie, what is it? What happened? Is someone after you?" I choked on my laughter, which was probably a bad move, because I knew I sounded like I just choked to death. I quickly cleared me throat before my mother thought the worst.

"Mom, nothing's wrong! I'm getting married!" There was a brief pause.

"Which one is it?" How many men did she think I had in my life?

"To Joe. Joe Morelli! Who else would I marry?" There was another brief silence.

"Are you sure?" I rolled my eyes and tried not to sigh.

"Yes! Why would I be crying? Mother, I even have a ring to prove it. We're serious this time." I heard a thunk and I knew the phone was dropped. Bad sign. My mother has fainted. I yelled into the phone for a few seconds before I heard a voice again.

"Hello? Hello? Who's on the phone? Why are you shouting? I can hear you just fine! It's not nice to shout on the phone, you know." It was Grandma Mazur.

"Grandma, it's me Steph."

"Steph? Is that you? What did you tell your mother? Is it something about your job? Where you almost killed? Why is your mother on her knees? She looks like she's praying." I could hear my mother shouting praises to God in the background. This was a good sign. I heard a struggle and my mother was back on the phone.

"Oh Stephanie! That's wonderful, thank God! Congratulations! Oh, thank God, it's about time! Let me talk to Joe. I want to thank him." I suddenly remembered the explosion and where Morelli was. I told her that he was preoccupied with something right now, and that I had to tend to something as well.

"Alright, you go ahead and don't you worry about the wedding. We'll take care of everything!" I could hear Grandma Mazur's voice in the background asking "what wedding?" There was another struggle for the phone.

"What wedding, Steph? Who you marrying?"

"I'm marrying Joe, Grandma."

"Oh. I thought you were marrying that Ranger guy."

"What? What makes you think that?"

"Oh it's nothing. I'm happy for the both of you. It's about time that Morelli treat you right. Oh, and watch out for Morelli. Men get turned on faster when there's an engagement ring on their girl. Why, I remember when your grandpa and I got engaged, he couldn't keep his –."

"Give me that phone! Stephanie, don't listen to your grandmother. You take care of Joe and yourself. I'll prepare an engagement dinner. I want both of you here on Wednesday!"

I saluted on the phone and gave a sigh of relief. I made it to the front lawn just in time to see some of the cops picking up the car parts off the lawn carefully. Morelli was in deep conversation with one of them. I looked around the front of the apartment. There were a few cracks on the wall and on the window. Different car parts were scattered on the lawn. There were so many different parts that some of them even seemed to come from another car. I felt my back stiffen as I suddenly realized something.

"Where's my car?" It came out as a whisper and nobody paid attention to me.

"Morelli! My car! It, it's…" Morelli turned at the sound of my voice. I watched him move towards me in slow motion. His mouth was pressed thin. He reached out to me and took me in his arms, patting my back and smoothing my hair.

"I'm sorry, Cupcake. It was wrecked and towed out of here a while ago." I was not going to cry over this. It's just a car. A car I haven't fully paid for. Another car down the drain… Get a grip, girl! It's just a car, nothing to fuss about. Too late, Morelli's shirt was already drenched.

"Listen, Steph, I think you should stay at you mother's house tonight." I looked up at Morelli. He tried to look nonchalant, but there was worry written all over his face.

"Why? What's going on? Were you working on something? Is someone after you?" I narrowed my eyes at him; my wrecked car was completely forgotten. He was hiding something and I intended to get it out of him.

He hesitated before answering, "It's kind of complicated. Look, I'll be spending the whole night at the station and I don't want to leave you alone in the house. I want you to be safe." He looked almost pleading.

"All right. But I want to know what's going on! And you better tell me as soon as you can." He kissed me on the lips before he lead me to a police car. Instead of helping me inside he trapped me between the passenger door and his body as he leaned against me. He held on to my waist and tugged at my hair.

"Did I tell you that I like what you did to your hair? I think it's sexy." He gave me sly smile. He held my hand up and admired the ring on my finger; he had a look of pure desire in his face. I laughed as I remembered something.

"You know, I heard somewhere that men get turned on when they see a ring on their girl."

"Where'd you hear that?"

"Oh no one. And I won't be satisfying any of your desires until you tell me what you're hiding. You're not off the hook yet."

Morelli smiled at me and gave me another kiss before letting me free to get inside the car. A cop showed up and he was given a brief instruction. Morelli leaned back on the door.

"I'll fill you in as soon as I can. In the mean time, try to behave yourself. Don't try to nose around, I promise that I'll tell you everything."

"Me nose around? For your information, I do not nose around. I investigate." I slammed the passenger door shut. The car started and I waved goodbye through the window. He nodded and stood still for a long while. I watched him grow smaller and smaller as the car gathered speed.