Author's Note-Thanks to all who read and leave feedback.But most importantly thanks to Black Knight 03 for Beta reading this.Because me and proper grammer are not anything close to friends.

CHAPTER 4

"Well, hello there Sanchez." said Rodney smiling at the brunette who was standing in front of him and looking back at him with a shocked look on her face.

Rodney watched as the look of shock soon passed from Sanchez's face only for her to replace it with a deep frown .She than crossed her arms in front of her chest and started to give him one hell of a good death glare. And truth be told, Rodney got a big kick out of the glare she was shooting at him. The fact that he could make the oh so sophisticated and oh so high and mighty Miranda Sanchez stoop to glaring at him like that was just too funny to him.

"What the hell are YOU doing here?" asked Miranda while gritting her teeth so hard she was sure they would turn to dust at any second.

Miranda hated acting immature like this in front of everyone but she knew she couldn't stop herself from doing it. For it was something about this man that brought out the worst in her. Ok that was a lie, she knew what it was about him that brought out the worst in her. The man was so old fashion with his 'male pride' views on life that it just grated on her nerves when he opened his mouth and spoke one of his out dated views. The funny part about all of this was that this great friend and partner of Lizzie and Gordo had somehow became her archenemy in life. None of the many lawyers that she had dueled in the California court system had ever gotten under her skin and irritated her like this man has. Oh, lets not forget the fact that his thinking that he was so tough and oh so good looking also got on Miranda's nerves.

Ok maybe he does look somewhat good looking in a rugged cowboy type of way, Miranda's subconscious couldn't help but to admit. NO, the rest of Miranda's mind shouted out to her. That was bad thinking! This is Rodney Stevens the moron your thinking about here! That kind of thinking leads to kissing on kitchen tables at wedding receptions and we will not be having that type of activity happening ever again!

"The reason I'm here Sanchez is simple. I was invited." said Rodney as if that should have been obvious to just about everyone but her. While watching Sanchez's obvious discomfort, Rodney couldn't help but let his smile get bigger. And add to the fact that the deeper he could get Sanchez's frown to go the more fun he had. "But you know as surprised as I am, I did have somewhat of a feeling that you were around here somewhere."

"What are you talking about?" asked Miranda knowing this was going to be a dig on her.

"Well, like I said I kind of had a feeling you were here because I was walking by the kitchen door a second ago and I thought I heard a protest march going on back there." said Rodney "And after hearing it you were the first person I thought of."

"Well, that maybe true," seethed Miranda "but I'm shocked that you heard anything at all over all that chest pounding and knuckle dragging you do."

"Oh Sanchez." said Rodney shaking his head sadly "It's remarks like that and your attitude that once again reminds me why this is some else's wedding I'm attending on Saturday and not yours."

Miranda felt her blood boiling after that remark. Damn that man! No one on this earth could make her as mad like this particular man could. Ahhh he could made her so furious! Not even Kate Saunders had managed to get on her nerves or her bad side as much as Rodney Stevens could. It was like the man knew just what buttons of hers to push and he seemed to love doing it.

Miranda and Rodney face off had kept them so occupied that they hadn't noticed that everyone else in the room had slipped by them and made their way into the dining room. They finally realized it when someone spoke behind them.

"Hey are you guys going to stay out here and flirt with one another all night or are you going to come in there and eat with us?"

"WE WERE NOT FLIRTING!" both Miranda and Rodney stated as they turned to find Lizzie standing in the kitchen entrance way smiling at them.

When Lizzie smile didn't go away Miranda begin to grit her teeth again "We were just having a discussion." said Miranda.

At that obvious lie, Lizzie smile only got bigger. "Well, you two better be careful." said Lizzie "The last time I saw you two having a discussion that loudly you two were soon laying across a kitchen table practicing CPR on one another." With that Lizzie opened the kitchen door and went inside once again leaving Miranda and Rodney alone in the living room.

Before Rodney could start back in on her Miranda stormed past him and followed Lizzie into the kitchen.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me he was going to be here tonight?" shouted Miranda as she slung the swinging door open a little to hard, making it bounce off the wall.

"Well" said Lizzie as she took the salad dressing, that she had forgotten out of the fridge and turned to Miranda "Would you have came to this dinner if you had known that Rodney was going to be here?"

"Hell no!" said Miranda "I don't even like living in the state that borders against the one he's living in! Much less be in the same room with him!"

"Well, there you go you have your answer." said Lizzie as she pushed the fridge door closed and headed out the kitchen door "Now come on it's time for us to go eat."

"Arrrrgggghhh!" muttered Miranda throwing her hands up in the air in frustration. She seriously wanted to beat her head or better yet Rodney's head against the nearest wall. But she soon got her anger a little under control and followed Lizzie out of the kitchen and into the dinning room.

And just as her bad luck had been so far Miranda found that the only seat left around the dinner table unfortunately was the one that was right across the table from where Rodney was sitting. Unable to do anything about it Miranda sat down and hoped that looking at him all night wouldn't kill her appetite.

As everyone started eating the dinner talk started to flow around the table. The majority of it pertained to the future wedding and honeymoon. But that ended when David turned to Rodney.

"So what made you drag in here so late Rodney?" asked David "You said you were going to be here a whole lot sooner."

"Well, I had intended on just stopping by the office to finish up some of our paperwork." said Rodney in between bites of corn. "But just when I was almost done Captain Sinclair dropped off a whole stack of 4-40's pertaining to the Berton case on me. And since I was the only detective there that was at that bust I had to fill out all of them on my own. And I ran into some problem's with them which caused me to be late."

"Oh so what you're saying is that the reason you're late is because there was no one there to help you pronounce the big words that was on all those papers?" asked Miranda innocently as she took a bite of her salad.

"Well, actually yeah if you must know Sanchez, you're exactly right." said Rodney wiping his mouth with his napkin and looking across the table at Miranda. Rodney had to fight the urge to smile when he noticed how Sanchez got a surprised look on her face over the fact that he had just admitted that she was right about something. "You see Sanchez a 4-40 is police paperwork pertaining to legal matters and everything on it was written for and by lawyers. So you see I did have a hard time with it and couldn't understand it mostly because..." Rodney shrugged his shoulders "...I don't speak snake."

Oh Lord, thought Lizzie as she glanced over at Miranda and could have sworn she saw smoke pouring out of her friends ears.

Lizzie could tell Miranda was just about to explode over the fact that her profession was just compared to that of a snake. So in an effort to prevent the ugly explosion she knew was coming Lizzie kicked David under the table to get his attention.

"Ow." muttered David "What the hell was that for?" asked David as he turned to look at his wife while rubbing his now sore shin. He watched as she silently mouthed the words 'Get someone else talking' and moved her head toward Miranda. David looked over and saw just how close Mount Saint Miranda was to exploding so he quickly turned to his brother in law.

"So Matt when does the best man get into town?" asked David directing the flow of talk away from Rodney and Miranda to Matt and himself.

"Lanny flight should make it in tomorrow afternoon." said Matt "He'll be staying at the same hotel that me, Melina and her parents are staying at."

"That's the one off Main Street right?" David's dad Mr. Gordon asked. "The one where the wedding reception is going to be at right?"

Everyone at the table noticed how Miranda and Rodney quickly looked up at each other and just as quickly away from each other when the two words wedding reception was mentioned. Only Lizzie and David knew why they had done it.

"Yeah that's the place." said Melina nodding her blonde head.

"So Matt what has Lanny been up over these last few years?" asked Sam McGuire.

"Well Dad, Lanny is a very successful motivational speaker now." said Matt "He's been traveling across the country given speeches to companies and holding seminars for thousands of people."

"Matt are you trying to tell me that LANNY, your old childhood friend, is a motivational speaker?" asked Jo as he sat her fork down on the table and than shared a look with Sam. Both of them couldn't help but be shocked. For even to this day they still had yet to hear their son's best friend say one word. "Matt does Lanny have any of those tapes that those other motivational speakers make?" Jo was hoping maybe she could order one and finally hear her son's best friends voice.

"No, sorry mom." said Matt shaking his head "Lanny doesn't make tapes like that of his act. He says that it cheapens his work if you don't see him in person."

After that, the dinner talk went smoothly. Lizzie and David kept up most of the talking with the others around the table while Rodney and Miranda ate their meal in silence and did their best to avoided looking at one another. But mainly they did their best to block the thoughts of wedding receptions out of their minds.

TBC