I got home to find McKnight's car gone, Sanderson luring Eversman into his car a few houses down, and my garage door was open, which meant Diana was home.

I made sure I took off my books and stripped out of my paint covered cloths.

After the qualifying from hell, we all went to the paintball fields and covered the Rangers training there with paint.

Life was good.

Except for the pink paint in my ear.

I stripped down to nothing, dumped the paint-covered cloths in the washer, then the basket of darks. I poured in some laundry soap and shoved the cloths in till they all fit. Then closed the lad. And Diana told me I couldn't do laundry.

I then crept in the kitchen and made my way upstairs, and in the shower before she found me. I hopped in and began to wash the paint from my hands, neck, hair and ear. Hopefully before she found out why I was an hour late.

No sooner did I get some of the paint from my hands, did her voice come through the small house, "Hoot!"

Quickly I poured shampoo in my hair and began to scrub the hell out of my scalp, "What!"

It took only a few moments for her too find me and demand, "Did you start a load of laundry?"

I hesitated, "Uh-huh."

"Damn Hoot! I told you just to leave your sweaty cloths on the floor in front of the washer. You do laundry the same way my father does laundry and nothing gets clean."

Had I not been a hour late I would have flashed her and invited her in the shower, but if she knew I was out shooting at Rangers with paintballs instead of helping her make last minute wedding plans, she might try to drown me. So I agreed, "You're right, I'm sorry darlin."

She was quiet.

Too quiet.

"Hoot?"

Damn, she was about to chew me a new ass. "Yeah baby?"

"Why are you taking a shower?"

There was still a chance I could lie my way out. I scrubbed my palms, my ears, and feet trying to get the paint off, "Cause I'm dirty."

"Uh-huh," she opened the curtain and looked in at me, narrowing her eyes. "I knew there was something wrong when you didn't flash me as soon as you came in the house. And when you did a load of your own laundry instead of just leaving it on the bedroom floor for the laundry fairy."

"I love you baby," I quickly told her.

She cocked an eyebrow then reached in and grabbed my ear, rubbing it with her thumb, "Paint?"

Maybe I could still lie my way out. But when she finished I knew there was no hope.

"And since when do you care about being dirty? I have to haul your naked ass into the shower most the time!"

God I hated P.M.S. No wonder Jesus was a single man.

"You went out shooting paintballs instead of coming home to help?"

No lie could save me now, so I could either try beg for mercy or try and woo her.

"Are you going to be this helpful when we're married?"

Ah hell, she couldn't get any more pissed off then she was now. So I ran my hand through my hair and got as much shampoo suds as I could, then flung them at her. Not only getting her wet, but soapy. And she had a white shirt on.

Diana fell silent, she wiped the suds off her shirt. Then looked up at me with those green eyes of hers. It was almost impossible to keep a straight face. She looked to the toilet.

She'd flush it, just to be cruel.

Before she could I reached out and grabbed her jeans, she let out a scream and grabbed for the sink, but I had pulled her halfway to the shower before she could grab anything.

"Hoot! I swear to God if I get wet your going to be in so much trouble!"

I wrapped my wet arms around her waist and buried my lips in her neck, then whispered in her ear, "How much trouble?"

She looked up over her shoulder, "I'll think of something fitting."

"Well I ain't got nookie for days, I've been banished from the bedroom, an I had ta sleep in the back'a the jeep las night with Sanderson, an he kicks. So sweetheart, it can't get worse."

"Oh yes it can," she warned.

And she was serious! Did I wanna risk it? Did I? I had to think really hard, or I could start begging.

I didn't feel like begging.

But I didn't have to, she sighed, "Fine." She then kicked her shoes off and stepped back in the tub. She turned around and pushed me back into the wet shower wall, through the falling water. Diana closed the curtain behind her and jabbed her finger in my chest, "No Nookie."

She reached up and wiped some shampoo from my forehead, "Hoot, what am I going to do with you?"

I could name a couple things, but I could also see she was not in the mood for nookie. Something was wrong. She never gave up so easy when she could punish me. Even when the beast known as menstrual possessed her body.

"What's wrong darlin," I asked her, I let her pull my head under the water and wash the shampoo from my hair.

It was then she told me, she musta thought that I wouldn't hear her, but while she ran her fingers through my hair. Along my scalp. Which felt like a damn good massage, she softly told me, "Randy started working at the hospital the other night."

Which would more then account for the fowl ass mood she had been in. I stepped back and looked down at her, while she continued to run her fingers though my hair. I took her hand from my hair, my mood suddenly no longer horny. No longer was I concerned with getting nookie. Instead I asked, for clarification, she might have known more then one Randy. "Randy? Your ex? The same Randy that your father shipped off to Nepal for kicks?"

Diana just nodded.

"An why didn't you bring this up sooner?"

Diana completely changed the subject, kinda. She then asked me, "Can you tell when I am having my period?"

She looked at me with those green eyes that looked more hurt then anything. I figured out shithead was the cause of her sudden mood swing. Even her lack of libido, even though I never got nookie when she had her period, she never felt the need to stop teasing me. I was never before thrown out of the bedroom. She got her kicks outta torturing me now that I thought of it.

While I couldn't lie to her, I had to be very careful bout what I said, "Yeah. You leave pink wrappers in the trashcan. Why?"

She shook her head, "Nothing. How'd your shooting go?"

Shooting? She knew it was qualifying. But I let it go, "I scored negative twenty two."

Her eyes grew round, "What?"

I shrugged, "I was one'a the higher scorers t'day."

She narrowed her eyes, "Mrs. Boobs wasn't there was she?"

I was almost offended, "No she wasn't, but that ain't the reason we all failed." Diana crossed her arms, "Oh?"

I nodded and reached out, she let me hook my fingers in her jean belt loops and pull her to me. But she kept her arms crossed. That bothered me.

"We gotta new instructor who wouldn't let us have any fun."

She lifted both her eyebrows, "You mean he wouldn't let you shoot whatever gun and ammo you wanted?"

She was too smart for her own good.

Which was why I loved her so much, I leaned forward to kiss her but she moved her head so I kissed her cheek. Whatever the man said or did to her was obvious, why I didn't notice it before was a damn mystery, but it wasn't going to continue.