Just a reminder, this isn't my real job... the characters belong to Janet Evanovich who does the best job of making the Plum universe seem real.

Chapter Twelve

I awoke with the same headache I went to bed with. That didn't usually happen to me unless I had been drinking a lot the night before. I sat up slowly, realizing that I was alone. I reached over for the alarm clock. It was already 7:30 am. What day was it? Oh yeah, it was actually Saturday morning. Thank goodness, a day off. I grabbed some clothes and headed off to the bathroom. A quick shower had me feeling a bit more human. The bedroom door had been closed, which made me think that Ranger was still in the apartment and didn't want to wake me. I opened the door and looked down the short hallway. Anna was sitting on the couch drinking coffee.

I knew that I had to face her, but a part of me wanted nothing more than to turn around and go back to bed. Face the music, Plum, I told myself.

"Good morning Anna. How are you feeling?"

Anna was beautiful. I had noticed it before, but I failed to notice that certain glow that pregnant women exude. She had it. Her hair was so shiny and fell just so around her face and onto her shoulders. I found myself wondering why Ranger hadn't pursued a relationship with her after all. The woman had presence.

"Hey, Stephanie. I'm surprised that you're still speaking to me. Ric told me that you know about my relationship with Joe Morelli, well if you can call it a relationship. God, Stephanie, I am so embarrassed. I swear I didn't know he had a girlfriend."

"Hey, I don't blame you so please don't let it worry you. I'll deal with Morelli in time."

Ranger appeared out of nowhere and handed me my coffee. I smiled at him. "Thanks."

He didn't say anything, but his meaning was clear. He didn't know I would wake up to Anna in the living room.

"So, Anna, have you made any plans?"

"Well, for now, I'm planning on staying with Lester here, at least if it's all right with Ric. After the baby comes, I don't know what I'm going to do." Anna started to chew her thumbnail.

"You have some time to figure things out," Ranger offered. "Of course you can stay with Lester. We wouldn't have it any other way."

I gave Ranger a look that distinctly said 'we need rules about Morelli' but I kept my mouth shut.

"Anna, we have to talk about Morelli eventually. I know you are confused right now, but in all fairness to Stephanie, I would prefer that he didn't show up here unannounced like he did last night."

I shot a look at Ranger. I hadn't heard about this. "Morelli was here last night?"

Anna answered first. "He wanted to talk to me again. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him who I was and how I was related to Rangeman. I swear he looked like he would faint. When I told him that Ranger already knew he was the father, he cut our conversation short and said he would call me later."

I looked at Ranger for confirmation. "Babe, he called here for you twice. He wanted to explain what happened. I think he didn't want you hearing about this from me."

Oh, I bet he wanted to explain. He'd better stay far away from me. A repeat of the Buick running over his leg was certainly one of the possibilities I considered.

"Look both of you, I know you are concerned about my feelings, but you don't have to be. Yes, it was a shock to learn about the affair, but I really didn't have any real hold on Joe. We weren't engaged, and we didn't always live together." I noticed that Ranger was watching me closely. "Anna, the Joe Morelli I thought I knew is a good guy. He's been a friend for most of my life. I know that he wants children. It was often a sore spot in our relationship. He'll make a great dad, but I can't comment on him as husband material."

"Whoa," Anna interjected. "You're moving way to fast for me. I never said I would want to marry the guy. Sure, he's sexy as hell, but he's a cop. I know what they are like, remember. Besides, if he cheated on you with me, what's to prevent him from cheating on me with someone else? No, I'm not ready for anything serious."

My opinion of the woman just shot up. She had a pretty level head on her shoulders.

"What about the baby?" I asked her.

"What about it? Women have babies all the time. I can do this, but I just need a little help getting organized."

I grinned at Ranger. "Well, I think Uncle Ric would make a great resource. He's so good at organizing things."

"You can be wicked, Babe," Ranger grinned.

Since it was Saturday, I had the day off. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for my boyfriend. Ranger had a meeting, one he actually told me about the day before. I knew that we were planning to go out to dinner and thought a day of shopping would help restore my spirits. Anna left when Ranger did, leaving me to plan my afternoon. I called Lula.

"Yo, want to hit the mall?" I already knew that unless she had a date, the mall was the one place that Lula simply couldn't turn down.

"Be there in 15," she responded.

We took Lula's Firebird to the mall, stopping first at Victoria Secret because there was a sale in progress.

"I've got a dinner date tonight with Ric," I offered, rifling through the thongs that were now half price.

Lula smiled. "Sure is damn strange to here you call Ranger that. Seems like yesterday when he was Batman."

"He's still Batman, I guess. It's just that I'm learning all kinds of stuff about him that makes him more, I don't know, maybe human is the right word."

"No shit, like what?" I had Lula's attention now.

"Like he's really devoted to his friends and family. I mean, I guess I sort of knew that, but seeing it in action is a whole other thing, you know."

Lula looked at me strangely. "I think I see what you mean. He was always saving your skinny ass, so I knew he could be devoted, but I figured that was because he wanted to get you in bed. You're saying that there's more to it than that, right?"

I had to smile. Lula had said out loud what I had thought for years, off and on. "Yeah, there's more to it than that. I met Lester's step-sister. Turns out she thinks of Ranger as her brother as well. Talk about awkward. When I first saw them together on the couch, I wanted to bitch slap her."

"No way, you didn't do it, did ya?" I think Lula would have been proud if I had.

"No, she's a nice enough girl. Ranger thinks of her as a kid sister. I was just kind of surprised at how jealous I was, that's all."

"Stephanie, you've got the sex god drooling all over you. Man, that's something that not many women can claim. I've seen the way he looks at you now. He's got it bad."

I picked out a couple of thongs and moved to the camisoles. "Yeah, well I think I have it worse."

"Lord, girl, I'd love to be in your shoes for just one night," Lula fanned herself.

"No way, Lula, he's all mine." Funny, but I knew instinctively that this was true. I never had that feeling with Joe. I pulled out the cell phone and hit Batman's speed dial.

"Yo."

"Hey, it's me."

"Knew that, Babe. Something wrong?"

"No, every thing's right, so I called to say 'thank you'."

"Sure, Babe..." He seemed to want to add more.

"And , Ric?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."