DISCLAIMER: Just as before I don't own the amazing Ranger, but I really wish I did. I would lock him up in my bedroom... Anyways, just the Noth family is mine so far, and the old neighbors and the dog. Thanks to the reviewers: XJerseyGirl, and Cokkii.
"Come on Diego, eat your fruit loop." I sat at the small kitchen table and watched as milk poured off the small dinosaur spoon while Diego tried to feed himself. He was almost three and was pretty good at everything, except spoons. He looked up at me with a grin as he picked a green one out of his bowl. "Mom has to go to work. Aunt Macy is coming over to play."
"Play dinosaurs, yea?" In went a blue and a purple, and more milk went down the front of his dinosaur pajamas. I felt his little toes tap my thigh and I couldn't help but smile at my pride and joy. He was crazy about dinosaurs right now, growling at me in his impression of a dinosaur.
"Of course I will play dinosaurs, what else would the greatest aunt in the world do?" Macy walked into the screen door that had been open and tickled Diego's neck lovingly. Macy and my brother had been trying to have kids since I had Diego, and Macy was finally starting to show at five month.
"Thank you so much. I promise I will line someone else up by the end of the week. I know Jason hates that you are over here so much." I stood up and pulled at the suit skirt that was riding up my thighs. I tugged at the matching pinstriped coat and glanced down at my chest. I wore a beige camisole underneath, it had a little bit of lace showing up above the lapels. "Too much?"
"Personally I think that you should just take off the jacket and show everyone how good you look for having a kid, but you know me. Crazy."
"Smooches, Diego." I could taste the fruity taste of his cereal on my lips and smothered him in kisses all over his face as he giggled loudly.
"Love you mommy." His little voice made me smile just hearing it, and it was crushing me that I was actually leaving him for the first time to go and work. I had stayed home with him all this time and it was breaking my heart to finally have to leave him. "Going to town?"
"Yea, mommy is going to town. I will bring you a surprise. One more smooch." His thin arms wrapped around my neck and squeezed hard as he kissed me once more. I ran my hand through his thick shaggy hair and thanked Macy once more. "I promise to be home by six, call if you need anything. God I don't want to leave him."
"You'll do fine, just make your boss happy and don't worry about him." Macy pushed me out the door to the old pickup I had been driving for years. I glanced back at the door to see Macy and Diego waving happily to me and waved back as I pulled out of the driveway. I hadn't gone back to work at Mick's bar, the Blue Light, since I left to have Diego. The last day I had worked there, was actually the day that I had gone into labor, and had to be rush by Pete to the hospital in his old Cadillac. Now I was on my way to be a secretary at a lawyer's office. Whoopee. Just what I didn't want to do, but it would pay the bills that I had been accumulating.
Driving to the building where I had first had my interview, I couldn't help but think that I was finally getting my life back. I had gone and completely lost my baby weight, well not actually all of it, I was still ten pounds heavier than I had been, but I still was feeling good. I pulled open the door and was greeted by a woman around my age, she had unruly brown hair, and her stomach was huge, looking quite ready to pop out five babies. Even though she wore a frown, her face was glowing with what only a pregnant woman can feel. She smiled lightly at me as she waddled past me and I followed her with my eyes out the door.
I froze as I saw the one person I had been avoiding pull up in an all too familiar black car and step out. He was just I remembered him, except his hair had grown out a little and was pulled back. His shirt was just as tight as it had been that faithful night that I had peeled it from his chest, which looked just as good now. I couldn't see what he was wearing on the bottom but I could picture the black cargos that had gotten shucked to my living room floor. He nodded to the woman who had just exited, and she got into the passenger side of a SUV that must have had her husband waiting in it.
The SUV pulled away and I watched as Ranger watched it with a cool stare. Suddenly he looked in at me and I felt my throat go dry. His face was expressionless and I knew that he could never be the father that I wanted for my, well our son. I knew what he did for a career, and I feared that one day it might catch up with him. I don't know if I would have ended up seeing him anymore if I hadn't gotten pregnant, but now wasn't the time to think about that. He gave a small nod that anyone else probably would have missed and slid back into his Porsche and drove away.
I couldn't get him out of my mind for the rest of the day. Had the old secretary showing me what to do, but my mind was barely taking in any of the information. The past three years had been pretty much free of Ranger thoughts, except the first few months I had continued to work at the Blue Light. I had been afraid he would come in and realize what was going on, but that had never actually happened. All those times when I had seen his men come in, I couldn't help but wish that he would come in and realize, and pathetically decide to have a part in my life, but that didn't happen either, and I realized that it was definitely for the best.
The drive home seemed to take forever, never had I wanted to get back home so bad, except for the first time I had left Diego with my mother and father and went out to lunch with Macy when he was a couple months old. When I pulled up into the driveway he was running around the yard, Macy watching him play with the neighbors' small beagle. I got out of the pickup and Diego ran to me immediately and I couldn't help but bend down and meet him in a bone crushing hug. Macy couldn't help but laugh at me as I kissed him everywhere on his face. I knew I was pathetic, but after seeing Ranger, I had to make sure he was home safe.
"He was good, napped for a few hours, and he wants spaghetti for supper. I am going to go out with your brother tonight, but I'll be back in the morning. By D, give me a hug before I go."
"Bye Aunt Macy." I held Diego in my arms and waved as he blew her kisses as she drove away. "Cheesy, come here." Diego cried out at the beagle that was going back home. Mrs. Edwards poked her white head out the door and waved happily and Diego and me before letting Cheesy in and disappearing back inside.
After making spaghetti and watching Diego enjoy getting it in his thick eyebrows, his hair, all over his clothes and on the floor, I decided it was time for a bath. How the kid got as dirty as he did absolutely amazed me. I watched as he splashed around and soaked the blue tile floor with a smile always on his face. I couldn't help but think how cute he would be when he got older, he might be skinny and lanky, but he was adorable. Even if he did have to get glasses when he went into the eye doctor in a couple weeks, he would still be cute as a button.
Tucking him into the bottom bed of the bunk bed my parents had bought him, we read Danny and the Dinosaur just as we had been doing every night for the past month. With a kiss to his sleepy cheek and a small flick of the nightlight I wandered back to my own bedroom. I sat in bed for a while and shivered slightly at the thought of Ranger. His was pretty much the exact opposite of him; small, loud, and a crybaby. Even if Ranger ever did find out abut his son, once upon seeing him, he wouldn't want anything to do with him.
I pulled my blankets up and rolled over, no use in fretting over what might and might not happen. So for Ranger had no idea of what was going on right behind his back and he wouldn't realize it unless he actually saw Diego. With a heavy sigh I closed my eyes and thought about Ranger actually accepting Diego, and how much my little boy deserved a dad, but I had to make sure that when I actually found someone, he would be as dedicated to Diego, if not more to him than he was to me. I tossed about as I woke from dreams of Ranger tossing Diego to the side, and not wanting anything to do with him.
I know that she had seen me, and I knew she didn't know what to think about it any more that I did. I hadn't see Jay since I had left that morning, leaving her sleeping in her bed. I had seen her working at the bar a couple weeks later, but after that I had only seen her running to the back when I came in the door, not catching anything of her except her backside. Apparently she was embarrassed of what happened between us, because she made sure that someone else always waited on me. Although from hearing from Tank and a few of the other guys, she hadn't had a problem with them when I wasn't around. They said that the last time she had waited on them, the plain blue shirt that she always wore was pulled tightly over a pregnant stomach, and a 'larger rack' as Bobby stated.
It had been over two years, and she still wasn't back at the bar, but seeing her at Steph's ex-husband's law office showed the reason why. If she had actually been pregnant, I am sure she decided that she needed a more stable way to support her family. I didn't know who the father was, or if she was already with him the night that I took her home. She didn't seem like the type of woman who would cheat on whoever she was with for any reason.
I couldn't stop thinking about her though over the past couple weeks. Every time I drove by where I had seen her I found myself looking and hoping to catch another glimpse of her. She had looked the same, her hair seemed shorter, but I couldn't be certain until I saw her again, and closer this time. I had to see her and see what she was up to, if she could still remember that night like I could. I called Tank and made him run a location check and found she was still living in the same small house. He said she was currently at work and I thought that would be the perfect place to drop in and see her.
"Did you ever run a search on her before today Ric?" There was something in Tank's voice that made me question what the matter was, but I let it drop.
"No, it was like she had dropped off the map for a few years until a couple weeks ago." I could imagine Tank nodding in agreement with me at this and was ready to disconnect, but remembered the chance that she had a kid and family now. "What about family, no Morelli in this situation?"
A long silence stretched over the phone and I didn't know if Tank was even there on the phone still. If it wasn't for the background noise of the men slacking off since I wasn't there, I would have thought he had hung up. "No man, just a kid. I'll send you the file."
I hung up and waited for the e-mail message to flash on the GPS screen. Once it was there I looked it over, nothing special, all the same from when she had been working at the bar. Then I got to the part about the kid. Diego James Noth, he had the same last name as his mother. I clicked the link and opened up the little boy's file. I froze as I read over the second line:
"Mother stated upon delivery that Ricardo Carlos Manoso not be notified that he is the father. After DNA test with state sample of DNA, the hospital correctly identified Manoso as the father; he will not be contacted unless of serious accident to mother, or until mother wishes."
I didn't know what to do. I had a daughter down in Miami that I didn't have very much to do with. My life didn't lend itself to family relationships, or relationships of any kind. I had told this to someone else and lost her forever. I didn't know if I should confront Jay or just leave it and pretend that I hadn't an idea of my son existing. I decided to skip the confrontation and go back to RangeMan for the day. I wouldn't know how to handle the situation right now. Too many things were running through my mind at the moment. I would be surprised if I made it back to the office without getting in an accident.
So that is that, and please review once again so that I can see where I should make this story go. Thanks!
