I am a very slow writer but this story is in response to Peritales FB challenge for December. I do realize that December is about over lol. I do have pretty much the whole story written though so this won't dragged out a lot. Thanks for reading!

"Little Girl, you are not going to be alone for the holidays. I won't allow it. You are coming with us and I don't want to hear a peep out of you."

Tank has been around me too much and was able to anticipate I was going to open my mouth anyway and he gave me a quick and loud resounding no.

"I'm not sure Ranger would want me there though."

We had just wrapped up a case, it was a big contract for Rangeman and I was so nervous I would screw up my part. The last several nights were tense as we were looking for the last person that was key to the case. It was a week away from Christmas and it's true what they say, people are nicer to each other this time of the year. For us that translated to people not wanting to rat out on each other and that wasn't good for us. The case was at a standstill so I was watching funny cat videos on TikTok, it had become my second go to move behind my thinking position on the bed. Both acts left me mindless and that is when the magic happens inside my head. I was reading through some comments and the idea struck me when I saw the username 'anonymous.' People might not want to talk face to face to us right now but they seemed incapable of filtering themselves to online strangers. I got with Hector and we set off to create several fake profiles and in a couple of days we had located our guy and I had him hooked. The guy was blowing up my messages almost immediately, talk about desperate. The merrymen were trying to give me all their advice of how to get him to meet me in person but I knew the sure fire way was to pretend like I wasn't interested. It wasn't very hard because I wasn't, the guy was in his 40's and he unfortunately had a bad case of adult acne and it left him looking a bit like a potato head.

My family decided this year to have a family vacation for Christmas, it was very un-Burg of them but it was mostly due to Valerie's pushing. Albert had won his first big case and the client was so grateful, he offered the use of a home in Vermont. Two days ago they left to enjoy the picturesque scenes that you see on every Thomas Kinkade Christmas card. My mother was upset when I told her I had to work, I hated to pass up a free vacation and some possible skiing. I'll know when they get back if this case was a blessing or a curse as far as timing. Thinking of past family gatherings had me leaning far on the side of a blessing, I was taking this as a sort of Christmas present for myself. I was planning to spend my holiday with Rex and think about Ranger laying on my bed with a black velvet bow tied around his….…nevermind, think about recipe cards or even scarier think about Grandma Mazur in her Mrs. Clause outfit. A shiver involuntarily passed through my body and out of nowhere I felt Ranger behind me placing his jacket over my shoulders, his warm hands giving them a firm squeeze before he asks where it is I think he doesn't want me.

Darn him and his ability to sneak up on me, I didn't want him to hear such a pathetic sounding comment from me. Before I could try to cover-up my obvious low self-esteem, Tank blurted out that I didn't think Ranger would want me at the Christmas party. I was shooting daggers at Tank but it served to only amuse Tank. Did I mention that the Christmas party was being thrown by Ranger's family? I think my assessment of him not wanting me there is self-evident. The man of mystery threw me for a loop with his response though.

"Babe, there isn't anywhere that I wouldn't want you to be. You are more than welcome to come with mi querida, a few of the other men will be there as well. It's probably beyond the time that you met them, my mother and father have specifically asked if I invited you. I intended to ask you once this case was wrapped up and now that it is, will you go with me, please?"

What the living hell? Ranger wants me to go to meet his family? The good Steph was jumping for joy at the prospect of attending the party and the bad Steph was making a list of contingencies in the event I say, set my hair on fire in front of his entire family. Let's face it, when has anything ever gone smoothly around me?

Ranger was looking at me with that one sexy eyebrow raised and I managed to nod my head. Tank was grinning like a fool behind Ranger and I knew I was screwed.