Steph's POV

The next morning, when I wake, I find a message from Bobby on my phone, sent at the crack of dawn.

'How are you feeling?'

I scoot up in bed to lean against the headboard, but even that little movement makes my injuries cry Uncle. After a couple of deep breaths in and out, I type out my reply. 'Feel like a truck ran me over.'

The three dots appear instantly. He must have been waiting for my reply.

'Take your meds! How is Ranger?'

'Don't worry, there is no way I would skip them. Ranger's shaking has stopped, no other symptoms as far as I can tell. You wanna tell me why Nurse Amy kept blushing at the mention of your name?'

'He may get irritated quickly, even angry. Watch out for that.'

'A non answer...Mr Brown, were you and Amy a THING?'

'Message me everyday till you get to the facility'

With a sigh I disregard the device on the bedside table and then glance at the connecting door, which is now wide open. I can see Ranger's bed from here. His sheets are tangled, but he's nowhere to be found.

His words from last night still echo through my head and I do not know how I feel about them. Even though I told myself plenty of times that I am over him, I am not. I still love him, but do I want to be in a relationship with him, after all I have seen him do? Especially the part where he was fucking the strippers right in front of me? Could I ever forgive and forget that part?

I shake my head and force myself to remind myself of those words from last night. 'You need to realize that you and I will never ever happen again.' When this is over and I deliver him to the facility, I need to work on moving on. He doesn't want to be with me, so why should I chase him and keep going like we did for a long time before I moved in with him?

Just as I come to that decision, the door to my room opens and Ranger walks in, wearing shorts but no shirt, dripping with sweat. And there goes that decision…. How am I ever going to move on from him? He is everything I want and more. I clench my thighs together and smile at him. "Good Morning, lost your shirt?"

Instead of answering, he shows me that his shirt is tucked into the back of the waistband of his shorts.

"Aaaannnnd you have apparently become a mute overnight…. Good to know." I smile at him again, then throw off the blanket. Pain shoots from my ribs and collarbone with that simple action, but I work hard not to let it show. Much more carefully and slowly, I swing my legs over the edge and come to a stand.

"Babe" Ranger groans and when I look at him in confusion, he just points back at me with a clenched jaw.

"Oh" I feel my cheeks heat in embarrassment when I realize that I am completely naked. I had totally forgotten that part. "Ehh, it's not like you haven't seen it before" I quip and walk nonchalantly across the room and into the bathroom.

Once I finish my business, with the door closed, I turn on the shower, hoping that the water will ease my aching body. Standing under the spray, with my head bowed so my stitches don't get wet, and eyes closed, I let out a sigh. A Bath would be better, but a shower is the next best thing. I purposefully avoided looking in the mirror when I came into the bathroom. I know that the bruises will look like hell today.

I hear the shower partition open and close, then two strong arms gently grab my hip and pull me into an equally strong chest. "Why can I not stay away?"

"Probably for the same reason I keep coming to pick you up from whichever place you are being kicked out from." I tell him and turn around with his arms still wrapped around me.

"I meant what I said last night."

"I know." I nod into his chest while my heart breaks. My head fits perfectly under his chin. Knowing it will hurt, I brace myself and draw my arms around his midsection. For a long time we just hold each other while my body relaxes more and more. Partly due to the hot water, but mostly because of Ranger's hug.

"We gotta get going." He announces suddenly and abruptly pulls away from me.


A couple of hours later, after he washed me again from neck to toe without lingering this time, dressed me carefully in his T-shirt and my yoga pants and we had breakfast, we were back on the road heading north. I turned on the radio to fill the silence and to keep my brain from over thinking any of this.

We stop in a town called Skyeston for some late lunch, before we continue our silent car ride towards the border. We haven't spoken beyond the 'Have you taken your meds?' and 'Want some snacks from the Petrol Station?' talk.

Nine hours later, we finally cross the border into Canada. "Let's pull into Midale for the night, it's two towns away" I announce, when Ranger just keeps driving past every town we encounter, despite him looking more tired by the minute. Traffic has been a bitch all day and having had to wait for three hours at border control didn't help. A car broke down just on the other side and it halted all movement. Then we had to deal with the probing questions of a Border Control Officer, after he got a good look at my face. Thankfully he bought our story of a car accident and opted to not search our car or we would be in jail right now, thanks to the gun in my handbag.

"We didn't cover a lot of ground today" Comes as an answer from the driver's side.

"I don't care. You are tired and I am in pain." Which isn't a complete lie, my body does hurt a little, but he needs rest and so I will play it up more if I have to.

"Why didn't you say something earlier?" he looks at me for a brief moment, before averting his eyes back onto the road. His expression is blank as usual, but his eyes show that he is displeased.

"It wasn't as bad!"

"Look up a hotel and make a reservation." He orders, grabs his wallet from the centre console, where he threw it after the last rest stop, and hands it to me. "Use the Amex."

And I do as I am told.


"You got to be fucking kidding me?" I hear Ranger mutter and as I walk up to the open door, I see him kick the tire of my car.

We are at a B&B, which is a quaint one level building with about twenty suites. There was only one room available yesterday, so Ranger and I shared a bed last night. He wanted to take the floor, but I knew he would never get any decent sleep so I argued with him for over half an hour, before he finally relented. As soon as Ranger laid his head down on the pillow he was fast asleep, leaving me with nothing to do but watch TV. I discovered I quite like a show called Melissa and Joey, of which they showed five episodes back to back. When I am back in Trenton I gotta buy all of the episodes and binge them.

While he napped, I took the car to get some late dinner for us. Something for which he ripped me a new one once I admitted how the food got to our room. I thought about lying, but Ranger has always been good at seeing through my bullshit. But I definitely left out the fact that I had to drive real slow, because shifting gears hurt like hell. Luckily I wasn't pulled over.

After that Ranger and I watched some Nature Documentary on TV, but I only paid half attention, because my body was way too aware of Ranger's next to me. Every so often our arms would brush against one another, making the hairs on my arms stand at attention.

Eventually we both must have dozed off, because when I opened my eyes it was morning and I was lying on Ranger's chest with his arms wrapped around me. I could tell by his breathing that he was awake, so either he had woken at the same time as me or had been awake for a while and still kept me close. And while we were lying there, pretending to sleep, when we both knew that the other was wide awake, realization hit me that maybe I need Rehab too. I am way too addicted to his scent, body and just him in general. I should just buy my one-way ticket to heartbreak city now!

Eventually he got up, without saying anything and went for a run. When he returned, he helped me shower once more. He didn't linger on any spots, but he did hold me in a hug till the water started to run cold and then dressed me in the flannel shirt he picked up at a truck stop in James Town, North Dakota, yesterday.

Which brings us to now. "What's the matter?" I ask, walking outside, feeling like a million bucks. So much so that I grabbed my own bag and coffee on the way out the door, thanks to the painkillers I just took. As soon as the man in black looks up, his scowl deepens and he rushes over.

"You shouldn't be lifting anything." He growls and then proceeds to take the bag out of my hand, before letting it drop on the floor besides our feet.

"Wanna tell me why you are out here swearing and kicking my tires?" I arch an eyebrow, while taking a sip of my coffee. Thankfully the B&B has complimentary instant coffee and an electric kettle in its rooms.

"Car is broken."

"What?" I squeak and try to look around him.

"It wouldn't turn on, so I checked under the hood. Something chewed through a few cables."

"Alright, let's call the town mechanic and we will be on the road in no time." I shrug, before regretting that action. Despite pain meds, it hurts.

"You are in a good mood."

"The day started in a great way" I smile at him. God damn it, that hadn't meant to come flying out of my mouth. Was I happy to wake up in his arms? Incredibly so. Maybe I am suffering from Amnesia. My head keeps conveniently forgetting what he has been doing this past year, so my heart just goes along with it.

"Mhh" he replies non-committal, but a small tip up of his mouth tells me he doesn't disagree completely.


"What do you mean the garage is closed?" Ranger growls. After we couldn't get anyone on the line at the town's garage, we went to the B&B's reception to see if they could help. Let's say Ranger is not liking the answers that we have been given and I can tell that he is trying to reign in his temper. This must be what Bobby was saying yesterday.

"I am sorry, it's been quite a few stressful days." I smile apologetic at the fifty-something woman called Myrtle, whose hair-do is stuck in the eighties.

"I can imagine" She shoots me one of those fake smiles, while judging me, and Ranger by association, by my appearance or rather my bruises.

When Ranger growls again, I put my hand on his wrist, hoping it will calm him, but without looking away from Myrtle. My smile slips from my face and I say "What my boyfriend is trying to say is that we do not quite understand what you mean by 'the garage is closed'. Is it closed just for today or forever?"

She sighs, as if it is too much of a ask for her to do her job and be helpful. "Frank is on a fishing holiday with his family, so the garage is closed in the meantime."

"Okay, when will Frank be back?" I question before Ranger can say anything else. His temper seems to still be simmering. Maybe my touch doesn't have the same effect on him than his would have on me, were the roles reversed?

"Three days. So he probably will open again on day four, so Thursday."

"Any mechanics in the neighbouring towns?" It is like pulling teeth with this woman.

"James from Halbrite, one town north of us, is on the fishing trip with Frank." She shrugs in a 'What can you do?' way.

"So there is no mechanic that can help us today?"

"You can try Estevan, but they will charge you a premium to drive out here."

"Money is no object." Ranger chimes in. "Do you have the number handy?" We could just look it up, but one look at his face and I think he just wants to make her do her job.

"You don't have Google?" She queries down her nose.

"Broke" Ranger shrugs and I have to suppress a grin. With another huff Myrtle writes down the number. "Thank you, we will call from our room phone." As soon as we are out of the door and around the corner, Ranger mutters "Bitch….she took one look at you and assumed...while it is a correct assumption, it still rubs me the wrong way. Aren't Canadians supposed to be nice?" He obviously doesn't want me to answer, because he already has his phone pressed to his ear.


A couple of hours later, a woman called Riley, with amazing blonde hair, dressed in a blue overall tied around her waist and a white tank top, is looking at the damage the rodents did. "It's repairable, but I don't have the right parts. I need to order them, so... probably going to get them in a week." She adds when she turns around and closes the hood. Wiping her hands on the rag she had in her pocket, she takes a look at Ranger's face and she quickly adds "I can ask for express shipping but that will cost extra."

"Money is no object." Ranger tells her. "Let me know how much it will be and I will wire you the money right away."

"Really?" Riley's eyes light up.

"Yes. Just send me the bill" He hands her his business card. "With express shipping, when will it get here?"

"Day after tomorrow."

"Thank you" Ranger nods and holds out his hand for Riley to shake.

"See you in a couple of days." With a nod Riley gets back in her old car.

"Seems like we are staying for a few more days." Ranger comments as he watches Riley drive off.

"I will book the room through the website….I am afraid Myrtle will refuse us."

"Good idea" Ranger smirks and kisses my forehead.

Sigh.