Relationship warning...if you're a reader who doesn't like the idea of Bobby and Lester being an actual couple, you may want to stop reading, as this chapter will confirm their relationship status even more than the last one did.

No sooner had Stephanie and Ranger left, than Jenny stopped by to check on me. Keeping Bobby's ban on screen time in mind, I'd only sent a couple of brief text messages to her, updating my status. Apparently, they'd been too cryptic for her, and she wanted to see for herself that I was fine and being well taken care of. It was nice to know she cared enough to physically check on me.

By the time she also departed it was near dinner. I offered to help cook but was shot down by my two doting bodyguards. Once again relegated to the couch, I sat with my foot elevated and my body shifted so, I was able to watch as Lester and Bobby worked in the kitchen. They moved effortlessly against each other, in what could best be described as a silent dance while they cooked. Even if one didn't know they were a couple, it would have been apparent watching them. As they worked side by side, the apartment slowly filled with the aroma of what promised to be some delicious concoction.

When the meal was ready, Lester helped me from the couch and situated me at the dinner table, with my foot propped up on an extra chair. I picked up my fork and took my first bite of the lemon chicken and rice and nearly moaned in appreciation. "This is so good," I said looking from one to the other. "You guys are great cooks."

"Thank you," Bobby said as Lester grinned.

"Personally, I think we're good at a lot of things," Lester said and wagged his brows.

The innuendo in his teasing tone had me laughing out loud. "I'm sure you are," I replied.

"Maybe one day you'll find out for yourself," he said, and I paused, fork halfway to my mouth as I stared at him. Damn if that wasn't an open invitation, I don't know what is.

It wasn't as if the thought hadn't already crossed my mind. "Maybe," I finally replied after several long seconds and caught the slight jerk in Lester's body as he cut his eyes back to me and held my stare. Heat rippled through me at the unspoken desire I found in his gaze. What the hell? There went those mixed signals again.

"Um…Bobby already told me about himself. So, would you tell me about yourself?" I asked, with the hope of easing just a bit of the sexual tension.

After a moment, he gave me a nod and I let out the breath I'd been holding.

Over the rest of dinner, I learned that Lester and Ranger were cousins and grew up in Newark. According to Lester, he had two sisters, and has always considered Ranger to be the brother he never had. While he was smart enough not to follow Ranger into the gangs when they were younger, he did end up following him into the military and then into Ranger school. Which is apparently where Ranger Manoso got his nickname and from what I'm slowly coming to understand…his reputation.

Les grew quiet for a moment, and I wondered if we'd hit a nerve with the conversation. When I asked if he was okay, he'd simply nodded and gave me a bit of a sad smile. "Don't get me wrong when I say this, because I'm proud as hell of being a Ranger and of everything I've accomplished in my life, but sometimes…" he sighed. "Sometimes the memories sneak up on me."

Bobby reached across the table and placed a hand over Lester's in an obvious move of comfort. My heart lurched at the sight. What wouldn't I give to have someone care enough about me to provide comfort like that?

"Memories?" I asked, a near whisper in my voice.

Bobby glanced at Lester, as if asking some silent permission. When he nodded, Bobby turned back to me. "He's talking about our time working special ops. Being elite soldiers, we've been places, seen stuff and done things we're not proud of, but was necessary to our missions."

I let that information settle over me. So, basically, what he was telling me without actually saying it, is that they had killed, maimed, and probably tortured in the name of protecting their country. If the look on Lester's face told me anything, it was how much those memories weighed on him.

"I understand," I said. My words caused Lester to flinch, and Bobby to tighten his grip on Lester's hand. His reaction pulled a frown from me. "I wasn't judging," I said as I reached out and covered both their hands with mine. It was back. That electrifying sensation I felt every other time either man had touched me. It couldn't possibly still be the head injury, causing it, could it? Lester's attention focused on where our hands were joined his jaw set. "Lester, please look at me."

Slowly he lifted his gaze to meet mine. "I understand, probably more than most, of what you guys had to face, and I would be the last person on the planet to judge or hold your past against you."

For a moment, he held my attention before his brow knit and he frowned. "How?" he asked.

"How do I know? I had a brother who was a Navy Seal. Often, when he was home, he'd talk a little about some of his missions. Mostly, in generalities, but I could feel the weight in his words, hear the pain in his voice and felt the regret he carried."

"You used the word had," Bobby said, his voice rough with emotion.

I nodded as the lump in my throat returned. Talking about Simon was always hard. He was my best friend, my partner in crime, my twin. Losing him had been hard on my parents, but I really didn't take it well at all. "He um…" I swallowed down the lump. "He was killed during a mission six years ago."

"I'm sorry," Bobby said. "Was he your only sibling?"

I gave his question a slight nod.

"Older or younger?"

"Older, by ten minutes," I replied.

Lester's eyes widened as he looked up at me. "You're a twin?"

I nodded again. "Simon was my hero when we were growing up. Losing him was hard, but I'm so damn proud of him and everything he accomplished."

"So," Bobby said. "What else should we know about you?"

In that moment I was so very thankful for his obvious attempt to change the subject despite the fact that the focus was still on me instead of Lester.

"Well…" I began, then proceeded to skim over the mundane details of growing up in Indiana and my childhood. I even glazed over meeting Aaron in order to get to what brought me to Trenton. "Nine months ago, Aaron was killed in a freak accident while at work."

"You mentioned something about that yesterday in the infirmary. I'm sorry," Bobby said.

"It feels unfair that you've had to suffer so much loss in such a short amount of time," Lester said.

"Thank you," I replied. "You're right," I said to Lester. "It's definitely not fair, but what choice did I have except to face it? While losing my brother still affects me more than I'd ever really want to admit, at this point, I've mostly come to terms with Arron's death. What he and I both had realized right before his death was that while we loved each other, we were never really in love with one another. That spark. That intangible connection that draws you to someone was never there."

"So why did you marry him?" Lester asked.

I shrugged. "We'd been friends for what felt like forever and his family had been pushing him toward marrying a woman he couldn't stand, but that they deemed acceptable." I held up my hands to air quote the last word.

Bobby and Lester exchanged looks. "That sounds like Bomber's family," Bobby said.

"Okay," I held up a hand. "I've heard you use that word a few times now. Who, exactly is Bomber?" I asked.

He grinned. "Bomber is Steph. She was once dubbed the Bombshell Bounty Hunter in a news story and some of us played off that with her nickname. Lester calls her Beautiful, and Manny…you haven't met him yet. He calls her Wifey."

"Okay then. So, based on what you're saying, I'm guessing her family was trying to push her to marry someone she didn't love?"

Lester chuckled. "Oh, yeah. You met him already."

"I did?" I asked as my brows lifted in question. It wasn't as if I'd met a ton of people since moving here and even less since encountering these two men.

"Yep." His grin was wry, as if he took great pleasure in knowing something I didn't. "Morelli," he finally said after a moment.

I felt my brows climb even further up my forehead. What? "Detective Morelli?" Using my fork, I toyed with some of my meal. My appetite was quickly fading. "That asshole who was yelling at her at the accident scene? You have got to be kidding me."

"Not kidding," Lester said.

I nearly laughed as I remembered their argument. "Well, that explains the animosity between the two of them."

"Sure does," Bobby replied. "They apparently, knew each other for years and circled each other for just as long. They were on again and off again. Then Steph met Ranger. He had …well…some relationship issues of his own early on. So, there was this weird dance that happened between Steph and Morelli, Steph and Ranger and Ranger and Morelli."

"Ranger and Morelli were both interested in trying to keep her safe, but their methods were complete opposite," Lester continued. "Ranger supported Steph and convinced her to let us train her to do her job better."

"Meanwhile," Bobby picked the story back up. "Morelli continued to push her to quit her job, marry him and pop out a bunch of kids."

"Steph didn't want marriage and kids," Lester added. "At least not with Morelli."

"It took Steph awhile to get smart and kicked him to the curb. Then Ranger finally got his head out of his ass and asked her to marry him. Which of course she said yes."

"And her family doesn't approve?" I asked.

"Nope," Lester said. "Her father and grandmother are okay with us, but her mother has major issues with Ranger."

Who in the world could have an issue with a man like Ranger? He was probably as close to a real-life superhero as a human could get. Plus, it was crystal clear that he loved Stephanie with every fiber of his being. "Why? He's successful, handsome and appears to worship Stephanie. I would think she'd be thrilled."

"Ranger isn't Burg," Bobby said.

"Even worse, he's Cuban," Lester added.

"Okay," I motioned to Lester. "So, the Cuban thing automatically pisses me off. The fact that she's more concerned about his ethnicity and skin color clearly makes her a bigot. Which is enough for me to find reason to not like her, but I have to ask what is Burg?" I glanced between the two of them.

"Chambersburg," Bobby said. "It's an area of Trenton where Stephanie grew up and it's very…" He paused and looked at Lester. "How do we describe the Burg to her?"

Lester smirked. "Judgmental, meddlesome, spiteful, toxic…"

I held up a hand. "I think I get it and yeah, that sounds exactly like Aaron's family. Only it was his mother and grandmother who was pushing him to marry the woman they deemed acceptable. After one of their arguments, we were talking, and he made the statement that maybe he should just marry me to shut them up."

Lester set his fork down. "Well, that's a pretty lousy proposal."

"It would have been if he'd been serious, but he was joking. At least he was, until I said I would, just to help him out."

"You married your friend just to help him get his family off his back?" Bobby's eyes went wide.

"Yep," I replied. "And they never liked me. I got told on more than one occasion that I was ruining his life. So, as you can imagine I received absolutely no support of any kind from them after the accident. In fact, from the moment I buried Aaron, his family began badgering me."

"About what?" Lester asked.

I set my fork aside and leaned back in my chair. "They wanted his insurance money, even though I was the beneficiary. They wanted our house, even though I'd used a good portion of my book royalties to buy it, and they wanted damn near everything that was ours."

"I could see Steph's mom trying to pull something like that," Bobby said.

"Yeah, well, they also accused me of being responsible for his death, despite the fact that it happened on his job. They blamed me for encouraging him to take the position." I shrugged. "He wanted to be a heavy equipment operator and I wanted him to be happy."

"As any good wife and friend would," Lester replied.

"Yeah, but his family aspired for him to be a businessman or at the very least have a job where he didn't use his hands."

Bobby also set his fork down as he stared at me. "Wow. Pretentious much?"

"I know, right," I replied. "They were more than a bit snobby and elitist in their attitudes. Aaron was nothing like them…but I digress. I'm totally getting off topic." I stopped and took a deep breath as I fought back the lump trying to re-form in my throat. Maybe I was still more affected by Aaron's death than I thought. While I might not have been in love with him, he was still my best friend and I missed him.

I picked up my fork and tried for another bite before giving up. I just couldn't eat anymore. "Eventually, the constant harassment began to wear on me. They took me to court, trying to claim his will was invalid. That ate up nearly nine months of my life, while I waited for everything to work its way through the courts. During that time, they harassed me with continual hang up calls, and tails following me to my work and home. Even to the grocery store."

"Sounds like you could have used Rangeman's services," Lester said.

Much more aware of my injuries, I gave his statement a gentle nod, so as to not hurt my head worse. "Absolutely. Even my employer tried to help when they started calling my work and interrupting business, but to no avail. Eventually, I knew the only way to escape them was to leave and move far away."

"You didn't have family of your own to turn to?" Bobby asked.

"No." I shifted my attention back to my plate of food and used my fork to toy with the rice. I wasn't really prepared to talk about my family yet. "So, I packed up what I wanted from the house and shipped it off to a storage company for safe keeping. I quit my job and put the house up for sale. Unfortunately, the money from the sale of the house and the insurance is tied up in escrow until after the court rules."

"You mean they haven't ruled yet?" Lester asked.

'Nope," I replied as I set my fork aside. "Probate court can take forever and when his family's lawyer keeps postponing things, trying to drag it out, I didn't have much choice. So, in a move that probably wasn't the smartest, I used my saved-up royalty money to make a few necessary purchases to help me in my move. Since I didn't want to have to worry about transportation, I bought a newer car. Then, just to make myself feel better, I bought some new clothes and treated myself to a spa day, complete with haircut and color." I paused and looked between them. "I'm a natural red head. I just decided to have high light and low lights added. Plus, I splurged on a facial, nails and a massage."

"Did you feel better?" Bobby asked.

I nodded. "I felt like a different person. So, I decided it was time to be a different person."

"And then you officially changed your last name to Stapleton." Lester said and shrugged when I looked at him with curiosity.

"How did you know that?"

"It was on the background check Ranger ran on you."

"Right." I said. "I remember you guys looking at it in the infirmary yesterday."

"So, none of that explains how in the world you ended up in Trenton," Bobby said.

I shrugged. "Through a series of life's misfortunes, I had little family left to rely on. So, I turned to my friends. Jenny was a good friend from my community college days. She said she could get me a temporary job and provide me a place to stay until I got on my feet. The only problem was, she'd gotten married and moved to Trenton with her husband. Not seeing a whole lot of other options, I packed up the few things I wanted to initially bring with me and came East."

"And just how did you end up at the Tasty Pastry yesterday morning?" Lester asked.

I grinned. "Jenny has four small children and not a very large house. To gain some peace and keep my sanity, I've spent quite a bit of time driving around and getting acclimated. That's how I found the Tasty Pastry, Wawa, and this little Italian place called Pino's, which by the way has the most amazing meatball subs."

Lester and Bobby both burst out laughing at my statement and my brow knit. What in the hell did I say that was so funny?

"What?" I asked, looking between them.

"You and Bomber are going to end up being best friends," Bobby said.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because Pino's meatball subs are her favorite, along with the Tasty Pastry Boston Cream donuts."

Lester shot me a serious yet playful look. "Do you by chance like abandoned birthday cakes?"

My still damaged brain struggled to wrap itself around his question. "What is an abandoned birthday cake?"

Lester's face slid into a grin. "Ah young jedi, you have much to learn."

After they both fussed over me not finishing my dinner, I eventually returned to the couch, leaned back and was almost a sleep by the time Bobby and Lester were done cleaning up. "Sweetheart, let us help you back to bed," Bobby said.

"No, that's okay," I replied as I opened my eyes, looked up at him and struggled to keep my mouth from dropping open. He'd stripped out of his shirt and was now standing in front of me in just a pair of black Rangeman sweatpants. Yum! I may or may not have unconsciously licked my lips.

"Like something you see, cutie," Lester asked, and I felt the heat blast through my body.

"Oh. My. God." I covered my face with my hands. "I can't believe I did that. I'm so sorry," I said from behind my hands. "My brain is still muddled. I didn't mean to objectify you like that."

"That's okay," Lester laughed. "You're not the only one who thinks Bobby makes a perfect dessert."

Warm hands wrapped around my wrists and gently pulled mine away from my face. "Sweetheart, open your eyes."

I didn't want to. I didn't want to see Bobby's expression. "No," I said as I shook my head.

His chuckle sent a shot of tingly warmth jetting through me. Then, before I knew it, soft lips brushed over mine. My eyes sprang open along with my mouth as I gasped. "Bobby?"

He grinned. "That got you to look at me."

I started to speak but couldn't begin to find the right words. "I-um…" On a sigh, I closed my mouth and shook my head.

"Don't worry," Lester said. "He has the same damn effect on me." Then right in front of me, he reached up and grabbed Bobby by the neck and pulled him down for a kiss.

Oh. My God! I watched, riveted in place as their mouths connected. The kiss appeared soft at first, just the gentlest of touches, before I caught the sound Bobby's low growl. Parting his lips, he swiped a tongue along Lester's, tasting almost begging for more. Their tongues touched, and a part of me clinched in response. Hell, that had to be one of the sexiest things I'd ever seen in my life.

When they finally pulled away, the sexual tension in the air was palpable as they studied each other. The unspoken conversation between them had me swallowing down my own desire. It was obvious the depth of love that existed between these two men. I found myself desperately wanting to not only be part of that love, but to also be with them tonight when the bedroom door closed.

For the record...the real me (not my pen name) is an only child with two step sisters. Though I did actually move from the mid-west to New Jersey, but that's about where the similarities stop...lol.