Some people commented about how fast Ranger and Amy are moving, which is true. I alluded to the fact that he's had feelings for her for a while but I guess I should've written that out in a bit more detail. So after I first typed up this chapter I went back and added a flashback to try and help clarify things a little. This probably should have been the prologue, but I think I was just kind of carried away with the idea of their first date.
As always, thanks for reading! I love all of the feedback and I'll admit that I get butterflies after I post each new chapter because I'm so excited to see how many people are reading. Enjoy!
The original characters belong to JE, the rest is my crazy imagination and craziness.
Chapter 11
Grocery shopping was a fairly easy task, considering Amy and Lexi weren't overly picky people and it was just the two of them. That would all change, very soon. That was a little scary and intimidating. Amy was more than a little distracted as they shopped. She was worried about living with someone else other than Lexi for the first time in five years. How would Lexi handle not just moving out of the only house she's ever known but to a different school as well? At least she knew that so far Lexi really seemed to like Ranger, although they really did need to spend more time together.
Amy was a little surprised to see Ranger standing in the door to the house when the garage door rolled all the way up. He met her at the back of her Jeep.
"I'll get the bags." Ranger said before Amy could even reach for her reusable grocery bags.
"Ever the gentleman, thank you." Amy let him take all the bags then she pulled down the hatch.
"So, Bobby is going to push to get the plans done by the end of the week. He's going to call me Thursday and let me know how it's going, and hopefully we can meet him at his office to sign off on the plans Friday. Once he was our signatures for the plans he can apply for the permits he needs."
"Our signatures?" Amy stopped just inside the kitchen as Ranger set the bags on the counter. He carefully watched her to see if she was upset by something he'd said. "Lex, go on up and play in your room for a bit. Okay?"
"Okay mom." Lexi scampered off to her room.
Ranger wasn't sure what he'd said. "What's wrong?"
"Why would the contractor need our signatures? It's your house."
"I signed the paperwork for the house today, so technically it is only mine, for now. But as soon as we're married your name is going on the deed as well. So of course I want you to sign off on the improvements."
"Okay." Amy joined Ranger at the island and started putting groceries away.
Ranger let out an audible sigh of relief. "I thought you were going to be upset."
"No, I was just confused." Amy kept putting groceries away. "So how long does he think it'll take to get moving on it?"
"He said his best guess is about two weeks. He said the work itself won't take an extremely long time since the formal living room is the only room going through major changes. The rest is just being repainted or refinished. His best guess is it could be ready to go the end of October or the first week of November."
Amy nodded. "What if we did a Thanksgiving wedding? Your family will all mostly be home then, right?"
"Yeah, they should be."
"I know that would put it back a little later than we were thinking, but then maybe the whole house could be done and most of our family should be able to make it since they'll already be here for the holiday. I'll call my dad, I'm sure he and Carrie would be okay with coming here instead of Lexi and I going there, instead of missing our wedding. It also gives us more time to get all of the plans made"
"A Thanksgiving wedding should work."
"I'll start calling around for the rentals and try to find a caterer. Do you have any preferences or special requests on food?"
"I guess that depends on how formal you want it to be?"
"Didn't we already kind of agree on it being somewhat casual and relaxed?"
Ranger tipped his head slightly in agreement, "I suppose we did." Ranger sat at the island while Amy put the last of the groceries away. "What do you think?"
"Well, we could do a Thanksgiving themed meal. Like you said before, we can set up a buffet on the island and people can sit wherever they want to. If we're planning on about 100 people and want to do small tables for four people that would mean we need 20 tables." Amy circled around the island and sat on the stool next to Ranger.
"We could have the formal living room set up with more casual seating, comfortable chairs and lower tables. After the ceremony that is. The weather will more than likely be too cold to use the patio, so we'll cross that off the list now."
"Do you think we could really accomodate one hundred people in the house?"
"You've been there, what do you think?" Ranger watched Amy as she was clearly thinking hard and trying to remember the sizes of the rooms. "The formal dining room should be able to easily fit eight tables, so that takes care of thirty-two people. The formal living room could fit about three or four set ups of comfortable chairs and smaller side tables for probably sixteen people or so. That's about half. The family room should definitely be able to fit the rest of the seating, about another eight tables and then a few more comfortable chair setups."
"Has it really only been a few hours since we got very untraditionally engaged? We seem to have most of our wedding planned out already. Your really moving fast, aren't you?"
"I always move fast when there's something I need, and can't see myself living without."
Amy gasped, she and Ranger had already talked about their feelings and for all intents and purposes were engaged, but they'd never said that always desired l-word. They'd alluded to it, as Ranger had just done, but neither one had actually said it yet. "Ranger, I…" she stopped and looked down at her hands. Ranger covered her clasped hands with one of his and brought the other up under her chin and gently guided her head up so he could look in her eyes. "How are you so sure?"
"Amy, I love you." He smiled, his eyes actually softening and showing her exactly what he was feeling. He brushed his thumb over her cheek, clearing away a stray tear. "You don't have to say anything. I know how you feel. When you're ready, you'll tell me. But I want you to know that I'm all in. I know you've been unsure, so I want you to be reassured by my feelings and my confidence in us."
Amy's one tear turned into a down-pour, but she kept smiling. "You suck." She started laughing, and he joined her.
"Why do I suck? I just told you that I love you, and your response is 'You suck?'" His smile was now an ear-splitting grin as he chuckled at her.
"Yes, you suck. I was just about to tell you that I feel like I must be crazy because I already know that I love you."
Ranger pulled her off her stool and into his lap, for the second time that day. "I would insist you move in with me now, but my apartment just isn't quite made for a family and a dog. So do you mind if I move in with you until the house is ready?"
"Eventually. I still think that Lexi needs some time. She just found out today that I have a boyfriend. Once we get all of the house and wedding stuff finalized, we'll tell her that we're getting married and then you can move in. I promise."
"Okay." Ranger conceded, only because he was already formulating his plan for when he was going to actually propose and make things official. "I also called my mom."
"Oh good!" Amy moved off of Ranger's lap to let Flynn out into the backyard. "So when's dinner?"
"Friday night. Dinner is always ready at 6, but my mom insisted we get there earlier. What time does Lexi get out of school?"
"Three fifteen." Amy went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. She tipped it towards Ranger, silently asking him if he wanted one. He nodded so she grabbed him one and handed it to him.
"Perfect. We can cut out early on Friday and head to my parents place. My mom will probably grill you, it'll feel more like an interrogation actually, but I've never really brought a girl home for dinner so you'll have to take it easy on her."
"You know, believe it or not, I have met parents before. Plus I'm a single mom. I'm pretty sure I can handle a little maternal questioning. I'll help her cook, mother's love it when they know their son is being well taken care of." Amy winked at him "I need to grab my to-do list." Amy went into her office and grabbed her list off of the table by the chair she had been sitting in earlier and went back to the kitchen, sitting next to Ranger. "Any ideas on a good caterer?"
"We might want to consult with Ella on that one."
"Are we telling people yet? No offense," she quickly added. "I just wasn't sure if we would wait until we'd been dating at least a few weeks before we made that announcement."
"I'm pretty sure your engagement ring will tell people eventually."
Amy held her left hand out in front of her wiggling her fingers, "There's no ring yet mister." She smiled mischievously at him then got serious again, "But seriously, I'm guessing that getting a caterer lined up for Thanksgiving weekend with about 7 weeks notice is going to be a little trying. We need to get that done sooner rather than later."
"We could always just tell her that we want to cater a big family dinner."
"And lie to Ella?" Amy feigned shock, "She will be so mad at you when she finds out."
"Somehow I think that she'll be more excited that I'm finally getting married than she'll be mad that I lied. Especially since the wedding will be the reason for the lie. Besides, she's a forgiving kind of woman. She'll be annoyed at first but mostly she'll be thrilled." Ranger just kept smiling. "What else do we need to do?"
"We'll need a photographer, and we'll have to decide what we want for cake or dessert. Oh, I didn't even think about a DJ. If we have tables set up all throughout the house where would we dance?" Amy started chewing on her bottom lip.
"We definitely need to have a DJ, we have to have our first dance. You know, I completely forgot about the basement. There's a regulation-size basketball court. That would be big enough to set up tables and a buffet on about half of it and the other half could be the dance floor." Ranger grabbed her list and added 'Find DJ' to her ever-growing list.
"Wouldn't the tables and chairs scuff the floor?"
"The rental place should have moveable flooring, we should be able to cover the court in that." Ranger pulled his phone out of his pocket to check his e-mail. "Oh good. I got an email back from Bobby already, he's going to get us the plans for the house by end of day Wednesday. If we sign off on them by Friday morning he can get the necessary permits and get started next week."
"That's fast." Amy took a drink of her bottle of water. "What if we used the garage that's attached to the house?"
"For what, the reception?"
"As our dance area. I just feel weird having people go downstairs to the gym, then we'd have people all over the house. I think we should try to keep everyone on one level."
Ranger considered for a minute before agreeing. "Yeah, I hadn't really thought about that. There's a door at the bottom of the stairs we can lock to keep people from going down there. I'll have to get a couple of the Rangeman guys to stand at the stairs to keep people from going upstairs. I really don't want people messing around in the bedrooms. We'll have to lock our bedroom door, but that'll be where you and Lex can get ready. I'll use the office."
"Sounds like a good plan." Amy stood and went around to the other side of the island. "I guess I'd better start prepping for supper."
"Do you need any help?"
"Thanks, but no I've got it. You get as much done on the party planning as you can so that I don't have to do it later." Amy opened the fridge and pulled out the eggplant, romano cheese, ricotta cheese, and eggs.
"You know I do know how to cook." Ranger wasn't really looking forward to trying to track down good vendors for their Thanksgiving wedding any more than Amy, but it needed to be done.
"Oh I know." Amy walked towards the patio doors and went outside. She came back in a few minutes later with a bunch of green leaves in her hand.
"What's that?"
"Basil for the pesto."
"You make your own pesto?"
"I make my own everything when I can. I love to cook. Honestly if I hadn't worked in food service in college I probably would've switched to culinary school. I just figured out that I really don't deal well with stupid people."
She had Ranger laughing again. "You do really well at Rangeman, so I'm really glad that you didn't pursue culinary school."
She pulled the small food processor out and started measuring out ingredients to make the pesto. "You might want to go in the office and close the doors, this is going to be a little loud for a few minutes."
Ranger escaped to the office, and even through the closed doors he could hear the pulsing of the food processor. He knew he should be making calls but all he could do was smile as he thought about how nice it was to finally have Amy. He'd been instantly attracted to her when he interviewed her for her current job, something Tank had noticed from day one. Tank had predicted nearly this exact outcome after Amy's first week at Rangeman.
"You okay boss?"
Ranger's head suddenly popped up, "What?"
"The meeting has been over for a solid three minutes now. You haven't moved an inch."
"I was just thinking about the Phillips account, we might have to hire on some new guys to help in the programming department. I'll have to set up a meeting with Amy to have her tell me what she's going to need and have her write up the job requirements."
"Oh you were thinking about Amy alright." Tank deadpanned.
"Oh back off. I was not thinking about her, not like that."
"Sure thing boss."
The next afternoon Amy was sitting across from him at his desk, and all Range could think about was how devastatingly beautiful her light blue eyes were, like a bright and cloudless summer sky. It took him a minute to realize she was asking him a question and he hadn't been paying attention.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"I asked how much the budget is for the new hires. I wasn't sure how many openings we would be advertising for."
"How many do you think you'll need? The Phillips account is going to be big, and if he's as happy with the system as he seems to be, it's going to bring in a lot of business. So I think it would be good to be proactive about that possibly influx of programming needs."
"Well when you put it that way, I would like to hire three new guys for sure. And possibly keep a list of potentials for later if we need more."
Ranger nodded once and made some notes, as did Amy. "Three sounds fair. Once you get me the job description, I'll forward it to CJ after I review it and we'll get it posted by the end of the week."
Amy smiled. "Sounds great." She stood quickly, being around Ranger always made her nervous and she didn't want him to know it. "Anything else?"
"Yeah," he stood but didn't move around his desk. "Are you seeing anyone?"
Amy chortled then blushed slightly and looked down at her feet. "Sorry, no I'm not. I uh, had kind of a bad breakup in Miami. It's the reason I moved up here."
"I'm sorry." Ranger already knew about her ex-husband of course, but he didn't want Amy to know how much he knew. "How do you like it here so far? It's definitely not nearly the same as Miami, but Trenton isn't bad."
"I like it a lot, it's nice. I'm looking for a house not far from here, there's a really good school district just fifteen minutes from here."
"You have kids?" Ranger didn't think she had school-aged kids, just the toddler-aged daughter.
"I have a daughter Alexa, I call her Lexi, and she's eighteen months old now. I want to make sure our house is in a good school district since she'll be starting in a few years."
"That makes sense." He wasn't good at idle chit chat but he didn't want her to leave his office either.
"I should get back to my office and get that description typed up for you."
"Okay. I'll let you know when it's posted and when we're ready to do interviews."
Amy nodded, "Sounds good. Thanks Ranger, I'll see you around."
"See you around." As soon as she walked out of his office Ranger dropped back down into his seat and rubbed his hands over his face. He'd never felt like such an idiot around a woman before. Amy definitely brought out something different in him.
"Hey boss," Tank walked in and closed the door behind him. "You look strange." He sat down in the chair Amy had just left a few minutes earlier. "Wasn't Amy just in here?"
"Yeah, why?" Ranger had his blank expression plastered on his face hoping Tank wouldn't notice. But of course Tank noticed, he was the only person who knew all of Ranger's tells.
"You really like her, don't you?"
"No, I don't. She's my employee."
"Being your employee doesn't make her less attractive. And you can wipe that fake unaffected look off your face. You like her and it bugs you."
"I don't like her, so I'm not bugged. I do however have to make sure we have enough money in the budget for three more programmers. The Phillips account is probably going to bring in some new clients, big name clients, so we need to be ready for that."
"I'll talk to CJ in HR." Tank didn't give any indication that he was leaving to do so. "What about Stephanie?"
Ranger looked up and gave Tank a hard stare. "What about her?"
"This thing with Amy, is it bigger than whatever you've got going on with Stephanie?" Tank knew the question was going to piss Ranger off before he even asked it, but he'd never seen his boss and best friend so affected by a woman before. Not even by Stephanie, and that woman has gotten Ranger to do a lot of things differently over the last few years.
"What in the hell are you talking about? There's nothing going on with Amy. And Stephanie is a friend, she's never wanted anything more than that and I'm not in any position to give her anything more."
Tank gave him a single nod. "You have more to offer than you think."
"Not with my job, you know that."
"What is it going to take to make you quit taking these crazy covert missions?"
"I'll know when it's time to quit. And I'm not there yet."
Tank finally stood. "You won't like what I'm about to say, but it wouldn't be the first time and it definitely won't be the last."
"Like that ever stops you." Ranger muttered.
"You really like Amy and it bothers you that you like her. Don't deny it, because I know when you're lying. I think that you and Amy could be good together."
"Now you've gone crazy. She has a kid. She'll want marriage and probably more kids. You know that's not me."
"Maybe not right now. But you'll change your mind, eventually. And when you end up marrying that gorgeous woman, I'm going to say I told you so. Oh and your first born better be named after me."
"You've officially lost it. I'm going to call Bobby to have him check you out. Were you in the ring with someone during your morning workout?"
Tank just laughed as he opened Ranger's office door and walked out. What had gotten into that guy?
Ranger chuckled to himself and wondered if Amy would be okay with naming their first son after Tank. He shook his head at the thought and started on the to-do list. They really didn't have a lot of time to plan this wedding but Ranger really wanted it to be special for Amy.
The week seemed to fly by. Amy and Ranger had lunch in his apartment every day, they always had something new to talk about. Ranger told Amy about his childhood, his rebellious high school days, his time in the Army, his very short first marriage and about his first daughter Julie, and he also gave her some more details about his relationship-or lack there of-with Stephanie. Amy talked about her childhood, she didn't have rebellious high school stories since she was basically a goody two-shoes in school with a 4.0 GPA and was involved in a lot of extracurricular activities.
It had been Thursday during lunch when Ranger learned just how much of a rule-follower and perfectionist Amy had been in high school.
"So you never skipped a day of class, just for fun?"
"No way!" Amy put down her bottle of water. "The school would've called my dad and I would've been in so much trouble."
That made Range throw his head back and laugh. "So what did you do for fun?"
"I had a group of close friends, both guys and girls, and we would go see a movie or go bowling or something."
"Woah look out!" Ranger was still laughing. "I'm sorry, I'm making fun of you. But you were the group of kids that I made fun of in high school."
"No need to apologize. I knew I was goody two-shoes. But I knew that getting good grades and being involved in sports would get me more scholarships for school. My dad wouldn't have been able to afford to help much with school, and my moms was basically just gone. I didn't want him to feel obligated to help me. He paid for my books and gave me cash now and then. I worked on campus to help with tuition. But I was still an overachiever in college too. Well, you already kind of know that, we talked about that before."
Ranger just smiled and nodded. "So, are you ready for dinner tomorrow night?"
Amy grinned around the bite of salad she'd just taken and nodded. "I'm actually excited to meet your family."
He cocked his head slightly to the side and narrowed his eyes at her, studying her. "You're excited to meet them?" He was extremely suspicious of her answer. "You're supposed to be nervous."
"Well, I might be a little nervous. But mostly excited." She wasn't just smiling, her whole face was beaming.
"Why are you excited about meeting my family for the first time?" The woman didn't make any sense.
"Well, I know that you've told me a lot about yourself in just the last couple of weeks. But your family will tell me all of the funny and embarrassing stories that you yourself would probably never tell me."
Ranger realized he had underestimated Amy yet again, she was definitely one smart woman. "I kind of wish I could make you wait to meet them now. But we're a little short on time." He went back to his salad.
"Your just mad because you know I'm right."
Ranger ignored her, didn't even spare a glance at her as he kept eating his salad. Which only made Amy laugh and prod him a little more.
"Oh and baby pictures! I just can't wait to see baby pictures of a cute little Carlos, probably naked, covered head to toe in spaghetti or cake or some other messy food." Amy was thoroughly enjoying herself and she could tell that he was definitely reevaluating taking her to meet his family.
Ranger hated to admit it, but he knew that his mom would be pulling out the baby pictures as soon as the dining table was cleared off. "You know that goes both ways, right? I'll have to spend some time with your family eventually, do you think your dad won't do the same thing?"
"I don't really have that many embarrassing stories. My dad probably has a few, but none that I can really think of off hand. I didn't meet Carrie until I was in my teens. She'll probably tell you all about my crush on Justin Timberlake and my obsession with Nsync, but I'm not embarrassed by that. Justin Timberlake is still hot, but now that I'm older I'm not afraid to admit that I think he's sexy."
"Nsync huh?"
"Hey, boy bands were huge when I was in middle and high school. I saw Nsync and 98 degrees in concert, not the same concert but you know."
"Did you buy a t-shirt that said 'I heart Justin Timberlake'?" He couldn't help himself, he had to tease her about her crush on Justin Timberlake.
"No." She shook her head. "I did go to a Justin Timberlake concert last year and bought a t-shirt from his show. I had thought about wearing a shirt to the show asking him to marry me, but I thought that might be a bit much."
That had Ranger chuckling. "So does that mean that if you could go out on a date with JT, you would?" He asked as he collected their lunch dishes and took them to the kitchen.
Amy stood and joined him to help put the dishes in the dishwasher after he rinsed them off. "Hell yeah I would. But I wouldn't do anything more than have dinner with him, just because I think it would be kind of fun to sit down and talk to him over a meal. But to be honest I would go have dinner with any celebrity just to say I got to meet them. It could be Justin Timberlake, Meryl Streep, Jimmy Buffet, pretty much anyone."
"I suppose that's true of most people."
"What about you? Any celebrity crushes or someone you would go have dinner with?"
"You know," Ranger paused. "I have to be honest and admit that I don't follow a lot of the celebrity garbage these days. When I was high school though I definitely had a thing for Cindy Crawford."
Amy nodded, "She's still pretty damn good-looking now. I can see you crushing on her."
"So speaking of baby pictures." Ranger shot her a sideways look to see if she was going to be mad before continuing. "Do you feel pregnant yet?"
"Your never going to drop that, are you? It was one time, I highly doubt I got pregnant from that one time."
"I know. But you could have."
"Do you think about anything other than the small chance that I could be pregnant?"
"Sometimes." He teased. "I was just wondering when we should know."
"Honestly, I don't keep track of my cycle. Probably in a week and half or so."
"Can I be there when you take the test?"
"You want to watch me pee on a stick?" She couldn't help but tease him.
"Not watch you, but I want to be there."
"I will let you know if I decide to take a pregnancy test."
"Good. Thank You."
"Ranger, you don't have to thank me for that. I wouldn't leave you out of something that important."
He nodded and smiled.
"Can we drop the subject for like a week and half or so then?"
"Yes." He smirked. "So where are we on the wedding plans?" Ranger put the last dish in the dishwasher and turned around to lean against the counter. "Bobby emailed me mid morning and said the permit applications have been submitted and he knows someone in the county office so he's hoping to get them expedited. I told him I was willing to provide financial incentive if necessary."
"I'm going to go dress shopping with Lex over the weekend. We have the caterer right? You talked to her." Ranger nodded so she continued. "I got the DJ. The rentals are taken care of. We have 18 small round tables that will accommodate four people each, plus 110 chairs. We also have some comfortable tan chairs, I think we settled on sixteen chairs and seven short end tables. Those will be set up in the formal living room after the ceremony. You got the photographer, right?" He nodded again. "And the justice of the peace?"
"Yeah, a judge owed me a favor. So that's taken care of." Ranger smiled. "I have my suit already. Tank is the best man of course and he's got his suit."
"I got the cake, well cakes and desserts, taken care of."
"Cakes AND desserts?" Ranger looked a little worried about that.
"You'll have your own grooms cake, we'll have a small cake to cut that will feed about twenty people. Since it's Thanksgiving weekend we'll also have some individual little pies, you know apple, pumpkin, pecan, French silk, and lemon meringue." Amy smiled. "You know that dessert is my favorite part of any special dinner. I always save room for cake or pie at weddings and especially on Thanksgiving."
"So is the grooms cake really for me or is it for show?"
"That would be a surprise. I wanted to do something for you since you've been doing so much for me, and for Lexi."
Ranger had to smile. "You've been talking to Ella again, haven't you?"
"I can neither confirm nor deny any allegations to that effect."
He laughed and straightened away from the counter. "So, do you have any pressing meetings or work to get back to?"
"Your terrible!"
"What?" He feigned innocence as he took another step towards her. "I'm your boss, I'm just curious about your workload for the afternoon."
"Yeah sure. Or your horny because we haven't done anything since Monday night."
In one swift move he reached for her hands and pulled her into his chest. "I've missed you the last two nights." He nuzzled into her neck and started kissing his way up. "You didn't answer my question."
"No, I don't have anything to rush back to my desk for."
Ranger put her arms around his neck, "Put your legs around my waist." Amy did so immediately and he clamped his hands on the backs of her thighs as he carried her back to his bedroom. He not so gently tossed Amy onto his bed making her laugh. He tugged his shirt over his head and off in one swift move and was starting on his pants when his cell buzzed in his pocket. "Son of a…seriously?" He pulled it out and cursed when he saw the name on the screen. "You'd better be bleeding or dying."
Amy snickered a little at his obvious frustration.
"I'm not in my office at the minute Tank, just handle it and we'll talk when you get back." He hung up then shut his phone off before setting it on his nightstand.
"Somebody's grouchy today." Amy teased. She sat up and started unbuttoning her shirt as Ranger was undoing his pants.
"I'm not grouchy. I just don't like interruptions when I'm trying to make love to my fiancé." He stepped out of his pants and started working on Amy's khaki's. "Less talking, more getting naked." He growled out as he none-too gently pulled off her pants.
Amy couldn't help but laugh a little until he was lowering himself onto her and started kissing her neck again. Any other response was lost at the feel of his hot breath and soft lips on her skin. He always managed to make her muscles go lax and make her nearly breathless as soon as he touched her. They'd be lucky to make it back to work at all today.
A/N: I promise you all that "the big question" will be answered in the next chapter. -)
