*These characters are the property of Janet Evanovich, I make no profit from this, all mistakes are mine.*

The next three weeks passed by in a flurry of activity, and most importantly girl time. I started my new position with Rangeman, and loved it.I had all the paperwork caught up, and Tank was beyond thrilled-The guys even surprised me with an office last week, so that I could keep up with the paperwork, and have a little corner for Julie to sit on her comfy chair playing on her laptop, and starting next week work on homework.

Julie has been spending a lot of the days that I work up in Ella's apartment doing fun things like baking cookies, and painting nails. My niece Angie, and Julie have stuck together like glue ever since meeting, and she spends a lot of time at RangeMan, and Julie spends a lot of time at Val's house. I never thought that Angie would have gotten along with Julie, because she is so prim, and proper, but together they are girly, and giggly. It is really a joy to see.

Julie, and I spend every Sunday as a girls day. In the 3 weeks I have had her, we have spent the day in eating Chinese, and mani/pedi's, and spent the last two Sunday's at Point Pleasant. I love spending time at the beach with Julie, our relationship has grown so much in such a little amount of time. Seeing her beautiful face everyday makes me miss Ranger so very much.

I was brought out of my musings by my office phone ringing; it was Tank asking me to come to his office ASAP. Julie was at the mall with Val, and Angie picking up some school supplies for next week, so I closed down my laptop, and walked quickly to Tank's office.

I knocked on Tank's door, and waited for his gruff "Enter", walked in, and closed the door. Tank motioned for me to sit down, and steepled his fingers, resting his chin on his fingers. There was about a full minute of silence before I finally broke and asked him if everything was okay.

Not wasting anymore time, he proceeded to tell me that he had heard from his contacts that Ranger's mission was about to come to a close, and he was going to be in Washington for debriefings for about three days after, then would be home as long as the last of his mission went off like it should. I immediately felt relief, and a sudden urge to be sick at the same time.

The last three weeks have been the best of my life, but the whole time I have had so much worry in my gut about how to break all of this to Ranger. How is he going to feel about this arrangement? Is he going to take her away from me, and want nothing to do with me?

To tell you the truth, I don't think I could survive it if that is what he wanted. So much has changed since he left for his mission, and I'm not the same woman that he supposedly loved. I have cut out all the parts of my life that I realized were unhealthy, and sadly, the way we conducted our relationship wasn't healthy either. This whole time I have spent getting settled, I realized I don't need a savior, I need an equal.I just don't know if the alpha male in Ranger is looking for a relationship like that, or a relationship period...so many unknowns.

I smiled at Tank, and thanked him for giving me a heads up. He told me he won't know until the last minute when Ranger will be done, and this will really be the only warning I get before he comes home, so I need to figure out what I am going to say, and how I am going to say it in the next few days.

I went back to my office, and my cell phone rang with a call from Aiden telling me that Julie's name change will be official today, and I can finish the paperwork for school next week. Thank goodness, one less thing to worry about. Four hours later, as I was finishing up work for the day, Julie walked in with bags upon bags of school items.

She was so excited to start her new school, and was jabbering a mile a minute about outfits, binders, and iPhone covers with jewels on them that Grandma Mazur had bought the girls. We made it into our apartment, and started going through the multitude of bags filled with supplies for school.

While we were discussing the different classes she would have, Julie got really quiet, and looked like she had something important to say. I looked up at her, and she bit her lip, and looked down.

My normally chatty girl just clammed up, and looked really uncertain of herself, which made me extremely she having second thoughts? She was fine a minute ago, does she want to go back to Florida? A few minutes after becoming so quiet, I took her hands in mine, and asked her

"What is wrong, Jules? You are never this quiet. Are you getting nervous now that school starts next week? I promise sweetie, you will love your new school, and meet lots of new friends."

She finally looked up at me, and with uncertainty in her eyes, and said

"Steph… I have been here a few weeks, and have had the best time I have ever had. Nobody has ever made me feel like I was worth any time. I know you didn't give birth to me, but you are the only real Mom I have ever known. I was never good enough for Rachel, I was just a check that she got from Ranger, so she kept me around. Would it be okay if I called you Mama? I start my new school, and I don't want to have to explain my real Mom didn't want me. I really just want to forget that part of my life existed, and you to be my Mama forever. Would you care?"

I'm pretty sure my heart exploded. I didn't even try to hold back the tears that fell. I immediately pulled her to me, and told her

"It would be an absolute honor to be your Mama, Jules. I have thought of you as my daughter from day 1, and you don't even have to ask. This is probably the best moment of my life."

We sat on the couch holding on to each other for the longest time before I remembered the visit this morning with Tank, and call with Aiden. I filled Julie in on Ranger coming home in the next few days, and him still not knowing about the situation, and we would wait to tell him in person.

I also told her about her name change being final, so she can start school as a Manoso. After what had proven to be an extremely emotional day for the both of us, we put away her school items, and made plans to get up early to go to her new school to get her locker combination, tour the school, and finish up her paperwork now that her name has been changed.

Ella brought us dinner, and we sat on the couch eating, and talking about before bed, my cellphone rang with the RangeMan realtor telling me that she had a few houses in our budget, and the area we wanted (NOT the Burg!) and if we wanted, she could show them tomorrow after we get finished at the school.

I had finally saved up enough money where I had no rent to pay, or car payment, so I could put a decent down payment on a house for us to buy. I wanted to try to find a house, and get moved in at least during her fall break in October, so we could be settled in the new house before our first Christmas together. I wanted to go all out with lights on the house, decorations everywhere, a huge tree…. it's hard to do that in a two bedroom apartment inside a security fortress. I want our house to be safe, and RangeMan protected, but it wouldn't be fair to Julie to live here forever knowing she couldn't bring anyone over, because this is a place of business, not a child care center. I don't want us to be the cause of work not getting done around here.

I thanked her, ended the call, and Julie, and I danced around the living room to imaginary music just being excited for what is to come. We finally headed to bed with smiles on our faces, excited about the possibility of seeing our new home tomorrow. With the exception of my nerves to tell Ranger what was going on, and my fear of his reaction, I was feeling pretty damn good about the new direction my life had taken.

*A/N: This was just a fluffy little transition chapter to get us ready for Ranger's return (yulp!), Julie starting school, and finding the new house.I promise I won't leave you hanging for Ranger's return for long ;) Keep the reviews and suggestions coming, I love reading them and take them all into consideration each chapter.

xoxo-Brit