If you recognize them, they aren't mine. JE gets the credit.

Big thanks to Margaret for the beta. :)

And thank you for reading along and reviewing. Much appreciated :) This is just a nice little segue chapter in a Steph POV before things start to get crazy in Trenton. And they will :)

Chapter 20—Wedding Wariness

Steph's POV

Our three days in paradise went by quickly. More often then not I was naked and satiated or wearing my bikini for dips in the ocean…in between being naked and satiated. Most of the clothes I'd brought with me were left untouched. My oxytocin level must have been at an all time high because I felt invincible; kind of like Wonder Woman on vacation. And whenever I thought I was 'all comed out', Carlos would kiss me or touch me and I'd be coming again. My happy place found a new happy place.

Unfortunately it was back to reality as we had a flight out of Sarasota-Bradenton in an hour. Trenton, crazies and Jason Williams would be waiting. I could deal with the crazies and I could even deal with my family and the rest of the Burg, it was Jace that was giving me the heebie jeebies. And I didn't know why.

I took out my phone and called Lester on a whim.

"Beautiful? Is everything ok?" he responded instead of hello. I guessed the call worried him.

"Everything is fine Les. Carlos and I are at the airport waiting for our flight to be called. I was wondering…wasn't today Jason Williams first day?"

"Yeah?"

"Did it go ok? Is it going ok?"

"What do you mean? I spent the morning with him on the gun range. He qualified and he says he hasn't picked up a gun since the army. He's a natural. He's in the gym with Ram right now; were you looking for him?"

Quite the opposite. "No. I just wondered how it went. You know, how all of you guys felt about him."

"He's a good hire. Hector's ecstatic. We feel fine. What's up Stephanie? You usually don't ask all these questions about the new men."

"Ok," I said, getting up and moving away from Carlos so he wouldn't hear my confession. "This is the thing. Every time I think about him I get antsy. It's not like I don't think he's a good guy. I do. I just don't know what it is and I was hoping someone else picked up on something. Anything. Carlos' felt the 'zing' when he shook hands with him, but only when I was around. What does that mean?"

"I don't know Steph but I don't think your habit of over-thinking things is helping any. Come home. Get to know him. You may even find that you like him. He's not a bad guy and he has a great sense of humor. He had me almost pissing on the floor this morning."

"Ok Les. Well I guess I'll see you in a few hours. We should be home by three. Do you know who's picking us up at the airport?"

"Sal and Vince dropped the Porsche off at short term parking about an hour ago. Looks like you're driving yourselves home."

Good to know. At least if I had a meltdown over working with Jace, no one would know but Carlos.

I was about to say goodbye to Les, when he asked me a question. "Don't you have something else you want to tell me?"

Did he know we set a date? Was Ella blabbing? "Like what Les?"

"Like how your vacation was."

"Oh it was great. Very relaxing. And Carlos and I decided on a date for our wedding. July 26th."

"And you weren't going to tell me?"

"Les! I'm freaking out about it. Not that I don't want to marry him. I do. I don't know. It's so soon."

"Beautiful, you've been engaged for over a year. Usually people who get engaged get married."

"Yeah I know." Normal people anyway. "And I'm sure I'll be fine when I get used to the idea. I guess I'm going to have to find a dress. And I hope Lula will be back by then. I'd like her to be one of my bride's maids. Well, her and Connie. And I can't forget Mary Lou and Val. See this is why I hate this shit. There's too much to think about."

"Just take it slow. One step at a time and you'll be fine. You have five weeks. I'll go shopping with you if you want."

"Thanks Les but I'm sure you just want to zip up my dresses so you can catch a glimpse of my underwear."

"Can't stop a man from trying," he said as I walked back towards Carlos, wondering if they'd called our flight yet.

People were starting to line up in front of the gate; I guessed we were boarding.

"Les, I gotta go, our plane's here. I'll see you in a few hours?"

"Come find me Beautiful. I'll be around."

Carlos walked up to me and put his arm around me. "I was going to look for you in the ladies room in about two minutes. This is why I hate flying commercial. You ok?"

"Sorry. I was talking to Les. I told him about the 26th."

"And?"

"He said he'd go dress shopping with me."

"I'll kill him."

"Leave him alone Carlos. He doesn't mean any harm. He's happy for us."

I didn't remember much of the flight or our drive back to Rangeman. I fell in and out of sleep. I was awake for the landing, the baggage claim and the walk to our car. Everything else was a blur. And since we circled the airport for forty-five minutes, we were late getting back to Trenton anyway.

I never called Les; we'd landed after four and he was going off duty at five. I'd see him in the morning and we'd catch up then. We parked in Carlos' spot and he grabbed both bags. I pushed the button for the elevator and was surprised when the car opened for us seconds later and Les stuck his head out.

"Binkie said the Porsche was on the move so I waited for you," he said to me after fist-bumping Carlos.

"Want to meet Jace's wife Tasha? They only have one car so she came to pick him up and right now they're in Bobby's office getting reacquainted."

"Reqaquainted? They knew each other?"

"Tasha is Bobby's cousin. Come on, you'll like her, she's very pretty."

Since when did I care if a woman was pretty or not? Well if they were making eyes at my man I'd care, but otherwise no. It was probably more like Les wanted to see her again.

I was going to have to deal with Jace tomorrow anyway, so why not meet his wife and say hi? So I nodded my ok to Les, we got into the elevator and I hit five… pretty good for someone who was freaking out three hours ago.

I felt like I'd interrupted something private. Bobby had tears in his eyes and so did the woman he was hugging. Obviously that was Tasha, his cousin. They broke apart when Les knocked on the door. Jace looked up, smiled at Carlos and I and came over to say hello.

"So I hear we're going to be working together on some secret project," he said after we shook hands. Minor zing. "Come…meet my wife. Tasha, this is Stephanie Plum; Steph, Tasha Williams."

Tasha broke apart from Bobby to say hi to me and shake my hand. Les was right; she was very pretty, even with tears in her eyes. She had longer than shoulder-length black hair, obviously straightened, and the high cheekbones and flawless skin that made her look like a model.

"It's so nice to meet you, Steph," she said with a genuine smile. "Bobby told me that you live in the building with Ranger. Hi Ranger, nice to meet you too," she added, reaching over to shake Carlos' hand.

Ok, I liked her, even if her husband did creep me out.

"Yeah, we live on seven with our hamster Rex," I told her smiling back. I guess the hamster part made her smile wider.

"I had a pair of hamsters when I was growing up. Their names were Sam and Dave, after, well, Sam and Dave. We thought they were both boy hamsters until we woke up one morning to eight babies."

"What did you do with the babies?"

"We called the pet store and they told us we needed to separate them from the male or he'd eat them and when my mother, sister and I got back to the cage, Dave had already eaten a couple of them. We quickly got him out before he had a chance at any more and put him in a shoebox. That's when Sam became Samantha. We couldn't tell the babies apart, so we named them A, B, C, D, E & F."

"What happened to them, did you raise them?"

"Well here's the sad part. The mother nurses them for the first two weeks and if anyone picks up or touches the babies the mom may not have anything to do with them…or she might eat them too. We didn't know this right away and my sister picked up a couple of them when they first opened their eyes; next morning we only had A, B, C and D. We assumed Sam ate them. We called the pet store, were given the story and told not to touch them again, so we didn't. Next morning we only had A & B and called the pet store again. They told us Sam probably smelled human on them and asked if we saw her nursing the remaining two. We didn't. The last two babies died from lack of thriving even though we pulled them out of the cage and tried to feed them with a doll bottle. It was so sad. Can I meet Rex?"

How could I say no to that. "Sure, want to meet him now? He stays with the guys in the control room when we go away so he's probably right down the hall."

Her eye lit up like saucers. "Yes," she said and I led her down the hall. Binkie and Ramon were on duty, so after introductions to the humans, I introduced her to Rex. I took him out of his cage and after kissing him hello I let her hold him.

"He may bite. He doesn't really like to be held for very long and his teeth are razor sharp. He's bit bad guys before. He's kind of my secret weapon."

"Hi Rex," she said, petting him before adding, "I don't want to get bit. It was nice to pet you and feel your soft fur. You brought back memories."

She handed him back to me. Taking Rex from Tasha before putting him back into his habitat, I asked, "Did you keep Sam and Dave after the cannibalism thing?"

"Yeah, but they each had to live in their own cage. I think they were lonely; they just stared at each other through the bars. Poor little things, although they lived to a ripe old age of five."

"Rex is four now. I hope he lives to a ripe old age too. I worry about him all the time."

"Would you get another if anything happened to him?"

"I don't think so. There can only be one Rex, the Wonder Hamster."

She laughed. I guess she didn't realize I was serious.

I took her back to Bobby's office and then Carlos and I said goodnight to everyone. We had some phone calls to make since the only ones who knew about the 26th were Ella and Les. Talk about stress.

I called Mary Lou and Connie first since I wanted them in my wedding party. They were both happy for me and had no plans for the day. Lula hadn't been answering calls but I thought that was just a precautionary measure because of Tank, so I tried her anyway. She answered on the second ring.

"What's this I hear about you and Mr. tall, dark and handsome?"

I guessed Carlos had already told Tank.

"We set a date. July 26th. I'd like you to be in my wedding party."

"Well it's not like I made any plans being we're just sitting around on this island," she said before adding."I'd love to white girl, thanks for thinking of me. Who you got going with you to look at dresses?"

Right now I had Lester. "No one really. Les volunteered, but I'm not so sure about that."

"Hmmph. Hector probably has better taste. Tankie says we should be home by next week if everything goes as planned. If you wait for me, I can go with you. Connie would probably want to come too."

"Thank you. Maybe Mare and I can look this weekend and then I'll bring you and Connie to either yay or nay anything we come up with."

"Ok. Seeing that I'm not there with you now, Mary Lou seems like a good second. I usually like her taste in clothes."

Yeah the both of them were a little over the top. I said my goodbyes to Lula and then called my parents. My mother answered on the second ring.

"Plum residence." I guessed she was feeling formal this week.

"Hi mom. It's Steph."

"Hi. Welcome back. Did you have a nice time in Florida?"

"We did. We went to a resort in Siesta Key and finally set a date for our wedding. July 26th."

"That's very soon Stephanie. How do you expect me to pull a wedding together without advance notice? I'm not sure if the Knights of Columbus can..."

"Mother! We spoke about this. Carlos and I told you that we're having the wedding at our house and that's still the plan. Close friends and immediate families. That's it. No hall, no extras; our house in Belmar."

"Are you sure? Mr. Ryan puts together such a nice affair..."

"Mother stop or I'm hanging up."

She stopped. I was able to get in that Ella was doing the catering, I hoped Les' girlfriend Autumn would be able to make the cake and that we were putting a dance floor on top of our pool. She had no retorts. Good. Maybe she was learning. No, that wouldn't happen this easily.

"I'm not so sure about dancing on your pool. That sounds a little unsafe," she said, when she finally spoke again.

"Google it. It's really pretty. I thought the same thing until I saw it."

"I will. And Steph?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interfere. I just want this to be a memorable occasion for you and Carlos."

Really? I didn't trust that, but I'd accept her apology anyway. "That's ok. And it will be."

We hung up on a high note for once and I had just one call left to make. Val.

I wandered towards Carlos' office to see how he was holding up on his end. He was sitting behind his desk laughing. I guessed the Manosos weren't giving him a hard time about 'short notice'. He looked up, saw me standing there and ushered me in. When I was within arms reach he pulled me towards him and sat me on his lap. He began nuzzling my hair as he listened to whoever was talking.

"Ok Daria, I have to go." His sister. "We'll send out formal invitations later in the week but I wanted to let you know in advance so you could keep the date open." "Love you too."

That was a new one. I'd never heard him tell his sister that he loved her before. He must be softening.

I asked him who he'd spoken to and he rattled off about ten names. Ten names in the space of my four. I guess he had a lot less to talk about.

"I just need to call Val and I done for today. In fact I'm done. The rest are family and they can just RSVP to the invitations. They don't need a special call."

"Babe. What about your Grandma Plum?"

"My Aunt Ida will tell her."

"And how is your Aunt Ida going to find out?"

"She plays bingo with Grandma Mazur. See it's all coming together already."

I really did have to call Val though, so I left Carlos in his office and went back to my cell where I left it in the kitchen.

"Stephanie," my sister squealed, "I'm so excited for you." Obviously she'd already heard.

"Val, I'd like you to be one of my bride's maids. Don't worry about not being able to afford a dress. Carlos offered to pay for you, Mare, Connie and Lula. He says it's his treat; dresses, shoes, bags, the whole nine yards." And in my sister's case it really was something like nine yards. She hadn't lost the weight she put on with Lisa. And that was before she had Alexa. Yeah, she was big.

I gave her the date, let her know that all four girls were invited and then I offered to buy dresses for my nieces. Albert and Val had no extra cash; for anything.

Les was right; one step at a time. It really was all coming together and I went to bed all happy. Well Carlos helped with that one, but I'd never expect anything less. The man was amazing.