See prologue for disclaimer. I adore feedback!

Chapter 13

I leaned against my closed bedroom door and took a deep steadying breath. It had taken every ounce of will-power I possessed to walk away from him and I was on the brink of losing my control.

Suddenly, the door I was leaning against was ripped away, and I was falling backward.

I saw a flash of movement and I gasped as I landed in Ranger's arms. Good reflexes.

I stared up into his face, so close to mine. Taut lines around his mouth conveyed his annoyance with me for dismissing him. Well get in line, buddy, I was pissed first.

I opened my mouth to let him have it when I realized his arms were wrapped around me, the heat from his touch searing me. His embrace tightened fractionally. As he held my gaze, anger melted into something far more dangerous.

Ranger's eyes were dark and fathomless and I was drowning. He whispered, "Babe."

As if magnetized, our lips found each other. Tongues dueling, lips demanding, the kiss was pure desperation. Ranger shifted me so that I was between him and the wall, his body, all hard planes and angles, pressed against mine. His hands traced up my sides to thread into my hair, drawing me in deeper. I fell into the kiss like I'd fallen into his arms. I was upside down and the world was spinning off its axis. I struggled to remember to breathe. I clung to his shoulders, my only hold on reality.

Abruptly, Ranger released me and stepped back. I sagged down the wall a few inches before my legs remembered to support me. I looked at him, bemused, and drew in panting breaths.

He stared at me and opened and closed his mouth a few times before saying, "I have to go." And then he did.

oooooooooooooooooooooo

The next morning I awoke to the first tendrils of dawn creeping over my windowsill. I had slept like utter crap.

I wasn't sure how long I'd stood there against my wall after the mind-blowing kiss, but when sanity returned, I'd realized that Ranger had gone. He'd just kissed the shit out of me, did a passable fish impression and then walked out. I had no idea what was going on inside his head.

Still tingly, I'd put myself to bed. My raging hormones had made for a long night of tossing and turning.

I dragged my butt out of bed. It was way too early to be awake on a Saturday, but I didn't want to stew in my thoughts any longer. All night my head was spinning. What had that kiss meant? Was Ranger available? Was his thing with Miss Puffy Lips just casual? Should I be interested in him after these long months of indifference? Was he only interested now because I was moving on? Why had he left? The only thing I knew for sure was that Ranger was hardly immune to me physically. I'd felt the evidence last night. He wanted me still. I just wasn't sure what that meant.

After a long, hot shower, I set out to Tasty Pastry for a yummy breakfast treat. While I was waiting at the counter, my cell phone rang.

"Hello," I answered.

"Hi, Stephanie?"

"Yes."

"Hi, this is Hal."

"Oh, hey Hal."

"Um, Stephanie, I was wondering if you had any plans for today." He sounded nervous. How sweet!

"I'm all yours Hal."

"Oh, good," he breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought maybe we could go to Six Flags today and hang out."

"That sounds like fun. I'm out right now, but I can be ready by 9:30"

"Okay, I'll pick you up then. Bye."

"Bye, Hal."

I smiled to myself as I shook my head. For such a big guy, Hal was shy. Or maybe he was worried I'd stun him if things didn't go well.

I got my donuts and hurried back to my apartment. I loved amusement parks, so this sounded like a great way to spend the day, especially since I was nervous about spending the day with Hal.

I got dressed in a cute pair of jean shorts and red halter-style tank top. I bathed in sunscreen and put on my most comfy sneakers. I pulled my hair back in a pony tail and put on minimal, melt proof make-up. Not bad. At least you couldn't see dark circles under my eyes.

Promptly at 9:30, there was a knock on my door. I was ready to go, essentials in my pockets, other stuff in a bag I could leave locked in the car. I like to travel light in these kinds of situations. I greeted Hal with a brilliant smile, "Hi, Hal."

"Hi, Stephanie," he answered with a grin.

Hal was just shy of Tank's size, at 6'3" and was almost as wide. He had such a huge, imposing façade and a soft interior, he was a walking oxymoron. Initially I'd also thought that he was just a moron, period. I mean, he let me stun him, with his own stun gun, but in reality he was just a little gullible and a big teddy bear. I found out that he graduated from college with a degree in History. Go figure.

His hair was in the typical buzz cut, I guess it would have been brown if it was long enough to see, and he was dressed in a dark green t-shirt that stretched over his heavily muscled chest and tanned biceps and he had on dark blue jeans. He wore a stony expression most of the time, but when he laughed, he lit up. He had a great laugh, he laughed with his whole body.

We drove the 45 minutes to the park in Hal's Jeep with his top down and I enjoyed the slightly smoggy breeze ruffling my hair. Hal entertained me with the office dirt since he was the worst of the RangeMan gossips. He wasn't the guy you went to if you wanted to confide a secret. But, if you wanted the scoop, he was perfect. On the drive over, he filled me in on what I'd missed at work over the past two days, letting me know that Ranger had been out of the office (which I already knew). He also filled me in on the dating report card so far this week. Seems like the guys were doing a little analysis after they had their dates with me. I started to get miffed, when Hal said, "Don't worry, there's a 'No Kiss 'n Tell' policy. But they all seem over-the-moon about you."

I smiled, they were great guys. Too bad I couldn't have them all.

It turned out that Hal was a thrill seeker and a big fan of roller coasters. That suited me fine. I'd enjoyed them all my life, except that time at Point Pleasant when I tossed my cookies after the Tilt-A-Whirl. Since, then I avoided the tilting, whirling, spinning rides.

We got there pretty early, so we decided to hit the most popular rides first. I liked to have a plan when I came to amusement parks, a strategy. Sad, I know, that I put more thought into a day at the park than how to take down a skip. It was like with shopping, I had a specific target and I had plan and I executed it. Hal and I were like minded in this and we both agreed to head straight for the new coaster, El Toro. Then we hit the other major rides around it and moved over to the other side of the park to ride those rides.

I smiled as we stood in line for the Batman roller coaster. I think I've been on this ride before. Oh, no, that's my life, the Batman emotional roller coaster.

After several hours of thrills and chills and a little whiplash, we took a break and settled down for a late lunch. We both got pizza and a beer and sat at a small table in the cafeteria. He looked over at me, unspeaking.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Um. Oh… well… I was just thinking that I was having a really good time today."

"You sound surprised."

"No, not at all. I'm not surprised, I was just really worried about today. I didn't know how it would go. You see, I'm kinda the reason that this whole thing started."

Oh really? Now this was interesting. "Lester mentioned that one person had suggested that he wanted to go out with me first, was it you?"

"Yeah," he said sheepishly. "The guys were all giving me a hard time at dinner one night because I hadn't been on a date for a long time. And you know them, they're great guys, but when they get started they can be brutal. You should have heard the shit I took when you stunned me. For weeks, every time I walked by they'd ask to see my stun gun. Whenever we went out in the field Lester would say, 'Now if the bad guy asks to see your weapon, don't give it to them.' The footage of me getting stunned would be looped through random video feeds that I was monitoring. I think either Vince or Woody was behind that. Ranger was the worst though. He had me cleaning the stairwell floor with a toothbrush and I was on the graveyard shift and weekends for three months. As it is, I'm still not cleared to be your backup unless I'm part of a team."

I was grimacing, poor Hal. "Jeez, Hal. I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble. I've always felt bad about that, but now I feel horrible. Is there anything I can do?"

Hal shook his head, "No, Stephanie. I'm not mad at you. It was my dumb fault. I shouldn't have fallen for your charms." He gave me a wink.

"So you were saying…"

"Oh, yeah, anyway, the guys were giving me a hard time about not dating and I told them I was waiting 'til you were available to ask you out. Really I made that up." He hurried to say, "Not that I don't want to date you or anything. The truth is that I don't have very much luck with women. I think it's my size. I scare 'em off. So, I just said I wanted to ask you out, as a joke. I figured they'd poke fun at me for it and then it would go away, since I never figured you'd say yes, even if I did ask. Then of course all hell broke loose, because Lester said he was gonna ask you out and Vince said he wanted to, and so on and that's when we made the deal." He heaved a huge sigh after he finished his confession.

"I'm really glad that you did ask me out. I'm having a great time. But, Hal, I'd been available for months. This week is the first time I've dated anyone for a long time."

"Yeah, but I wasn't sure, really none of the guys were sure what was gonna happen with Ranger and we didn't want to encroach on his territory."

"Well, I was never really Ranger's."

Hal just gave me a look and said "Get real, Stephanie. I had to clean seven flights of stairs with a toothbrush. It may never have been official, but it was clearly implied."

Maybe. That is until I was single and he lost all interest. "So what made you decide I was available now?"

Hal had a confused wrinkle in his brow. "Well, you know, we figured you and Ranger were done for good now that Ranger's married."