Building
Chapter 6
Lula and I went out to the truck. I stood there looking around the truck, not noticing anything wrong. Finally, I got down on the ground to look underneath. I heard some noise as I pulled myself from under the truck. My guess was Lester had shown up.
"Stephanie, get out of there," he shouted.
I pulled myself up with his help and turned to face Joe Morelli.
"Okay, Steph, I'm sure you have a good explanation for what you were doing under the truck," he laughed.
"Aren't you supposed to be home with your family?" My response was clipped. For some reason it still annoyed me to think of Joe as a family man.
"Anna sent me out for supplies. She and Connor are napping," Joe explained. His new family had only been home for a day.
Lester climbed under the truck and took a look at the device.
Joe noticed what he was doing. "Is that a Rangeman tracker?"
Lester sighed. "No such luck, man. Someone plugged the truck while Bombshell was eating. The question is who's after her now. Ranger's going to be pissed."
My ears perked up. "Nothing says you have to tell him right now, Lester. We don't know anything and there's no reason to bother him with it now." My life was quickly becoming complicated.
"Steph, he's going to find out," Lester complained. Ranger could be difficult if you didn't follow instructions. All the men at Rangeman had a primary instruction to keep me safe.
"I'll tell him tonight when he calls. I promise," I explained, fingers crossed behind my back.
Lester didn't appear to be buying it, but shook his head anyway. "I'll explain to Tank. You take my truck and this one will be dropped off for further inspection.
Lula and I climbed into his truck after we exchanged keys. Now more than before, I needed to clear my mind. I thought that while Lula was a great resource, Mary Lou would probably be better for these problems.
"Can I drop you back at the office? I don't think I'll be able to help today. I have to go see Mary Lou."
"Sure thing, I can handle these files," Lula sniffed. Maybe I hurt her feelings.
"Listen, Ranger and I are having a housewarming party soon. You will come, right?"
"Damn girl, you know I'll be there," Lula brightened.
I left the office and headed toward Mary Lou's house. For some reason, I passed Joe's place. He was home now. I left tears well in my eyes as I headed toward Mary Lou's place.
She answered the door, carrying one kid on her hip. "Hi there, how's it going? Ranger out of town." The only time she seemed to see me was when Ranger was away.
"Mare, I need to talk to someone. Can you spare some time?"
My face must have spelled it out for her. "Let me get a sitter and we can go out," she offered.
"I'll pay for the sitter. I want to go back to Ranger's house." I was supposed to call it 'our' house, but I still had trouble with saying it out loud.
Mary Lou managed to get one of her neighbors to agree to watch the kids. We piled into the truck and I headed back to the house. Mary Lou had never seen the place. No one had really, other than Anna and Joe. It wasn't really just the matter of security. It was that Ranger and I spent all our time alone.
I heard Mare's breath catch when she first saw the house.
"I know, it's overkill, but we loved it," I explained. "Mary Lou, you know you can't tell anyone where we live, right?"
"Oh yeah, no problem," she sighed. "This place is huge by Burg standards."
We parked out front of the house, not bothering with the garage. I noticed that another Rangeman vehicle was now in front of the garage apartment. We weren't going to be alone.
The alarm was still set. I disarmed it and entered the house, dropping my purse on the couch, where I found it this morning.
"Jesus, Stephanie, this is a show place." Mary Lou's eyes were taking in every little detail. She walked over to the fireplace mantel and picked up a couple of pictures. One was of Ranger and I at a party and the other was of us at the Rangeman office.
"Oh boy, you two make a great looking couple," she said, putting the pictures back. "Please tell me that you will give me the full tour before we start talking.
I agreed to walk her through every room. She was nearly speechless when we got to the master bedroom. Lupe had made the bed and picked up. I had to admit that the room was fantastic.
"Wow, what a love nest."
"Yeah," I laughed, "it is that and more." I showed her the bathroom.
We finished the tour in Ranger's library/office. We sat down to rest. I needed time to work up to what I wanted to talk about.
"Spit it out, Stephanie. I know you. You're what the experts call conflicted. Of course, that's how you've spent most of your life, but that's beside the point." Leave it to Mary Lou to cut to the chase.
"I don't know where to begin," I started, only to be interrupted by Lupe.
"Miss Stephanie, can I bring you some refreshments?"
"Yes, that would be great."
Lupe left the door open as she found it. She should have been the only other person in the house anyway. The security measures in place were active. I knew that there was a chance that whoever was in the garage apartment was monitoring the house, but the monitors did not include any audio relays. There was a camera in the office, near Ranger's desk. I involuntarily looked over at it.
"Go on," Mare prodded.
"One minute I'm all set to marry Ranger and the next minute I'm not sure it's necessary. One minute I want kids, the next no way. I'm worried about being fair to Ric, but I'm also worried about trying to become something I can't handle. Now, someone followed me and put a tracker on my truck. What kind of life it that for a family?"
Mary Lou actually smiled. "Steph, that's the life you've lived for the past three years."
I blinked. Was it? Has nothing changed when everything changed?
She continued. "You're out of sorts because of Joe and Anna. Out of the blue, he's married with a kid. You start thinking maybe this is some sort of competition. Ranger would go along with whatever you want because he loves more than his own life." She stopped to gage my reaction.
I was just staring at her. How in the world had she taken all the things that I had been feeling and sorted them out into a few sentences. I couldn't have done it. "Oh my God, Mary Lou, you're right. What do I do?"
She smiled innocently. "So you love the guy, right?"
"Yes," I stated simply. That wasn't subject to debate, internally or externally.
"I know he loves you. Look at what he's willing to put up with. Do either of you really want to be married?"
"I don't know. When we first talked about it, I was pretty sure that I wanted it more than I ever wanted it before. Ric and I are more than Dickie and I had ever been, even more than Morelli and I. I would do anything he wanted. I trust him, Mare. I feel things that I never felt before."
"Maybe that's your answer, Steph."
"Yeah, but then I switch back to asking myself is it really necessary. I mean, if we did have kids, I'd want us to be married, but what if I shouldn't have kids ever. I mean, look at me. I'm not the domestic type. I don't cook. I'd prefer not to clean. I'm selfish. That's not mother material."
Mary Lou laughed. "None of us start out that way, but we get there eventually. I didn't really want three kids at first. After the first one, I adjusted to the idea that I was now responsible for someone other than myself. I tell you, Steph, the pros outway the cons."
I just shook my head. "Mare, what about my feelings toward Morelli. I teared up when I saw his house on the way to yours. What's wrong with me?"
I saw her eyes soften. "Honey, you're just reacting to all that's happened. You love Joe, but not in the way you love Ranger. Joe will always be a part of your life and you in his. Anna's accepted that and I think that Ranger has as well. You've got to stop fighting it. He's got Connor now and he's happy. I know you're happy for him too."
I smiled at her. "I am happy for him. The baby is so cute. I guess I realized that it's really over for us. Seeing him and Anna with Connor brought it all home that this chapter of my life is closed. There can never be any 'going back to Morelli', not that I planned on it, but I don't know, maybe I wanted him to miss me, you know."
Mary Lou actually laughed at that one. "Jesus, Steph, you are so one way. Yeah, okay, you wanted Joe to pine away for lack of love, but it didn't happen. He found his future and you found yours. Get over it. You know there's a lot of women who would love to be in your place right now."
Okay, my turn to laugh. "Don't remind me. Joyce Barnhart threatened Ranger with that yesterday. I have to get used to the fact that every woman who sees Ric falls for him."
"Not every woman, I didn't. I saw right away that he only has eyes for you, girlfriend."
"I hope you're right, because right now he's in Florida with his ex-wife and daughter. Gina gave him Elena and there's always going to be that connection, but I have heard she's a knock out...I guess I'm jealous. He told Gina that we're engaged. She didn't take it well."
"Oh my God, you're engaged. Why didn't you tell me right away?"
I chuckled. "I forgot?"
"Shit, Steph. That's not an 'I forgot' kind of thing. We need to celebrate."
As if on cue, Lupe arrived with our refreshments. She actually prepared mimosas.
"Perfect," I told her, handing a glass to Mary Lou.
"To Ric and Stephanie, lots of love and happiness," Mary Lou gushed as we clinked glasses.
We had barely started drinking when the front door opened and I heard a familiar voice.
"Stephanie, I need to talk to you," Lester started, acknowledging Mary Lou with a wink.
"What's up?"
"We managed to remove the tracking device. It was a piece of shit, so that wasn't the problem," Lester offered, "but there was some news through the snitch network that got Tank riled up. One of Ranger's past apprehensions just got of jail yesterday. Turns out he vowed to get even with Ranger. He was last seen buying a bus pass to Trenton."
"And this is important to me why?" I was trying to play down the fear gnawing at me.
"It's important because the crazy blames Ranger for his girlfriend's death. Ranger wasn't the reason she died, but it happened during a shootout."
My face must have paled. "Steph, are you all right?" I heard Mary Lou ask.
"Of course, I'm fine. Look, you have no idea who put that device there. It could have been any number of crazies I have dealt with. It doesn't have to be the one out for revenge against Ranger."
Lester smirked. "Keep telling yourself that, Bombshell."