Chapter 10

At the end of the evening, I doubt Joe or I were any more comfortable with our new situations. I still felt awkward around Anna, despite Lester's attempt at humor all evening. Ranger noticed the tension but seemed to be determined to leave it alone. I caught him looking at me a couple of times while I was holding Connor, who woke up and joined the little party right before his parents were ready to leave.

We were both silent as we climbed the stairs. I could feel that Ranger was tense, but didn't know if talking to him would make it better or worse. Once in our room, I changed into a sleep shirt, one of his tee shirts, and climbed into bed. Ranger took a shower and came out of the bathroom wrapped only in a towel.

"You want to talk about?" he offered as if I knew what he meant.

"Depends on what you mean?" I wasn't sure I wanted to go where I thought he was headed..

"Stephanie, if you want Joe and Anna to be part of our lives, you have to relax a little. You were so nervous about them seeing our room. It was almost as if you didn't want Joe to know we sleep together. Well, news flash, so do he and Anna. They have a baby together."

Okay, so he insisted on taking us here. First name indicates irritation.

"Ric, I know you can't understand why I was feeling awkward, but just accept that I was. It has nothing to do with you, everything to do with me. I'm trying to adjust. I didn't think anything that Morelli did would matter to me anymore, but it does. I care about him. I want us to be friends, but so much as happened so fast. It's going to take more time to move past the awkward stage."

Ranger grimaced. He seemed to have more to say, but thought the better of it. "All right, I'll try to be more understanding, but you need to understand that Anna has been a part of my life for a long time and I don't plan on shutting her out of it now."

I attempted to swallow down my growing irritation, but simply couldn't. "Yeah, I understand that she's had a crush on you for years. I understand that she still looks up to you as a role model. I also understand that tonight she couldn't keep her eyes off you."

"Jealous, Babe?" Ranger interrupted. "Or are you uncomfortable in your new role?"

I hated it when he was right before I even understood what the issue was. Maybe I was still unsettled. It was one thing for Ric and I to be together alone, but it was something else to present ourselves as a couple to the public. We had not been out in public too many times in the last several months. We seemed to keep to ourselves, to keep everything private. The idea of having to present ourselves to my family and friends as a couple was both exciting and frightening.

"Why are you acting like this, Babe? It's not you." Ranger climbed onto the bed, still wrapped only in the towel. His hair was damp and there were drops of water from his shower resting in the curve of his collarbone. He was irresistible wet and he knew it. Once he moved in closer to me, all conscious thought took a backseat. I simply let out a moan as his body moved over mine. I tried to kick the blankets away, but found I was tangled.

"I can help you with that," he whispered against my lips.

I caught his mouth as it hovered over mine. "Please," I whispered against him.

He moved over me, pushing away the blankets and finding my shirt hem. "There's nothing wrong with what we feel for each other, Babe. There's nothing wrong with the fact that we don't and won't have a traditional relationship. You're fighting something that you don't need to fight. I can help you make it all make sense."

Yeah, he could help everything make sense if he would just keep doing what he was doing right now. The thing is that Ranger and I were more than the sex. We were also connected on a many levels, something that I know I didn't have with Joe. I couldn't believe that I would even worry about Joe's reaction to my relationship with Ric, after all it is what I wanted.

The alarm woke me up. Ric managed to get up the same time most days. Not me, no way. I rebelled often and managed to skip the running at dawn ritual. The little voice in my head told me today was one of those skip days. The thing is that Ric got out of bed and changed without even attempting to get me to go along. That was not a good sign. I raised my head off the pillow to see what he was doing.

"You going running?" I asked, noting that he was sitting down by the balcony doors.

"Eventually, yeah." He gave nothing away with his tone.

"Ric, is something wrong?" Our room was still dark and I couldn't read his expression.

"No, Steph, why would anything be wrong." His tone was now clipped and almost cold.

I sat up in bed and switched on the light on my side. He was now leaning back in the chair, staring at me, his face a mask to his emotions.

"All right, what did I do? You're obviously upset with me," I tried to contain my irritation, but I've never been any good at it.

He didn't answer right away, but I knew he would have something to say.

"Babe," he began, "You trust me, don't you?"

Okay, now the use of the nickname was a plus, but the question was of great concern.

"Of course I do. Why would you even ask that?"

He came over to the bed. "You seemed to be concerned that Anna has some kind of design on me despite the fact that she's married to Morelli and the mother of his son. I started wondering if you thought you couldn't trust me around other women."

I wasn't sure why I didn't answer right away. I trusted him, but I had also seen him use his incredible attraction for his own purposes. I did wonder, every once in a while, if he would continue to do that once we were a couple.

"I do trust you," I explained. "You know you're attractive and that there are women who walk into walls ogling you. It's something you seemed to have learned to deal with, but it might just take me longer to adjust."

He moved over to kiss me. "The only woman I care about is you. I haven't seen, really seen another woman for quite a while. Every one that I see would be mentally compared to you and found lacking somehow. I set out to ruin you for other men, but the fact is you've ruined me for other women."

Wow, that was an incredibly powerful admission. I didn't know how to respond. My first action was to kiss him.

I caught my breath. "Thank you for that," I whispered against his cheek. "I'm sorry that I'm so difficult to live with. I knew we'd have to adjust and I honestly thought we had."

He held my hands in his. "We both have made adjustments to our lives for each other. It's all done in the name of commitment. Babe, I don't think you're difficult to live with, but I know that you'd be difficult to live without."

He left for his run and I was left to think about the things he said. I knew from Tank and a couple of the guys that Ranger made some major changes to his businesses in order to have more time with me and his daughter. He never pressured me into anything. Even the house was an option that I had to agree to. The whole relationship was nothing like the ones I had before. Ranger wasn't Joe. I had to stop making comparisons.

We left for the office. I ran some of the searches that had piled up over the past couple of days. Ranger spent the day in his office, door closed. I didn't see or hear from him until lunch time. He dropped by my cubicle to let me know that he had a meeting to attend, but that he would be back in time to drive me home. He'd miss lunch, but I could easily mooch off my mother.

"I'm headed to my parents house. There's a few things I need to catch up on."

His kissed me goodbye, but not before adding, "Invite your family to dinner. We need to have them over to see the finished house."

I muttered that I would think about it, but I knew that the invitation was long past due. I grabbed my bag, took my gun out of the desk where I put it this morning, checked to make sure I had a set of keys. Nope, nothing there.

"Tank, I need a car. I left mine home. Got anything available?"

A set of keys flew across the room. "Take my truck, but bring it back in one piece."

I got to my parents' house in record time and was met at the door by Grandma Mazur.

"Heard Joe and family visited you last night. Even your mother and father haven't seen your new place. What's up?"

Grandma was one of my favorite people. She supported me when my mother wanted me married off to Morelli. She was an ally in my relationship with Ranger.

"Lester is Anna's brother. He was over at the house last night when she wanted to visit. Anyway, Ranger and I thought we would have a nice family dinner this Friday, instead of mom's having to cook." The words left my mouth without having visited my brain. God, I hoped that Lupe or Ella could manage dinner for a dozen on short notice. I hoped that Ranger would even be home then.

"Dandy," Grandma exclaimed. "Can't wait to see your bedroom. Bet you have all the latest gadgets."

I grimaced. Grandma in our bedroom was not something I wanted to see. "Grandma, I don't need the gadgets; I've got the guy."

"You're such a pip, Stephanie. Yes, you got the right one this time. Some package on that one, I'd say. Even your father approves of your choice."

Daddy approved! That statement made me glow. Of course, my mother's next words could easier change that.

"Stephanie, so nice of you to join us for lunch. I heard you got to hold little Connor. Imagine, that could have been your baby, sweetheart. I just bet he is a precious thing."

Thanks mom, I thought. Now she was going to go on her tirade about grandchildren. Never mind that Valerie had already given her three. No, that wasn't enough. I had to pay the price as well.

"Mom, if and when I decide to have a baby, you'll be the second, maybe third to know. How's that?"

My mother muttered something we weren't meant to hear anyway and proceeded to set out lunch. The conversation continued as we munched our way through cold cuts and pasta salad. I took the slice of cake she offered to go. The length of my patience with family was generally limited to one meal time per day.

"Your grandmother mentioned that you and Ranger were having a dinner party at your new house. Why didn't you say anything during lunch?" my mother asked as she walked me to the door.

"Oh, yeah, um, well I need to finalize all the arrangements, but I was thinking that it might be nice to have dinner at our place Friday night. You'd actually not have to cook for a change."

My mother actually smiled. "I'd love that dear. Thank you."

The deed was done now. The next step was to pay the piper and tell Ranger what I had done.