Thanks for all the wonderful reviews! Here's another chapter; hope you enjoy! Anything familiar belongs to JE. All mistakes are mine.

Chapter 9

Shit! I just pointed a gun to Ranger's head. No, actually I just pointed his gun at his head. Double shit! He was just staring at me with his blank face on. I had a bad feeling that I was going to wake up in Siberia tomorrow. Thankfully I had developed my own blank face while I was gone so I put mine on so he wouldn't know I was scared.

"Babe" he finally said as he reached for me and pulled me into a hug. He now had a mega watt smile on his face. Dang Batman must have missed me. Then he leaned in to kiss me. I backed up quickly.

"Nuh uh, don't even think about kissing me unless you want another gun to your head" I said sounding pissed off. I can't believe he would actually try to kiss me after he rejected me a year ago. Did he really think that just because I was back things would go back to the way they were before I left. No way!

"Babe" Ranger said with his blank face on again.

I decided to ignore him, and I turned to Tank.

"Hey Tank"

"Hey Bombshell. It's good to see you. I'm glad you came back; Lula missed you a lot."

"Thanks Tank. It feels good to be home."

"Babe" Ranger interrupted, "Can we talk?"

"Not right now. I need to get my skip to the police station." I said

"Speaking of that, how is he your skip? Last I checked he was ours" Tank said.

"Vinnie said you guys didn't really want the mid level skips, that you just took them out of pity. I told him I would take care of them. Connie was going to tell Ranger tomorrow when he came to the office. Simpson is the fourth one I've got today, but you can have the other six that are left if you want them. I don't want to step on your toes." I said.

"You already got four of them today?" Tank said, "Good job bombshell."

"They're yours babe. Vinnie's right, we didn't want them in the first place."

"Okay thanks. Well I better get going. I guess I'll see you around." I said

"Babe, I still want to talk to you."

"Okay, I'll give you my number. Maybe we can meet up sometime this week."

I gave Ranger my new number than took Simpson to the police station. I went home and got into bed, but I couldn't sleep. God Ranger looked so good tonight, but I promised myself I was not going down that road again. Ranger and I could be friends but that was it. I was not getting my heart broken by him again.

Ranger's POV

Tank and I were driving back to Haywood. I can't believe my babe had just disarmed me and put my gun to my head. I was proud of her and very turned on. She looked amazing and her body was toned. She had been working out and she had finally gotten some training. I couldn't believe it. She stopped me when I went to kiss her though. Shit! I wondered if she was with someone else. It had been a year, so there was a chance that she had moved on. I wasn't going to give up yet; I still wanted my second chance her.

Stephanie's POV

The next morning I got up, ran, showered, ate breakfast and did some final touches on my house while I waited for my gym equipment to be delivered. After my home gym was set up I decided to go to work. By 2 I had brought it 3 more skips, and then I headed to the bonds office.

"Hey ladies" I said walking into the office. I handed Connie the 3 body receipts from today and Simpsons one from last night.

"Hey Steph. You've been busy. Vinnie will be happy." Connie said and handed me 2 more files. "Here are two new files for you. Give me a minute and I'll get you a check for the receipts."

"Okay thanks" I said.

"So girlfriend, Tank told me he and Ranger saw you last night. How did that go? Tankie wouldn't give me any details." Lula said.

I told them about what happened last night.

"Damn girl, you pointed a gun to Ranger's head and lived to tell about it?" Connie said.

"And how dare you point a gun on my Tankie bear" Lula said.

"I didn't know it was them" I said.

"Uh oh, am I in trouble with Ranger for not telling him I gave you his files?" Connie asked, suddenly looking pale.

"I don't think so. He didn't seem to care" I shrugged.

I sat on the couch and chatted with them. They were catching me up on some of the Burg gossip I had missed when they both stopped talking and I felt a tingle on the back of my neck. The door opened and Ranger walked in.

"Ladies, babe" Ranger said as a greeting. Then walked to Connie and handed her some receipts.

"Thanks Ranger. I'm sorry I didn't call you yesterday when I gave Stephanie those files. I didn't think you would go after them this soon. I was planning on telling you today when you came in." Connie said.

"It's fine Connie. Just send those checks to Rangeman" Ranger said, then turned to me.

"Babe, can I talk to you outside?" Ranger asked.

"Sure, I was about to leave anyways. I'll see you guys tomorrow" I said to Connie and Lula and followed Ranger outside.

I leaned against my car. "What's up Ranger?"

"Nice car babe."

"Thanks, I always loved your Cayenne. Thought I'd get one of my own" I said. "Did you have something to talk to me about?"

"Just wanted to tell you that I'm glad your home babe. I've really missed you." What? Did Ranger just admit he missed me? I was in shock.

"Umm… thanks" I managed to say.

"Can we have dinner tonight?" he asked.

"I can't tonight. I'm cooking dinner for my family at my house. They haven't seen it yet."

"How about tomorrow?"

"Sure, I guess."

"How about my place at 7? I'll have Ella cook for us."

"Okay. It will be good to see Ella and the Merry Men again." I said. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Ranger nodded then walked to his car. I got into mine and went grocery shopping, then went home to get dinner started for my family. I decided to stick with Italian food for my family. I made lasagna, garlic bread, and a salad. My family arrived at 5:45.

"Hey, come on in." I said answering the door.

"Hi pumpkin" my dad said pulling me into a hug. "You look great. It seems some time away from here did you some good."

"Thanks daddy" I said smiling.

I gave them a tour of the house and my dad and grandma had plenty of good things to say about it, but my mom stayed silent. After the tour we sat down for dinner.

"This is delicious baby girl" grandma said.

My dad was silent and shoveling food into his mouth. That means he likes the food.

Finally my mother spoke. "This is really good Stephanie. I'm glad you finally learned to cook. And I like your house. You've done good for yourself." It might not be the best compliment, but I could tell she was trying and that meant a lot.

"Thanks mom."

The rest of the dinner went well. We talked about the past year and my mother managed to not say anything rude or insulting. I promised them I would come over for dinner on Sunday night and then we said our goodbyes and they left.

The next day was Thursday. I spent the morning going after skips then decided to go to Pino's for lunch. I was nervous about being alone with Ranger tonight, so I decided that I needed some happy food for lunch.

I sat at the bar and ordered a meatball sub and a coke. I took the first bite and moaned very loudly. Oh my god it was good.

"Geez cupcake, you might want to tone that down a little or you're going to turn on every man in here." I turned around to see Joe.

"Hey Joe" I said smiling "Sorry it's been a year since I've had Pino's. It tastes amazing!"

"It's good to see you Steph. Can I join you for lunch?"

"Sure, let's move to a table" I said.

We sat down at a table and Joe ordered a sub too. We sat in silence for a minute, and then I decided to just face the awkwardness.

"Look Joe, I'm sorry about what happened between us. You were right; I was in love with Ranger. I never meant to hurt you though. I did love you too. My life was completely screwed up back then. That's why I left town. I needed to figure my life out." I said.

"It's okay Steph, I know you didn't mean to hurt me. I was actually relieved when you left town. It was easier for me to move on, and it looks like it did you some good too. You look amazing cucpcake."

"Thanks Joe. How have you been?"

"Really good actually. I've been dating someone new. Her names Shelly, we've been dating for 8 months. I really like her."

"That's great Joe! I'm glad you're happy."

"I am. I have missed you though cupcake. We always seemed to do better as friends then as a couple."

"I've missed you too" I said.

Joe's food arrived and we sat there and talked for an hour, catching up on each other's lives. I gave him my new number and we promised to keep in touch. That had gone a lot better than I thought. I was afraid Joe would still be mad at me. I'm glad he had found someone new and was happy.

I decided to take the rest of the day off. I wanted to go home and shower and take my time getting ready for tonight. If I was going to have dinner alone with Ranger in his apartment I wanted to look my absolute best. I mean I wasn't going to let myself fall for him again but I still wanted to show him what he was missing.

I pulled into the Rangeman garage at 7. I was a nervous wreck. I don't know if I'm ready to be alone with Ranger, but I guess I was about to find out.

Sorry, this chapter ended up being more of a filler chapter.