Thanks for the reviews. Here we go with another chapter, this one will be short though. Anything familiar is JE's. All mistakes are mine.

Chapter 10

I finally mustered up the courage to get out of my car and get in the elevator. I hit the level 5 button and gave a finger wave to the camera in the corner. The doors opened up when I reached the fifth floor and I was immediately pulled out and bear hugged by Lester.

"Bombshell it's so good to see you! I can't believe you left me for a year!" he said.

"Hey Les, I'm sorry. If it helps, I did miss you" I said.

"I missed you too. We all missed you, especially Ranger. He's been in a horrible mood the whole past year. I think you broke my cousin's heart." Lester said.

"SANTOS!" we heard Ranger barked behind us. "Mats 0500 tomorrow."

"Yeah whatever man." Lester said. "I should get back to work beautiful. Can I take you out to lunch tomorrow?"

"Sure Les, here let me give you my number" I said as I put my new number in his phone.

"Cool, I'll give you a call tomorrow. Bye beautiful" Lester said as he gave me another hug and kissed me on the cheek then walked away.

Ranger leaned down and whispered in my ear "How come Lester gets to kiss you and I don't?" I couldn't tell if he was mad or teasing me so I just ignored him.

"So is dinner ready? I'm starving" I asked.

"It should be, let's head up to 7."

I followed Ranger to the elevator and we went to 7. As we walked into his apartment I could already smell Ella's amazing food.

"The food smells amazing" I said.

"Go ahead and sit down babe. I'll make the plates and bring them to the table."

"Okay" I sat down, and Ranger came back with 2 glasses of wine then disappeared again and came back with the food. It was some sort of spicy chicken stew with a basket of bread. It was delicious! I was concentrating on eating so I could avoid the inevitable conversation with Ranger. After I finished the whole plate of food I finally looked up. Ranger was staring at me.

"Why did you leave Stephanie?" Shit he used my name.

"I felt like I had to Ranger. My life was messed up and I wasn't happy. I needed to get away and work on myself and my life without worrying about everyone's opinions of me."

"So you didn't leave because of what I said to you that night?"

"That played a part in my decisions but it wasn't the only reason."

"Babe, I'm sorry. I've said a lot of stupid things to you over the years. I don't talk about my emotions, Ranger training taught me to hide them, but I have been in love with you for a long time, longer then I've even admitted to myself. And not in my own way, I love you completely. I kept you at a distance because you were back and forth with Morelli and I didn't think I could give you the kind of relationship you deserved. My life can be very dangerous and I have a lot of secrets. I missed you so much Stephanie. I felt like I lost my best friend."

Holy batman! I've never heard Ranger speak so much at one time. I've wanted to hear those words from him for so long, but do I believe him? He could just be saying that because he missed me and this is what he thinks will keep me here. I don't want to give in to him just to get my heart broken when he pushes me away again.

"Ranger, I'm sorry but I can't do this with you. A year ago I told you I was in love with you and you rejected me like it was nothing. Now you want me to believe that you're magically ready to have a relationship with me?"

"Babe, you being gone a year made me realize how important you are to me and how much I need you in my life." I can see the pain in Ranger's eyes and I hate that, but I just don't trust having a relationship with him right now.

"You say that now, but how do I know you're not going to change your mind? I can't do a relationship with you right now Ranger. I really did miss you though. Can we just work on being friends again?"

He was silent for a minute but then he finally said "Okay babe if that's what you want."

"Thank you Ranger."

"Anything for you babe. Are you going to tell me where you've been the past year?"

"You really don't know? I assumed you either didn't look for me, or you found me but left me alone."

"No babe, I did look for you but couldn't find you. You did a good job covering your tracks. I would have been proud of you if it wasn't me you were hiding from." Ranger said smiling.

"I went to Salem to live with my cousin Jessica" I said.

"And the letters babe? I'm assuming Diesel helped you with those? He put them in my outgoing mail."

"Oh my god, he put them in your mail? He didn't tell me that. He just said he would make sure you couldn't track them back to me."

"So you were hanging out with Diesel?" Ranger asked. I could be wrong but he sounded a little jealous.

"Yeah but it wasn't intentional. I ran into him when I got there. He's living in Salem too" I said.

"From what I saw the other night it looks like you had some training."

"Yeah I did. I've changed a lot in the past year."

"Tell me about it babe."

"Okay."

Ranger and I moved into the living room and sat on the couch and I told him about my life in Salem and being a bounty hunter and my fake name.

"You went after the high bonds?"

"Yup and I didn't even roll in garbage or get hurt."

"Proud of you babe."

"Thanks, I should get going. It's been a long day."

"Okay babe, I'll walk you to your car."

We took the elevator to the garage and walked to my car.

"Thanks for dinner, tell Ella thank you too."

"You're welcome." Then he pulled me into a hug and looked like he wanted to kiss me but change his mind. "Goodnight babe."

"Night Ranger." Then I got in my car and drove home.

This has been a long day; I had faced Joe and Ranger. Plus I had turned Ranger down. My emotions couldn't handle anything else.