Standard Disclaimer: Not mine, not making money, yadda yaddacakes. I didn't put this in part one, but spoilers up through LMT.

Overheard Part 2

On the way to Shorty's, the guys were talking about the game last night. Since I don't really watch basketball, I tuned them out.

Ranger had left for some super secret mission about a week before Joe and I broke up. He was in the wind for a couple of months and when he came back he immediately left for Miami. I knew he wanted to spend time with Julie since they had gotten closer after Scrog. She and I have been emailing back and forth since then and I knew she wanted to get to know him better. She never really came out and said that, but I could read between the lines. She kept asking me questions about him that I couldn't or wouldn't answer. After he came back from Miami a month ago, he seemed distant. I wasn't sure what was going one, but I thought it might have had something to do with his visit. I gave him the space he needed. I knew the guys had told him about my break up with Joe. Even if they hadn't, Julie probably would have told him as well.

"Steph…earth to Steph."

With a jolt, I realized we were at Shorty's. I looked over at Woody and rolled my eyes at him. "What? I was just thinking."

"Oh, is that why we smelled smoke?"

I stuck my tongue out at Lester and got out of the Bronco.

"Steph, don't stick that out unless you intend to use it."

"Only in your wildest dreams would I use my tongue on you Lester."

Walking into Shorty's, I noticed that the back booth was free as usual. Lester, Bobby, Woody and Hal all managed to get seats with their backs to at least one wall. Of course I was left sitting with my back to the room. Since all of them were carrying at least two guns each, I figured I was reasonably safe. I sighed. Parking and seating karma must be a Rangeman gift.

Our usual waitress came over to take our orders. After a moment of deliberation, we decided to split three large pies with pepperoni, onions and sausage. Woody wanted anchovies but we voted him down. She brought over a couple of pitchers of iced tea since she knew we were all on duty.

"I wish Shorty would let Amber be our waitress for a change. She is hot."

"Bobby, the reason Shorty has Maddie be our waitress is because he got sick of the broken dishes."

"Yeah, but I would be willing to chip in to pay for them."

Honestly, sometimes Bobby is as bad as Lester. Of course, he doesn't have a different girl friend every week like Lester did. Lester changed his girlfriends like most guys changed socks. Bobby was better but not by much. He had a new girl on his arm every month.

We finished our lunch quickly, laughing and talking about last night's Amazing Race. I was surprised when I found out the guys watched this but Hal explained they enjoyed watching the show because they had been to many of the places the show went but were too busy to really take time to look around. I told him I enjoyed it for Phil Kehogan and his yummy accent. He gave me a blank look and then chuckled when I said "Phil is the host".

"Steph, I thought you wouldn't like him because he does the one eyebrow pop."

I smacked Hal on the arm. "Smartass. Can everyone in the world do that but me?"

He just chuckled at me as we buckled into the Bronco and went back to Haywood.

Back at Rangeman, I unlocked my computer and looked over at my inbox. Seeing it stacked full, I cursed under my breath. Rodriguez must have been down here while I was at lunch. I vowed that one day, I would stake out my cubicle to catch him in the act. Then I would zap him with my stun gun. I bet Hal would appreciate some company in that particular club.

I sorted through the requests and pulled out another one from Ranger to do first.

While that search was running, I opened my cell to see if I had any messages. I had two messages and one voice mail. Figuring the voicemail was from my mother, I checked my text messages first.

The first one was from Joe. He wanted me to call to talk. He said it was important and I needed to call him ASAP. The second was from Lula just saying hi. I checked my computer and saw the search was still running so I decided to take a quick break and call Joe.