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Chapter 13: The Morning After
I woke up a little before sunrise with the sudden call from nature. Only problem was Ranger. He was holding on tighter than ever. I wiggled, trying to get free, but that only made him hold me closer.
"Ranger, you have to let me go."
"No way, not again."
Aww, that was sweet. I'll dwell on that after I pee. "Ranger, you're going to have to unless you want me to pee all over you." At this, he let me go and gently pushed me towards the bathroom. "What? Afraid of a yellow shower?"
"Babe." He didn't open his eyes.
"Fine, I'll be right back."
After taking care of business, I hopped back into Ranger's awaiting arms and snuggled back into his chest.
When I had awoken next, Ranger was gone, but I could smell coffee brewing downstairs. I took one of his shirts that was tossed aside and put it on as I walked down the stairs.
"Morning Babe."
"Mmmm." I said, coming up behind him, hugging his waist and kissing his neck. "What smells so good?"
"Pancakes."
"What? Destroying the temple today?"
"Babe." He said, giving me a knowing look.
"Hey, remember the last time that you made pancakes."
He smiled. "Yeah, but Tank and Joe won't be bothering us anymore."
"Why?"
"I sent them home last night."
"I don't get it."
He turned around and grabbed me by the waist. "Because where you go, I go."
"Ranger, I can't…"
"Yes you can."
"But your job."
He shrugged. "I've been meaning to take a vacation for a while now."
I didn't know what to say. He was picking up his entire life for me.
"For how long?"
"As long as you want to stay." He nuzzled my neck.
"So what do you want to do today?" He asked me as we ate our pancakes.
"I don't know. I have to check in with work today, so it depends on that."
"Where do you work?"
"The little diner on the end of the street. Since I don't have a car, it's perfect. I can just walk to work."
"I'll walk with you."
"Carlos, I haven't had a stalker in months."
"I know, I want to. Did you just call me Carlos?"
"Yeah, so?"
He smiled. "I like the way it sounds."
"Yeah, I noticed that last night."
He snorted. Ranger could snort. "Yeah, but I meant outside of unbridled passion."
"I knew that, Smartass."
We ate in silence for a minute.
"Babe?"
"Carlos?"
"Do you want to go back to Trenton ever?"
I thought about it. "Eventually. My family is back there. You're work is there…"
"Stephanie." Uh oh, what'd I do now? "What do you want?"
"I want to be with you."
"Other than that."
"I miss my job."
"Bounty hunting?"
"That and running searches. I thought I would never say that."
"You could do that here."
"Yeah, but…It's different, you know?"
"It's not home?"
I shrugged.
"So when do you want to go back?"
"Next month?"
"Okay. But if you don't want to go back then, we'll wait again."
Whoa, did we just agree on something without fighting? With Joe, he would have been pushing me all the way back to the plane.
"Are you okay with that?" I asked him.
"Babe." Which pretty much said, 'stop asking me stupid questions and eat your pancakes'.
I took a shower and we walked to the diner. Ranger wanted to come in with me, but I decided that he should go back home seeing how I didn't know how long I was going to be. He came in anyway. Well, I guess he should write the check for all the plates and other dishes drop.
"Carlos, this is Jenny. Jenny, this is Carlos."
"You have a nice car." She said, shaking his hand. "Does it got a V-8?"
Ranger raised an eyebrow.
"She's kind of a car buff."
"Didn't rub off on you, huh Babe."
"Nope, sorry. You guys talk, I needed to talk to Lenny."
Lenny was the owner of the diner and was currently in possession of my check. We sat and talked and I gave him my two weeks, considering next month was only two weeks away.
I decided to spend the next two weeks showing Ranger the sights around town and surrounding areas, making love, reading the paper, making love, working and making love. Did I mention making love? Sorry, that one's my favorite.
Soon the two weeks were up and I had decided that we would go home and face the Burg. Apparently the big rumor was that Joe and I had a big fight, I slept with Ranger and then disappeared to have his love child. And that was one of the nicer ones.
"Babe, what are you doing?"
"Packing."
"You already have a cookie jar."
"I know, but I like this one too. We can actually put cookies in this one, not my gun."
He shook his head. "Only you, Babe."
Ranger had decided that I should just move in with him, considering I was probably going to be spending many days there anyway and that we were getting married. It just seemed to make more sense.
Jenny and David had thrown us a going away barbecue at his house. The entire town showed up. Ranger was nice and didn't bait him like he would Joe. Maybe that's because he actually liked David. I know he wouldn't admit it, but I would bet anything that they were sort of friends.
I was currently looking at the empty rooms of my house, stuck in memories. I couldn't believe that we were leaving. I twisted my ring on my finger.
"You ready, Babe?" Ranger asked, coming up behind me and rubbing my arms in soothing circles.
I sighed. "Yeah, I am." I took his hand and we went to the car.