Bright Dawn
He sits behind the wheel of his dark silver Honda Pilot fuming. He has every right in the Goddamn world to be pissed. Life as a police detective is not easy. Facing violence and danger has become a part of his daily life. Anger, distress and frustration pile up too quickly. And criminals walk away without paying the right price too easily. Sometimes he just want to give in to the temptation and shoot those scums between their eyes to avenge justice. Sometimes he just wants to drown his sorrows with cigarettes and beer. Sometimes he just wants to hide in someone's arms and forget all the cruelty and darkness he has witnessed. He tries his best to rein in his temper and raging emotions every day. His mother and aunts lighten his invisible burden with homemade cuisine and home-baked goodies. His brother and cousins ease his mood with jokes, funny stories, and small talk. His dog wiggles its tail and happily licks his face when he comes home after a long day's work. But his on-and-off relationship with Stephanie is simply not helping.
He wonders why he bothers to love her. She's not exactly the woman in every man's dream. She doesn't cook. She doesn't clean. She hates being told what to do as much as she hates doing laundry. And though she's cute, sexy and pretty, somehow she just can't live under the same roof with him for more than 3 months. She becomes antsy when the "deadline" is near. She intentionally starts a fight with him over nothing, grabs her rat and things, and storms back to her shabby apartment. Then when her narrow queen size bed becomes too cold and too lonely, she will suddenly come back to him as if nothing ever happened.
But this time it's different. Something in her has changed.
She kicked him out of her bed for no apparent reason at all that night. She changed her locks the very next day. She wouldn't return his calls or answer her door. She turned around and marched out of the door the moment she saw him at her mother's dining table or at Pino's. And when they ran into each other at the police station or on the street, she treated him as if he doesn't exist. She wouldn't even talk to him. And way she behaved made everyone in the whole Trenton believed that it was something he'd done. Soon his limited patience ran out. His confusion morphed into anger. He did nothing wrong, he was sure of that. And that left only one possible explanation.
Ranger.
He stares at the space in front of him but sees nothing. He will be lying shamelessly if he says he knows nothing about Ranger and Stephanie. He sees the attraction between them all the time. He sees the blush on Stephanie's face whenever Ranger smiles that annoying barely there smile and says "Babe". He hates that blush. He hates that Cheshire Cat smile. He hates that "Babe" with all his heart. So he made a stupid mistake one night and decided to call Ranger and ask for an explanation. He knew he was being foolish. He knew he was being ridiculous. He knew he was being pathetic. But he was too angry and too humiliated. He had been losing sleep. He felt restless and agitated. He couldn't concentrate on his job and life. He hated Ranger for not returning his calls. So like a stubborn child he kept calling Ranger and leaving messages. He stopped coming over for the Plums' Friday dinner. He was this close to stopping going to Pino's for pizzas and subs. But he couldn't stop wanting, loving and needing Stephanie Plum. And he couldn't stop hating himself for that.
"What the hell has been going on between you and Stephanie?"
Joe Morelli thinks of the message he left this morning and once again feels like an idiot. He can still taste the burning bitterness on his tongue. The despair he felt has corroded a gaping hole in his exhausted bleeding heart. He exhales a resigned sigh and starts the car. Sooner or later he's going to have a face-to-face chat with the thief who has stolen Stephanie's heart. But he'll have to confront Stephanie first. They need to talk things through without lying to themselves or holding anything back like rational adults.
And what time is better than now?