Eliza Higgins and Henry Doolittle
What if fate had dealt the cards just a little bit differently?
O~O~O
Chapter 14
Laughter and friendly chatter filled the air and Stephanie was never more happy she had purchased a house with a large back yard.
Ranger opened a cooler and handed out cans of beer and the guests gravitated toward the picnic table. He looked at Stephanie and raised an eyebrow. "I'll have a Coke, please. If I start drinking beer now, I'll be wasted before the steaks are ready."
Ranger smiled and handed her a can of Coke. "I'm looking forward to seeing you wasted one of these days. Are you a mean drunk or a happy drunk?"
Stephanie let out a small laugh. "I'm an overly friendly, overly affectionate drunk," she confessed.
Ranger moved closer to her and crooked an arm around her neck. Bringing his mouth close to her ear, he said, "I'll keep that in mind in case our relationship ever needs a jump-start."
Stephanie slipped her arms around his waist and whispered back, "You think our relationship will ever need a jump-start?"
"No, but every couple thinks that when they start out, so I'm just going to keep collecting bits of information for future reference."
"Sounds romantic," Stephanie said, not being able to stop the giggle that burst forth from her lips.
"Get a room," they heard from behind them.
They turned toward the picnic table and the whole group started laughing at the look of surprise on Stephanie's face.
"Santos," Ranger growled. "You're lucky I don't have a place in Trenton set up with mats yet, but you'll be the first one on them when I do."
This caused another round of chuckling from the other guests. The man Ranger introduced as, Tank, reached out and gave Lester a smack on the back of his head. "Behave yourself, dumbass."
Tank was a mountain of a man, probably 6'5", Stephanie decided, with smooth black skin, muscles upon muscles, a great smile and a bald head.
Lester also had a lot of muscles, but his stature was nothing close to Tank's. He was closer to Ranger's 5'10" or 5'11" and around the same weight. He wore his short golden brown hair spiked and had glittering green eyes that threw sparks at Tank in response to his admonishment. Stephanie had seen him smile when he first arrived and knew he had perfect white teeth and was gorgeous when he smiled.
"You people need to lighten up," Lester complained. "I was just joking around, trying to have some fun."
Stephanie felt bad that Lester was the center of attention and not in a good way. "Everything is cool," she told him. She wanted to tell him, no offense taken, but apparently Ranger had taken offense and she didn't want to negate his feelings. "Help yourselves to the snacks on the table while I go check to see if the steaks are ready for the grill."
"Babe," Ranger said, "You have a seat and I'll go check on the steaks. I'm the cook tonight. I'm also going to add some seasonings to the hamburger patties. You can start getting acquainted with my friends."
Stephanie started to protest and offer to go with him, but he leaned down and gave her a soft kiss, then nudged her toward the table. "Okay." She didn't want to challenge him in front of his friends so she decided to let him call the shots in this particular situation.
Ranger headed inside and Stephanie sat down next to Connie who was sitting next to Bobby. The two of them were deep in conversation about something, leaning close and speaking in whispered tones. Steph thought that was interesting since they just met.
Bobby was a black man with movie star good looks. His brown eyes were graced with incredibly long, dark lashes and his hair was cut short. He was smiling at whatever Connie had just said to him and then they both let loose with conspiratorial snickering.
Lester's voice dragged her attention away from Connie and Bobby. "So, Stephanie, just what are your intentions toward Ranger?"
Stephanie looked at him closely to try to determine if he was kidding or not. There was no sparkle or amusement in his eyes so she could only conclude he was serious.
"Are you his father?" Stephanie asked, injecting her tone of voice with humor to cover her irritation.
"Knock it off, Santos," Tank said, glaring at him.
"Yeah, you need to chill," Bobby said.
Lester fixed his gaze on Stephanie and ignored his friends. "No, I'm not his father, I'm his cousin and he's my best friend. I think I have the right to know what you're up to. To know what it is you've done to have him wrapped around your little finger in such a short time."
Stephanie was getting pissed, but didn't want to go into rhino mode on one of Ranger's friends the first time they met. She remained calm and said, "He's not wrapped around my little finger and you can be sure I don't have any bad intentions toward Ranger."
Lester was a bit surprised she hadn't gone ape-shit on him for being so brash with her. "It seems to me," he said, "Ranger only likes you because you're beautiful, smart and nice."
Connie, Bobby and Tank burst out with laughter. "You're an idiot, Santos," Bobby said. "What man wouldn't fall for a woman who was beautiful, smart and nice?" He was talking about Stephanie, but everyone noticed he was looking at Connie when he said it.
Stephanie was sitting across the table from Lester and Tank. She leaned forward a bit and smiled at Lester. "Listen, if it'll make you feel any better, I'll change, just to relieve your mind."
Lester cocked an eyebrow. "You'll change how? What do you mean?"
Stephanie tilted her head to the side. "Tomorrow, I'll wake up ugly, dumb and mean and we'll see if he still likes me."
The group erupted with laughter again and after a long beat, Lester joined them. "Maybe you're alright," he said grudgingly. But, I'll be keeping an eye on you."
"Okie dokie," Stephanie said, straining not to roll her eyes at him. It was kind of cute that he was so concerned about Ranger's well-being.
The sliding glass door slid open and Ranger walked out carrying the tray of steaks, setting it on a card table Stephanie had set up near the grill. "Connie and Stephanie, I need to know how you like your steak. I already know the guys want theirs medium."
"Medium for me too," Connie and Stephanie said in unison.
"Good, it's unanimous. That makes things easy," he said with smile.
Stephanie was sitting at the end of the table closest to him and felt a shimmer of heat course through her when he winked at her before turning to start placing the steaks on the grill.
"Stephanie," Connie said, getting her attention, "I drove past here this morning and saw two men in dark suits walking to your front door. Did you know them?"
"Nah, they were from the F.B.I. and were asking me questions about Pete Saffron." She turned to Ranger then. "Oh, by the way, Ranger, they said your reward money would be here in two weeks or less."
Ranger had all the steaks on the grill and grabbed his beer, then slid onto the bench seat next to Stephanie. "You mean your reward, Babe."
"No, I mean your reward. We've discussed this already, remember?"
Things grew quiet at the table as everyone turned curious ears and eyes to the pair at the end.
"Yes, I remember, but the conclusion was, the money goes to you. You made the captures."
Stephanie sat up straighter. "I don't remember any such conclusion. I remember telling you that I interfered with your capture and that the money would be going to you!"
"Babe ... "
Stephanie lowered her voice and interrupted him. "No, don't Babe me. I said it before and I'll say it again, Pete Saffron was assigned to you. If I had not gone to see Stella, none of this would have happened. He was yours to bring in and you would have captured the other two. I'm not taking money that doesn't belong to me."
Ranger noticed the conversation held everyone's attention. "Listen, Babe. Why don't we ask our friends what they think since we can't seem to agree on this?"
Stephanie glanced around the table and saw the rapt attention on the faces of their friends. "Okay, deal."
Ranger briefly explained the situation to everyone. When he was done he said, "So, who should get the money? "Let's start with you, Tank."
Tank looked from Ranger to Stephanie as he thought over the details of the story. "I think Stephanie should get the money. She made the captures."
"Good," said Ranger. "Lester, what do you think?"
Lester cleared his throat. "For one thing, I want to hear more about how Stephanie captured three fugitives on her own. That aside, I say, if she legitimately captured them by herself, she should get the money."
"I agree," Ranger said. "Connie, what say you?"
"I can see both sides of it," Connie told him. "Stephanie made the captures, but the skip was signed out to you. "I think splitting the money might be the way to go."
"But I didn't earn any of it," Ranger pointed out before turning to Bobby. "You're the last one, Bobby. Who should get the money?"
"I'm actually hesitant to get in on this," Bobby said. "I'm not sure your friends should be deciding the outcome. But, if you truly can't come to an agreement, maybe you should split it. Or, you could flip a coin."
Ranger raised up a bit from the bench seat and reached into his pocket, pulling out a handful of change. "We can do that, if Stephanie agrees." He held out his hand to Steph. "Babe, would you like to pick a coin to toss?"
Stephanie's eyes grew wide as she looked at the change in his hand. Among the coins was what looked like the missing half of the medallion she had upstairs. She plucked it from his hand and held it up. "Ranger, where did you get this?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I found it on the seat of my truck the other day. No idea where it came from. I've been carrying it as a good luck piece. Do you recognize it?"
"Yes! I need to talk to you inside," she said, scrambling from her seat at the table.
Ranger rose to follow her. "Tank, you're in charge of the steaks until I get back," he said over his shoulder.
He followed Stephanie into the house and then up the stairs. In her bedroom, she opened the dresser drawer and pulled out the envelope. "This is the envelope Stella gave me," she explained, crossing over to sit on the end of the bed.
Ranger sat next to her and waited while she opened the envelope and slid something out. She held it up and his eyes grew wide. It appeared to be the other half of his good luck medallion.
She handed Ranger's half back to him right-side-up and then held out her half the same way. Her eyes met with Ranger's for a moment, then they both looked down and touched the jagged middle edges of the medallion together to make it whole.
As soon as the medallion edges fit together, it produced a small golden flash of light and Stephanie felt a tingle run up her arm. Startled, she dropped her half and jerked her eyes to Ranger's. "Did you feel that?"
"The tingle?" he asked. "Yeah, I did. The thing flashed or glowed or something too," he said, leaning down to pick up her half from the floor.
Fitting the two pieces back together, Ranger noticed there was no glow or tingle when he held the two pieces by himself. He read the message aloud:
Love is a union that grows
By sharing with the one person
You can't imagine being without.
He handed one half to Stephanie and said, "try it again," while holding out his half. Step held her half to his and once again, when the edges came together, there was a soft glow of light and the same tingle she felt before shot up her arm. "It doesn't work when just one of us puts them together," she said, stating the obvious.
"I think that's part of the message, Babe," Ranger said softly, leaning over to give her a soft kiss.
"There was a note," Stephanie told him. Stella said this would help us over some of the bumps in life or something like that. Maybe this is trying to tell us to split the money."
Ranger was quiet for a few moments as he thought it over. "I think it's a bit different, Steph. I think splitting and sharing are slightly different. My guess is, it's saying we should share the money, not split it."
Stephanie wrinkled her brow. "What's the difference?"
"If we split it, we each get half and half is not as much as a whole. If we share it, we open an account in both our names, put all the money in the account, and decide together what to use it for."
Steph looked up at him with a big grin. "You're not only gorgeous, you're brilliant." She wrapped her arms around his neck and they shared a long kiss.
When they moved apart, she said, "What do you think the glow and tinging are all about? I mean, how does that happen?"
Ranger shook his head a bit. "I have no idea why it happens with this particular medallion, but I imagine is has something to do with our connection. There seems to be a lot of energy that passes back and forth when we're together. For some reason, this medallion acts as a conductor."
Stephanie smiled at his explanation and slid her half of the medallion back into the envelope and got up to put it back in her drawer. "I guess we should get back to our guests," she said with a sigh. "Once they're gone, I'm going to drag you back up here for another kind of connection."
Ranger dropped his medallion half back in his pocket, then grabbed her and pulled her close, giving her a long, hard kiss. "You can't drag me up here because I'll be waiting for you when you get to the top of the stairs."
r/s/r/s
When they reached the back yard, Tank was getting ready to serve up the steaks. Steph and Ranger had to hurry to get the other food outside. There were a lot of oohs, aahs and yums as more and more food was added to the table.
Finally, everyone was eating and chatting and having a great time. The guys asked Stephanie to explain how she got involved in bounty hunting and during her explanation they found out that Connie was the one Ranger picked up his skip files from so they had questions for her too.
At one point, Lester asked, "So, Stephanie, how much was the biggest bond you earned when you were bringing in skips?"
Stephanie and Connie exchanged a grin, then Steph said, "That would be fifty thousand dollars."
"So you got five thousand from that right? Not a bad paycheck."
"No," Stephanie said. "The bond was five hundred thousand. My cut was fifty thousand."
There was silence all around the table for a couple of beats and Lester almost choked on his beer. "Fifty thousand was your cut? Holy moley. Was the dude a serial killer or mass murderer or something?"
The guys were all excited waiting for the story.
"No, he was a Trenton police officer who had been accused of shooting an unarmed man. Turns out he was innocent."
"Babe," Ranger said. "You went after a cop accused of murder?"
She nodded her head. "Yeah, the guy you saw at the diner the other day. Joe Morelli."
"He's the one you said you dated." Ranger looked shocked.
"Well I didn't start dating him until after I found out he was innocent and the charges were dropped."
"That right there is a crazy story," Tank said.
"No doubt," Bobby agreed. "Fifty thousand bucks for hauling in an innocent man."
"I want in on this gig," Lester said, looking at Ranger.
"Me too," Tank agreed.
"Count me in," Bobby said. "I'm ready to move here and get started. Are there enough skips to go around?"
"Not for all four of you working from one office," Connie told him. "There are a lot more low bond skips than high bond skips. But you can work for more than one bonds office. There are nine or ten bail bonds offices in Trenton alone. Tons more in the surrounding area."
As the guys were high-fiving each other across the table, Ranger said, "Okay, enough shop talk for one night." Looking at Stephanie, he said, "Babe, do you have a basketball for that basketball net hanging from your garage?"
"Sure do," she told him. It's in the garage. I also have lawn darts and a croquet set in there if you get bored shooting baskets."
Ranger said, "Lester, you get the basketball. Tank, help me move the cars. Connie, can we get your keys so we can move your car?"
"Sure." Connie dug her keys from her purse and tossed them to Ranger.
"Since I didn't get an assignment, I'm going to help carry some of this leftover food inside," Bobby told them.
"After Tank and I move the cars, I'll bring out a trash bag and help clear the throw-away stuff," Ranger said.
"After I find the basketball, I'll gather up the beer and pop cans," Lester offered.
"Nothing like team work," Stephanie said, beaming at them. "I think I'm going to like hanging out with you guys."
r/s/r/s
Once it was too dark to shoot baskets, they all moved to the back yard again. Ranger reminded everyone who would be driving that they needed to stop drinking well ahead of time. The patio lights gave off enough light to play lawn darts and that kept everyone occupied for another two hours. Stephanie had put on a pot of coffee and then made a second one when the first was gone.
By the time everyone left, she was happy and exhausted. She and Ranger stood in the driveway, each with an arm around the other as they watched their guests drive away. She noticed that Bobby got Connie's phone number from her before she left and that made her smile. Connie had been looking for a good man for quite some time. Maybe Bobby would turn out to be that man.
Hand in hand they wandered back into the house and Ranger led Stephanie to the kitchen.
"I was kind of thinking you'd be ready to go upstairs," she said, bumping her hip against him.
"I am, but I have a little surprise for you first."
She squealed as Ranger picked her up and deposited her on the countertop. "Hang on just a sec," he said, giving her a soft kiss.
She watched as he got a small brown bag from the freezer and a spoon from the drawer. Walking back over to the counter, he settled himself between her legs and pulled a pint sized carton from the bag.
"Ice cream?" Stephanie asked, surprised.
Ranger held up the carton so she could read it.
"Awww," she said, a smile lighting up her face. "Butter Brickle ice cream. You remembered my crisis from earlier."
Ranger smiled as he pulled the lid from the carton. "I couldn't have Lifetime showing up in Trenton to make a movie about you, Babe."
He fed her a spoonful and laughed when she moaned with delight. "You're killing me, Steph."
"Not yet I'm not," she said, opening her mouth for another bite. Once it slid down her throat, she said, "God, I can't believe how good this is. I'm really going to enjoy your niceness to the 24th power."
Ranger spooned another bite into her open mouth. "So, what would you like to do with the money, Babe?"
"I was thinking about that while you guys were playing basketball. Why don't we use it toward getting your security business off the ground?"
"You want to go into business together?" He sounded surprised.
"I already have a business. The security business would be yours, but I'll help with whatever you need. I could put my business degree to work."
"I'd rather be partners, Babe. We'll need someone with a business degree and someone to run searches on the tough skips and once the security part is going and we hire more people, we'll need someone to run background checks on potential clients and employees."
Stephanie gazed into his soft brown eyes. "Partners? Only if you're sure that's what you want."
"One hundred percent sure," he said, feeding her another bite of ice cream.
She moaned again and said, "Thank you, Ranger."
"You're welcome, Babe, but it's just a little ice cream."
"No, I meant thank you for finding me again ... in this lifetime."
He flashed her a two hundred watt smile, then his face turned serious. "As long as the universe allows it, I'll always find you, Babe."
O~O~O
The End
A/N - Thank you for reading along. I hope you enjoyed the story. I apologize for the lack of smut. I tried it and just couldn't get it to not sound ridiculous. It must take some practice to get it right and I just wasn't getting it right. I'm sorry I still haven't gotten the replies out for the feedback from the last chapter. Now that the story is finished, I'll get to all of them for this chapter, fo shizzle!