Simple Hearts
Chapter 19
Ranger blinked his eyes. He realized he wasn't in his apartment, and then he remembered he never made it home last night. Stephanie was still sleeping in his arms, but she was stirring ever so slightly.
Frank Plum brought two mugs of coffee quietly into the living room; Ranger got a whiff of the aroma as he approached in his plaid pajama bottoms. "Morning, Sleeping Beauty," he chuckled quietly.
"Morning, Frank," he said somewhat sheepishly. He had that feeling again like he had been caught necking on the sofa running a hand through his short hair.
Stephanie's blue eyes opened fully. "Daddy," she murmured. She sat up abruptly.
"Reilley is still sleeping, I don't know how; your grandmother is sleeping in your old bed with him."
"How's Mom?"
"Moving slowly this morning."
Stephanie shook her curls. "Morning, Ranger," she said. "There's a large coke and fries in the refrigerator for Mom's hangover. You may want to nuke the fries foe her."
"I saw those. Where did you ever come up with that?"
Stephanie giggled, "Grandma. The grease helps."
Mr. Plum shook his head. "Why am I not surprised? She's a loon. I'd get in the bathroom while it's free, Ranger. My mother-in-law will be up and hogging it."
He sipped his coffee, and then stretching, Ranger headed for the stairs. "I'll go shower and come back at ten to pick you and Reilley up. I have to pack a few things and grab my ticket."
"We can pick you up. That way your vehicle is there at Haywood," she said following him up the steps to check on her son.
It made sense; Stephanie would be comfortable driving her Baha from the airport in Philadelphia. "OK," he told her kissing her and going in opposite doors.
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Before leaving the Plum's, Ranger drank his coffee with Stephanie and her father. His cell phone rang and checked the number before answering it. Tank was calling. "Yo. How did the surveillance job go?"
He had to hold the phone away from his ear as an angry Tank was barking at him. "What the HELL? It was Luis in a wig we were watching! If he didn't forget to put it back on when he answered the door for room service, we'd still be in that hotel!"
Ranger was laughing.
"It's not funny!" Tank yelled in his ear. "You didn't want us in the building when Stephanie was here and you were getting some! That's not fair!"
"I'm the Boss. I'll be there in ten."
"You never came home last night!"
"So," Ranger said closing his cell phone cutting off his best friend.
Stephanie and her father were staring at the chuckling man. "What did you do now to your friends?" Stephanie asked.
"I set them on a wild goose chase of sorts. Ella's husband, Luis, was a cheating wife in a wig. They followed him to Philadelphia lurking about the hotel until they discovered it was him when room service came. He didn't have the wig on when he answered the door."
It was Frank's turn to ask questions. "Why would you do that?"
"So my three friends didn't interrupt the dinner I had planned with your daughter."
"Is that all?" Frank demanded. He was kidding, but he liked to see the man squirm. Her father swore he was blushing just like his daughter.
"Daddy!"
"I am your father, Stephanie," he said in that fatherly figure tone.
Ranger took that as a sign to leave. "Babe, I'll see you later." He kissed her getting up from the table. "Frank."
"Chicken," Stephanie whispered at the front door.
"Babe, I need this Cuban hide to help you move. He kissed her again. "Just come up to 7 when you get to Rangeman. The control room will let you in."
"OK, Chicken."
"Yep."
Stephanie watched him jog down to his expensive sports car. She sighed because he was such a specimen of maleness to watch even avoiding her father's question.
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"Listen, look really sad," Lester instructed. "Ranger's going somewhere."
Tank repeated what they already knew, "Atlanta."
"Before that," Ranger's cousin told Tank and Bobby.
"He instructed the control room to let Stephanie and her son come up to 7 when they arrive at 10 when I was in there checking on Binkie's knee. It's still somewhat tender. His plane leaves for Atlanta at 6," Bobby relayed Ranger's directions.
"Hmmm, so where is he going with Stephanie and her son?" Tank wondered out loud rubbing his chin.
"We spent the evening hanging around a hotel watching Luis in a wig while Ranger was upstairs turning on the Cuban charm. He could at least take us with them today. Luis did look good in the blonde wig, though," Santos told his friends.
"At least we found out at 9 we were tricked," Bobby said sounding positive. "We still had time to hit a couple of good bars in Philly."
"Appeal to Stephanie's motherly side and schmooze up to her son," Lester rationalized to his friends. "Practice your sad puppy dog eyes."
The three were standing in Tank's office looking at each other with sad eyes putting their plan together to spend the day with Ranger, his girlfriend, and the small Power Ranger.
"You're good, Tank," Bobby complimented on his friend's droopy brown eyes.
"Lula likes them."
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"Hi, Boys," Stephanie greeted the three men casually dressed for a warm spring day in the Rangeman elevator.
Lester asked knowing where the mother and son were heading, "Going up?"
"To see Power Ranger. We're going to see the fish," an excited Reilley told them. He had on his favorite Rangeman ball cap with his Tarantula T-shirt.
"Wow," all three men chanted. "Fish."
"Lots of fish and sharks. Right, Mommy?" He looked up at his mother with bright blue eyes.
"Right, Rye. The Adventure Aquarium even has a hippopotamus named Button."
"Wow, Mommy!"
The Rangemen echoed, "Wow, a hippo!"
Lester spoke up, "That sounds fun. We've never been there."
Tank, Bobby, and Lester were giving their practiced sad eyes. Reilley invited, "You should come with us and see the fish."
There were three vigorous head nods. "OK."
Stephanie was giggling knowing they were set up to get back at their boss. She couldn't wait to see his face when he found out they had company. He could deal with them.
The elevator dinged on 7 and waiting at the open door in jeans, sneakers, and a faded blue T-shirt was Ranger. His eyebrow arched seeing his three friends step off with Stephanie and Reilley hearing "Power Ranger never takes us any place" from his cousin.
"Mommy knows all the fun places," the little boy announced walking into Ranger's apartment. "Hi, Power Ranger."
"Hi, Power Ranger," Tank, Bobby, and Lester greeted him following the little boy.
"Babe," he said kissing Stephanie. "Don't you three have anything to do?"
The Groucho triplets shook their heads to the left and then to the right in unison. "No." They were giving puppy dog eyes to him.
"Power Ranger, the other Power Ranger are coming to see the fish, too!" Reilley explained. "I asked them."
"He asked us," they said.
Ranger glared at each one of his friends, Tank, Bobby, and Lester in that order and back. He was counting to one hundred. There was bullet proof glass in his windows and he was calculating how many times it would take slamming their bodies against it before it gave way. Stephanie's son was looking up at him waiting for an answer. "That was very nice of you, Reilley," Ranger said to him and mouthed to his friends, "Paybacks."
"Ranger, we did do our surveillance work last night and Luis did look nice in his wig," his cousin reminded him.
"It took you a good portion of the night to figure that out!"
To break the stand-off, Stephanie reminded her son to go to the bathroom and showed him the powder room. "Be nice," Stephanie warned kissing his cheek.
Tank, Bobby, and Lester ran for the apartment door before Ranger could choke them. "We need the Expedition keys," Tank said.
"And Rangeman car seat," Bobby added jumping on the elevator.
Stephanie's SUV was in the garage so they couldn't make a clean break for it. In his head, Ranger was calculating cab fair to the aquarium, then to the airport and back to Trenton waiting for the mother and son to come out. It might be worth it.
Coming off the elevator in the garage, the extra-large SUV was running by it.
Tank was in the back seat and the other two tormentors were in the third row.
Ranger had no choice; he placed his overnight bag and airline tickets in the cargo area. He opened the back door for Stephanie so she could buckle her son in the car seat while glaring at his friends. They were avoiding his stare glancing out the tinted windows interested in the garage. She couldn't help giggling at the scene.
Opening the passenger door, Ranger and Stephanie kissed before he ran around to the driver's seat. He smirked at Stephanie not believing his luck.
"Ranger, are we there yet," Lester called out from the back. "I got to go."
"Not my problem, Santos." Ranger growled.
"Power Ranger Lester," Reilley clarified, "you always go to the bathroom before a car trip."
"I forgot, Little Power Ranger. He doesn't take us anywhere."
Ignoring his cousin, Ranger kept driving. Pulling into the parking lot, there was an empty parking space in the first row past the handicapped spots.
"Now, how did you arrange that?" Stephanie questioned knowing she would have been at least six rows back.
"Babe, it's a Cuban thing."
She rolled her eyes at him.
"This is just like a trip at day care, Mommy," Reilley commented walking to the entrance. "We have to hold hands with our partner so we don't get lost." Ranger's fingers were entwined with Stephanie's.
"Ooo, I don't know where your hands have been," Lester told Bobby.
"I use hand sanitizer!"
"Well, then that's OK. Wow, your hands are soft, Bobby."
Bobby replied, "I use one with a moisturizer. The alcohol dries your skin."
Ranger turned around, "Will you two stop it!" He saw his cousin was examining the medic's hand.
At the admissions gate, he considered paying for only Stephanie, Reilley, and him leaving the three hanger-ons to fend for themselves, but he didn't want to upset Reilley, so he paid with discount coupon Stephanie handed him.
All the Rangemen showed the security guard identification before stepping through the electronic monitor, it beeped not too loudly, but he waved them through. Stephanie and Reilley stepped through. Bells went off and colored lights flashed.
A woman ran over with balloons and not-into-it teenager pushing a cart. "You're one of our random families chosen each day!" Reilley, Tank, Lester, and Bobby all accepted balloons. "My, what a family of big men," she told Reilley.
"They're Power Rangers."
"Let me tell you what you won as an 'Adventure Aquarium' Random Family!" She was too excited bouncing up and down for Ranger. Reilley and the three co-workers were bouncing in rhythm with her. "We have vouchers for free lunch in the café. How old are you?" she asked Reilley.
"I'm twenty-nine," Lester said.
The little boy held up four fingers saying, "Four."
"You and your group will get to be up-close to feed the penguins! Here are your special penguin hats!" Ranger declined one, but one small child and three big ones were wearing black and white penguin visors. Stephanie had hers for Frank. Reilley said he needed one. "You'll get a family photograph feeding the penguins and here are tickets to pick out a free glow-in-dark sea life pen in the gift shop. The penguin feeding begins at 1. Just give this pass to the trainer in the Penguin encounter," Rose Mary explained handing Stephanie the 'Adventure' bag.
"A glow-in-the-dark pen will be great for surveillance," Bobby said, "to write in the dark."
"Ranger," his Penguin cousin told him, "we're so glad you asked us to come."
"I didn't."
"You wanted to."
Ranger replied, "No." He didn't know who was having more fun, the four-year old or three Ex-Army men with penguin hats on their heads.
"Babe," Ranger kept on smirking through the afternoon. He almost lost it when the four of them had their noses against the glass in the African area and Button the Hippo came up to them so they were snout to nose. His friends were too excited and too goofy. Feeding the penguins was an experience; Lester wasn't watching and almost lost a finger or two teasing one with a fish. Stephanie received the original 'family' photograph with all of them in front of the penguin enclosure, penguin hats included. Four copies were purchased. They watched sea turtles, petted stingrays, saw tons of tropical fish and sharks, and watched a seal show. They also saw an indoor Amazon waterfall. For dessert they had Hippopotamus cupcakes with their lunches. Before leaving to get Ranger to the Philadelphia airport, there was a stop in the gift shop for the free glow-in-the-dark pens. Reilley picked out a stuffed Hippo compliments of Ranger and Stephanie received a sterling silver charm bracelet with charms of the aquarium inhabitants attached.
Not even driven five minutes from the aquarium, there were four Penguin heads nodding off in the rear of the Expedition.
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"Babe," Ranger said. He was kissing Stephanie too long at the airport entrance totally disregarding the security guard displeasure who attempting to keep the vehicles moving. 'I'll talk with you later. Love you, Babe, and thanks for a wonderful day."
"Love you, Ranger. Have a safe flight."
The Expedition was pulling away with Tank at the wheel; Lester hung out a window with the stupid Penguin visor still on his head waving furiously like a lunatic. "Bye, Ranger! Send us a postcard!"
Ranger never looked back.
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Lying on his bed in his Atlanta apartment, he had been talking with Stephanie before she went to sleep.
"Good Night, Babe."
He closed his phone and placed it on the nightstand. Propped up against the lamp was his copy of the photograph with the Penguins. It was extra crazy with his three friends along and despite them tagging along; it was a good day because he spent it with Stephanie and Reilley. And, he hoped there were many more days like it.