"We can't buy two houses Carlos. That's ridiculous."
"Why not? I can afford to buy two houses. Besides, we'd only live in the apartment temporarily and then Ella and Luis could have it. I was planning on buying them a house when they retired anyway."
I sighed and said, "Carlos, I can't afford even one of them. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable letting you pay for everything."
I didn't realise it but was shaking in my seat. I get this way when I'm a bit stressed. Carlos reached over and rested his hand on my leg and said, "When you're my wife Babe, my money will be yours. I don't want you to worry about stuff like that anymore. You will find loads of ways to contribute to our life together."
I was beginning to feel like a complete failure. At this point in his life, Carlos was a respected army veteran and he owned his own company. He owned his own apartment and an entire building. In fact, he owns buildings in several cities. I owned nothing. I rented my apartment and I was currently sans personal car. I've been driving my RangeMan car ever since the last one burnt.
My life is a joke. I was a horrible bounty hunter and up until I started to work fulltime at RangeMan, I struggled to pay my rent and feed myself. All the furniture in my apartment is second hand or smoke damaged. The only things I cherished in my life are my shoe collection and my hamster Rex.
Carlos pulled into a strip mall and stopped the car. I wasn't sure why he stopped, but it was clear that he wanted to talk to me when he turned in his seat and took both my hands in his. "Babe, I love you for who you are, not what you have. I have more money than I need, and buying a property is a good way of investing some of that money. I don't want you to feel bad about this, but I honestly don't know how to make you accept my money as a part of me."
I squeezed Carlos' hands and said, "I think my discomfort comes from my forced independence over the past several years. I've had to rely on myself for pretty much everything. Well, I did eat a lot of meals at my parents and I did take part time jobs with you to pay my rent, but I was relatively self-sufficient. I am afraid that I'll end up causing so many disasters that you'll end up spending all of your money saving me or fixing what I break."
Carlos laughed and kissed me. "I'm sure things won't get that bad Babe. Let's get back to your place so we can change and head over to your parents' for dinner."
An hour later at 5:30, we pulled up in front of my parents' house. We were earlier than we usually are for dinner, so neither my mother nor Grandma Mazur were standing in the window as we walked up the foot path to the house. Once inside, I yelled a greeting to my mother.
"Stephanie dear, why didn't you tell me you were coming for dinner? I could have called Marcus Antonio and invited him to join us."
I rolled my eyes and replied, "Mom, I'm not sure he'd feel very comfortable. I brought Carlos with me."
My mom poked her head out of the kitchen and saw Carlos. "I see what you mean. Marcus would be intimidated by your bounty hunter friend. Maybe tomorrow would be better."
I was about to follow my mother into the kitchen when Carlos placed his hand on my shoulder and said, "Let me talk to her Babe. I can be charming if I want and she needs to know a few things about me. I think she'll me more receptive to my words if we're in private."
I nodded and watched as Carlos walked into the kitchen and went to sit in the living room with my father.
Ranger's POV
I walked into the kitchen and saw Mrs. Plum facing the stove. She turned when she heard the door open and gasped when she saw me. She recovered quickly and asked, "Is there something I can do for you Ranger?"
"Actually Mrs. Plum, I wanted to talk to you about something. Do you mind?"
Mrs. Plum smiled nervously and said, "Of course."
I took a breath and asked, "Mrs. Plum, what do you know about me as a person? I can tell you have reservations about me spending time with Stephanie."
"Well, you seem like a nice young man, but you're a mercenary, you are a bounty hunter and you work with a bunch of men who look like criminals. I'm afraid that you'll put my daughter in physical danger and emotional danger because you aren't interested in more than a physical relationship."
I smiled at this because this is the exactly the argument that Morelli used with Stephanie when he wanted her to stay away from me and my men. "OK, let's start with the mercenary issue because it's the only part of your concern that is technically true. I was an army Ranger and when I was finished with active duty, the government contracted me to work classified missions. They paid me well but the missions were sanctioned by the US government.
"I now own a company called RangeMan. We currently have offices in 4 cities and we are looking at expanding to two other locations over the next few years. RangeMan does track down and bring in FTAs but I tend to delegate that as much as possible. Most of my days are spent in meetings and phone conferences.
"In addition, RangeMan provides top-of-the-line security for business and private homes, both monitored and alarm-based. This is a very lucrative business and we've been taking on less and less FTA work because we no longer need it to keep the business prospering.
"Next, the men that I work with are mostly ex-military men. Because of their size and history, they tend to make goo security consultants. They are all large and strong men and a lot of people tend to be intimidated by them. But to be honest, that negative reputation actually works in our favour. If skips and criminals are afraid of us, they're less likely to cross us."
Mrs. Plum looked at me with wide eyes and said, "I guess I've always believed the rumours about your criminal activity. Thanks for clearing things up. You can call me Ellen if you want."
"Thanks Ellen. Why don't you call me Carlos?"
"What about Ranger? I thought that was your name?"
"That's more of a nickname. I acquired it while in the Rangers and I use it for work. I'd rather that my family calls me Carlos."
Ellen's facial expression showed her confusion so I said, but before I could say anything, she said, "Joseph always said that you would break Stephanie's heart. He told us that you wouldn't want anything long term from Stephanie. That's not true is it?"
"Not entirely. Two years ago, I did tell Stephanie that I couldn't have a relationship with her or anyone else. At the time, I was still running missions for the army and they were usually very dangerous. I didn't want to get involved with Steph or anyone for that matter if there was a likelihood that I wouldn't come home. I couldn't do that to her.
"I tried to stay away from your daughter, especially because she was with Morelli. He didn't like us spending time together and he really pushed Steph to keep away from me. Luckily for me, she couldn't stay away from me as much as I couldn't stay away from her. I was drawn to her and now that I'm done with my government contract, I finally admitted my feelings to myself and to Stephanie. We love each other and I want to marry her, but I've come here tonight to get yours and Frank's blessing."
I watched Ellen as my words sank in. I heard her mumble something that sounded, "He's not very Burg."
I laughed and said, "If Stephanie wanted Burg Ellen, she'd have married Joe years ago. I know I'm not Burg, but I will treat your daughter well and she'll never want for anything."
Ellen nodded and said, "OK, I suppose you can have my blessing Carlos."
I thanked her and was a little surprised when she walked towards me and gave me a small hug. I'd never even seen her hug her husband, let alone Stephanie, so this was a huge gesture. After checking on the food, we both emerged from the kitchen with huge grins on our face. Stephanie stood up and saw the look on her mother's face and grinned herself.
Stephanie's POV
I saw my mother smiling and knew that Carlos had won her over. I don't know what he said, but whatever it was, it worked and I grinned at him as they walked towards me.
My mother looked at my father and me and said, "Frank, dinner will be ready in about 15 minutes. Why don't you show Carlos the work you've been doing on the Buick?"
Dad looked up at me and then my mother before standing and motioning for Carlos to follow. I turned and looked at my mother who was smiling. She motioned for me to follow her into the kitchen and said, "Let's get dinner ready for the table."
I followed her apprehensively to the kitchen and once inside, I realised that Grandma Mazur wasn't around. "Where's Gran?"
"Oh, she's upstairs getting ready. She had a bit of a disaster at the Beauty Parlour today and I think she's trying to figure out a way to confidently wear her hair. She tried a dark rinse and it turned out a bit more blackberry in colour. Try not to stare when she comes down."
My mother and I spent the next 10 minutes dishing up food and I went to the dining room with 5 minutes to spare to set the table. I bit my tongue when Grandma Mazur came in to help. Her hair was a deep plum colour, so instead of covering it with a scarf in order to hide it, she added some gel and styled it into spikes. I smiled at her and watched my dad's and Carlos' reaction when they came in to the room.
Much to everyone's surprise, neither of the men seemed to even notice that something was different about Edna Mazur. Carlos greeter with a kiss on the cheek and my dad just ignored her as usual. We sat down and dad started carving the chicken as soon as the clock struck 6 PM.
Dinner conversation was pleasant and there was no mention of my past relationship failures. I can only guess that my mother accepted my relationship with Carlos. My father and Carlos carried on a conversation during the meal about their army experiences. At some point, we got on to the topic of Christmas. My mother asked, "Will you and Carlos be able to come here on Christmas morning?"
I looked at Carlos and he answered, "I have to work on Christmas morning from 6AM until noon. I take this shift every year so that my men are able to spend time with their friends and family."
My mother smiled and said, "Please join us for Christmas dinner then Carlos. It starts at 2PM sharp."
I smiled and said, "I'll come with Carlos because I'll need his help to bring my gifts for you and the girls. We'll arrive as soon as Carlos' shift ends so that there will be enough time to open presents before dinner."
After dessert, we were sitting around having coffee when Grandma Mazur asked, "If you two are seeing each other, does that mean you're going to move in together?"
I looked at Carlos and he put his arm around my shoulder. He said, "We were actually looking at houses this morning. We found two that we really liked, but we still have to sit down and discuss the pros and cons of each of them."
I reached into my purse and pulled out the real estate brochures for both properties and handed one to my mother and the other to my father.
"Wow, this house is enormous Pumpkin," my father said.
"I know. Carlos thinks we might need the extra space at some point, but all I see is so much space to clean. The other one is more my style for the time being."
My mother swapped brochures with my father and she gasped when she read about the house. "I see what you mean Steph, this house is massive. I guess RangeMan must be doing well if you can seriously consider a house this size."
I nodded at her sentiment and said, "I like the house, but the loft is far more size appropriate at this point in time. The garden is also beautiful. We originally wanted a house with a back yard, but the roof garden offers the same access to the outdoors in a beautiful setting. The view of Trenton is spectacular as well and it is very private. But as Carlos says, we need to sit down and talk about it and make a decision. We aren't in a huge rush. It's not like we each don't already have a place to live."
When we were leaving, I overheard Carlos promise my father that he'd bring some Cuban cigars with him on Christmas Day. They shook hands and then my mother did something that stopped Grandma Mazur and I mid conversation. She hugged Carlos and told him that she couldn't want for him to come back on Christmas Day. He winked at me, grabbed my hand and waved at my family as he led me out to the car.
Once on our way back to my apartment, Carlos looked over at me and said, "I think we should stay at my place tonight so we can sleep in a little later. We should also talk about the properties we saw today and decide if we want to make an offer."
I nodded and replied, "I need to get a few things from my apartment and then we can head over to RangeMan. As for the properties, I really liked them both, but I don't honestly see how we could use the house. There is so much space and we're only two people."
Carlos smiled at me and said, "Once we're in for the night, let me tell you about my vision for the house. Maybe once you hear my ideas you'll agree that it's not such a huge undertaking."
More to come..