All the usual FF disclaimers.
Also, I'm really sorry if anyone got a notice and ended up reading the 6th chapter before this one was posted. I only realised my error when I saw that I was previewing Chapter 6.
The next chapter will be reviewed and posted tomorrow. Thanks for the reviews and reading.
Carlos got up at 5:30 and told me to go back to sleep. I accepted a quick kiss and he was out the door. I decided around 7:30 that I should get up and by 8:30, I was down in the control room with Carlos. Not much was happening on the monitors so I decided to keep him company.
We decided to approach Val and Albert about living in our guest house until the main house was ready for us to move in. We would offer Val a job as a RangeMan employee with the typical starting salary to manage the building work for the house. We would not charge them rent for the guest house because they were doing us a favour. They would be able to keep an eye on the house and hopefully even take care of the horses.
When Ranger talked to Woody about the horses, he offered to teach any of us that were interested how to ride. I was pretty sure that Mary Alice would jump at the chance and I was also interested. Once I was able to ride confidently, I could take Mary Alice out at any time. Carlos also expressed an interest so it could turn out to be a whole family affair.
Ranger was relieved at 12:00 by two junior employees. They wished him each other a Merry Christmas and we headed upstairs to get ready for the rest of the day with my family. Carlos changed into a pair of charcoal dress pants, his new blue shirt, a complementary tie and his new tie clip. He looked amazing.
I wore a knee length, long-sleeved wrap around dress that floated when I twirled. The dress was a dark cranberry red colour that made my eyes seem brighter than usual. I was wearing black strappy heels, a ruby and gold necklace and a huge smile.
Carlos greeted me with a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek. He was smart enough to realise that the effort I put into my cranberry red lipstick would be ruined if he kissed me on the lips. "Are you ready to go Babe?"
I nodded and said, "Do we have all of the presents?"
Carlos pointed to two huge bags and a box by the door. "I think so. If not, we can run back later if needed."
We grabbed the bags and the box and headed down to the car. I was a little sad when we had to take the Cayenne because the presents wouldn't fit into the Turbo, but I got over it. We pulled up in front of my parents' house and found ourselves surrounded by my nieces, sister and Grandma Mazur before we even had the presents out of the trunk.
Albert and my father came out to help moments later, and between the 8 of us, we easily carried all of the presents inside the house. I greeted my father with a kiss on the cheek, looked in on my mother in the kitchen. She was busy rushing about getting things ready. She wished me a Merry Christmas and asked me to send Grandma Mazur in to help her.
I relayed the request to my grandmother and then asked to speak to Val and Albert in the dining room. The table was already set so we took care not to disturb anything. Val looked at us and asked, "Have you changed your mind about getting me to help with the house?"
Carlos smiled and said, "No, but we have a proposal for you and Albert in addition to the job."
Albert looked at Val and said, "Go ahead."
"While the house is being worked on, we'd like you and your family to live in the guest house. It has three bedrooms and is only a few years old, so everything is in working order. Since nobody will be in the main house, you'll be pretty much on-site for your job and you'll be helping us by being nearby when the house is unoccupied."
Albert paled and said, "I'm not sure we can afford the rent on a place like that."
Carlos nodded and said, "We would consider your proximity to our unoccupied house as payment enough. We don't expect any rent on top of that. It will make our insurance much more affordable. Insuring an unoccupied house is very expensive. This way we can say that even though the main house is unoccupied, there is a presence on the property."
Val and Albert looked at each other and smiled. They turned back to us and Val said, "I don't know how to thank you guys. You've always come through for me and the girls when we've needed something. We will do this on one condition."
I watched as Carlos raised an eyebrow and Val continued. "If we move in there, you must let me do the building work for free. It will be really fun to do and I think you've done enough by letting us live there."
Carlos laughed and said, "I won't force a salary on you, but I think you'd have far more success wrangling the builders if you actually are a RangeMan employee. It will also make things easier from a legal standpoint if you are my employee. Please reconsider."
Albert was the one who spoke next, "How long would the building work take? The longer the timeframe, the more reasonable a salary would be for us Val."
I smiled at Al's logic. He was trying to figure out a way to accept Carlos' offer without appearing weak. I answered his question by saying, "We don't know how long the work will take because we haven't even brought a builder around to give us a quote. A guess would be between 6 months and a year. Why don't you think about your options? We'll get the keys next week and you can come and take a look."
Val and Albert agreed to decide once they've seen the place and we all went back into the lounge to join my father. Almost as soon as we entered, my father dragged Carlos out to the garage. I can only assume that they were smoking cigars and talking manly things. Valerie looked at me and the look in her eye showed me that she wished Albert was joining them. I caught Carlos' eye just before he left and he was able to read my mind and said, "Why don't you join us Albert?" Albert's face light up and he rushed out of the room and followed my father and Carlos.
Val and I watched as the men we loved left with our father. We both grinned at each other and went back into the lounge and joined the girls. As soon as I sat down, Lisa waddled over to me on her two-year old limbs and climbed onto my lap. "Well hello there Lisa." The little girl smiled up at me and said, "An Stephie, I is walking." I laughed and hugged her as she struggled to get down to the floor.
Mary Alice and Angie greeted me, but since all the men were currently AWOL, gift giving would have to wait. Instead, they helped us put all of our presents under the tree. List held up a present that Angie said was for her and she shook it and tried to figure out what it was. She looked up at me with her big blue eyes and said, "Open now Stephie?" I looked over at Val who shook her head and replied, "Let's wait until Daddy, Granddad and Uncle Carlos come back before we open presents. Grandma is also busy in the kitchen right now and I'm sure she'd want to watch you open your presents."
The look on Lisa's face said it all. She wanted to open her presents and she wanted to do it now. Unfortunately, the men were out in the garage, smoking illegal cigars. We'd just have to wait until they come back before opening presents. I wasn't too impatient. This would give me an opportunity to talk to Val about the house and the job we offered her.
After twenty minutes of talking, Val agreed to move to the guest house and to take the RangeMan job. She understood that Carlos was doing this mainly to help them save up for their own house, but she was thankful enough not to dwell on it.
When the men finally returned, there was only a half hour before lunch. I checked with my mother and everything was pretty much taken care of so she agreed to come out of the kitchen so we could open presents.
Mary Alice was playing Santa Claus. She handed out all of the presents from under the tree and made a small pile for her to open once she was finished. Angie was over the moon with her laptop. When Carlos explained some of the software applications on the laptop, she stood and walked over to hug Carlos. He returned the hug and said, "It was nothing Angie. Your Aunt Steph and I just wanted to make sure that you had the necessary tools to become the smart woman we envisage you to become."
Angie ran over to me and hugged me next. Lisa was happy with her toys and Mary Alice wasn't sure what to say when we explained that her gift was some horse riding lessons and the care of a horse or two. We didn't want to tell her that her new house would have horse stables and a paddock, just in case Val and Albert decided not to move there, so we kept quiet.
Carlos grinned at me when Albert explained to Mary Alice that they'd be moving in the New Year and that their new house had some stables and a couple of horses. It would be her responsibility to take care of them, which Mary Alice accepted with a level of maturity that exceeded her young age.
Carlos smiled at me as Grandma Mazur opened a present that contained two new leisure suits. One was plum coloured and the other was black. She held them up and kissed both Carlos and I to express her thanks.
Dad was very happy with his Panattone and new sweater and my mother seemed very happy with her new mixer unit. It was top of the line and I never would have bought it for her without Carlos' insistence and credit card.
Val and Albert were both given nice clothes and I gave Carlos a really nicely framed picture of him and me. The picture was much nicer than the one I gave him for the Secret Santa and the frame was made from sliver and definitely not bought at the dollar store.
The only gift left was Carlos' gift to me. He left it to last on purpose and he waited until he had everyone's attention before he handed me a small box. I opened it and found the same ring he tried to give me the week before. This time, he looked down at me and said, "Babe, I know things between us have been different lately. I know that you wanted to know me better before we did this, and I know that you wanted to be sure that this was meant to last before moving forward.
"I've opened up and you've accepted me for who I am. We've bought a house and we've agreed to be together. Now, the only thing that would make my life perfect would be if you agreed to be my wife. Babe, will you marry me?"
I listened to the words Carlos was saying and felt the tears fill my eyes. Things hadn't changed a whole lot between us since he last asked me, but I now knew that he was serious. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with me and I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of mine with him.
I looked up into his warm brown eyes and said, "Of course Carlos, I would be honoured to be your wife. I will marry you."
When I answered him, he picked me up in his arms and slipped the ring on my finger. I looked down at my finger and saw a huge diamond ring. Of course it was larger than I would have ever expected of anyone but Carlos. He wanted the best for me and this ring was just that. I looked back up to him and wrapped my arms around his neck and laughed as the rest of my family congratulated us.
After a round of congratulations, we sat down to lunch. The conversation was pleasant and my mother seemed to fixate on details for the wedding. Both Carlos and I were a little apprehensive of some of her suggestions, but we'd talk about it later. I knew we wouldn't let my mother take over and turn our wedding into something Burg-tastic.
At one point during the lunch, my mother directed a question to Carlos that I wish I'd asked myself. "Carlos, what about your family. Do you not spend time together during the holidays?"
Carlos smiled slightly and said, "My family is pretty much spread across the whole country. Most of my siblings have their own family so we started joining together on New Year's Eve instead of Christmas. It allows each of us to have our own Christmas and then we gather at the New Year as a family. It seems to work for us, or has for the past decade at least."
Everybody seemed to accept this explanation and we moved onto discussing our new house. Everyone was really excited that we would be moving. My mother expressed interest in helping us with the decoration and I gladly accepted her help because she knew how to accessorise like all Burg women. I wouldn't let her take over, but I'd let her help.
After lunch, we sat around the lounge together and talked about lots of things. Mary Alice asked 101 questions about the horses at her new house, but we were unable to answer them all. We promised her that if she wrote down her questions and gave them to us, we'd do our best to answer them when she came to visit next.
While we were clearing the table, I saw Carlos take my mother aside and have a short conversation with her. I wasn't sure what they were talking about but I was pretty sure that Carlos got his way based on the grin he was sporting as he walked away from my mother. Actually, on second thought, my mother was also grinning. What on earth had they discussed? Carlos refused to tell me, even after we were in the car on the way home. Carlos just said that he was just making nice with his future Mother-in-law and I should be happy that they were getting along.
When we returned to RangeMan, Carlos wanted to stop off on the 4th floor to check on the guys. Sometimes they went a bit overboard at this time of the year and he just wanted to make sure that they were OK. As soon as Lester saw us, he looked at my hand and screamed his congratulations. Anyone within earshot, and that appeared to be most of RangeMan because they were having a party, surrounded us and hugged us as they congratulated us.
By the time that Carlos and I made it to bed that night, we were almost too exhausted to celebrate our new status. I did say almost right? We made love for hours that night and collapsed into a dreamless and very restful sleep.
My last thought that night was that I was going to be Mrs. Ricardo Carlos Manoso. I liked the sound of that. I liked the sound of Stephanie Manoso. I must have mumbled that in my sleep because I heard Carlos whisper, "I like the sound of that Babe. Stephanie Manoso is a great name and I'm positive that you'll do it proud." I closed my eyes, safe in the knowledge that I was loved, and with that knowledge I knew no more that day.
There will be two more chapters to follow. Hopefully they won't take too long.
L.