A/N Everything you recognize belongs to Janet Evanovich. Thank you to Kathy's amazing beta skills, Heather for all her sound advice and encouragement and Lisa who did a little of both! Without you all, this story would not have happened.

~Chapter 9

***April 23

I wake the next morning alone in bed. Big surprise. I roll over and look for a clock. Nothing. It's very bright since the room is facing the ocean. Sunrise is very early so by my calculations, it's not time to get up. However, the fact is that it's too bright to fall back to sleep and I have to answer nature's call, so I swing my legs off the bed. Last night, Ranger apologized for hurting my feelings and just held me. He didn't apologize for what he said or the fact that he gave Bobby the wrong impression of me. Am I splitting hairs? Maybe? I sigh, as I make my way out of the bathroom. I'm surprised to see Ranger lounging on the bed and he has breakfast. My face lights up at the sight of bacon and, and….. and a giant piece of Pineapple Upside Down cake! That is the perfect breakfast. I can't help but smile as I run back to the bed and climb back in, careful not to spill the coffee.

"If only you were that excited to come back to bed for me," Ranger says, amused.

"Humph" I mutter as I shove a piece of bacon in my mouth. I sit cross legged and continue to scarf down the food. There are other things here like orange juice but I don't plan on touching that. Orange juice doesn't go with cake. Ever.

"Did you already eat your twigs and berries?" I ask him hoping to get rid of the healthy stuff on the tray.

"I only had coffee," he replies so I offer him a strip of bacon. He smiles and slowly shakes his head.

"No? How about this?" I put the bacon down and offer him a forkful of cake. He raises a single eyebrow.

"You know what I want," he says thickly.

Oh hell. The room is ready to catch on fire. Did I mention that Ranger is only wearing a pair of lounge pants. Riding so low that I can see all those tantalizing muscles. I am focused on his abs. Those amazing abs that have such firm definition. I gulp and it has nothing to do with eating breakfast. He lifts the tray off the bed and I don't protest. I just watch. I watch the muscles dance with contractions as he moves with a fluid grace. I can admit when I'm caught and I am definitely caught. All of my earlier reservations have been erased. I'm powerless to fight the connection with him that I crave so I'm just going to try to trust that everything will work out.

I carry the tray down an hour later. I did end up eating all the bacon, one bite of the eggs and all the cake. Ranger ate the rest of the eggs and drank all the orange juice. I look at the clock on the microwave and see that it is 10:00am. Not bad. I love to sleep in but I'm at the beach and want to enjoy it. I can sleep in when I'm in Trenton where the sights and sounds are not worth getting out of bed for.

I see Les and Woody relaxing outside drinking coffee.

"What's up?" I ask as I sit with them.

"Good morning Beautiful." Les greets. "Did you have a good night?" he asks, eyebrows convulsing. Lester is back. He's back to his self confident horn-dog self.

"I did. How was your night?"

A slow smile breaks out on his face. "You know, your instincts were right on. That first group of women were ready to party and party we did.," he says cryptically and I'm glad. I do not want details of his escapades now or well ... ever.

"I was just telling Woody..."

"No Les, I don't want to hear any details." I interrupt.

"You're no fun Beautiful. Can I at least tell you..."

"NO!" I scream. "Nothing, you can tell me nothing!"

"Fine, tell me about your night," he says, his voice deepening.

"You are such a pig Lester Santos," I tell him, getting up. As I leave, I hear Les and Woody laughing at me. I'm glad that Les seems to have rebounded. I'm glad he's not hurting as much as he was and if that means playboy Lester is back then so be it.

I look around, seeing that the house and patio area has been cleaned up. It wasn't this nice last night when I went around with the trash bag. The boys have been busy. Finding nothing to help with, I decide that laying on the beach sounds like a good way to spend my time.

I set up close to the volleyball area so I can see the beach but I can also see the men in shorts playing. I'm no dummy. I see Cal and Shelby walk out the back door and over to me.

"Hey Shelby, hey Cal." I greet them.

"Hey Steph, want some company?" Shelby asks.

"I would love some company. Cal, pull up a lounger for Shelby." I tell him and they both look relieved.

"Did you have to work last night?" I ask her.

"Yeah. I wanted to call off but we were so short staffed that I think my boss would have fired me," she replies as Cal makes his way back. He gets Shelby all situated including lotioning up her back.

"You guys are so cute," I tell her. "How's everything going with you two?"

"Great. He's really great. You were right. He's a sweetheart."

"He is." I agree. "It's so nice to have another female to do the girly stuff with. Not that it's not fun hanging out with the guys but I haven't been able to convince anyone to lay out with me and chat. I had to trick them into taking me shopping. I told them it was so I could scope out the boardwalk to look for girls to invite to the bonfire. In reality I got all my souvenir shopping done," I tell her and she laughs.

"Cal said we could go later. I want to pick up a few things for my niece, it's her birthday and I thought something from here would be better than what I could get in Trenton."

"I agree." I tell her but I'm stuck on the fact that Cal is willing to go to the boardwalk with her. I wonder if Ranger would go with me? Probably not. I work hard not to sigh. I don't want to get into this with Shelby. I also don't want to keep dwelling on this type of thing. I want to enjoy myself now. I can think all about this stuff when I'm home.

"I'm hoping a volleyball game will start when it's time to flip to our bellies. It makes for nice scenery." I say with a smile.

"Yeah, I'm picturing Top Gun but way hotter."

"Just have your sunglasses ready. It gets intense." I say and we giggle.

After about half an hour the boys filter out of the house and make their way to the net. Yay! I see Cal heading our way with a couple of drinks in his hands.

"I thought you two ladies would like a drink." Cal says. "I made you frozen margaritas. They do have a little alcohol in them but not much. You'd have to drink a lot to get drunk, even you Bomber," he says and I give him a gee thanks look.

"Thanks Cal." Shelby says and he gives her a quick kiss. Cal hurries over to the game and the guys give him crap. Jerks.

"Next time he brings us something, I think you should make a really big deal of showing him how thoughtful he is and show those jerks what they're missing." I tell her.

"Great idea. What did you have in mind?"

"How about we get him to sit and you can sit on his lap and give him a really good kiss and I will massage his shoulders. That should teach the pigs a lesson for teasing Cal,"

"Sounds good."

An hour later, Cal subs out of the game and brings us a refill and just like we discussed, we have him sit and Shelby kisses him and I give him a massage. All the while we are thanking him and telling him how great and thoughtful he is. I have to suppress a laugh when I notice the game come to a screeching halt and every single guy was watching us lavish our attention on Cal. Since I'm standing facing the men, I can see on their faces that they wish that it was them getting special attention. I hear Shelby whisper in Cal's ear that we wanted to teach the boys a lesson for teasing him and he barks out a laugh. Cal stands up and, taking Shelby with him, heads into the house. I guess they could use a little private time. The men really looked jealous after that. I pick up my drink and silently toast Ranger, who has been watching me since I started touching Cal. I could tell he didn't like it at all. Too bad. I sit back down and decide it's time for some specific payback. I grab the bottle of lotion and start to apply it to my chest and stomach. I dip my hand into my top and skate the edge of my bottoms. I stare at Ranger the whole time. He's still looking at me when the ball drops right in front of him. The guys yell at him for not paying attention and figure out pretty quickly why. They start to give him shit and he puts a stop to it by calling Les to the mats. I turn away, put my glasses on and grab my drink satisfied that I made my point. I ignore the game until Shelby and Cal return with a refresh of our drinks. I drank Shelby's since I thought it would melt by the time she returned. I was right. What? It's a lime frozen margarita. I'm not letting that go to waste.

We head into the house looking for lunch a little later. I make myself a sandwich and grab some chips and dip and head back out to my chair. Shelby abandoned me, choosing to go for a long walk on the beach with Cal. I'm on my stomach sleeping when something cold wakes me up. Very cold water is being poured on my back. I'm startled out of my sleep so violently that I don't realize I sat up without my top on. I had loosened it while I was on my belly so I wouldn't get a strap line. I realize that I flashed the whole back of the house and quickly cover myself up. I stare at Ranger with my 'what the hell' look. Instead of looking smug, he looks pissed that the guys saw me topless. I grab my towel and top and head inside. He follows a few steps behind me. The guys have a deer in headlights look as we pass. No one says a word, thankfully. I go into the closest bathroom and lock the door. Ranger knocks.

"Steph, let me in." Are you kidding me? He pulls a stunt like that and then he commands me to do something?

"Go away." I'm embarrassed that I flashed the guys. I'm irritated that I was so abruptly awakened and he has the nerve to command? He should be fucking apologizing. My fury is building. I start muttering under my breath. "...I'm sorry Steph...I shouldn't have done that Steph... Can you please talk to me so I can apologize Steph?...Any of those would have been good. What did he say? Let me in..." I continue in my best Ranger voice. He knocks again.

"Steph, please." He says in a softer tone. I finish getting my suit fixed and open the door. He's expecting to come in but I duck under his arm to get out. I'm not going to let him apologize in private. If he wants to apologize, he can do it in front of everyone. I huff back out the door and go back to my chair. All my stuff is there and I want to get my cover-up on. I don't even look at the guys as I pass but my face heats up anyway. I grab my cover-up out of my bag and pull it on. I'm using quick jerky movements. I don't want to even look at Ranger. He's suspiciously silent so I look around. Yep, there are still guys around that can hear.

"What? What do you have to say to me?" I ask. Silence.

"Fine. I'm going to walk to the boardwalk, by myself. I will see you later and by then maybe you'll have figured out what you want to say to me." Irritation, heavy in my voice. I pull out my wallet and shoes and get up to walk down the beach. I notice that he has started to follow me and I stop and turn to him. I am serious about not letting him apologize in private.

"If you want to come with me, you have to apologize. Otherwise, I'm going alone." I tell him loudly. I put him in check. If he comes with me now then all his men will know he apologized and that also admits that we are a couple. This is not something he's willing to do. I know this. I stare at him for a few moments hoping I'm wrong. Nope.

"I get it. I'll be back later." I say and turn to leave. This time he does not follow me. I'm halfway to the boardwalk when Les catches up to me. Figures, he won't come but he'll send in back up. I turn on him.

"I want to be alone." I tell him.

"I'm worried about you."

"Ranger sent you to check on me but I'm saying to you that I want to be alone. As my friend, please Les."

"I can't disobey an order plus, I really am worried about you," he says, admitting that he was sent here to watch me. No big surprise.

"Fine," I turn to head back. "I'll just go back to Trenton. If I'm going to have a shadow, then I may as well tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to go see what Grandma is up to. A funeral sounds great, I'm sure someone interesting has died in the Burg." He doesn't even try to hide his fright.

"Fine. You win. I'll go back and face Ranger. He probably won't kill me since I'm family and all," he says and I can't let that affect me. I deserve an apology and if I want to be alone then I deserve to be. I wonder, though, if I'm carrying a tracker and make a split second decision.

"Wait, Les." I don't want to carry anything so I pull a couple of twenties out of my wallet and give him the rest. "Can you put this in my bag where I was sitting on the beach?" If I am carrying a tracker then it would probably be in my wallet. I don't know for sure but the clothes and shoes I have on are new so they're less likely to be tracked.

"Sure thing Beautiful. Just call me if you need me," he says, not realizing that I didn't bring my phone on purpose.

"Thanks Les about the part that you were worried about me. Not the part where you were following orders." I say, giving him a look trying to say I think Ranger's orders are ridiculous.

RPOV

Seeing Stephanie rubbing Cal's shoulders pisses me off. I really hate to see her touching anyone else. I know that it's platonic but I don't care. It makes me want to punch Cal in the face. I work to get my emotions under control. After they kiss him and look over to us, I realize this is payback. They probably heard the men giving him shit about being pussy whipped. I don't think any of us are going to be giving him shit anymore. When Shelby takes him into the house I have to get this situation under control. "Let's go. Are we playing or what?" I ask them, snapping them out of their thoughts.

Stephanie standing catches my eye. She was rubbing lotion all over her chest and abs. She is teasing me. She's staring at me and I watch her slip her hand in her top and rub her breasts. She then slides her hand down her stomach to her bikini bottoms. She hesitates at the edge slowly reaching in farther ... I'm pulled from my vision and thoughts when the ball drops in front of me and everyone is staring at me. Shit.

"Bro, pay attention." Bobby says and looks over to where Steph is. She pulls her hand out of her suit and sits down giving Bobby a good idea of why my attention was not on the game.

"Let's go." I say and we resume the game. We play for another hour and I go into the house for water. Steph has already come in to eat lunch and I was thinking that she is exactly what I would like for lunch. I did owe her some payback and grab an extra bottle of water.

I stand over her, shading her and she doesn't move. She's sleeping. I'm mentally thinking of all the ways I could wake her if we were alone. I see that her top is untied, so I would pull the strings on the sides of her bottoms and shit. I have to pull it together. We're not alone so instead, I pour some cold water down her spine. I was expecting her to wake up and yell at me. What I wasn't expecting was for her to jump up and scream, alerting the men on the patio to look at her naked breasts. I freeze. She realizes quickly and covers herself. She grabs her towel and bikini top and takes off to the house. I gather my wits and am two steps behind her. FUCK. I'm pissed that my men saw her breasts and it's my fault. She's pissed for the same reason. I know I need to apologize and make it right but I can't do that in front of my men. I feel it's a sign of weakness and I have to lead by example. Fuck. I follow her to the bathroom trying to get her somewhere private. I'm irritated that she didn't go to our bathroom. I could have all the privacy I need there.

She locked the fucking door. I'm getting more irritated by the second. I can get this door open in less than two seconds but that would cause a scene...and destroy the door to the bathroom. She doesn't seem interested in having a private conversation and I wonder if she is doing that on purpose after I hear her muttering under her breath on how I should have apologized.

She finally opens the door and I go in expecting to close her in so I can apologize and she surprises me by ducking under my arm and slipping out. This situation is going from fucked to really fucked. I'm following her like a puppy. A fact that is probably not lost on the men. Does she really expect me to apologize in front of everyone? When she throws down the challenge that I can only go with her if I apologize, I'm powerless to act. Fuck. I let her go. I find Les and order him to go after her to keep an eye on her. I'm working hard to keep my temper under control, since I want to punch something or someone ... really bad. I use my breathing techniques to take the edge off. Ten minutes later, I see Les returning without her and all my breathing was for shit.

"Where is she?" I demand as soon as he's close enough to hear me.

"She didn't want me to hang around. Look bro, I know you wanted me to keep an eye on her and I would but she wasn't having it. She threatened me..." Les states and I interrupt.

"What in the hell can she do to you that would scare you into disobeying an order from me?" I asked incredulously.

"She said she would go back to Trenton and pick up her Grandmother and take her to a funeral. I decided that I would rather face off with you than have to do that."

I'm speechless. On one hand I'm pissed beyond belief that Les left her alone. On the other hand, I admire her creativity and admit that I would rather face myself than her Grandmother's boney fingers too.

"Fuck" I say and run my hand down my face trying to figure out what I'm going to do.

"You know bro, you should have just apologized." He points out unhelpfully.

"Fuck you Santos." I say and stomp back into the house. I pull up her trackers and find that they are all stationary, even the one I slipped into her wallet early this morning. I have no alternative but to wait until she returns. Fuck! I hate this.

She stays away for several hours, returning after dinner. She brings a group of women back with her and everyone was excited to see her approach. She didn't go anywhere by herself. She even stayed in her bikini and cover up. She normally would have showered and gotten ready for the evening. She didn't.

She ended up in the hot tub later and by the time it was sunset, she was very happily drunk. She is a fun drunk and everyone was enjoying her inebriated state. When she said we should go skinny dipping, the men thankfully talked her out of it. They told her that skinny dipping was only a couples thing to do and after much debate, she bought it. Thank fuck. Les was pissed. He was about to correct her when Hal gave him a pretty strong elbow to the side. That made him shut up.

I sit drinking my third beer of the night and wishing I had a do over for this whole day. Well, I wouldn't change the morning, just everything that happened after that. I know that fixing my screw up isn't going to happen today. I plan on getting her to bed safely and sending someone out for the cure tomorrow morning.

***April 24

SPOV

I wake to the freaking bright sunlight shining in the windows, again. I bring my arm over my face to block it out when I hear the sound of the automatic curtains start moving to block the offending rays. My head is pounding and my mouth feels like the desert. I have to pee but it's not bad enough to risk the nausea I know corresponds with my current condition. I don't make a move to get up for several minutes.

I know Ranger is in the room, the tension is high. He doesn't say anything. I try to go back to sleep but having him here is stirring up my emotions, making it impossible to roll over and return to blissful unconsciousness.

I guess I waited him out and he speaks softly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. I didn't think you would get up." He moves over to sit on the edge of the bed closest to me. "If I would have known, I certainly wouldn't have done that. Can you forgive me?" he asks sincerely.

I take a deep breath. He's saying all the right things but he's only willing to say them in private. I know he didn't mean to do it so I am going to forgive him but I was hoping somehow he would show more than just me how he feels. I know he's a private person but why did he talk to Bobby? I know he's the boss but can't the boss say sorry? The feeling of seeing this through filters to the top. Am I willing to die on this hill? I ask myself and hide the smile at my war reference. The straight answer to that is no. I am not willing to die on this hill.

"I wanted you to say sorry then, in front of the guys. I wanted you to shield me from the embarrassment somehow." I tell him, searching his face.

"I'm sorry. I really wish I could change what happened. I never want you to be embarrassed. I never want you to be mad at me or hurt by me or hurt because of me," he says, looking at the dancing light coming through the edge of the blackout shades.

"So will you forgive me? I have Les getting the cure for you. No pressure," he says, nudging me and trying to coax a smile out of me.

"Of course I forgive you. I know you didn't mean for that to happen," I tell him, letting him have a pass for the lack of public apology. I really didn't have a choice. I know if I push him for a real relationship he'll push me away and it may end our friendship. I know this is all he can offer me right now. I paste a smile on my face that I really didn't feel.

A knock sounds and Ranger gets up to get it. He returns with a McDonalds bag and a large Coke. He hands me the food and drink and goes into the bathroom for some ibuprofen.

"Ahhh. Thank you. How come Les is still here? I thought he had to go run Rangeman," I say as I shove fries in my mouth, washing it down with the meds and Coke. Soon, my hangover will be gone.

"Tank offered to cover for Les so he could stay the whole weekend," he says. "You know, this is the second morning in a row that I brought you breakfast in bed."

"Don't worry, I won't get used to it." I tell him as I continue eating. Each bite gets me closer to feeling more human.

"Ideally, I would like you to start your day like this every day," he says.

"Ideally, this wouldn't be how I started my day. It would only be a brief conscious period before falling back to sleep and then I get up and have a real breakfast before I start my day."

"Fine. You go back to sleep and I will see you when you get up for the day."

I finish my pre-breakfast and use the bathroom before climbing back into bed. I notice that I'm wearing one of Ranger's shirts and that's it. I search my brain for what I did last night and come up with hazy memories of trying to talk everyone into skinny dipping again. Oh hell! Now I have more things to be embarrassed about. Perfect!