Thank you once again for the thought-provoking reviews. Yes, Janet, I know I cannot keep them, but maybe they might take a side trip on the way home.

Chapter 8

Tank was in the meeting with the organizers of the Forbes Women's Summit. He was having trouble concentrating and Ranger kept looking at him.

Finally, he gave up and signaled that he needed to leave the room. Ranger's eyes followed him out the door. He would be checking on him later. Tank was almost as committed to staying on track as Ranger so something was certainly up.

Tank took out his phone as he closed the door softly. He walked to the men's washroom and checking to see that it was empty pressed the button on the phone he rang whenever he was delayed or away from home.

He waited, unconsciously counting the rings. Once, twice, three times. At four it would go to voice mail and could only mean that Lula was driving, or unable to answer because of the boys.

At four rings, it went to the voice mail. He listened for her voice to kick in.

"This is Lula. I'mma busy right now with the babies. Leave a message and I will get back to you. And if it's my Tankie on the line, I love you."

Tank smiled. She changed the message almost everyday and he spoke.

"Hey Lula Belle, love you back. I am just checking to see how you are coping with everything. We have made enough progress that we hope to be back in Trenton tomorrow. Call me when you have a minute."

He hung up and walked back into the meeting, putting his phone back on vibrate.

He nodded at Ranger and took his place, immersing himself back into the meeting details.

The meeting ended and everyone stood around chatting and becoming more relaxed around each other. There would be a number of meetings scheduled closer to the Summit and while there was a lot of work to be done before then, it was now relaxed and almost friendly.

Tank's phone vibrated and he once again excused himself. He walked to a secluded area of the hall and picked up. He knew that it would be Lula on the line. Everyone had been told to hold all calls but she had never been given that order.

Tank leaned against the wall as he answered.

"Lula Belle, baby, I am missing you and we have only been gone overnight."

Lula spoke to her man.

"Tankie Bear, the boys are missing you and look at the door waiting for you to come in. I miss you too and I can't wait to have you holding me."

Tank's brow furrowed. Lula sounded off. Putting aside the fact that she was basically looking after the boys by herself for a few days while the nanny took some time off, she sounded sad and confused, and almost...concerned.

"Lula, is there a problem I should know about?" said Tank, cutting right to the chase. He was a no-nonsense kind of guy and believed in taking matters on straight ahead.

Lula whispered into the phone.

"I miss you and the boys miss you. I recognize that you have to go out of town now and then, but it is times like this that I miss your arms around me holding me and whispering all those things you do in my ear."

Tank slowly stood straight.

"Our meetings went better than expected and we hope to get home tomorrow fairly early. We are ferrying up an SUV for storage and I hope to be walking into our house while the boys are taking their naps. I think a nap for Mommy and Daddy would sound good too, what do you think, Baby?"

Lula purred into the phone.

"I love to nap with you, Tankie Bear, so have a really good and restful sleep because I want our nap to be memorable."

Tank unconsciously adjusted himself. His woman would be the death of him.

The rest of the team were looking his way, preparing to move out so he wrapped up his call.

"Talk to you soon, Lula. The guys want to leave and they think that I should be the one buying dinner tonight which means that I need to go with them. If I sent my credit card along, we would be eaten out of house and home and they would order the most expensive things on the menu, twice!"

Lula laughed. She too loved the Rangeman buddies.

Saying their goodbye's quickly they hung up.

Les and Bobby were making kissy noises at each other and Ranger lifted both his hands and bonked their heads together making them cry out in pain.

"Got to be aware of your surroundings, muchachos," he said.

They walked out to the limo waiting for them and climbed in.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie sunk into the hotel chair and sighed. She had a signed contract for a complete outfitting of a new operation and while she was pleased at the result, it had been long and arduous.

She hated people who had too much money yet when dealing had taken the attitude that she should be grateful for the business. She felt a bit sorry for the staff down in the barns and predicted that there would be a complete change-out of staff in the near future.

Opening her laptop, Stephanie began to place the orders. She was being paid to rush everything and making some quick notes, completed her purchase requests in short order.

Her shoes lay abandoned in the middle of the floor and her handbag was laying open on the bed. Her suitcase was still standing by the door and she really wanted to have a long, relaxing bath. Unfortunately she would be taking one alone, again.

Her mind, and hormones remembered the luxurious bathtub in The London and who she had shared it with. It almost seemed like forever since she had had his hands caressing her, and the mountain of bubbles wiggling suggestively as they relaxed.

Stephanie stood up. Instead of a bath, she was feeling the need for a shower, a long, hot and needed shower. Unfortunately, her phone rang at that moment and she spent the next hour talking business.

She sat at the small table in her room eating her Room Service meal. This was turning into a ritual whenever she was away. A tear made its way down her cheek and she furiously wiped it away. If Ranger phoned he would know instantly that something was wrong and she did not need him to worry. She had chosen this as a job and while she loved most aspects of it, after leaving Ranger her emotions were somewhat fragile. She chastised herself and her need to grow up. She had a job to do and so did he.

Stephanie finished her meal and put away her laptop. She pulled the suitcase over to the suitcase stand and lifted it onto the stand and opened it.

Inside, sitting on top was a card and under it, a nice new black t-shirt. Ranger had somehow sneaked both into her bag when she was not looking. She smiled to herself. He had somehow managed to do that every trip she had made for months. She watched her suitcase from the time she locked it in her condo to when she left and he always managed to somehow slide it in.

She picked up the envelope and slid the card out of it. He had written another note in his bold, strong handwriting and she sat on the edge of the bed to read it.

'Babe. I now understand how hard it was for you to see me leave on missions and try to continue day by day. I think of you constantly and hope you are safe and well. Please be careful and listen to your spidey senses. I am only a phone call away.'

C

Stephanie started to sniffle as she carefully put the card back in the envelope. She would add it to every one else she had received.

Picking up the t-shirt, she put it to her nose and gave a sniff. It was new, but it had that soft feel that it had been washed a few times. His body wash scent was evident but in a subtle way.

Stephanie took her shower and put the shirt over her head, feeling better.

She had just climbed into bed when her phone rang with the Batman theme song, and she picked it up and pressed the button.

Ranger had been surreptitiously checking his watch. Kentucky and New York were in the same time zone so he would not be disturbing her during her meetings, he hoped. He wondered if this potential customer was wining and dining her as so many others had. He clenched his fist as he thought of his Babe. He was the jealous kind of man and unfortunately thought the worst of others. She was a beautiful person, both inside and out and he firmly wanted to believe that she was his.

On the other side of the coin, calling himself a man of action and few words, he was not that confident in telling her verbally, but he tried to make up for it in gestures, and presents and assistance. He had told her in the past that his love did not come with a ring. He had been burned by his first marriage and the pain of standing up in front of man and God declaring his allegiance to the woman standing beside him burned into his heart and head and he truly believed that he never wanted to ever do that again. He had been told he was a sick man and didn't know what to do about it.

Ranger pulled out his phone and this time his thumb pressed the button. He waited for her to answer knowing that if she was still in her meeting that she would let it go to voice mail and she would phone later.

The phone engaged and his Babe was on the line.

"Hi, Ranger," came the voice of his angel. "It took some doing but I have the signed contract in front of me. He wanted a rush order so I have just finished placing it."

He could tell by her voice that it had been a difficult negotiation. She spoke again.

"I continue to be absolutely blown away how money can make some people so demanding. He is tossing out all the equipment in the stables and is ordering new. Has he no idea how hard it is to work in new leather? His stable employees will be very busy trying to get it soft enough to work easily enough not to chaff the horses."

Ranger chuckled to himself. She was worrying about how hard they would be working so that the stock would not suffer. His Babe was one for the books.

He spoke.

"We wrapped up our meetings early and will drive home later tomorrow. I think Les and Bobby have taken off into town and I don't expect to see them before workout tomorrow morning. Tank is in his room, probably on the phone with Lula. He is worrying that she will be overwhelmed looking after the boys since Marjorie is away. Just bad timing both he and she are away at the same time."

They sat and chatted on the phone, talking about how much fun it had been in New York.

Ranger could hear Stephanie try to cover up a yawn with her other hand and he quickly began to wrap up the call.

"I will let you go Babe. You are in the same hotel for a couple more days, right?"

Stephanie tried to quell another yawn but they were getting the best of her.

"Yeah, I am here for two or three more days. I wanted to check in with a couple more ranchers in the area. They wanted me to stop in the next time I was here, so I will see what their schedules are like then move on. I want to be in Louisville by Friday."

Ranger sighed.

"Sending you a good night kiss your way, Babe. Missing you."

Stephanie nodded her head.

"Missing you too, Ranger. Thank you for the shirt and the card. I was watching and missed you putting it in again!"

Ranger chuckled.

"It's called distraction, Babe. I distracted you and slipped it in."

They said their good-byes and hung up. Sleep did not come easily for either of them that night.

~~~o0o~~~

Lula woke up in the middle of the night. The pain had returned.