Okay, so once again, I'm a little late. RL has been really busy for me and I haven't given as much time as I usually do to my stories. That and the details of this story are still a little sketchy. I'll try to continue to post once a week, so bear with me. We will get to the end!

For the next chapter, I was thinking some Lester/ Natalie action. Who would like that?

Not mine. Only the story and the mistakes.

I sighed and fought the urge to roll my eyes for the tenth time. Natalie and Ranger were really getting into their roles.

Instead of just randomly showing up one day and moving in (which I was all for that plan), Natalie decided to play fake realtor and show us the house.

Personally, I think it was because she had been stuck on a plane with Lester for a few hours and she was going crazy. Better her play fake realtor than to have to explain to Huston PD why we were hiding a body.

Right now, she was acting so perky that all I wanted to do was slap her.

Maybe we should rethink the whole killing Lester thing.

Ranger looked back at me and grinned. He was enjoying this!

I bet this has something to do with my punishment.

Ranger put his arm around my shoulder. "Not even close, Babe. When you least expect it, I'll strike." He whispered in my ear as we entered the house behind Natalie.

I shivered.

She shut the door after we had entered the foyer and sighed loudly. "Finally. Ugh, I don't understand how people can be that perky. Jesus, slap the person and make sure they switch to decaf."

Ah, there she was. My friend was back.

"Okay, we've moved all the furniture in and added a few things for Stephanie…"

"Me?" I perked up.

She nodded. "My thank you gift. I was told that you need sugar to survive so we got you a couple of cases of TastyKakes. They're not regularly shipped out here, so I pulled some strings."

"Cases? You bought me cases?"

"Sure did."

I sighed. "I love you."

She grinned. "I also got you a few bath salts. Very soothing for when this one goes apeshit." She said, nodding her head at Ranger.

Ranger at least attempted to look insulted. Attempted, but failed.

"Of course for you, we have your own gadget palace. Full of guy crap to tinker with. That's for when you want to strangle her."

"Hey!" I exclaimed.

Ranger grinned now. I punched him in the shoulder.

"Now with that out of the way, let me show you where we installed the cameras."

We went through the house room by room and noted where the cameras and mics were. Each room was more beautiful than the last. The furniture was done all in earth tones to make the colored walls pop even more. Red for the living room, green for the dining room, yellow for the kitchen and bathrooms and a nice soft blue for the bedroom. Throw pillows and assorted bedding coincided with the color of the walls. Mahogany wood galore. I wanted to live here for real.

As we passed the kitchen, I grabbed one of my cakes. Hmm, butterscotch…

"For your privacy, we haven't installed anything major in the bathrooms or bedrooms." She was saying as I licked my fingers. "Just in case, when you guys go to sleep, there will be a motion detecting camera that will switch on when it detects footsteps on the carpet. If we deem it a threat, we'll let you know. If you're getting up for a late night snack," she said to me when I opened my mouth. "We'll see that it's you and turn the camera off."

"How will you know it's not just the bed moving?" I asked blatantly.

"Babe." Ranger said, grinning.

"What? I move in my sleep. Violently."

Natalie's eyes twinkled. "It can tell the difference between a person and a bed. A person will have all the weight on their feet while the bed distributes it to the four legs.

"Also, there are some high res mics in the hallway, so if you're in trouble and the camera doesn't pick it up, knock something over or scream and we should hear you. Also…" She stopped and grinned again.

"What? Why did you stop?"

"I think someone's not listening."

Huh?

She pointed at Ranger. Who was looking at me.

With very black eyes.

Oh boy.

"While you're figuring things out," he whispered, "please try to keep things like that to a minimum. Because I'm not sure how long I'll be able to handle it."

I popped my finger out. "Sorry."

"Don't be. I love it when you moan."

Oh my.

Natalie was smiling widely at us now. "Do you two have any questions or should I just leave you alone now?"

Ranger raised an eyebrow to me. I shook my head.

"Good. Then let's get this party started!"

Natalie left soon after we gave her a fake check and shook her hand as if we had closed a deal. Ranger brought the SUV we were using around the corner and started to bring stuff in. I started to unpack the boxes.

When I reached a wedding picture of us, I snorted. "When did you guys take this?" I asked him when he brought a box marked 'kitchen' in.

"Sometime last week." He shrugged. "Hector did it."

"What did he take a picture of my head and glue it onto some woman's body?" I was slightly offended.

Ranger sat the box down and took the picture from my hand. He stared at it for a minute and grinned as he gave it back to me. "That's you, Babe."

I snorted. "You can't really tell."

Ranger looked serious. "I can and I'll prove it." He took the picture back and pointed to a small dot. "There."

"There what? It looks like a smudge."

He grinned again and shook his head. "That's the mole you have on your left breast."

My eyes were wide when I looked at him. "How…?"

Ranger's eyes were full of heat. "You forget, Stephanie, that I was once very intimate with you and that mole."

I flushed.

He shrugged now. "They probably took one of the pictures of you from a distraction and made it into a wedding dress." He grinned. "Hector's the best at that."

"Why didn't we just take a real one?"

He shrugged again. "Hector likes a challenge."

I guess I really couldn't fault him for that. I shrugged and put the picture on the shelf. Ranger went back to the car and finished unloading. I continued to unpack frame after frame of doctored pictures Hector had come up with. Of course, for good measure, Hector had thrown in some real ones. Like the Christmas photo of us and the guys.

I think that one was going on the mantel.

"Where do you want these?" Ranger asked me, carrying my bags up the stairs.

I rolled my eyes. "In our bedroom." Why did he ask such a stupid question?

"Babe."

"What?"

He actually looked nervous. "I don't want to push you into anything."

"You're not. We're adults. We can share a room."

"We can, sure. I don't know if I can."

I think I swooned a little. "Ranger…"

He just shook his head. "Later. Which one?"

I pointed to the smaller room. He grinned and took my stuff to the larger room.

"Hey!" I followed after him.

"I know you better than you seem to think, Babe. Take the bigger room. You know you want to."

Damn him. I did. "Are you sure?"

He didn't even dignify the question with a response. He opened the doors and I gasped.

"Oh my," I sighed.

The room was done in light blues with a wonderful view out the back windows. There was even a couch with a TV on the opposite side of the bed.

"Screw the mission. I'm never leaving here." I mumbled.

Ranger grinned. "I can't do that. Everyone will think I murdered you since they spent the better half of the day on their lawns watching us move in."

"What?"

"Welcome to the suburbs in Texas, Babe. Things here are definitely different than in Trenton."

I'll say. I grinned. "I think they were watching you."

He looked up from the box he was unpacking. "What?"

"This new piece of sexy man moves in next door and they're all taking a good peek."

He grinned. "Did you peek?"

I shrugged. "Peeked? Please. Been there, seen that."

Okay, so he didn't need to know that I peeked, stared and drooled. I turned away from him and made sure I was drool-free. Hey! I'm human. And Ranger is very sexy.

When I turned around, Ranger hadn't moved, but his smile was bigger.

"What?"

"You think I'm sexy."

Damn! "Out loud?" I sighed.

"Yep."

"So what? You know you're sexy."

"Yeah," he said coming up next to me and putting his arm around my shoulder. "But it's nice to hear it from my wife."

I rolled my eyes. "Get a grip. We're not really married."

His smile faltered a little. "Only until you sleep with me. Then it's official."

I punched him in the gut and went back to unpacking. I had nothing to say to that.

"Babe." Ranger said as he put his hands on my shoulders, gently kneading the muscles. "Relax. I was kidding."

"I know. I didn't have a pithy response for you."

He put his forehead into my hair and sighed. "Are you sure that's all it is?"

I turned and looked him straight in the eyes. "Positive." And I was okay with the teasing. Actually, I enjoyed it. It made our relationship feel more normal than in the past.

At first when I told him I was off men, it was strained. Mostly because no one believed me. But after a month, everyone got in my corner and cheered me on. I was finally acting like a grown up and they were supporting me every step of the way.

Ranger and Joe came around a few months after that.

He stared at me for a moment and then nodded. "I'm going for a run."

"Good." As he walked away, I smacked his butt. "Wear something skimpy for your public."

He smirked at me. "Smartass."

"You love my ass."

For a moment his eyes turned serious, then they shifted back to playful. "Try to be aware of your surroundings."

"Don't get shot." I mumbled to his back.

A few minutes after Ranger left, there was a knock on the door.

"What, did you get tackled by all the…" I started to say and then stopped.

Anne Souffe was standing on my front stoop.

Man, I should just answer the door like a normal person!

"Uh, hi." I said, nervously. Now, I wasn't really scared of her or her husband, I just didn't want to look like a crazy person and screw this whole thing up hours into our plan.

But she smiled a large, toothy grin at me. "Hi there. I heard you were moving in and I made this welcome basket for you."

"Oh how thoughtful." I said, completely charmed by her accent. "Please, come in."

My mother would have been so proud.

"Sorry the place is such a mess." I said, looking embarrassed. She stuck out like a sore thumb in her pink jogging suit.

"Not a problem. Our house looked like a disaster area until we were unpacked." She grinned at me again and flipped her blonde hair back. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No, I've got it all under control." I carried the basket to the kitchen. Looking inside, I was surprised to find a few cleaning supplies, a roll of toilet paper, a gift card to the local steakhouse, toothbrushes, detergent and some pieces of fruit. "This is really great."

"Oh it was nothing." She said, waving her hand. "Just something I threw together this morning."

This morning? Jesus, I'd need a week just to get the basket. I gave her a small smile and started putting things away.

I wasn't sure what to say next, but then thankfully, Ranger came through the door.

Thank god. I smiled and walked over to him.

"Oh, I wasn't aware we had company." He said, shocked to find Anne in our kitchen.

"This is Anne. She brought us a welcome basket."

He came over and looked at it. "How nice. Thank you. I'm Carlos."

"It's wonderful to meet you." She said, shaking his hand.

"I'll leave you two to chat. I probably stink."

I grabbed his shirt. "Please don't leave me." I muttered as silently as I could.

He grinned. "You're doing great."

I still didn't let go of the shirt. "I'll give you a million dollars."

"You don't have a million dollars. Let me go."

"Fine." I gritted.

We watched as Ranger left.

"Man that is one fine husband. What does he do for a living?"

Don't I know it? Uh oh. I couldn't remember what he did.

Stupid Ranger ass. Killing brain cells all over the country. I quickly changed the subject. "Do you want something to drink?"

"You know, there is a nice soothing tea in there. Do you have a tea strainer?"

Yikes.

Day one, not going so well.