We somehow made it to Ft. Lauderdale alive. I also found that I needed someone to bleach my brain for not just visual, but verbal as well. Grandma and Burt had found their lubricant at that shop. They'd joined the mile-high club as well. But don't ask me how I know it's true. Ask anyone who was on the plane. Grandma…is a screamer. I'll be honest with you. I could have lived a million years without knowing that.

My mother was sloshed when we landed in Florida. Dad pretty much had to carry her off the plane and he was already pretty grim. Ranger wouldn't even look at me much less talk to me and he'd been sitting right beside me. He could have talked. He just looked nauseous. I could understand that. I myself felt like I'd eaten raw chicken chock full of salmonella. Yea…it was that bad.

A hummer limousine picked us up at the airport. Ranger had called ahead to make sure that our…my luggage would fit. He had the driver stop for dinner along the way. Grandma insisted we stop at the Outback. She'd been dying to have some prime rib. That's what she said anyway. I personally believe that it's because she likes the Australian accent of the guy who does the commercials. I know many of you are nodding with me. That's right…we know my Grandma the hoochie! Ranger nodded to the driver and we stopped there. I suppose he thought that if he pleased her as much as possible she'd tone down the sexual references. He was mistaken.

"Babe…do you know what you want?"

"Small steak, baked potato and a salad," I said after a moment.

"Yea, me too," He nodded and closed the menu. "Get what you want everyone, I've got this check."

"You need to let me pick up dinner some time," my father said with a small smile.

"Next time," Ranger promised.

The two men shared a nod.

"So…have you seen any pictures of the ship," my mother asked.

"I have," I nodded. "It's lovely. It actually could hold another two hundred people, but they decided to make this ship a luxury ship and all the staterooms are very generous. The smallest one is 301 square feet."

"That's more than 50 square feet larger than the average," my father said with a nod as the waitress put coffee in front of him. "It's very impressive."

"Will we be near you dear?"

"About that Mom," I took a deep breath.

"Oh no," she sighed. "What happened?"

"They forgot to assign the Reverend and his wife to a state room. So…they moved me."

"Where did they move you," she asked.

"I'll be in Ranger's suite," I said with a blush. I rushed to say, "It's a big suite Mom. His suite is bigger than anyone else's."

"Its fine Pumpkin," my father reached over to pat my hand. "We trust Ranger, don't we Ellen?"

"Oh…yes of course," she nodded and sipped her water. "At least if you're in the same cabin I can rest at night knowing that you're safe and not attracting lunatics."

Ranger grinned and quickly looked away.

I reached under the table and attempted to pinch his thigh. You can't pinch Ranger…he doesn't have loose anything. The only place is skin is relaxed is… Well, you know and I won't grab him there with my mother on the other side of the table.

He put his hand over mine, "I appreciate the confidence Mrs. Plum. I'll do my best to keep her alive and out of trouble."

"It's Ellen dear," she said studying the menu. "And good luck with that."

His mouth twitched again. "Thank you Ellen."

"And I'm Frank," my father said seriously. "We're going to be spending a lot of time together on this ship young man. We're going to get to know each other very well. We may as well be on a first name basis."

"I agree," Ranger nodded.

"Maybe we can even spend a little time in the bar with a bottle of scotch and some cigars and talk man stuff and not frilly wedding stuff," he sighed.

"I'll look forward to it sir," Ranger grinned.

"Stephanie…how many cocktail dresses did you bring," my mother asked not lifting her head.

"Five, not including my bridesmaids dress. And I have a couple of little black dresses that I can adapt to fit if necessary," I said and sipped my water. "Do you think there will be steam irons on the ship?"

"Of course," she said putting the menu down. "Even on the cruise that your father and I went on we had a steam iron. They just know we'll need them."

"Good," I sighed.

"Did you bring your sapphires," Grandma asked.

"Yes," I nodded. "I wasn't going to, but they go perfectly with three of my dresses. So…I did."

Ranger smiled at me.

"Don't it bother you boy," Grandma asked.

"What ma'am," he asked.

"You know…that Stephanie has all them fancy jewels from that boy in Boston."

A smile tilted the corners of his mouth, "not at all Mrs. Mazur. Brian gave them to her at the insistence of his mother. He and Stephanie are friends. Stephanie is just one of those rare people who can usually stay close to anyone who travels through her life…unless they wrong her badly."

"You mean like Dickie Orr," Grandma nodded.

"Or Joe Morelli," my mother said sourly. "Did you see his baby yet?"

"Er…no," I fought the urge to laugh.

"I've heard she's just ugly," my mother said quietly. "I mean she hasn't been out of the house since she was born and she's almost six weeks old. I ran into Angie Morelli at the grocery store and she said the baby was quite well in this very tense voice. She didn't say the baby was unwell, so one must assume that she's…"

"I heard she looks like a monkey," Grandma said in her best whisper. She's not a good whisperer. Men taught her to whisper.

"Oh my," mother said and sat back in her seat as her dinner was put in front of her. "Are we going to get to the ship in plenty of time?"

"The ship departs the dock at 1700 hours," Ranger said absently sitting back so the waitress could put down my food and Burt's food. "It's 1300 hours now. They recommend we're on board by 1500 hours and we're ten minutes away according to the limousine driver. We should be all right."

Mom just looked at him blankly.

Dad sighed, "The ship departs at 5pm. It's one now and we have to be there by 3, we're ten minutes away."

"Oh," she nodded and straightened.

"Sorry ma'am," Ranger shook his head. "I'm a military man. It may take a while to get me to speak civilian."

"That's all right dear," she smiled at patted his hand. "I'll learn to speak military time. I used to be able to do it fine…when Frank was in the Navy. I'm afraid I'm rusty." She frowned, "but I seem to remember he said 17 bells instead of 1700 hours."

"That's right Ellen," Frank Plum smiled at his wife. "It's pretty much the same except for the bells versus hours issue."

"I'll figure it out," she nodded.

"Do you think you can skip dessert Stephanie so we can get on the ship a little sooner," Ranger asked.

I raised a brow at him.

"I didn't think so," he sighed and cut into his steak.

"Men," Grandma shook her head.

"They'll never get it," my mother agreed.

"Why do I suddenly feel surrounded," Ranger sighed.

"Because we are son," Frank said. "Even when there are more of us…they can out talk us."

Ranger and Frank nodded together morosely.

What was going on between my father and Ranger? They were too tight, too fast and one wedding shouldn't cause that too happen. For some reason this burgeoning relationship made me feel a little bit uncomfortable. If they were bonding because they were trapped on a plane with the geriatric version of two mating hyenas, then I could be part of their camaraderie. But this was different. I didn't think it was because they were stuck together for the 'frilly' wedding. I thought it was something else. I kept remembering the conversation that my father and I had when I was in Boston. He had been pulling for Ranger then. It was as though they had talked and…and reached an understanding. I was a little bit freaked out.

When we arrived at the ship, there were men with carts to move our luggage onto the ship via the cargo area. They promised that our luggage would be delivered to our cabins before the ship was underway. It was almost two pm when we arrived and the dock was deserted. Either everyone else was already aboard or we were nearly the first to arrive.

"Hi," a young woman met us at the end of the gangplank with a clip board. "Welcome to the Jewel of the Sea. My name is Molly Perkins and I'll be your hostess for the Tank Thibodaux/ Lula Brown nuptials. May I have your names?"

"Ricardo Manoso, Stephanie Plum, Frank and Ellen Plum, and Edna Mazur and Burt…"

"I have it," she nodded. "Edna and Burt, you're on the Ruby Deck in cabin R30."

"It don't have twin beds, does it," Grandma asked.

The girl blinked, "no ma'am. It has a queen size bed."

"Good," she said. "Do we have a key?"

"Do you have your travel pouch with you," Molly asked.

"Right here," she waved the envelope.

"Your keys are in there. They're the credit card like things. You may charge things to your room on that key and you'll be given a bill at the end of the cruise if you'll just see the purser and provide him with a credit card."

"All right then," Grandma said. "Come on Burt…let's check out this mattress."

Molly swallowed and turned to the remaining four of us brightly. "Mr. and Mrs. Plum, you're on the Emerald Deck in Cabin E15."

"Thank you Molly," my father said brightly taking my mother's elbow and heading for the sweeping staircase.

"Mr. Manoso and Ms. Plum, you're in the Presidential Suite on the Diamond Deck. That is D01." She reached in her pocket for a keycard. "Ms. Plum, this is your new key card. The staff of the Jewel of the Sea would like to expression our appreciation to you for being so helpful in solving our earlier issue. We've left a few gifts for you in your suite."

"It's not a problem," I smiled.

"If there's anything I can do to assist either of you while you're on the ship, please don't hesitate to call."

"Thank you Molly," Ranger said with a smile. He put his hand on the small of my back and urged me toward the stairs.

"That was different," I frowned as we climbed the three flights of stairs to the Diamond Deck.

"What was different," he asked.

"She wasn't ogling you," I said.

"Babe," he grinned. "She doesn't play for my team. She plays for yours….well, strictly speaking she does play for my team but…"

I blinked, "oh…"

"Yea," he grinned. "You can tap that."

"I'll keep that in mind," I said drily.

Our suite door was open like all the doors but three on the floor. As we passed the doors, two rooms were quiet and the other…decidedly wasn't. We entered the suite into a small foyer with a half bath to the right. From the foyer we went into the living room complete with wet bar…fully stocked as far as I could tell with a dining room and our deck. Our deck faced the ocean at that time. The bedroom was to the right with a wonderful compartmentalized bathroom and a huge walk in closet. The suite was larger than my apartment had been when Ranger and I first met. There were several large bouquets of flowers in the room and a basket of goodies. There was also a spa robe and slippers and a gift certificate for the spa.

"This is nice," I said putting my bag on the floor and left it so Ranger could put his lap top on the desk. I flopped back on the huge king-size bed and sighed in bliss. The mattress was magnificent and I was exhausted. I'd been up since midnight. Our flight left Trenton such a long time ago. My body was tired.

"You can't sleep Babe," Ranger said grabbing my arms and pulling me to my feet.

"Why not," I whined.

"Because you'll miss the launch," he grinned.

"I don't care," I said as he dragged me to our private balcony and wrapped his arms around me from behind.

"Isn't it beautiful? It's nothing but ocean as far as you can see."

"It is beautiful," I agreed as my curls blew into his face.

"And for eleven days, it will be us in this cabin…"

"And the wedding will be going on and I don't know if you've noticed this Ranger, but Tank and Lula are both losing it."

"It sounded like they were doing okay when we went by their cabin," he said in amusement.

"Oh great…now I have another image that needs to be burned out of my head," I groaned.

He chuckled, "I'm just saying…I'm a boy and you're a girl and…"

I sighed and turned in his arms. I meant to talk to him about this earlier. I just couldn't do it. It was too hard of a subject to tackle. Time had run out. I had no choice but to follow through now.

"Ranger…I love you. You know I love you."

"I know," he said softly his eyes searched my face and push wayward curls out of my eyes.

"But I don't want to be your…friend with privileges or your booty call or your…"

"Babe," he sighed. "It's not like that."

"Do you want what I want?"

He sighed.

"You don't," I said gently. "I'm not trying to hurt you. But if we get involved sexually…I won't be able to walk away from it. My emotions are too…" I took a deep shaky breath, "I'm just saying that when it comes to you I'm weak. And if I accept a relationship…and I use the terms loosely so don't panic, as sexual with no real future, I'm just afraid that I'll begin to resent that I can't have that ring and kids and…"

"I get your point," he nodded.

"Are you mad?"

"No," he shook his head. "I'm not mad at all. I guess we just need to work a little harder at defining our relationship."

"Well at least you said the word relationship without hyperventilating," I said in encouragement. "With your commitment…"

"Stephanie," he said in frustration, "I do not have commitment issues."

"Right," I nodded.

He sighed, "We'll work on defining our relationship and see where we are."

"Okay," I nodded.

"Does that mean I have to sleep on the couch," he sighed.

"No…you don't have to sleep on the couch," I grinned. "Besides if anyone was going to, it would be me. We are both adults and we can handle sharing a bed without becoming intimate."

He stared at me as though I'd grown another head. "Babe…have you met us?"

I sighed, "I'll just eat a lot of sugar on this trip. What will you do?"

"Whatever it takes," he sighed. "I'll do whatever it takes."