When I dressed for dinner that night I told myself that I wasn't dressing for him. Why would I dress for him? Our deal was just for appearances. Well, it was for appearances and to make us feel better about this whole romance for everybody but us thing. Who am I kidding? It also gives me a chance to get up close and personal with him. I think he likes that idea too. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. But still I found myself wondering what he would think of the periwinkle dress that floated around me. I felt a bit like a princess in the dress. If I had a tiara it would absolutely complete the picture.

Ranger, as it turns out, had not brought just one tux. He brought four. They were all Armani. One had a white dinner jacket. One had a solid black on black dinner jacket, one had charcoal on black dinner jacket and the last was really a tuxedo-suit kind of thing. It was black too. He brought six shirts to go with them. He said it was in case I spilled something on him. Right…like I'm the only person on the whole ship who's a little bit clumsy. Whatever!

When I came out of the closet that was serving as my dressing room he was fixing his tie. He blinked at me. I figured that was a good thing. I must look all right.

"Having trouble," I smiled.

"A little bit," he agreed.

"Sit down," I said pointing to the chair on my side of the room. I shimmied behind the chair and reached around and tied his tie. "Who usually ties your ties?"

"I do," he sighed. "But when I get uncooperative fingers, Ella does it."

"Where is Ella?"

"On the Emerald Deck," he said absently.

"Well…we can't call her up here every night," I smiled and patted the tie lightly before stepping around to view my handiwork, "perfect."

He got up and went to the mirror and nodded in satisfaction, "you do good work. I may just have to keep you around."

"You may avail yourself of my bow-tying services for the remainder of the cruise."

"I may have to do that," he said with a sigh as he tucked his gun into the small holster on his calf.

"You're taking a gun to dinner," I said in astonishment.

"Babe," he said chewing his lip thoughtfully.

Okay…now I know why he doesn't like it when I do that. It's like begging me to pull it out of his teeth and kiss it better. Or just kiss him senseless. Or kiss away the anxiety. Or just kiss and kiss and kiss and kiss and… I shook my head to clear it, "what?"

"How's your spidey sense on the ship here? Do you have any…tingles?"

I wanted to tell him no. I really did. But the fact that he was asking me meant that he felt something too. "Yea…there's a definite tremor in the force," I sighed.

"Spiderman and The Force," he raised a brow at me in amusement.

"Intergalactic Princesses need to use the right vernacular for the right thing. I don't know what is wrong. So it's not that I feel someone or something in particular is off, just that something is. So…it's a tremor in the force," I shrugged.

"Well, no matter what language you use, it's the same thing."

"I know," I sighed. "Why, do you feel something?"

"Yea," he sighed. "You know I just feel like someone's watching me whenever I'm out on the deck. It's not like it's a woman or something. I feel a threat."

"Oh damn," I frowned. "What are you going to do?"

"Get a look at the guest list," he said seriously. "So…can you get a copy of it for me?"

"Sure," I nodded. "I'll just ask Lula. She said a bunch of guys from your Rangers days would be here. So I'll just tell her that I need the list for you to make arrangements to hook up with old comrades."

"Good idea," he nodded and took the bracelet I was struggling with from my hands and put it on my wrist. "By the way…you look beautiful."

"So do you," I blushed picking pretend lint off his jacket. There was nothing on his jacket. I'd used the lint brush and steam iron on it myself.

"Thank you," he smiled. "Shall we go? We were supposed to be at the cocktail party about ten minutes ago."

"Sure," I nodded grabbing my lipstick and key card.

He took both from me and tucked them into his pocket. Then he offered me his arm and we left the cabin.

We were seated with my parents and my grandmother and Burt. Lula, Tank and Tank's parents and Lula's mother and her mother's boyfriend were at the head table. I liked Tank's parents and wouldn't have minded sitting with them, but Odetta Brown might not be the person I want to hang out with. It's pretty bad when Grandma Mazur and her boy toy are preferable company.

"Feel anything," Ranger whispered as he pulled out the chair so I could sit.

"No," I sighed.

"I'm glad we got second seating," my mother said with a sigh. "I mean after years of eating at six pm on the dot, it's nice to be able to dally a bit. Besides, with all they feed us on this ship I'll need to eat late to be able to have dinner."

My father smiled, "and you deserve the break Ellen."

"Thank you Frank," she said and they kissed.

Oh gag.

"I hear there's a girl singing in the lounge later on tonight and she's from Chile," Grandma said studying the menu.

"Really," I said as my brows went up, "from Chile."

"I don't know her Babe," Ranger said in amusement.

"How do you know you know her if you don't even know who she is," I said quietly and opened my own menu.

"I don't know her."

"Are you sure…Carlos," I said softly.

He shook his head with a smile.

"I never heard you call him Carlos before," Grandma grinned.

"I don't call him Carlos," I said with a snort. "I call him Ranger or Ric…sometimes, not often," I blushed.

She blinked at me in confusion.

"Stephanie thinks I have a wife and eight children in Chile," he said in amusement.

I narrowed my gaze at him. I'd never actually said those words out loud to him before…had I?

"Why would she think that," my father asked with a grin.

"She's got a fertile imagination," Ranger grinned.

"Hmmm…she comes by it honestly," he patted his wife's hand.

"Frank," my mother tittered with laughter and blushed.

"They think because they want us that the rest of the word does too."

"Really," I shook my head and did my best to appear amused as Ranger contemplated me with a smile.

My father grinned, "But they don't want us to know they think that."

"Now you're just being ridiculous," I shook my head.

"Have you decided what you want dear," my mother asked with a slight smile.

"I think I'll have the Tilapia," I said softly. "Mom, did you say there were two seating's for dinner?"

"Yes dear. There's one at six and one at eight," she nodded. "The Tilapia sounds nice."

"Yes," I nodded and glanced over at Ranger. "We probably missed tingle time."

"Probably," he agreed.

"Maybe we should see about having early breakfast in the morning," I suggested.

"Babe," he shook his head in amusement.

"Hey…I get up early these days," I glared at him.

"Of course, but not when you're on vacation."

"I'm not on vacation. I'm at Lula's beck and call twenty four seven. That's not a vacation, that's a…a… I don't know what that is."

"That's a dedicated friend dear," mother smiled.

"Hi," the young woman said as she arrived at our table with six glasses of ice water. "I'm Brittney and I'll be your server on this cruise. If you want something that is not on the menu, just let me know and I'll be happy to see if the chef can prepare it for you." She smiled at us all, "now…unless you have something specific planned for tonight…we have a few wines for you to taste. The Thibodaux's have an excellent wine cellar and they've supplied all the wines we'll serve as part of dinner. If you'd like something else, we will be happy to oblige as long as we have it in stock, but it will be at an extra charge."

"I'm sure whatever Jean Luc and Felicia have chosen will be perfect," Ranger said absently.

"I'll bring them and you can share…as well as several glasses for each of you."

"Of course," he nodded.

"Are you ready to order?"

"I am," Daddy nodded. "Everyone else," he glanced around the table.

We ordered and shared the three bottles of wine. The wine was excellent. Mom really liked the red. I had a glass of the white with my fish. I limited myself to one glass since I don't hold my liquor well and because well…I'm sleeping with Ranger tonight. I've got to keep my wits about me, if you know what I mean.

After dessert which included the most decadent chocolate thing that had me moaning all the way through it, Grandma and Burt went to the ball room to kick their heels up. Mom went to play the slots. Ranger and Daddy went to the bar to toss back a few, have a couple of cigars and talk about sports, war and world events.

I caught up with Lula on the dance floor and went to her room and got the list and went to the main guest desk and made copies of it. I returned her list and her key and went back to my room and changed into sweats and went out onto the deck and sank down in the cushiony lounge chair with a bottle of water and my laptop. I Googled a couple of the names I didn't recognize and found out some interesting facts.

Six of the guys on the list had been Rangers with Tank and Ranger. Jim McArthur was the first one. Tank had handwritten 'Score' out beside his name. He was even more black ops than Ranger had been. He gave new meaning to Mercenary. He did his business for the US and a few of their allies. I had a feeling it meant he'd run into Tank and Ranger since their Army days. I wasn't sure that was a good thing.

He hung out with Linden Craig, by his name Tank had scribbled 'Points'. These two guys had been joined at the hip since leaving the Army. Interesting.

Drake Hess was an Attorney for the Feds. By his name was scrawled 'Cable'. He'd finished his stint in the Army and finished college and passed the bar. He was smart and successful and if the pictures on the internet were anything to go by, he was fairly good looking.

Next was Steve Wise. His scribbled name was 'Jolt'. He went to work for his father's lumberyard in Washington State when he got back. He'd married his High School Sweetheart and they had three good looking blond kids. He was successful and settled and I couldn't imagine him causing anyone problems. But then…I couldn't image that Lois Goodman would have either.

The next guy was Hunter Solomon, his tag was apparently Hunter. They didn't have to look too hard to come up with a suitable name there. He was recently divorced. He drank too much if the two DUIs were anything to go by. He also lost his job recently. Yikes…that could be the tremor in the force Young Jedi.

The last one was Mike Stone. His tag was Stone. He was single and a successful Restaurant Owner. There wasn't much on him. His restaurant always had good reviews.

Stone roomed with Jolt. Score roomed with Points. Hunter roomed with Cable. These guys were men that Ranger and Tank once trusted their lives with. They should be close. They should have stayed in touch. I had to wonder why they didn't.

It was after midnight when I finally went back inside and crawled into bed. Ranger still wasn't back. I figured he'd either run into some old buddies or he and my Dad were having a really good time. Sheesh!

I was fast asleep when I heard a bang and an expletive. I raised my head sleepily and saw Ranger hopping into the room with his coat and shoes. "Are you all right?"

He groaned and fell forward on the bed.

I grinned, "You're drunk."

"Shhh…don't wake up Stephanie," he whispered. We all know how men whisper. They probably heard him on the Emerald deck.

"Okay," I agreed. I got up and took his shoes and socks and jacket. I hung up his Jacket and went to put it up. When I got back, he was trying his best to unbutton his shirt and his pants were tossed across the room. I shook my head and hung the pants up and went to help him with the shirt. I pushed his hands away.

"Are you trying to get me nekkid," he said and grinned like an idiot.

"I'm trying to put you to bed," I said.

"Why didn't you say so Babe? I'll be ready to go to bed with you in just a lil minute," he struggled out of his shirt.

"Okay," I took the shirt and disappeared into the closet.

Now…I'll be honest with you. I love him. If he was committed to me, I may have taken advantage of him that night. But he was drunk and I'd just been on my high horse less than twelve hours earlier, I couldn't just cave that easily. That would be crazy. He'd at least need to work for it and not show up so cute and drunk.

He saved me from caving though. When I got back to bed, he was passed out cold and snoring.

"Nice," I rolled my eyes and crawled into the huge king size bed. "And I was worried about me," I sighed and closed my eyes and went right back to sleep.