I am not receiving money or property off of anything submitted here. I am only borrowing the characters Janet Evanovich created. My use of JE's characters will be different than her use of them and they will change and be considered by many to be OOC. The characters I own are mine and may be borrowed here by anyone for their use here. I will return JE's characters when I am finished with them and they will be in the same pristine condition as when they were borrowed...no matter what their fate is in my fiction. Thank you for reading.
The next morning I was up fairly early. I needed some time for myself. I needed to get my head together. I needed to prepare myself for Tank and Lula's wedding and I needed to get on the Island and hook up with Manuel. I needed Manuel's particular brand of sanity. Okay, he was a former drug lord, but he was better now.
Ranger and I got up at the same time and had coffee and breakfast in our room. The appeal of the breakfast buffet had dwindled greatly knowing that the moment we appeared in public we'd be swamped with questions about the murders of Ranger's former comrades. I wasn't up to it. It appeared that Ranger wasn't either. We ate breakfast in silence and then I went to take a shower.
When I came out of the bathroom Ranger was gone. He had left me a note telling me that he was heading to the gym. When I left the ship I left him a note letting him know that I was meeting Manuel.
I almost ran off the ship. I couldn't wait to get away from that ship and the people on it. I love almost everyone on the ship, but I needed four or five hours without any of them and I needed it now. I did a little shopping before finding the Cohiba Lounge and Cigar Emporium.
I loved George Town. I loved Grand Cayman. I could see why Manuel wanted to stay there forever. It was beautiful and there were billions, or so it seemed, of beautiful buxom bikini clad girls. Of course he was happy. If I swung that way, I'd be happy. I couldn't understand why Molly didn't make the place her base of operations; of course if she was attracted to me boobs probably weren't her thing.
I found the restaurant easily and went inside and waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness inside after being out in the brilliant Caribbean sunshine. Fortunately for me, Manuel's eyes didn't need to adjust and he hurried toward me the moment I entered the restaurant bar with a huge grin on his face and wrapped his arms around me tight. We stood there for a few minutes just holding on to each other. It seemed we hadn't seen each other in forever and not even our frequent phone calls were enough. I'd brought Manuel in as an FTA once and he'd respected that. Then he'd tried to kill me slowly, but that was just a misunderstanding. Manuel and I are simpatico. In other words, we both suck at relationships.
"Chica…you look beautiful. Is this a little sun on your nose?"
"Just a little," I beamed up at him. "Manuel, you are a sight for sore eyes. You look fantastic. This place must really agree with you. I saw two hundred thousand bikini clad bimbos on my way to meet you here."
"There are a lot of beautiful women here," he agreed.
"Apparently," I agreed and glanced at the cocktail waitress who definitely fit our description.
"They're beautiful, but they're not…how do you say…smart."
I laughed. "At least a couple of them must be smart."
"I haven't found any smart ones so far."
"Maybe you're not looking in the right places. Maybe you should try the library or something instead of bars and the beach."
"I'll give that some thought," he laughed. "So tell me," he led me to a booth and sat down opposite me, "How is the cruise shaping up? Is the wedding under control?"
"This cruise has been a nightmare. I'm so glad you're here."
"What makes it a nightmare? I thought Tank and Lula were on the ship to get married here in Cayman tomorrow. How can there be the drama?"
"You've met Lula," I raised a brow.
"Other than that," he laughed.
"How about not enough cabins for me to have my own and I end up sharing with…"
"Ranger," he grinned.
"Got it," I nodded. "And how about four murders and Tank was the suspect."
"Damn," he blinked and sat back. "How did Tank get to be the suspect?"
"He'd once threatened to kill them all," I said.
"If I was a suspect in the death of everyone I'd ever threatened I'd spend all of my time answering questions for the police," he shook his head.
"Yea," I nodded. "Fortunately for me and for you most of the people who died that either of us threatened died far from where we were and we had great alibis."
"Amen," he agreed. "So Tank was accused of the murders?"
"He was never formerly charged," I said with a smile. "But of course nobody else who had threatened them was on board…or so we thought."
"Who else was on board?"
"A ghost," I grinned.
"A ghost," he said skeptically.
"Yep," I nodded.
"Did you say that you've been sharing a cabin with Ranger for these what…eight or nine nights?"
"Yea," I agreed solemnly.
"And did you test the limits of the mattress?"
"Er…no," I blushed.
"Why the hell not," he demanded. "You love him. He loves you. You're attracted to each other. You were sharing a bed. This makes no sense to me. I know you're hot blooded Chica."
"Well yea," I agreed. "I ate a lot of pie."
"Pie," he blinked in confusion.
"Sugar reduces my need for sex," I shrugged.
"You make no sense Chica. He would be your lover on this cruise if you let him know you wanted that."
"I know," I blinked.
"Then please tell me why you didn't make sweet passionate love with that man?"
"I'd love to know the answer to that myself," Ranger said sliding into the booth next to me. "God knows I let her know I was willing."
I rolled my eyes, "well, there is the fact that he's always throwing himself at me."
"Ha," Ranger laughed as the cocktail waitress approached our table.
"Ha nothing," I shook my head.
Manuel grinned, "You need to stop ignoring your needs Chica. It makes you testy."
"No kidding," Ranger shook his head.
I groaned. They were ganging up on me.
"Corona," Ranger said.
"Mojito," Manuel said silkily to the girl, "Chica?"
"Mojito," I nodded.
"She's going to be on her ass," Ranger grinned.
"Shut up," I hissed.
"What is tonight," Manuel grinned.
"The rehearsal dinner is tonight. Tomorrow is the wedding at sunset on Governor's Beach. Do you know it?" I dug an invitation out of my bag. "Lula asked me to give this to you."
"Oh how nice. Are they registered?"
"Target, Home Depot and William Sonoma," I nodded.
"Thank God," he sighed. "I hate it when people don't register…you know?"
"I know," I agreed. "Mary Lou didn't register when she and Lenny got married. It was the talk of the Burg. Everyone thought they HAD to get married if you know what I mean, and of course they didn't. They just didn't want to wait any longer to have sex."
"They waited to have sex," Manuel said wide-eyed.
"They did," I agreed.
"Who does that sort of thing these days? It's the twenty-first century."
"It wasn't then," I grinned.
"Touché," he laughed.
"But they're still happily married. Some marriages just work best that way. For instance, I like to think that my parents only had sex twice, once for Valerie and once for me."
"You're delusional," Ranger shook his head with a grin. "Frank and Ellen are animals. They make Tank and Lula look like virgins."
"Shut up," I gagged and smacked at him.
"Think what you like Babe, but your parents are hot blooded. Your mother has Hungarian genes remember? Do you think it's only you and your Grandma?"
"You're disgusting."
"Marriage isn't that easy Babe," he said seriously. "You have to work at it to keep it alive. Your parents do the work. Am I right about this Manuel?"
"Oh hell yea," he nodded. "That's why Michelle and I were in therapy. Do you know what that crazy bitch is doing now? She keeps sending me letters from prison asking me to forgive her and marry her again? She's worried I'm out here in the free world screwing everyone I can. She's right too…I am. You'd be surprised how few women that actually amounts to," he said sadly.
"Not much luck huh," Ranger smiled.
"Not so much," he agreed.
I laughed, "You're just trying too hard. You're a great catch Manuel. You're a man who's truly willing to commit to a relationship. You're not afraid of commitment."
"I'm not afraid of commitment," Ranger growled low as the waitress deposited our drinks on the table.
"Right," I patted his knee dismissively. "You just have to sit back and relax and let the women come to you. I mean it. The most amazing girl is out there waiting for you."
"This is why you are my friend," he grinned, "Because you know just the right words to say to me."
"Thanks," I laughed opening my menu.
"Now what do we do to find you the perfect man," he said thoughtfully.
I rolled my eyes.
"Yes, what do we do," Ranger raised a brow at me.
"Don't encourage him," I said to Manuel.
"How do you like Dr. Addison," he asked.
"I love him. He's so laid back. He never makes me feel like I have to be full of angst even though I usually am. He just lets me be who and what I am at any given time. He doesn't push. I'm healing at my own rate. He thinks that's healthy."
"Harrumph," Ranger muttered under his breath.
"What's that supposed to mean," I raised a brow at him.
"If you're hiding your feelings so that not even you know that they're there tell me how healing at your own pace is helpful."
"He has a point chica."
"He," I said pointedly glaring at Ranger, "isn't even in therapy to deal with his commitment issues. I don't care what HE thinks."
"And point to Stephanie," Manuel grinned. "You two should just get married and stop all of this dancing around."
"Right," I rolled my eyes.
"She can't," Ranger said rolling his eyes, "she has commitment issues."
"The pot calling the kettle black," I hissed.
"Children," Manuel shook his head. "We'll discuss this later after the rehearsal dinner. Tonight you meet me and we go somewhere you can really cut loose. I'll pick you up at the rehearsal dinner. Doesn't that sound like fun?"
"Sure," I agreed.
"Sounds great," Ranger nodded.
"Great, now let's have some lunch and talk about something important…like me," he grinned.
So we did.
Ranger and I went together back to the ship.
"I don't have commitment issues," he said as we walked down the sidewalk on the way to the ship.
"Right," I nodded.
"I don't," he said seriously.
"Oh please. I love you…in my own way. My love doesn't come with a commitment. My love doesn't come with a ring…it comes with a condom. My life doesn't lend itself to relationships. This is the best I can do. Whatever," I shook my head and turned away so he wouldn't see the threatening tears. "I don't think I want to rehash this again Ranger. I just don't think I'm up to it and Tank and Lula are expecting us to be cheerful and hopeful and if we talk about this now I'm not sure I can do that."
"We need to talk about it sometime," he said quietly.
"Then we'll talk about it after we get back to Trenton," I suggested. "We can go see Dr. Addison together."
"I don't need a fucking psychiatrist to tell me how I feel Stephanie."
"Neither do I," I said tiredly as we boarded the ship. "I just need him to tell me how to deal with those feelings."