Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine.
AN: Wow, thank you for the support on this story. You guys are great. So glad you enjoy and I truly appreciate all the reviews, favorites and alerts. Once again, thank you to my beta, Elaine. Thank you for encouraging me to post this story. Now, finally Steph & Ric meet. I know it's short but it was a natural place to end it.
After the initial shock wore off I pulled away and slapped him hard across the face. "How dare you call me that after what you did to me? I refuse to help you."
Vinnie was not pleased, "Stephanie this was your idea. I need your help; you can bring Lester to dinner. Please Steph." He was practically begging.
Lester knew what had happened between me and Ric. I was not very happy with him either at the moment. I turned to him and gave him a pissy look. "Beautiful I'm sorry; please don't be mad at me. You know I love you right?" Then he gave me the puppy dog eyes.
Ranger spoke up and said, "Stephanie I think we need to talk and then we need to discuss your plan."
"What makes you think I want to talk to you? I hate you." He just stood there, his face expressionless. This was not my Ric. I wasn't very happy with my father or Uncle Mark. They knew he was in town, invested in his business and no one told me. The worst part was that Ric knew where I was and he hadn't bothered to contact me; it was obvious how he felt about me. I still loved him but he didn't love me anymore.
I looked into his eyes; everyone in the room was listening closely but staring at anything but us. I saw something in his eyes - a flicker of the old Ric but it was gone so fast I think I imagined it. "You don't hate me as much as I hate myself for hurting you," he whispered.
That was all it took to break me, I couldn't hate him. "What do you want to talk about," I quietly asked.
"Please Babe; I need to explain some things about Emilio." I saw a pleading look in his eyes if not in his tone.
"Okay, we can go to my place so I can change for dinner. I can't go in jeans; the General will be there."
We walked out of the office and Ranger threw the keys to Tank and said, "Set up a meeting for 1630 hours."
I pulled my keys out of my bag and I felt a warm hand grab them and I gave him a pissy look, "What do you think you're doing?"
"Stephanie you're upset, please let me drive."
"You don't know where I live."
"Babe."
"What does that mean? I know you can talk, you may have Lula and Connie fooled into thinking you are a man of few words, but I know you better than that. Or at least I thought I did."
He stopped and grabbed my arms and turned me to look at him, "Stephanie, please don't make this harder than it is. You know me… you're the only one who knows the real me. I know where you live, I've been watching out for you since I heard about your husband's death."
"What does that mean? Did my father and uncle tell you to?"
"No. Get in the car."
I flounced into the passenger's seat and pouted. I know it wasn't mature but this was my car and he had taken over. I may be in love with him but he had no right to go all cave man on me. I sat in silence until we reached the gate and he punched in the code and the gate opened. I asked, "How do you know the code?"
"Frank."
I'd have words with my father tonight about that one. He pulled into my garage and we walked into my house. It was noon and we had about four hours until his meeting. I stopped in the kitchen and grabbed a couple of waters and handed him one and said, "So this is your show – talk."