Everybody and anything familiar belong to Janet. Mistakes are mine.

"Do you think we should've met them at Aubrey and Raphael's place?" My wife asked me.

"No. I want them to see what kind of organization I run. They need to know that I'm not offering assistance I can't back up."

Simone and Jaxton Flores are scheduled to arrive in under ten minutes to discuss possible shared business interests. With so much shit going on in the world, trying to make my small section of it better, gives me hope that civilization will still be somewhat civilized by the time Julie and Olivia's generation take over the reins.

"Am I correct in guessing that Olive, our dogs, and Mado stretched out on your desk, are all down here to give the mom a 'family atmosphere' to offset the intimidating security firm vibe happening in the rest of the building?" My wife asked.

I glanced over at the teepee our dogs and daughter had formed in the corner of my office closest to my desk. "Yes. Three quarters of sealing a deal is how you present it. Convincing a single mother to accept help after likely being screwed over many times by many people, will be easier if she can see herself in you."

My wife nodded in a completely mocking way. "If Jaxton's mom can see herself in a bazillionaire superhero, she may need more help than we can offer her."

"Your humor never takes a day off, does it?" I asked, trying not to grin.

She leaned over my chair and kissed me. "Nope. And if your selling theory doesn't pan out, Olive's got on her good luck 'Caution' shirt, so we have that going for us."

"Babe, a little more goes into a lucky article of clothing than you just calling it lucky."

She stuck her tongue out at me, which had my daughter doing the same … but at her Mama instead of me.

"Thanks, Olive-Pie. Way to pay attention to us at the wrong moment."

Our baby smiled and then went back to reading Mo a story about fictional glitter bugs. I'm learning that when you have a vivid enough imagination, reading the correct words off the pages isn't crucial to the book's plot. One thing my wife got right is our daughter should come with a warning label. The one on today's shirt says … CAUTION: Will Steal Your Heart. It was truth in print. The pair of jeans she's wearing to go with it, have a circle of distressed hearts running around the cuffs covering the tops of her work boots.

Stephanie likes to tease me about my solid black uniforms, but when she isn't in Rangewear herself, she wears jeans and a t-shirt or a dress. The dress is just picking one thing out of the closet, and the casual wear can be decided by blindly reaching into one drawer for a shirt and in another for jeans, having any combination match. Her coordinating skills have reached a disordered level since Olivia was born.

"Unlike her mother, Olivia is always aware of her surroundings," I reminded my wife.

"And like her Daddy, uses it to her advantage every time."

I couldn't disagree.

A knock on my office door interrupted playtime and reminded me of why my family is hanging out on five this afternoon rather than in our apartment, where I've discovered I get more done … having to purposely switch to tunnel vision as absolute chaos happens all around me. It's not exactly battlefield brain, but it's close.

"Come in," I told the man on the other side of my door.

"Hey, Boss. The kid and his mom have been buzzed through. She's parking now."

"Thank you, Ram. Make sure someone sees them up to my office."

"Will do."

I would be concerned about traffic stopping in front of the screens monitoring the garage, but the men learned after Stephanie's first hour of working here, that whoever was caught drooling over a monitor's image would be facing a scaled-down firing squad that enjoys a more systematic approach to a shooting death.

Granted, Stephanie's my woman who no man has ever been allowed to touch, ogle, or approach in anything other than a protective way once I got Morelli out of the way. But Simone Flores is also under my personal protection since my family had pseudo adopted hers.

"Is there a reason I should be feeling a little nervous right now?" Steph asked me.

"No. There's no real reason why she'd turn us down. We're offering a way for her and Jaxton to have a better life while being able to spend time together beyond bedtime."

"I know that. The question is will she?"

Only one way to find out. Six minutes after Ram informed me of their arrival, another knock sounded on my office door.

"Olive," Steph said, "wanna be a big girl and open the door for Daddy?"

"I gets it!" She shouted, jumping so quickly to her feet from a full-sit position, gymnasts would be envious of her flexibility.

As soon as it was opened and reveled our guests, she ran straight back to Stephanie, grabbed her around one leg, and tipped her head all the way back to talk.

"It a … BOY, Mama," she whispered loudly, like having a male child here was a once in a lifetime occurrence.

"I see that," my wife replied, picking her up as Gunny and Mo went to check out the newcomers. "Olive, this is Jaxton and his mom, Mrs. Flores."

"Ax on fowwas."

"Good job. That's kinda close with both names."

"Hi, Porsche lady," Jaxton said to Stephanie. "I had to ask Mr. Raphael what kind of car you have. He's been teaching me lots of cool stuff."

"Hey, Jaxton. I bet hanging out with Raphael and Aubrey has been a lot of fun. You're looking pretty handsome today. And I told you that you should call me Stephanie."

His face turned red, and he started pulling at the collar of his kid-sized dress shirt. "Momma wanted me to look 'presentable' when we came here … ummm … Mrs. Stephanie."

Simone Flores, aka Jaxton's mother, gently nudged him. He turned and looked at her.

"What did I do? You're always saying to tell the truth, and that's what I did. You wanted me to look nice to come here."

She sighed and Stephanie laughed. "Don't worry about moments of oversharing. We're used to it here. We have a teenage daughter and two teen nieces … we get called out a lot. I didn't get to introduce you two last time, but Jaxton … Jaxton's Mom, this is our daughter, Olive."

"Olive? Why is she called that? Olives are gross."

Another nudge from his mother didn't make him any less interested in Steph's answer.

"Olives are NOT gross, they're actually one of my favorite things … like my little Olive-Pit is," Steph explained. "Her 'real' name is Olivia, but her personality is more salty fruit with a tough core. Plus, I still call her Daddy 'Ranger', his nickname, instead of the name his mama gave him."

"Why? Did he work in a park?"

My wife snorted. "Not hardly. I guess I'm just into nicknames, and 'Ranger' is who I fell in love with."

His face twisted in disgust. "That's girl stuff. I thought you driving a cool car would make you less of a girly one."

"Jax …" his mother warned.

"It's alright," I assured her. "My wife will be the first to say she isn't typically 'girly' but would take it as a compliment in this case."

Steph nodded. "He's right. It's not often my 'girl card' gets used. You guys can sit down. We promise we don't bite. Not even Mo or Gunny."

Olivia used two hands to turn her Mama's face over to face hers. "Mo bite a toy."

"He does, because it's a chew toy made for him to bite it," Steph said to our baby. "He doesn't nibble on guests like I nibble on you."

Olivia didn't pick up on the warning, so she squealed in surprise when Stephanie buried her face in our daughter's neck and blew raspberries into it.

"Stop, Mama!" Olivia said in-between fits of laughter.

My wife drew her head back and nodded. "Alright. No more Olive-berries."

As she knew Olivia would, our baby kicked the heels of her boots into Steph's legs. "More bolive bewy."

I tried not to shake my head at the disruptive duo. "Don't mind them," I said to the Flores family. "The lines between professional and personal are very blurry here."

"Your little girl comes to work with you?" Simone asked.

Whether it was a question for me or Stephanie, I wasn't sure. Being a 'talker', Steph answered when their game wound down.

"I admit, it helps that Olive's Daddy is the boss and Ranger has no problem watching her if I'm working. But you need to know this, we don't limit kid-visits to just ours. Our friends will bring their daughter over, my nieces sometimes come hang out here to give my sister a break, and two of our guys are dads-to-be and they know they'd better bring their kids to visit."

While Ms. Flores did sit when Stephanie said to, she had remained tense up until that moment. She relaxed, sensing what Steph was trying to tell her, which was why having my family present was so important to this meeting.

"Aubrey told me to keep an open mind when I came here today, but this wasn't what I was expecting," Simone shared with us.

"We get that a lot," I told her.

"Yeah, especially if you Googled us like I would've done after Ranger called you and Aubrey and Raphael vouched for us," my wife added, putting Olivia back on her feet so she could get back to playing with our mutts.

Whether Mado was genuinely sleeping through this, or just ignoring the activity and humans around her, remained to be seen.

"What are you doing?" Jaxton asked Olive.

"I read dem books," she replied.

"About what?" He said, looking through the selection we'd brought down with us this morning. "How about this one about a blue truck? I can read it for you."

We were all watching our kids interact, and out of my periphery I saw the smile full of pride and love on Ms. Flores' face. I purposely didn't look at Stephanie out of self-preservation. If she was looking at Olivia and Jaxton the way I was picturing, I'd be too tempted to drag her upstairs to make Olivia another sibling.

"You should be proud," I told Ms. Flores. "He's a great kid."

"He is, and I am. It hasn't been easy, but I wouldn't trade him for anything. Jax is the one thing I know I did right in my life."

"Which is why you're here," my wife not-so-subtly said. "We want to help."

Simone was back to being tense. "Help how? And why would you? You don't even know us."

"Funny thing about me, is I can immediately sense who's good and who's really bad," Steph told her. "I liked Jaxton from the moment I asked why he was darting between yards. And after hearing an extremely brief history of his life, I know you're almost-singlehandedly responsible for making him the awesome kid he is."

"Thank you. But …"

I leaned forward and slid Mado's tail out of my way so I could lean my elbows on my desk. "Look, I get it. I know this sounds suspicious, and I understand your hesitation, but my company isn't solely about security. My mother, sisters, wife, and daughters are why I continue to do what I do. If I can provide assistance to anyone who could be one of them, I'm going to do it."

"We're doing okay," Ms. Flores told me.

"Yes, you are," I was quick to assure her. "Your son is on his way to becoming an outstanding man, I just want to help lessen the burden on you so you can enjoy these years when he's still a child needing his mother."

"By doing what?" She asked, bringing up the reason for our meeting.

"Finding you a better paying job utilizing your skills that will also allow you time to be with your son when he needs you the most."

In an abstract way, I can tell that she's a striking woman, but in that moment … worry and unease twisted her features into a seriously doubtful expression.

"If I'm being honest, I don't know why I'm here. I don't know anything about security firms."

"What do you see yourself doing in five years? More importantly, what would you like to be doing careerwise right now?"

Once again, her eyes strayed to where her son was reading to Olivia. "I haven't really devoted a lot of time to thinking about 'what ifs' since the divorce. I've just been trying to make sure he has clothes that fit his constantly growing body and food on the table - or in the fridge - three times a day."

"That's commendable, but you had to have had a goal," I pushed.

"Well, I was going to school at night to earn my marketing degree, but things … changed."

I respected her for not wanting to call her ex a disappointing and immature asshole. I'm more free with calling a pathetic fucker a really fucking pathetic fucker, but she doesn't need me to drag her ex into this.

"If you're interested, I can offer you a job boosting my company's exposure. I also know of a woman running her own business who would appreciate the company and advice you could provide for her."

"She's my Dad's girlfriend … God it still feels weird saying that, but Aideen is an amazing woman. I promise, you won't even feel like you're working when you're with her," Steph added.

"Babe."

"Sorry, but I can already see how well she and Aideen will get along, not that we don't want to add you and Jaxton to our Rangefamily."

"Which they're already members of for helping Aubrey and Raphael out," I said to them.

"Mrs. Aubrey don't look pregnant," Jaxton said from his seat on the carpet. "I told her so and she just smiled and promised me she'd tell me what the baby is when they find out."

"Gosh, I really hope it's human," Steph joked, "if that's what they're waiting to find out."

Jaxton sighed. "No, Mrs. Stephanie. She means if it's gonna be a boy or a girl. Of course, it's a human baby. The other kind only happens in movies."

My wife nodded. "Thank you for clearing that up for me, Jaxton. It's going to be really handy having you around."

His dark eyes landed on me, clearly either worried that Stephanie is serious or concerned that I'm married to someone who doesn't know anything about babies.

"She's kidding," I assured him.

"Yeah, I knew that."

My door had remained open throughout our incredibly informal meeting, so I saw - immediately after I felt - that we now have company.

"Yes?" I asked Ram

"I can walk you out, Ms. Flores, when you're ready," Ram offered.

"I wouldn't want you two to get lost," Woody added from right behind him.

"Ah … they know where the elevator is," Steph pointed out. "And it literally takes them feet away from their car. More importantly, me and Ranger were going to see them safely to the garage."

"We'll be okay," Simone assured everyone.

This time, Jaxton got up just to elbow her. "Mo-om," he said, drawing out her name in disbelief. "These guys like you, and they're trying to get more time with you. Even I know that."

Stephanie turned from her seat on the corner of my desk and ended in my lap just so she could press her face to my chest to prevent her laughs from being heard. I had to fight a grin myself at the pair … Jaxton's know-it-all-ness and Simone's total embarrassment.

"I'm sure they're just being polite," she finally managed to say to her son, giving my men a polite smile in return.

"No, Mom. Jeez. It's because you're so pretty. I tell you that all the time."

"That's enough, Jax," she told him.

"The kid's not wrong," Woody replied.

That got him a warning shove from Ram.

"The dogs will need to go out anyway," I said to my men, "so we'll see the Flores family out. Get back to work."

If they want to fight over someone, they won't be doing it on company time or in front of the woman who's had to deal with more than enough childish male shit in her life.