All familiar characters belong to Janet. Mistakes are mine.

"Well, this explains why Mary Lou asked what time we'd be back," I said to Ranger, seeing three familiar women loitering in the underground garage.

Maybe I should've had Ranger tell the control room not to let anyone I know through the gate, not just my mother.

"Mary Lou works fast, even recruiting Valerie and Edna."

"No, Mare's too polite to storm the Rangeguys and scale the security gate. This is all Grandma Mazur. One, because she's nosy. And two, she can use seeing me and my engagement ring to piss off my mom. Notice that she's thankfully missing."

"They'll all be disappointed," was his response.

I glared at the side of his head as he parked in his usual spot. We'd had our first little disagreement as an engaged couple and he's not going to let me forget about it just yet.

"Hey, everybody," I said to the group, once we'd left his Turbo. "What a not-so-big surprise."

"We wanna see the ring," Grandma Mazur stated. "I got me a new phone just so I can snap one of those selfies with it."

I shrugged. "Alright," I said, lifting up Ranger's left hand.

I accomplished what I'd set out to do. His ring finger clearly shows that he's off the market … and it likely gives the impression that his fiancée/wife is a bit crazy, which also helps protect him. He knows that he's stuck with me for a minimum sixty year-to-life sentence, but he may require a daily reminder of his promise to marry me. He's not allowed to change his mind, and the little linked handcuffs - that are freakishly realistic - making up the top of his silver ring, basically shouts that there's no escaping the fact we're partners in crime as well as life partners.

"Ummm, I thought you meant you were going ring shopping for your engagement ring?" Mary Lou said, her face scrunched-up in confusion.

"We were, but Ranger decided I don't get a say in it."

"I thought you young folks do everything together these days. This sounds like old-fashioned horse pucky to me," Grandma added.

Ranger dropped an arm across my shoulders right before he threw me under the bus. "I'm not taking the blame for this. Tell your family why I cut you out of negotiations."

"I don't think they care about that," I tried. "We're still getting married. Yay, us!"

"Oh … we care and are very interested," my traitor of a sister said.

"Yeah, what happened?" Mare asked. "This has 'a Stephanie' written all over it."

"A Stephanie?" I had to ask, allowing Ranger to pull me even tighter to him in case the truth hurts me.

We didn't see eye-to-eye on a few things today, but Batman loves me in a way I really don't deserve.

"Yep," Mary Lou continued. "Whenever you have a good thing going, you complicate it. It's like you don't think you deserve to be happy, so you test to see if it'll stick every chance you get."

I wasn't touching how close she came to the thought I'd just had.

"Stephanie knows her worth and what she means to those who love her," Ranger said, having my back like always. "She just has trouble accepting at times how much we do care."

I tilted my head up to look at him. "Come on, that ring you were eyeing cost way too much."

"And the one after that was 'too showy' in your opinion," he countered.

"It was! I don't need a five or six figure piece of jewelry. I get you, so a simple wedding band is fine."

"Fine is not an option, Babe."

"Yeah, I know. You said that many times today in many different stores."

"So, what do I take a picture of now?" Grandma asked.

"The happily engaged couple. All five of us together, since it doesn't happen very often. Maybe Ranger's car? Porsches are awesome anytime."

That placated her, along with an invite to Seven for coffee and likely an Ella treat. I thought I'd gotten Ranger off a pretty expensive hook, but I went to bed that night wearing only his arms … and woke up with a cushion-cut diamond boulder anchoring my left hand to the muscles of his chest. What distracted me more than his sneaky sleep attack, was the not-sleepy Batman voice that spoke into the darkness above my head.

"You owe your grandmother a ring picture."