A/N: No date for our two lovebirds yet. I wanted to give Stephanie some time to experience Ranger at work first but I promise it will be the next chapter and worth the wait. Happy Reading.

Chapter 9

Stephanie POV

It's been a week since I found out my mysterious grocery store man was actually my super hot equally mysterious badass military boss. When he walked into my office that first day it took me a while to get my head on straight. I had tried to go back to the payroll spreadsheet but after accidentally entering Junior's overtime pay as thirty thousand dollars three times I deleted the mistake once more, saved it and picked up the files I needed to return to Hank after the meeting.

When I was walking to the conference room it occurred to me that my slippery friend Hector must have known and that is why he was so chill about me going on a date with a guy I knew nothing about and that I would have to confront him about that. While I was wrapped up in that thought I ran into the printer and dropped the files I was carrying causing me to almost be late to the meeting. I noticed the beginning of a smile float across Carlos's face when he saw me before he slammed down his blank face and went through the meeting.

I didn't see him hardly at all for the next three days except a few passing moments in the hall where we would share a lingering moment of eye contact. He was so busy between meetings with lawyers, accountants, and clients who had been waiting until he was home to talk to him for whatever reason. I noticed several of them were women whose husbands probably neglected them. It didn't seem to phase Carlos though but I couldn't help but be a little jealous that they were taking up all his time.

I confronted Hector at dinner on Wednesday that he had the night off this week about his knowledge of my situation. He confessed almost immediately and then took a good 5 minutes to laugh at the situation. He proceeded then allow me to ask as many questions as I could think of about the bossman. Although it turned out to be extremely unhelpful as he hardly knew any of the answers I was looking for or stated that they were better off questions for Carlos to answer himself. So I settled on just getting advice on what to wear.

I finally got to spend time with Carlos on Thursday when he stopped by my office to go over my responsibilities as office manager and how I was settling in. I showed him some of the areas in the programs, reporting, and ordering that I thought we could potentially save money which he seemed to be happy with. Even though the meeting was all business and we had really only said a total of like twenty words to each other prior I couldn't help but feel like I was having a conversation with a man I've known my entire life. It made me hopeful for our date and erased any worry that I had that we wouldn't be able to have a relationship and work together. I am still curious how the other guys will react when they find out though.

"Hey Babe, can you take notes for us in the meeting this morning?" Carlos said entering my office and sitting down across from me. Today was Friday and our date was in less than twelve hours and I could not be more excited.

"Good morning Carlos, what time should I be there?"

"1000 in conference room A, I'd bring your laptop. It will be easier than handwriting the notes."

"Okay sounds good." I smiled up at him from my desk. He returned the smile and leaned across the desk to whisper in my ear "You look good I can't wait for tonight." Then he kissed my cheek and left.

Once I calmed my mind from the flustered state he left me in, I finished doing the duty roster for the next two weeks and sent it off to the merry men and posted it to the breakroom just in time for the meeting. When I entered I noticed that all the members of the core team and trenton department heads were already in the room. The only place left at the table was directly to the right of Carlos who was at the head of the table. The position was across from Tank and to my right was Lester with Bobby across from him and the rest of the men sitting around the rest of the seats. Hector sat at the other head of the table and winked at me as I sat down.

We were on hour two of the annual review meeting having covered all things procedural, policy, and legal so far without even having touched the branch performance reviews and financials yet. I was bored out of my mind and taking notes seemed to be the only thing keeping me from leaning back and daydreaming while looking out the window in the corner dreaming of my escape. I must have missed something important or maybe they noticed my boredom because I could feel Carlos's hand reach under the table to squeeze my thigh.

"Earth to Babe. Deep Thoughts?" He asked and I notice the other men had already filtered out of the room."

"Oh um sorry I was just kinda in my own world. Is the meeting over?"

"Lunch break, be back in 45 minutes."

"Oh okay. Thanks." I gave him a soft smile before he moved around to pull my chair out for me. I could've done it myself since they were rolling chairs but the gesture was sweet.

"Come on, I'll walk with you." He took my hand on his elbow and we walked to the breakroom which was already hopping with men. Ella was putting out the cards she always wrote stating what everything was and what was in them and the men were lined up following behind her. We got in line and I grabbed some chili with a heaping scoop of cheese and sour cream before drizzling some hot sauce over it. I noticed Carlos hadn't gotten in line with me. I suppose I shouldn't have expected him to stick around and eat in the breakroom; he probably had other things to attend to.

There were six tables in the room so I sat down at the one closest to the middle and started to dig into my food when a giant bowl of salad was placed down to my right. I turned to look up and saw Carlos was back and joining me at the table. Lester and Bobby ruined the moment not even 30 seconds later though when they sat down across from us arguing over if hot dog was a sandwich. The lunch time passed quickly with the highlight being me and Carlos pressing the sides of our feet against each other under the table.

Carlos walked me back to the conference room in the same way he had to the break room and pulled my chair out for me before pushing me in and getting the meeting rolling. The men were going over the financials when they started brainstorming ways to increase the current revenue streams, determine new ones, and cut our costs. After Ram's hopefully not serious suggestion, that they stage small crimes so more businesses would be interested in the security services I couldn't sit back and take notes any longer.

"Excuse me, I may have a few suggestions." I tentatively spoke up mostly to Carlos, probably not loud enough for Hector to hear me at the other end. Carlos held his hand up so the other men would stop their side whispers before nodding for me to continue. "Well first you don't seem to be capitalizing on the middle and lower income households such as the Chambersburg neighborhood I said pointing at the map that was displayed behind me showing the areas that we had accounts. You might want to consider adding some additional security packages that are more affordable for those populations." I paused to look around the room to see how my thoughts were being received.

No one looked unhappy so I continued. "Second, as for cutting costs I may be able to help. I do all of the ordering for this branch so I have a pretty good idea of what we need. I assume that the other branches have similar needs so while we do save some money buying in bulk now we could find ways to save even more by ordering across the branches. Finally, You seem to have branches that perform better in some areas than others. For example, Miami is very profitable in security services while Boston and Atlanta get a lot of their revenue from their government contracts, and Trenton gets most of their revenue from bond enforcement. It may be worth looking into why because that could lead to being able to cut costs and or increasing revenue if one of the branches can improve." I finished with a deep breath looking down at my laptop not quite ready to face the music.

"That's exactly what I was looking for Stephanie." Carlos said, reaching under the table to place his hand on my thigh, getting me to look up at him. He was still wearing his blank face but his eyes were much softer. "You men could learn something from her." He said to the other men after pulling his gaze from mine.

"Tank, Lester, and Bobby please start doing a case study on the other branches' successes and also where they are underperforming. Ram, Vince, and Hal please look into Trenton and help Stephanie determine ways we can cut supply costs. Stephanie please also consult with Ella and Luis on their needs. Hector, Silvio, and Junior please put your heads together to determine some options for lower cost packages for both residential and business clients. Dismissed." Carlos closed the meeting and we all started to gather the binders and paper we had scattered over the tables over the day to leave.

All of the men filtered out of the room with myself, Carlos, and Hector remaining. Hector reached over and closed the door. "When are you going to tell them?" He questioned.

"At least not until we know where this is going." I kinda blurted out hoping Carlos was on the same page. I looked over and he nodded in agreement.

"Okay I will keep your secret." He said. "But just so you know they are getting suspicious."

Carlos got up and walked over to Hector. They shook hands and then Hector leaned over and whispered something to him causing Carlos to shift uncomfortably but it was really only noticeable if you were paying close attention which I was. Hector turned around and winked at me before leaving the room.

"Babe, why don't you go home early today and get ready for tonight."

"Are you sure? My boss is kinda a hardass; he might not be happy if I leave two hours early."

He took a few strides over to me and took my hands lifting me out of my chair. "I'll take care of the boss." Then took my cheek in his hand and kissed me on the lips. It didn't last long but it was passionate enough to make me only vaguely aware of him then ushering me back to my office to get my coat, purse, and keys and head home for the day.