Any Man Of Mine - sade meeks (top young adult novels txt) 📗

cars stop exploding, then I'll get a real car, one to make up for all these POS vehicles. In the meantime, this thing runs. I said a quick prayer as I was getting out of the elevator on my floor that my apartment was empty except for Rex, my hamster and roomie. I wasn't in the mood to handle finding someone uninvited in my apartment. Someone must have taken pity on me because my apartment was exactly that. I locked the door behind me, more out of habit than any real belief it would keep anyone out, except maybe my mother. Not that I was expecting a visit but still, better to be prepared. I gave Rex a grape from the bowl near his cage and fixed myself a peanut butter and olive sandwich. Washing the sandwich down with a Coke, I went into the bedroom and flopped on my bed in my thinking position. Truth is I knew there was a good chance I wasn't going to be doing any real work today. It just wasn't a skip tracing kind of day for me. I was too tired to worry about it.

I must have fallen asleep while "thinking" because when I opened my eyes, I realized it was almost sunset. That's odd. I thought to myself as I realized I hadn't been woken up by my phone ringing for the time I was out nor had Lula tried to break down my door to make sure I was okay. It's not often I head out of the office in the morning and not make it back before Connie closed up. Oh well. I'm glad I got the sleep. I feel a lot better now than I did this morning. Slowly getting my bearings about me, I suddenly flashed back to a dream I'd had. Ranger had come into my bedroom while I was sleeping, asked if I was okay, told me not to scare him like that again, kissed me softly and left. It was an odd dream and certainly not my usual Ranger-involved dream. While those types of Ranger dreams were realistic enough to leave me in a state, this one seemed real on a whole different level. I got up and took care of business in the bathroom, not awake enough to cringe when I saw my hair. I just pulled the unruly curls into a pony-tail and figured that was good enough for hanging out in my apartment with Rex.

I stopped short as I walked into the kitchen. The answering machine on the counter was blinking, indicating I had messages. Next to the answering machine, my cell phone was off and plugged into the charger. I know I hadn't heard my phone ring, either of them. Last I knew of my cell phone, it was in my black bag with the rest of my stuff. I shook my head a little as if to clear cobwebs from my vision and re-focused on the scene in front of me. This time, I saw a note next to my cell phone. I looked around cautiously. Nothing else seemed out of place. Seeing that my door was still locked, I let out a sigh of relief. I was pretty sure I knew who did this. Joe had a key and could have come in and gone without disturbing much. I usually heard him though and in the middle of the day he wouldn't have been particularly quiet. That pretty much left Ranger. Ranger moved like smoke when he wanted to. A talent I'm sure came in handy when overthrowing regimes in third world countries.

I picked up the note and read it. "Babe. Call me." Well, I guess it wasn't a dream after all. I felt my knees go weak at the realization. Wait a minute! Why would Ranger say I scared him? Batman doesn't do scared. Weird. Oh well, file it away in the drawer labeled "Examine later". Procrastination is a lot like denial at times. I don't know how long ago Ranger was here, but my cell phone looked like it had reached fully charged status a while ago.

I pressed speed dial one on my cell phone and made my way to the couch.

"Yo."

"Yo yourself. What's up?"

"Sleeping beauty finally awakes. Just wanted to make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine. I was just tired. Why would you think otherwise?" I tried to keep my voice steady. I was fighting the warm fuzzy sensation in the pit of my stomach that developed when he called me Sleeping Beauty.

"Tank called me earlier. Seems Lula called him when she couldn't reach you on your cell phone. It came with a charger for a reason Babe." I could hear the small almost smile in his voice. Jerk.

"Oopsie. Guess I'll have to call her and apologize. Anything else?"

"Yeah. We need to talk." Shit! I know that tone in his voice. He knows about the flowers. I bit my lower lip as my brain quickly scrambled to find a reason not to see him in the near future – like say the next 20 years. My brain didn't work quick enough as he started speaking again. "See you at 8," and he hung up on me.

"Damn!" I blew out a sigh causing the bangs on my forehead to fly up briefly. Then I looked at the time on my cell phone and the swearing really started. It was already 7:15. My call to Lula was going to have to wait. I ran for the shower in a panic.

Forty minutes later, as I was putting on the final touches to my make-up, I heard the lock on my door tumble.

"I'll be out in a minute," I called out assuming it was Ranger. I did a mental cringe when I heard Joe's voice call back an acknowledgment. Shit! Could my day get any more complicated. What the hell was Joe doing here? I looked at the clock, I had less than 5 minutes to get him out of here before Ranger showed up. Why me?

"What do you want Joe? I have plans," I hoped he would get the hint, speak his piece, and leave. Apparently, that was asking too much. I poked my head out the bathroom door and watched as Joe made himself at home on my couch with the remote control.

"Thought I'd come check on my girl. The guys said you were in the station asking about one of your skips this morning. Why didn't you stop by and see me?" Ugh! Mental headslap. I rolled my eyes as I added another layer of mascara to my eyelashes.

"Maybe because I'm still mad at you? We had a fight last night, remember?"

"Cupcake, we always have disagreements. I figured you'd have calmed down by now and come to your senses." I stifled the urge to scream. I wondered briefly if Ranger had also loaded the gun I kept in my cookie jar when he was here earlier. He's been known to do that. I took a deep breath and counted to ten. I decided it was easier to agree with Joe in the hopes of getting him out of here for now.

"You know what, Joe? I have come to my senses. Now you need to leave. I told you, I have plans." By this time I had stepped out of the bathroom and was facing him, hands on hips. One look at his face and I could tell there was no way I was going to get him out of this apartment in the two minutes before Ranger was due here. Joe was not going to be happy to find out my plans were with Ranger.

"What plans?" Joe asked. His face had brightened when I said I'd come to my senses but when he realized I had also told him to leave, he had begun to scowl. As I heard the door open again, I fought the urge to go down the fire escape outside my bedroom window.

"Dinner with me." Ranger came through the door carrying containers of food. They weren't carry-out containers in the traditional sense. It must have been Ella's cooking. I felt my mouth water and quickly checked for drool. Ella was Ranger's housekeeper at Rangeman. I'd fallen in love with her cooking when I'd stayed at Rangeman during the whole Slayer mess. I don't know how she does it, but she manages to make even that healthy usually tasteless stuff Ranger prefers to eat taste good.

Joe stood up, fists clenched at his sides. He glowered at Ranger and took a step forward. "I don't think so," he ground out between clenched teeth. Ranger just lifted an eyebrow. Now, I pleaded with the universe, now would be a good time for the floor to open and swallow me whole.

The universe apparently didn't want to come to my rescue because I was still standing here after I counted to ten. Thinking maybe my last plea was a little extreme for the universe, I tried another. Please don't let there be bloodshed. Ranger is so self-controlled that I wouldn't have thought this a serious problem in the past. However, ever since the Scrog incident, Ranger has been a bit more…well, to use his word, "stupid" about the whole Morelli dynamic in my life. His word, I swear it! He's been known to provoke Joe on more than one occasion since that time they both tried to move in with me. I tried to ESP to him that I wasn't going to be happy if this was one of those times.

"Morelli," Ranger's voice was like ice. "Stephanie and I have Rangeman business to discuss. You can leave now." I sent a quick thank you skyward. I was thankful that Ranger hadn't either gone for his gun or baited Joe into thinking this was a romantic dinner. Ranger walked into the kitchen and began dishing up dinner.

"I'll leave when Stephanie asks me to." That earned Joe an angry 'Burg-girl glare from me. Hello? I thought I already told him to leave. I counted to ten. I looked at my cookie jar, again, wondering if my gun was loaded. I counted to ten again and realized I've been doing that a lot lately. It still didn't work, because I still felt the urge to shoot someone. I decided I needed to purposefully move away from my gun so I walked farther into the living room. I stepped in front of Joe but still out of arm's reach, thinking that if I couldn't shoot him, slapping him might be a nice alternative. I lowered my voice even though I knew Ranger would still be able to hear me. Ranger has exceptional hearing. I was hoping to keep Joe from starting a shouting match.

"Joe. I already asked you to leave. I told you I had plans for this evening. I will talk to you later." Yeah, like when hell freezes over. I really could do without ever having the conversation I knew Joe and I needed to have. 'Burg natives don't do well with expressing our feelings; hell, we barely admit our feelings to ourselves half the time, let alone discuss them.

"Fine, Cupcake." Joe took a step towards me and leaned forward, clearly intending to kiss me. I turned at the last moment so he wound up kissing my cheek instead. Joe stared at me a moment but I was already on my way to open the front door to show him out. He sent a glare in the direction of kitchen and left the apartment. I locked and chained the door behind him. I leaned my back against the door, closed my eyes, and blew out