Everybody and anything familiar belongs to Janet. The mistakes are mine alone.

"Go ahead, Babe ... call me stupid."

I folded my arms across my chest and glared at him. "No."

"Why not?"

"Because you are definitely not stupid."

"Neither are you, so stop telling yourself that you are. You may be impulsive, but you're not stupid. There's a difference," he told me.

"Not today there isn't."

"Your FTA is gone, but you and I are still here ... and are together again. There are worse outcomes."

"Not when I now have to go tell my pencil-dicked cousin to start counting out hundreds, because I did what he told me to and located and chased his asshole. Of course I'd leave my keys in my car and my door wide open when I took off after him."

"Vince is tracking your car as we speak. Cal and Junior will be retrieving it for you and will teach your skip a valuable lesson at the same time."

"Remind me to get them all doughnuts in the morning."

I swear, half of every other capture fee is going towards 'thank yous' for the guys for helping me out.

"They're available to you because they like you," Ranger said to me, "and I also pay them to do what I say. They don't rush out of my building when you need something because of doughnuts."

I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Alright. They may move their asses half a second faster due to them."

I nodded at his concession. It's a small victory, but I'll take it.

"Thank you for coming to get me," I said, looking over at the section of cracked asphalt that my car had been covering twenty minutes ago. "I don't feel up to a Lula conversation."

"I'm glad I could help out."

"I guess I'll have to think of something besides bakery stuff to give you."

He didn't grin, kiss the top of my head, or tug on my ponytail. He was studying me in a way that had me suddenly taking a step back.

Now his eyes crinkled at the corners. "Relax, Babe. I wasn't going to suggest sex, though I'm not opposed to the idea if you're in the mood."

"I might've been until you decided to make a joke about it."

He didn't believe me.

"Ooookay," I said, "what were you actually thinking if your thoughts weren't on having sex with me?"

"Make no mistake, Steph, I never stop thinking about sex with you."

I smiled back at him. I can always count on him to make me feel wanted when nothing else can.

"But you were contemplating something," I pushed."What was it?"

"If you really would like to thank me, I want you to agree to let me help you."

"Help me more than you already do? With what exactly?"

"With the things that caused your shoulders to slump and made your confidence take a nosedive today," he said.

"That sounds cryptic."

He curled an arm around my back and moved me away from my skip's porch and towards his Porsche.

"Why are you upset right now?" He asked me.

I was just about to slide into the passenger's seat, but I stopped and looked up at him in complete disbelief that he'd even have to ask.

"Are you kidding? This day has been a total suckfest ever since I opened my eyes before it was bright enough to see anything. Grandma Mazur was knocking on my door, wanting to stay with me again because my mother decided Grandma needs a curfew. Vinnie called shortly after I got her unpacked to tell me to get this dickhead by three o'clock or he's going to fire me. And Joe brought me coffee out of the blue even though I told him to drop dead three weeks ago. I'd even given him a detailed list of ways I'd help that to happen if he didn't leave me alone."

I know Ranger is listening to everything I say, but I felt a definite shift in the force when I mentioned Morelli.

"Did you tell him to drop dead this time?" He asked.

"I did one better. I got my key back from him, gave it and his coffee to Grandma, and told him the only person in my apartment he has a hope in hell of charming is her. Grandma's 'Come here, Big Boy' look sent him quickly on his way."

He let out a surprised bark of laughter and I settled myself in his vehicle with a happy grin on my face. Maybe I'm not good at much, but I can make Ranger laugh ... and that's way more important to me than a crappy day and an endlessly sucky life. He walked around to his side of the car and got behind the wheel.

"So you have a new roommate now?" He asked me.

"Looks like. Grandma isn't easy to live with, but she does make pancakes in the morning. Plus, she's effective in keeping people like Morelli and Vinnie away from me."

"I remember you saying that Ella makes the best peanut butter chocolate chip pancakes."

"She makes the best pancakes period, but Grandma's are a close second."

He started the car and pulled away from the curb. "I have Ella, a heavily secured piece of property, and men who are paid well to restrict unwanted visitors."

"You're lucky to have what you do," I told him.

There's an undercurrent of tension I'm picking up on.

"What are you hinting at?" I asked, not wanting to jump to any conclusions.

I've done that enough in the past with disastrous results. Now, I'd much rather know upfront what I'm dealing with.

"I think you should let your grandmother have your apartment and you should come stay at Rangeman."

I couldn't have heard that correctly. How did we go from me losing a skip to me moving?

"Huh?" I asked, instead of voicing my mental question.

"Before you jump out of a moving car or say a panicked no ... think about this. Your mother drives your grandmother crazy. If Edna takes your place, she'll get a slight break from your mom, which is good for the residents of Trenton. You'll also get a break, because Helen will be too busy trying to keep track of your grandma's activities to irritate you."

"You're building an interesting case here."

"If you aren't staying there," he continued, "you'll be away from both of them. Morelli will also be a non-issue if you're in my building."

"He definitely won't try anything with you in shouting distance. But what about us? Are you talking about me taking an apartment on another floor or sharing yours?"

"Sharing mine."

"You actually want to live with me?" I asked.

"I want to do a lot of things with you. You're not happy with your life, and I can make improvements to almost every area of it."

"Vinnie?"

"I'll inform him that you're mine now and suggest he find a new bond enforcement agent to bitch out everyday. But if you work for me, you will have to agree to do, and follow through with, the same training my men are subjected to. I don't want you or them injured on the job."

"There's the catch," I said, hearing the proverbial other shoe drop. Loudly.

"No catch, Babe. If you don't want to feel like you can't do your job well, then you work hard to improve your skills so you excel at it. I'm offering you a chance to do that, but only if you're serious."

"What happens if I want to stay at my apartment and keep my job with Vinnie?"

"So you can be frustrated and unhappy all over again tomorrow?"

Shit. He has a way of shutting down everything that doesn't benefit him.

"What if I think it's too soon to be moving in together?"

"I can give you multiple examples of how well cohabitation has worked for us the times we've done it. Even with people trying to kill you or me the times we've stayed together, you were still happier than you are right now."

I think a scoreboard would currently read something like MANOSO 5 / PLUM a big fat 0.

"How long have you been thinking about this?" I asked him.

"Distractedly ... from the time I agreed to help you apprehend Morelli. I've been thinking seriously about it ever since you dumped him."

"Wow."

He stopped at a light and glanced over at me. "I can make that a more satisfied 'wow' if you're willing to risk it."

"What if I don't want to work out in the morning?" I asked, wondering what the hell is wrong with me for starting to seriously think about this, too.

"You could work out in the evening instead, and do target practice with Tank first thing in the morning."

I cringed. "That's sneaky and a little mean. So my choice is ... wake up too early everyday and watch your sizable muscles flex, or fire a gun I hate with Tank staring blankly at me the entire time?"

"You can skip Tank altogether, except as possible backup, and hit the gym with me when we get up. And then I'll personally oversee your time at the gun range. We've had a few memorable moments there already."

That is true. His hand had been headed under the waistband of my pants the last time we were there together. This time, there would be no Morelli between us to stop him.

"So ... Grandma gets her own bachelorette pad, Vinnie will pay Joyce for more than just sex, and I get free specialized training and a huge upgrade in living spaces ... what do you get?"

"I get what I've been wanting for awhile ... your talent finely tuned and used solely for my company. I'll have you in my apartment and your body wrapped around mine every night. And I'll be closer to getting you to promise that I can shoot Morelli on sight without your conscience trying to prevent it."

"My idea of right and wrong has drifted further into the gray area lately ..." I told him, as his car took us closer to Rangeman.

"You're not fighting me on this?" He asked, reaching for my hand and kissing my knuckles once he captured it.

"Nope. For some reason, all the fight just went out of me ... until tomorrow when I get started on kicking some muscled Merry Man butt."

His fingers tightened around mine. "That's the spirit, Babe. I prefer seeing you out for blood rather than being tortured by - or covered in - it."

"Speaking of that, are the guys at the front desk going to block my mom if she calls me or tries to come over after she hears about this?"

"If you'd like. I can send Hector and Cal to tell her about your address change if that will make things easier on you. They have a good track record when it comes to silencing people."

I relaxed into the buttery-soft leather seat and turned my head his way. "If I didn't love you before, that offer would've sealed the deal."

"If you agree to come home with me right now, I'll let Tank tell Morelli about us."

"Can Hector film that conversation?"

"He's got a dash cam somewhere, plus a cell with superior audio and visual capabilities."

"Let's go 'home' then. It seems like I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow. I've got a ton of doughnuts to buy ... and a new job, routine, and relationship, to master."