30A/N: I just wanted to say thanks for all of your reviews, alerts and fav's! Gives me the warm and fuzzies! I wrote this a few years ago when I was in a hopeless romantic mode…. Hope you like the ending of my little bit o' Babe. Have a lint brush ready….the fluff will by flying.
No beta was used so all mistakes are mine.
As I sat there staring at my phone from across the room, I could have *sworn* I heard Rangers voice say "Please, Babe?" I looked around to make sure he wasn't there, then scowled at the phone.
You can't make me check! Nope. Not gonna do it!
Great. Now I'm talking to my phone.
I sighed and got up off the couch. I went over to the counter where the offending object was sitting and glared down at it.
Yup, little red blinking light. I flicked it open with one finger. Yup, "One New Voicemail Message"
I sighed again and hit the voicemail button and speaker button and waited.
"You have one unheard message. First Message, sent today, at 8:58PM."
Ranger's soft, sexy, very seductive voice came over the line.
"Babe….Check your account email."
That was it.
Getting a hinky feeling, I sat down at the laptop and brought up my email account. There was no AOL signature voice saying "You've got mail." Huh. I checked my spam box. Nothing. Then the hinky feeling got stronger.
He had said my "account email".
Nahhh. No way could he know about my online dating! He's been in the wind for 3 months!
I checked it anyway.
Oh. My. God.
When I opened my account it was totally empty. The 347 freak emails were gone. Not a freak in sight!
But right there, at the top, was one lonely message. I started to feel the tears well up again.
From: BabesBatman
To: WonderWoman812
The picture of the sender showed a headshot of Ranger and me. It must have been taken after a distraction job because my hair and makeup were perfect. It was night time and by the lighting, you could tell we were standing under a street lamp. Facing each other, foreheads touching, eyes closed , we both had soft, peaceful smiles on our faces. We looked like two soul mates deeply on love.
The email said; If you are interested in "Someday", you just have to open the door.
I just sat there is shock. I think I might have blinked a few times, then I shook my head to clear it. The next second I was lunging for the door. I ripped the thing open so fast that the handle got stuck in the drywall.
Standing there in the hall was Ranger, looking better than any man on earth had a right to. In his left hand was a huge bouquet of easily, three dozen big, fat, beautiful red roses and in the right was a large red velvet heart shaped box.
As I looked from one to another then up at him my breath caught in my throat. All the emotion he always fought so hard to hide was plain as day on his face. Love, pure and simple, was shining in his eyes.
"Open the box Babe." He softly told me.
Looking back and forth between the box and his eyes I slowly raised my now shaking hands.
As I tentatively lifted the lid, luscious, plum chocolates slowly came into view, one row at a time. Then, as I got the lid half way up, the light caught something sparkly.
I gasped and dropped the lid as my hands flew up to cover my mouth. With my hands shaking over my mouth and tears streaming down my face Ranger bent down and placed the flowers on the floor. On one knee, he opened the box and plucked out the most exquisite diamond ring I had ever seen.
"I love you Stephanie, more than life itself. You can look the world over and never find someone who could love you even half as much as I do. Before today Babe, my life was not my own. Today it is. My contract is up, I'm a free man. Please Babe, make me the happiest man in the world and say you'll be mine. Forever."
They say your life flashes before your eyes in times of life and death. Though this wasn't a life or death situation, it *was* a life changing moment. Image after image of our years knowing each other flashed in my minds eye. Good times, bad times and times I would like to forget. Scroge. But one image stuck and stopped the barrage of images.
The picture in Ranger's email.
Soulmates.
He was it for me. Always has been, always will be.
Snapping out of my mental slideshow, I screamed, "YES! YES! Oh my God, YES!" I was laughing and crying, hopping up and down and swaying back and forth. I was damn close to passing out!
Smiling bigger than I've ever seen, Ranger quickly stood up, grabbed me around the waist and took us inside, quietly shut the door with his foot.
In a second floor hallway, of a non-descript three storey brick apartment building, the sound of laughter, pure, joy filled laughter echoed. And leaning against the door, from whence joyous sounds came, was a beautiful bouquet of perfect red roses and a big red velvet heart shaped box, spilling its chocolates. Just like the love and laughter that was spilling forth from the hearts of two people who had finally found *"the love of a lifetime".
*"the love of a lifetime" is a tag line from E-Harmony, an online dating site.