Chapter 1

Tomas Lee ‘Pancho’ Manara and Francisco Luis ‘Cisco’ Lopez were friends since childhood. They attended school together from the time they met in the first grade, through high school. They married their high school sweethearts in a dual wedding ceremony on graduation day.

Upon graduation, they enrolled in night classes at a Community College near their hometown, while working fulltime for a local construction company.

The two close friends had dreamed of becoming Texas Rangers since the first grade when they saw a news clip about Rangers.

The next year, they became fathers.

Laurel and Tomas ‘Pancho’ Manara are now proud parents of a son, Tommy Lee Manara.

Selena and Francisco ‘Cisco’ Lopez are now proud parents of a daughter, Jennifer Lee Lopez.

Tommy and Jennifer grew up together, bathing together and sleeping together as kids. Though they lived next door to each other, the two kids virtually lived with each other. When they learned to talk, he called her, J Lo ... She called him T Lee. She still calls him T Lee, when it’s just the two of them. He, and everyone else who knows her, still call her, J Lo. To Tommy and her friends, she looks just like Jennifer Lopez, the singer/actress — J Lo — as she is known in the entertainment business.

They rode the same bus to school until Tommy bought his own car the year they were juniors. They spent their days and most nights together when not in school ... In school, Tommy was the BMOC, excelling in sports, and actively involved in student government. Still, the girl of his dreams was J Lo.

J Lo wasn’t sitting idly on the bleacher seats as Tommy Lee made the papers each week for his heroics on the gridiron or the baseball diamond. She was on the womens track team, basketball team, softball team, tennis team and swim team. Her number-one and most ardent sideline cheerleader - sometimes to the point of embarrassment - was none other than, Tommy Lee Manara.

They played tennis together, each and every day they could after school, weather permitting. If they couldn’t get up a mixed doubles match, they played each other. Their singles matches of were some of the most intense, hard fought battles ever played on the city courts or school tennis courts. Many times, they had ten to twenty spectators in the bleachers during their marathon matches. Neither of them would let up. They were just as relentless in their athletic competitions as their fathers were in their quest to become Texas Rangers.

Tommy Lee and J Lo were inseparable!

Her bedroom had twin beds, and so did his. Even as teenagers ... many, many nights, they stayed together, sleeping in separate beds even though they were in the same bedroom behind closed doors.

Their mothers were Catholic, and they put the trust issue on their teenagers.

NO SEX! ... At least until they graduated from high school. There were times when temptation was so strong, they cheated. MBC Sex - they called it - Masturbation by Committee. Yet, that reciprocation of mutual stimulation was as far as they would let their lust for each other take them.

Their love, and their lust for each other was as strong as their fathers’ ambitions to become Texas Rangers. The two families were already planning the upcoming wedding, for graduation day in May of 2015.

The dreams of their fathers since the first grade, was to become Texas Rangers. They never stopped dreaming. They planned each detail and each step, working hard to make their dreams come true. By the time the young men graduated from high school, they knew each and every crucial step, of the very strict requirements a recruit must meet before they are even allowed to appear before the review board.

The foremost requirement either thirty-six semesters at an accredited college or thirty-six months in the military ... After that, another very strict and very lengthy requirement a minimum of eight years of law enforcement, serving in a major-crimes investigative unit.

At age twenty-one, they joined the San Angelo, Texas, Police Department. That same year, they enrolled at San Angelo State, taking night classes and online classes to finish their required credits.

At the San Angelo Police Department, they worked hard to make the rank of Detective, in order to join the Criminal Investigation Division.

Pancho and Cisco were twenty-nine when they applied for and were accepted by the Texas Department of Public Safety, requesting assignment as border control, officers in training ... another very strict requirement toward their goal.

The next requirement, reaching the level of Commissioned Officer with a rank no less than Texas State Trooper II.

A must, to even be considered for The Rangers.

They had worked hard, taking classes, working double shifts, and overtime — including numerous weekends. They had invested seventeen years of their lives toward their goals, and now, they were within reach of their lifelong dream. They had taken hours of family time away from their wives and kids along the way. They were now ready to make up for it all.

Thirty-five year old Francisco Cisco Lopez and Tomas Lee Pancho Manara presented their lengthy and detailed resumes to the board in order to take their written exams.

Only the highest scores would be accepted. Some years, as many as two hundred applicants would apply and take the test - for only five or six available positions.

Pancho and Cisco earned the two highest scores among all the applicants. Now they would face the Oral Review Board in hopes of being selected to join one of the most elite law enforcement agencies in America. The average age of a Texas Ranger is forty-seven years old. Currently, there are only one hundred and forty-four Texas Rangers on active duty.

Just as it has been with Cisco and Pancho - getting there - takes a lifelong commitment.

If and when, a Texas Department of Public Safety officer reaches the level Trooper II, and is accepted into the Texas Rangers, he must still commit to forty hours of in-service training every two years of his employment with the Texas Rangers.

On the morning of Friday, May 22, 2015 - Texas Rangers, Tomas Lee Pancho Manara and Francisco Luis Cisco Lopez, with their wives, attended the graduation of their son and their daughter.

The proud parents intercepted their newly graduated teens at the west end of the football field. They were still in their caps and gowns when they saw their parents. The race was on, as each of them ran toward their respective mother and father. Both of them had tears in their eyes. Their parents were bleary eyed too as each couple congratulated their son, then congratulated their daughter.

That evening at 7:00, they were at St. Mary’s Catholic Church...

One Texas Ranger was the best man, the other Texas Ranger gave the bride away.

This wedding had been planned in detail, as much or more so than the two men becoming Texas Rangers. The Rangers had taken seventeen years to reach their goal. This wedding had been in the making for most of eighteen years and now the two best friends were Texas Rangers and they were closer than family, already looking forward to being grandpas to the same grand-babies...

Since they were twelve years old, walking home from the tennis courts on a Saturday morning, Tommy and J Lo, each had dreams of owning a new Camaro. That Saturday morning had been the beginning of their dream, as they saw an auto-carrier parked on the lot of the Chevy dealer. There were eight new Camaros being delivered to the dealership. Two of them were glistening, shiny, sparkling, black.

Either one of those two vehicles, was the one they wanted. Each of them planned to ask for a new Camaro as a graduation present.

As the man continued to unload the cars and park them, the two twelve year old tennis players looked through the windows at the sporty vehicles. With big smiles and eyes wide, they looked at each other in the reflection of the dark tinted windows.

Over the years, they never stopped dreaming of that solid black supercharged beast with the Chevy emblem on the hood. Eventually they had combined that dream into one — One, sleek black Camaro convertible — About the time they reached puberty, each of them realized they were head over heels in love with their best friend.

Today, as they walked out through the archway at St. Mary’s and looked down the long steps to the circle drive, there sat a sparkling black, 2015 Camaro ZL1 Convertible.

From the five hundred and eighty horse supercharged beast, bolted to the six-speed manual transmission chained beneath the hood ... to the - Siri, Bluetooth, USB port, Sirius Radio, Remote Start, Wifi, OnStar Navigation - laden cockpit ... this was indeed, their dream Camaro.

Dreams do come true - and it pays - to dream big in Texas.

With tin cans filled with marbles, bouncing and rattling behind them. With Lone Star Texas flags fastened to the front and rear bumpers and ‘Just Married’ painted on the sides, they roared off on their way to El Paso. Their plans were, to spend the weekend there, then travel to Las Vegas, Nevada. From there they would continue out to the Pacific Ocean and drive up the California coast, before heading northeast Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.

After leaving the church, the young couple stopped by J Lo’s house to change. Their parents were still at the church, and the temptation to fall naked onto a bed was evident. They resisted one more time, wanting their first time to be more than a quickie.

Before leaving San Angelo, J Lo programmed their trip into the OnStar GPS. They had originally planned to leave San Angelo on highway 67 south, intersecting with I-10 West, and then driving to El Paso before they stopped. There was construction showing up on 67, so she entered highway 87 up to intersect with I-20 near Odessa. They were on their way, and the world which now belonged to them, tagged along behind.

J Lo called The Camino Real in El Paso and told them they were being delayed by construction and would arrive tomorrow around mid day.

They spent their first night together as newlyweds, at the Ramada Inn, just off I-20 in Odessa. It was after 11:00 when Tommy Lee carried J Lo over the threshold into their room that night.

The waiting was over. The years of touching, feeling, masturbation and frustration were over. They stood facing each other as they stripped off their clothes, to fall across the bed. They made love into the early morning hours before falling asleep in each others arms. They awoke and made love again before showering, packing, then grabbing a Danish and orange juice in the lobby before hitting the road again.

“Tommy, we need to stop at a bank somewhere and cash this money card Granny gave us. Dad said we may have trouble cashing it after we leave Texas.”

“I saw a Chase Bank Branch just down the street from here last night. It’s 9:00 now. They should be open.”

“Let’s stop by there before we hit the interstate. If they need to check my ID, at least we both have an account at the branch in San Angelo they can verify.”

All the drive-through lanes were backed up with three or more vehicles waiting. Tommy drove around to park near the side door on the west side of the branch bank. He parked in the No Parking Zone, since J Lo would only be in there a minute, and he’d be with the car if anyone told him to move it.

J Lo ran into the bank and Tommy saw a trashcan at the far corner of the building. He bagged up their cups and napkins from where they’d stopped to get drinks the night before, and walked down the sidewalk to dispose of them. Just as he dumped the garbage into the container, he heard a loud security alarm sounding. It was really close, wherever it was coming from. He had just returned to their vehicle and started the engine when he saw J Lo run from the entrance. She leaped over the door of the convertible and screamed for him to GO!

“GO - Tommy - GO! Get the hell out of here! There’s a bank robbery taking place in there. I had just left the teller’s window and turned to leave when I heard the alarm going off. I saw three men wearing ski masks run from behind the counter, and out the door on the other side of the building, they were carrying three large money bags! One of the men wearing a ski mask came out this side ahead of me! I was afraid to come out until I saw you. Didn’t you see the one who ran out the door, past you on this side?”

J Lo was screaming as she tried to tell him what had happened. He was entering traffic by then and gunned the engine.

“I’d gone over to put our cups and empty sacks in the trashcan while you were in the bank. Just as I turned back to the car, I heard the alarms going off. I was just starting the car when I saw you run out. I didn’t see anyone else.”

“Pull into this convenience store up here, I need to pee again. Shit! That scared the hell out of me!”

Just as Tommy parked in front of the convenience store, five city police cars roared southwest out of town with their sirens wailing.

“Here, you take this money. I had to show that lady everything but what color panties I was wearing, just to get that money card cashed.”

“I thought your grandmother told you the card was for two thousand? I count five, if these bundles are the same!”

“I know. The lady had to get it OK’d before she could cash it for that much. That’s what took me so long ... Anyway, you know how Granny is about giving me money all the time.”

They stopped to kiss before they went to separate restrooms. When J Lo came out, she didn’t see him. Tommy was standing just around the corner. As she walked past looking for him, he grabbed her, pulling her around the corner. He kissed her, stifling her screams until she realized it was him.

“T Lee, you’re going to get fucked right here in this store, if you keep that up!” They were still laughing as they went to the fountain dispenser to get cokes on ice.

The next day at Cisco and Selena’s home, the men were relaxing with their wives. The two friends had yet to spring the biggest surprise they’d ever pulled on their wives. They had in their pockets, ten-day reservations at a Five-Star Hotel and Beach Resort in Cozumel, Mexico.

The couples were laughing and telling stories about when their kids were younger and the two teenagers thought their parents weren’t listening or watching. Selena and Laurel were sipping away on yesterday’s wine ... they were so happy, laughing at anything and everything their husbands said.