Chapter 120

“Sunshine.”  Richie nudged her shoulder.  “Darlin’, Lemma’s on the phone.”

“Mmphf.”  Cracking one eye open, she tried valiantly to focus on him, but all she could see was a blur of black, which she assumed was his shirt.   Rubbing her eyes into focus, she mumbled sleepily, “What time is it?”

“Seven o’clock.  I wouldn’t have woken you, but you need to get up and eat something.” 

“In the morning?”  She was confused.  “Why are you up so early?”

He smiled tenderly at her and brushed the wayward hair from her face.  “No, baby, in the evening.  You were taking a nap.”  His face lit up with a Cheshire cat grin.  “After a rousing game of peekaboo.”

With a hearty laugh, she nodded and shoved herself up in the bed, holding out her hand for the phone.  “Now I remember.  Who knew a simple game could be so much fun?”  Her eyes sparkled with delight as she accepted the cellphone from him.  She then realized it wasn’t his.  “Hey, this is mine.”

“Yep.”  He dropped a quick kiss on her lips.  “I kept it for ya.  Now hurry up, Munchkin and I are hungry.”

Allegra could barely talk around the smile on her face.  Never did she dare dream that happiness like this could exist after the insanity they’d been through. 

Life can’t get any better than this.

“Hey David.”

“Allegra.”  His voice was stern and disapproving, completely flustering her for a moment. 

“What’s wrong?” she asked anxiously.  He always greeted her with a wise-crack or lighthearted hello.

“You were SUPPOSED to call me.”

“Oh.”  At least nothing major was wrong.  “I’m sorry, I forgot.  It’s been a busy day.”

“Since Richie answered your phone, am I to assume you two are on speaking terms again?”

She slid a look toward the closet, where he was changing into a mottled brown t-shirt that would just match his eyes.  Those well-defined biceps of his were flexing in all the right places when he pushed them into the sleeves. 

You could say that.

“We are,” she affirmed.  “I think everything is headed back to normal now.”

“And you’re doing okay?”  His voice was so genuinely concerned that she once again breathed a silent thanks for all the people who loved her.

“I’m great, actually.  Just getting up from a nap and I think we’re going to grab something to eat up at the main house?” 

Richie nodded at the question indirectly posed to him, holding up five splayed fingers to indicate they should be leaving in about five minutes.

“That’s awesome news sweetheart.  I’m tickled to hear it.”

“Thank you again for everything.”

“Anything for you.  Sooo…”

“Yes?”

“What are you guys doing tomorrow night?  Lexi and I were wondering if you’d like to go out to dinner with us.  Have a little normal, carefree fun for a change?  Maybe go see my musical?”  He added casually, “The one that’s been nominated for eight Tony awards?”

She sucked in a surprised breath.  “Oh my gosh, really?  Eight??  David, congratulations!  That’s amazing!  Of course we’d love to, but…”  Allegra looked to the bathroom door, where Richie was just emerging from brushing his teeth.  “I think we have plans tomorrow night.”

“Invite him,” Richie said.  “Jon said he and Tico would both want to be here.”

“David, we’re having a big family dinner tomorrow night.  My parents, Jon’s parents, Jon, Matt, Tony and families along with Joan and Ava.  We’re going to tell everyone about the baby.  We’d like to invite you and Lexi, too.  And Tico and Alejandra.  I’d love for my parents to meet you guys.”

“Family dinner?”  She could almost hear his ears perk up.  “Like the LAST family dinner?  Hell yes we’ll be there!  I wouldn’t miss it for the world.  Will there be actual dinner, or just popcorn and hot dogs, like they have for fights at The Garden?”

She mentally groaned.  Maybe hot dogs and popcorn would be a better idea.

“Very funny.  Yes there will be actual dinner, and there WON’T be a fight.  Don’t borrow trouble for me,” she ordered sternly.

“Give me the phone,” Richie murmured, easing it away from her.  “Lemma, you’d better damn well be on your best behavior.  Don’t be instigating shit just to amuse yourself.  This is going to be a pleasant evening and I don’t want your wiseass comments causing trouble.  Do we understand one another?”

“Bite me,” David told him good naturedly.  “I’m not going to do anything to upset Legs and you know it.  Is this dinner going to be the proposal too, or have you already done that?”

“No,” was Richie’s only reply.

“Excuse me?  Mr. Karma-leads-me-by-the-balls doesn’t take this as a sign to marry the girl?”  A touch of anger came through the line.  “You’d better do right by her, Sambora.  She deserves that, and I WILL kick your ass if necessary.”

“Shut up.  I’m not explaining myself to you right now.  We can talk later.  Now, say goodbye to Allegra so she and the baby can have dinner.”  Richie thrust the phone back into her hands and stepped out of the bedroom so she could make her goodbyes.

Allegra watched him leave, not having much trouble guessing what the exchange between the two men had been.  He was running into a lot of interference with his desire to wait for marriage.  She wondered if there was anything she could do to help.

Focusing herself on David for the time being, she asked, “So you’ll be here tomorrow then?  And will you call and ask Tico, too?”

“Yeah,” was the distant reply.  “Legs, are you okay?  Really?”

 “I’ve never been happier,” she told him honestly.  What he didn’t realize was that, even without a ring on her finger, Richie made everything right.  “David, he wants this baby and has claimed it as his own, flat out refusing a paternity test.   He loves me, and I love him.  I don’t need anything else.”

♪ ♫ ♥ ♫ ♪

“Hey baby girl.”  Richie greeted his daughter with a huge hug, lifting her from the ground and placing a loud, smacking kiss in the middle of her forehead.  “How was your flight?”

Allegra had convinced him to come to the airport alone, saying that Ava deserved to know about the baby from him, before the rest of the family did.  This would affect her more than it would the rest of the group, and if she didn’t respond well, he would have a chance to work through it before bombarding her with the crazy Bongiovis.  Allegra would be waiting for them at the guest house.

So here he was, happy to see his little girl, yet experiencing an unfamiliar feeling of apprehension in her presence.

“Hi Daddy.  It was okay.  I’d already seen the movie, so it was ridiculously long and boring.”

He took her carryon bag and slung it over his shoulder, curling an arm around her as they walked from the gate.  “Well, you won’t be alone on the way back, so if you’re desperate, you can actually talk to me.  I realize that would be an extreme measure, but the option is there.”  He winked at her with a grin.  “Do we need to go to baggage claim?”

The pretty little girl stuck her tongue out at him, and blonde locks swung when she shook her head.  “No, you said it was only a couple of days, so I just brought the carryon.”

“Well, alright then, let’s rock ‘n roll.”

They made their way to the short-term parking lot at Newark and stowed her bag in the trunk of his rental.   Ava alternated between catching up on four hours of missed text messages and talking to him.  They had just hit the freeway, when she apparently got caught up on everything she’d missed in pre-teen world, because she dropped the phone to her lap.

“So, not that I don’t love to see you and Nana, but why did you send for me?  What’s so special about THIS family dinner?  I mean, it’s not like you can’t bring Nana to Cali with you this weekend when you come home.  We could have dinner then.”

Her phone buzzed, and she began tapping out a reply before he could answer.

“Ava, put down the phone for a minute sweetie.”

The Jersey Turnpike may not be the most appropriate place to have this conversation, but at the rate traffic wasn’t moving, they should have plenty of time for it.

“O-kay.”  She did as he asked, waiting for an explanation.  He’d never been the type to issue parental orders for no reason, so she knew something was up.

“You know that I’ve been seeing Allegra for a little while now…”

“Yeahhhh.”

“Well, the short story is, we’re having a baby.  You’re going to be a big sister.”

Dead silence.

Richie slid his gaze from traffic to his daughter’s face.  He wouldn’t say that it was revulsion he saw there.  But then again, maybe it was.

“That’s what the dinner is for tonight – to tell the families.  But Allegra thought you deserved to hear it first so that you could get used to the idea before the whole crew got together.”

Her jaw had dropped open slightly and she stared at him like he was speaking another language – one besides the Spanish and French he’d paid a fortune for her to be articulate in.

“Dad, I don’t mean to be rude, but aren’t you awfully old to be having a baby?”

Not ‘you’ve ruined my entire childhood’, ‘you’ve scarred me for life’, ‘I never wanted a brother or sister’.  No, instead she was calling him old. 

He didn’t see that one coming.

“Evidently not,” he told her with a smile.

Ava picked at the remnants of blue polish that was on her short cropped fingernails.  “So does that mean you’re getting married?” she asked quietly.

“No, it doesn’t.  We love each other very much, and it may happen later, but right now we don’t have any plans to get married.”

Would she be relieved or join the rest of them in thinking he was shirking his responsibility by not giving Allegra an engagement ring?

“This is very weird for me,” she announced with typical teenage self-absorption.  “I’ve never been around a baby before.  And is Allegra going to come live with you in California?”

Funny, he’d never thought to ask that question.  Of course, they were in the middle of this monstrous tour, so it wasn’t like HE would even be living in California that much in the near future.

“We haven’t decided yet.”  He flipped her hair back from her face.  “So that’s your major concern?  Not having been around a baby before?”

She threw up her shoulders in a careless gesture.  “Not much point in being pissed, since there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Ava,” he scolded.  “That’s not how I want my daughter talking.  Watch your language.”

“Yes, Daddy.”

Richie waited for her to speak further, but, other than asking if she could go back to her phone, she didn’t.  Thinking that it could’ve gone much worse, he hit the button for the satellite radio and allowed the sweet guitar riffs of some classic rock fill the car. 

Now if only her mother took it half as well…

“Daddy?”

“What baby girl?”  He dialed the volume down a bit so that he could hear her clearly.

“If you did decide to marry Allegra…”  She was back to picking at her nail polish.  “Well, I’d be okay with that.”

The admission more than surprised him, it shocked the hell out of him.  She and Allegra had only spent that little bit of time together in Las Vegas, so he didn’t think she had enough information to even form an opinion of Allegra.

“You would, huh?” he asked, patting her knee.  “Not that I don’t appreciate your blessing, but is there any particular reason you’re giving it to me after only one weekend with Allegra?”

“Well…  I like her.” 

That was it?  Surely there had to be more? 

“That’s a good thing,” he assured her.  “But is there more to this story?”

Her lips and her brow puckered simultaneously, as though debating whether or not to tell him.  A sigh of resignation let him know which side had won before she began, “Allegra did something in Las Vegas that was really cool, and she didn’t have to.”

His daughter wasn’t all that materialistic, but he wondered if Allegra had gotten her a token gift of some sort to buy her affection.

“What was that?”

“She said that no one should come between you and me, especially a woman.  That I was more important than any woman who would come and go in your life, and that if I didn’t like her, she would break up with you.”

Richie found it hard to swallow past the lump in his throat.  That was the same weekend she’d told him that she loved him.  Even feeling that strongly, she’d offered to walk away rather than come between he and his daughter.

Maybe Allegra understood more about relationships than he was giving her credit for.