One Hundred Nineteen

“Have you lost your mind?  Do you not remember the LAST family dinner?”  Jon asked incredulously, inspecting Richie as though he’d taken a blow to the head.

But he just chuckled.  “That’s what Allegra said.”

“For good fuckin’ reason!  It was a train wreck, and that was just MEETING them and playing nice.  Now you’re going to take responsibility for knocking up their daughter, but ‘oh by the way, we’re not getting married’?  You lost more brain cells during the eighties than I thought, man.”

Richie shook his head, and picked up a guitar.

After tucking Allegra into for a short nap, he’d come to the studio seeking to release some of his pent up emotion. 

Getting her stuff from the cloister had been fairly uneventful, except for the moment Allegra had pointed out the Bishop, who was watching them load the car from his window.  Richie wanted to flip him the bird, but refrained – barely.  He did hope the old man was good at reading lips, though.

The drive back had been non-stop planning around the family dinner and who needed told and how big they really wanted to make this event. 

Still obsessing over her mother – and his adamant stance that the baby was his – Allegra had asked if they should tell her parents about the rape.  She thought her mother may look on the situation a little more favorably if she knew how he was stepping up.

THAT had pissed him off.

“Baby, if something has changed and you want your parents to know about Detroit, then I’ll gladly hold your hand while you tell them.  DON’T do it to make me into some friggin’ martyr.  Her panties would still be in a twist even if we were a hundred percent certain it’s my baby.   I personally think it’s better for all involved if they accept that it’s mine without question – just like I do.”

And that, in turn, had pissed her off.

“I was only trying to make things easier,” she huffed.  “There’s no reason to get YOUR panties in a twist.”

Richie sighed and drew her into the circle of his arms.  She had to stop worrying about stuff so much and have a little faith.  “Haven’t you ever heard that best things in life don’t come easy?  I’m sorry for being pissy, but I’m done letting other people control the way I feel.   I’m happy about the baby, and if no one else is, that’s their problem.”

That had smoothed her ruffled feathers, and she relaxed into his embrace.   “And I’m happy that you’re happy.  You have no idea how – “ She unsuccessfully tried to swallow a yawn, but it overtook her and she gulped in a lungful of air before she was able to finish her sentence.  “Much.”

Chuckling, he’d released all but one hand tangled with his, and guided her to the brown bedroom.  “Come on.  It’s time for Little Mama to get some sleep.”  Flipping the covers back, he waited for her to slip from her clothes, crawling into bed with only her panties. 

Down boy.  She needs sleep, not another reason not to.

She settled in, big sleepy eyes blinking up at him from the pillow.  “I don’t think I have the energy to argue.”

“That’s a first,” he teased, sinking to his knees beside the bed.  Richie touched his lips to her tummy with a whispered,  “Be a good munchkin and let Mommy get a nap, okay?  Daddy will be back in a while to check on you.”

Allegra’s stomach clenched under his touch and he heard her sniffle.  Concerned, he lifted his head and saw the tears.  “Sunshine, what’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing.  Sometimes my heart just isn’t big enough to hold all the love,” she said with a trembly laugh, wiping the moisture away.  “I guess I should get used to this?  You talking to the baby?”

“It’s going to happen a lot, so you may as well,” he confirmed.  “You haven’t been talking to it?”

“I wouldn’t have any idea what to say to my stomach.”

A deep dimple materialized in his left cheek.  “You’re not talking to your stomach,” he chided with a grin, stroking across the soft skin of her belly.  “You’re talking to your child.  You get to know her, and let her get to know you.  Tell her how excited you are and that you can’t wait to see her.  Anything  to start building a bond between you.”

“Um.  Maybe I’ll get around to that later.”

“Nooo,” he laughed, placing her hand where his had been, and covering it with his own.  “Just talk.  There’s a little life growing inside you that doesn’t know what’s going on.  Everything’s new and kinda scary.  Mommy’s the one who can make it all better.”

“This feels silly.”

“Just say hi,” he coaxed.  “Ask her if she’s ready for a nap.”

Her look clearly stated that she thought he was off his rocker.  That possibility always existed, but if it was for the betterment of their child, he didn’t have a problem with it.

After evidently deciding that he would win the stare down they were locked in, Allegra relented and moved her thumb to lightly graze the skin of her midriff.  “Hi there.  Are you ready to take a nap with me?” she mumbled awkwardly.

“Yes, Mommy,” came the tiny, barely audible reply, causing her to sit straight up with a squeal.

Allegra smacked at Richie’s shoulders that were shaking with mirth, once she realized what had happened.  “Damn you, Richie, that’s not funny!” His head was thrown back in pure delight.

“Yes it was.  If you’d seen your face, you’d be laughing too!”

“You suck,” she pouted, turning her back to him and curling into a ball.

“Now don’t be that way.”  The honeyed tone was pure sin as he cajoled her out of her snit.  Toeing his shoes off, he crawled into the bed and settled his arms around her.  “Don’t you think it’s time we had a little fun, instead of all the damn drama?”

The naked skin under his grasp proved to be an impossible temptation and his fingertips lazily brushed the silky underside of her breast.  He loved the pliant curves’ reaction to his touch.  The faint jiggle of flesh had his hips wiggling against her backside.

One brow arched upward and Allegra cast an inquiring look over her shoulder.  “What are you doing?’

“Having fun.”  His lips smiled naughtily against the shell of her ear before his tongue darted out for a taste.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she snorted.  “You try and convince me the baby hears me and then want to have sex in front of it – around it – near it?  That’s just wrong.”

The dry words had him laughing out loud.  He couldn’t help it.  It was so absurd and so true at the same time that it hit his warped sense of humor in just the right spot.

“Well, I’m glad YOU’RE amused.  I don’t find eight months of abstinence all that funny.  I’ve done my time already,” she pouted.

With a growl, he nipped at her nick.  “Abstinence my ass.  Daddy’s just gonna play a little hide and seek with the munchkin.  It’ll be fun for everybody.  I’ll just whisper the dirty stuff so she can’t hear.”

The giggling was soft at first, but eventually had her shoulders shaking and the laughter reverberated throughout the room. 

“What the hell is so funny?”  he asked curiously, nuzzling behind her ear.

“The thought of you saying ‘peekaboo’ every time you…  well, you know.”

That tickled him all over again, and he hauled her close against him, the both of them laughing until tears ran down their faces.

“It’s official.  I’ve completely ruined you for normal people,” he finally breathed after the humor had receded.

She lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug.  “I’m not complaining.”

They were companionably silent for a few moments before his hand started moving over her stomach again.  “I’m going to be a Daddy again,” he murmured.  “God, I can’t tell you how good that makes me feel.”

Her voice was so quiet he almost didn’t hear it when she asked, “No reservations, or second thoughts about DNA testing?”

“No.  I’ll tell you what I told Jon.  Even if I WEREN’T the father, you’re the mother and you belong to me.  That means the baby belongs to me.  He said that he hopes she looks like you, but I just want her to be healthy and happy.”  He gave her tummy a gentle pat.  “Isn’t that right, little one?”

“Were you this crazy about Ava?”

He smiled into her hair.  “Oh yeah.  Heather wasn’t all that receptive to it, but I was always talking and singing to her.  Loving on her.  She was particularly unhappy the night we were at some awards thing.  I spent more time talking to her belly than I did her.”

“Please take note that I’m purposefully choosing not to go down the Heather road, as much as I’d like to,” she said, pulling his arm more tightly around her.  “But that does make me think of something else.  Ava.  What are we going to tell her?”

“That she’s going to be a sister.”

He felt her flipping and flopping against him until she had turned in his arms enough to look up into his face.  “That’s all the explanation you want to give her?”

“Well, obviously there will be more than that.  I’ll tell her that we love each other very much, and hope to get married someday.”

“Do you think it’s unfair to let the baby’s cousins know before its sister?  And what about Heather?”

“Sunshine, you worry too much.  I’ll take care of it.”  Richie nuzzled into the crook of her neck with a soft growl.  “Right now I’m more interested in an intense game of peekaboo.”

It had effectively distracted her – and him, for a while – but people and events in California had begun stomping their feet in his mind.  Her overwhelmed feeling from earlier in the day had found its way onto his shoulders, and it was what led him to seek a bit of comfort in the studio.

But Jon had interrupted that plan.

“And what about Ava?” he was asking.  “When are you going to tell her?  And – Jesus Christ – Heather and Nikki?”

“You know what?  Don’t worry about it, man.  I’ve got this.”  Richie strummed another melancholy chord.  “I managed to wrangle it so that Ava will be out here tomorrow for the family dinner, and that’s all I care about.  I don’t know when, how or IF the other two find out, because it doesn’t affect them.”

Except that it did.  Well, Nikki anyway.  They had a serious push coming up in the next few weeks to prepare for the London fashion show.  Another reason he was starting to feel overwhelmed.

And no matter how he felt about Heather’s reaction, he was going to have to deal with it. 

Dammit.  Will things ever go smoothly in my life?

“Well you know Dave and Tico have to be there,” Jon continued.  “After hearing about the last dinner, they demanded to be invited if it – God forbid – ever happened again.  Which is fine with me, they can have my seat, because I sure as shit am NOT going.”

Richie put the guitar down and looked at Jon with a smirk.  “Oh, I think you are.”

His friend’s chest puffed out, and finely muscled arms crossed belligerently.  “Is that a threat?”

“Not from me, man.”  Richie shook his head with a chuckle.  “But your wife volunteered to host it, so the possibility of HER threatening you always exists.”

Jon’s countenance deflated and his chin dropped to his chest with a bounce.  “Sonofabitch.”

Richie just laughed and clapped the dejected man’s shoulder consolingly on his way out the door.