Chapter 162

Sorry for the lag in posting.  Things have been pretty busy around here, but I finally go the next chapter put together.  Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas!!!

“Well…”  David looked to the other band members.  “Guess we should head out.  I feel like I need a bachelor party before the show now.  Thanks a lot, Legs.”  He threw her a look of mock-disgust, pushing the chair back to stand.  Tico and Hugh readily followed suit, murmuring about things to do before they hit the stage. Jon, however,  didn’t budge.

“Go on without me,” he said with a toss of his chin.  Still in his reclined pose, Jon laced his fingers together in the center of his chest as his ‘posse’ headed out.  He would just hang around and make sure everything was okay with Ava before going to warm up. 

In the meantime…

“So you think you’ll be okay stepping into the parenting role for a teenager right off the bat?”

He played it casual, taking the long way around this conversation.  It might keep her from getting her panties in a twist and he thought they had a few minutes before Richie finished his call.

She flicked her eyes toward the corner where Richie spoke in hushed tones before answering Jon.

“I don’t know.  I’ll do the best I can.  We’re getting along fine so far.”

“So you’ll be okay spending twenty-four seven with her?”

She hesitated, and he took the opportunity to be more specific, and ask his real question.  “In LA?”

“I don’t know,” she repeated on a sigh.  “Honestly?  It’s nothing to do with her, but I hate the thoughts of living a whole country away from everyone I know.  With Richie on the road so much right now and Bug on the way…”  She shook her head and rubbed her stomach lightly.  “We can’t come to an agreement on where to live, even after a dozen conversations.”

“He does have one daughter already.”  Jon couldn’t blame Allegra for not wanting to relocate – at all.  He’d hated it in California.  But he also couldn’t imagine she’d try and separate Richie and Ava. 

“I’m aware of that.”  Dipping her head thoughtfully, she toyed with the fork that still lay on her plate.  The chicken remained half-eaten, as did the side-dishes, and she pushed them around on the white china as she spoke.  “It’s the only thing that keeps me from flat out refusing to go.  I keep hoping we’re going to figure out a compromise.  He’s so used to flying off everywhere I didn’t think it would be a big deal to hop on a plane whenever he wants to see her or she wants to visit.  We can be there in five hours.”

“That’s true.”  And it was true, despite the fact that they all hated stepping foot on a plane by the time they were half through a tour.  It wasn’t his intention to sway her one way or the other.  It made no difference to him where they lived.  Well, not much anyway.  He just wanted to see where her head was, since Richie hadn’t said anything in a while.

“But…?” 

He lifted his eyebrows and shrugged.  “There’s no but.  If you don’t wanna live in Cali, this decision is gonna be a bitch.  I was only making conversation.”

“Bullshit.  You always have an opinion.”

“Not this time, babydoll,” he told her with a slow shake of his head.  Uncrossing his ankles, he winced slightly when he bent his knees and heard the ensuing crack.  “There’s no clear cut right and wrong from where I’m standing.  Whatever works for the three…”  He nodded at the bump still cradled in her hand.  “And a half of you is all that matters.”

They both snapped their heads around when Richie’s open palm smacked the wall.  Frustration sprang from him like bolts of electricity and his back practically hummed with the tension in his taut muscles.  “There was no fucking reason for you to say that!  You don’t have any damn idea what’s going on, so keep your speculations to yourself.”

Matching blue eyes locked together.  There was no doubt in Jon or Allegra’s mind that Richie was no longer talking to his daughter.

“Again, none of your damn business and not your place to decide.  When there’s something to say, you can rest assured that I’ll be the one to say it.  I don’t need your help.”

“The witch has been brewing up something in her bleached blonde brew pot,” Jon murmured.  “I swear she’s nuts – the needs heavily medicated kinda nuts.”

He watched the questions cloud his cousin’s eyes and clasped her hand reassuringly.  “Don’t worry,” he teased with a crooked grin.  “Ava hasn’t displayed the first sign of her mother’s craziness.  I think it skips a generation.”

“Heather wants him back.”

Jon’s left eyebrow rose with interest.  “You say that with such authority.  Is that based on fact or your insecurity?  Because, baby, you know our family doesn’t do insecurity.”

She totally disregarded his attempt at arrogant humor.

“We almost got into a cat fight in Richie’s living room.  She’s been nothing but a shrew toward me, and is making Richie’s life hell as often as possible since we started dating. What else am I supposed to think?”

“That you’re the twice the woman she is, and the longer this goes, the more he’s gonna realize it?  That makes Heather look bad.  Heather doesn’t like to look bad.  As a matter of fact, she fucking hates it.”

Come on, Frannie.  Don’t buy into that bullshit the California girl is spreading around. 

“Her personal neuroses are not my problem.”

“Good answer.  Now if you only believed it.”

He’d bluffed enough times to know the signs – and Allegra was way too honest to hide it well.  She was spouting off what she knew was expected of her, when what she was really feeling was a far cry away.

“I do believe it.  Unfortunately, I also believe that if she tried hard enough, she could manipulate Richie like a puppet.   She possesses the one thing that means most to him – his daughter.  Between that and his soft-heartedness…”  She let the thought dangle.

“Have you forgotten that you possess his other daughter?”

“That has yet to be proven.”

He schooled his features into a blank expression as one of his fears was brought to light.  She’d been paying lip-service to Richie and the rest of them when she agreed the baby was his.  Clearly, she still had doubts.  And Heather could smell doubt like a shark smells blood.  Not good.

“It was proven the minute Richie claimed his paternal rights.  He believes it, and that’s all that matters.”

“Is it?” she asked emotionlessly.  “What happens the day he stops believing?  When he has the crappiest day of his life, and she – or someone else – says just the right thing to change his mind?  What then?”

Firm fingers latched onto her bicep, and he twirled her toward him.  “You’re spinning fucked-up fairytales in your head babydoll.  Richie Sambora is one of the best, most responsible men I’ve ever known.  That day you’re talking about isn’t going to happen.”

Heavy heels thunking across the tile had both their heads turning toward one very angry guitarist. 

Jon dropped his hold on Allegra’s arm and brought his elbows to rest against the edge of the table.  “Problem bro?”

“Like life isn’t complicated enough all on its own?”  Richie returned Allegra’s phone and crammed exasperated hands into his pockets.  “Now Heather has to go jumping the gun and tell Ava that I’m probably moving to New Jersey and won’t be around anymore.  It tore her all to pieces.  Me with my fucking hands tied, trying to calm her down, when all I could say is that nothing’s been decided yet.”

The guilt slammed into Allegra. She had no idea that Ava would react this strongly to the thought of her father moving from California.  The girl was on the edge of becoming a young woman, exuding the desire for independence. 

“I assume you had words with Heather?” Jon asked.

Richie barked out a humorless laugh.  “Damn straight, for what good it did.  She’s playing the concerned parent card, saying she’s only trying to prepare Ava for what’s sure to be a ‘traumatic circumstance in her life’.  He dropped his hands lifelessly after making the air quotes.  “Who the hell thought my happiness would be traumatic to my kid?”

His eyes were turbulent with emotion, and Allegra knew if there weren’t a show looming directly ahead of him, he would jump on a plane right now and rush to reassure his daughter in person.  Because she was his world – or a good portion of it anyway.  She and Bug made up a good portion as well.  Allegra was grown up enough to know that.

What a spectacular grownup example she’d set.  Digging in her heels so that she wouldn’t have to live someplace different and have new experiences.  Learn something besides what she’d always known.  Just because she’d had sex, fallen in love, gotten pregnant, gotten raped, seen some of the places in the world and gotten engaged…  did all that mean she’d reached her limit on new experiences?

It would only be another five years until Ava headed off to college – probably on the other side of the country.  Then, it wouldn’t matter where Daddy lived.  In the here and now, it obviously mattered very much.   

It was time that Allegra sucked it up.  She needed to put her own needs ahead of those of a young girl who loved her Daddy and spent too much time away from him as it was.

It was only five years.  She could sacrifice what she considered home for five years. 

No, not sacrifice.  Make a compromise.

“Richie…” she called after him, rising to her feet.  While she’d been having her epiphany, he had finished whatever he was saying and was now stalking off toward his dressing room.

He paused, but didn’t turn.  “Forget it, Sunshine.  Let me get my mad out and I’ll catch up with you after the show.”  Resuming his stride, his hand was on the door when her voice reached him again.

“Richie, wait a minute!”

“Let it go for now, Allegra.  Don’t force me to say something I might regret later.”

With that, he was gone, and Allegra turned to her cousin in disbelief.  “Did that really just happen?  I was going to offer a way to fix it and he walked out!”

“Maybe you should have mentioned that plan to ‘fix it’ when he asked for your opinion on what to do.”

Her eyes rounded with dismay.  “He didn’t ask me what to do.”

“Yep.  He definitely did.”

“And I…”  Oh good grief, she’d been so engrossed in her own thoughts, she hadn’t even heard him speaking directly to her.

“Sat there with a stubborn, pissy scowl on your face?  Yeah.”