One Hundred Fifty-Nine

Richie rolled onto his left side, hand coming to rest upon Allegra’s tummy as he sought to catch his breath.  His thumb swirled mindless patterns against her skin, marveling at the silkiness of it while he stared blindly out the window.

He was embarrassed and afraid he’d stepped over the line by coercing her into saying she wouldn’t leave.  He certainly shouldn’t have done it in the heat of passion.  Hell, he was a grown man, not a needy little boy.  He shouldn’t have done it at all.

“I’m sorry.  I had no right to demand that from you during sex.”

She cracked open one eye curiously.  “An orgasm?  I prefer that you do demand them, actually.”

Her easy dismissal surprised him a little.  She didn’t normally let him slide when he’d done something stupid.  “You know what I meant.”

She rolled toward him so that they were face to face, lazily propping herself up on her elbow.  “No, I really don’t.”

Shit.  Now I’ve made something that wasn’t a thing into a thing.  Fuck having a feminine side.

“Then it’s not important.”  Stealing a quick kiss, he made to roll off the bed, only to be stopped by her grip around his winged guitar.

“You started, now finish.”

Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed that she was still dewy-eyed from their loving.  Flushed cheeks and rosy lips glowed with satisfaction, giving him a warm fuzzy or two.

Damn, he adored seeing her all soft and sated, but it made him feel even worse.  His gaze slid to the wall of glass behind her, where darkness had begun to settle over Philadelphia.  The lights were flicking on all over the city as dusk swallowed the day.

“Insisting that you promise not to leave me.  I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Hey.”  She steered his face to hers.  “I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.  I know this is the first time you’ve been here since I was an idiot and ran away.  Anything that will make that memory vanish, I’m all about.”

“I’m not a kid.  I know better than to ask for guarantees that can’t be made.”

“Richie.”  She traced her thumb lovingly along his jaw.  “We’re getting married.  That’s an entire ceremony about promising not to leave each other.  So you decided to get a head start.  What’s the big deal?”

One corner of his mouth tipped up in a wry smirk.  “Why is it you want a childish old man like me, anyway?”

“Why is it you want a stubborn nobody like me?”

“You’re not nobody,” he protested, brow puckered in disapproval.  Did she really think of herself that way?

“Maybe not,” she sighed, “but I’m not famous, either.  Everybody knows that makes me an unusual choice, considering your history with women in the spotlight.”

Richie laughed.  That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Look where his ‘history’ had dragged him through the years. 

“Not famous yet.  After the pap run-in at the airport, you’ll soon be getting your own attention.”  He captured her chin, turning it toward him.  “But that doesn’t answer my question.”

“Why do I want you?” she asked with a rueful shake of her head.  “I bet there’s a million women out there who could give you a detailed list of why any female should want Richie Sambora.”

“Yeah, but I don’t care about their lists.  It’s yours I’m interested in.”

Allegra could see it in his eyes as he pretended that the question was just curiosity – the need for reassurance that he wouldn’t show to just anybody.  It was one of the main reasons she loved him so much.

“I love you and want to take care of you, because most of the world doesn’t realize you even need it.”

He started to speak, but she laid a finger over his open lips. 

“You’re like a peacock, distracting everyone using your looks, talent and good humor as your beautiful fan of tail feathers.  Most of the time everyone is so dazzled by them that they don’t look any further.  When somebody gets too close to seeing your vulnerability, you throw up those tail feathers in an effort to distract them.  From what I’ve seen, it works more often than not.” 

She tenderly brushed the hair back from his forehead, the glow of sunset making his tanned face even more golden.  “Don’t get me wrong.  I like the tail feathers.  I like ‘em a lot.  But I’m more interested in seeing you flaunting those things because you love what you’re doing – not as a diversionary tactic.”

Blinking his eyes rapidly, Richie flicked his gaze over her shoulder, the skyline swimming with the moisture gathering from under his lids. 

As long as he was playing the happy-go-lucky guitar player, very rarely did anyone push deeper.  Jon, occasionally.  Tico once in a great while.  But she…  Well, she got him.  Richie would come up with some way to show his appreciation, but right now if he tried…  He’d just end up crying like a sap.

“So did you make David atone for his sins?”

Allegra, understanding in the way she always did, let him change topic without missing a beat.  “Nah, not really.  He apologized – sincerely this time – and we let it go.  But…”  She looped her arm around his waist, burrowing her cheek into the hollow of his shoulder.  “He did have something else to say.”

“Oh yeah?”  Richie sniffed, holding her tight. 

“Mm-hmm.  When he asked Lexi about Kristofer, she wouldn’t say anything other than she went to college with him.”

“So some sort of social obligation, you think?”

“I dunno.  David thinks there’s more to the story.  Dot invited me to go shopping tomorrow.  Maybe we can invite Lexi along and see what she has to say.”

He hummed his agreement and rocked them slightly, the ebony strands of her hair sifting through his fingers like spun silk.  Allegra went still and quiet for so long that Richie thought she’d fallen asleep until she spoke softly.  “Richie, if I’m going to shop for baby furniture, we need to decide where her nursery is going to be.  Where are we going to live?”

His voice was equally soft.  “I know we need to decide.  But not today.  Please?  Can we just enjoy our day off and save it for another time?”

They had done the whole serious conversation thing to death today, in his opinion.  It was time to lighten things up a bit.

“Sure, honey.”

“And Sunshine?”  Richie tickled his palm by flicking the ends of her hair over it a bit nervously.  “Could you text me pictures of the baby stuff while you’re shopping?  I’d like to be involved, too.”

He was officially the world’s biggest pussy.  God forbid that Lemma and Kidd find out about this.  They’d buy a plastic vagina and make him wear it around his neck.

Fuck them.  He didn’t care. 

“You know… we’re getting married before we’re having a baby.  Seems like I should probably get the wedding dress before the baby bed, doesn’t it?  How about I do that tomorrow instead?  We’ll decorate the nursery later.  Together.”

“Thank you,” he mumbled into her hair, inhaling the sweet berry smell that was Allegra.

♪♥♪

“The dress suits you beautifully,” Dot told Allegra again as they were seated at a small table in the back of the Russian Tea Room.   Stephanie had made a detour to the ladies’ room and Lexi would be joining them shortly.

When Dot had invited Lexi to come shopping, the other woman had hedged, saying that she had obligations.  After a bit of pushing, she admitted that she would be in the city and relented to meeting them for lunch.

Stephanie had gotten wind of a shopping trip and invited herself along.  The teen refused to miss out on the chance to shop for a wedding dress, no matter how simple and understated it was supposed to be.  Allegra had been very pleased that Steph ended up being a big help.  She was the one who’d finally found the dream dress.

“It’s exactly what I had imagined, so I’m really pleased.”  Allegra pulled out her chair and collapsed into it, thoroughly worn out after stepping in and out of at least two dozen frothy bridal creations.

 It turned out that the bridal shops were a bit formal for her taste.  Even Saks and Bloomingdale’s were more than she wanted – until Stephanie found a little rack at the back of Bloomingdale’s bridal department.

There was Allegra’s dream dress – on clearance, no less! 

Dot had rolled her eyes at seeing the markdown price, but it wouldn’t have mattered if she’d had to pay full cost for it.  Allegra was in love with the sleeveless ivory lace fashioned with a deep-V neckline that plunged even lower in the back.  The handkerchief hemline lent the right amount of casualness to the formal lace, making it a perfect choice for her barefoot beach wedding. 

Add one flirty veil and some antique looking costume jewelry, and Allegra was ready to get married.

Butterflies swirled in her tummy.

Married.  In roughly six weeks, she would be Mrs. Sambora.

“Lexi will be here in about ten minutes,” Dot remarked, looking up from her phone.  “What’s with the sneaky-ass grin?” 

“Nothing.  Just realizing that I’m actually getting married.”

Dot put a fair dose of wryness in her own reciprocal grin.  “I’ll let you enjoy the feeling for now.  I won’t mention the dirty socks, underwear and wet towels he’s bound to leave lying around.”

“I don’t think it matters,” she snorted a little despondently.  “Right now I don’t even know if we’ll be living in the same house.  That’s part of the reason I put off baby shopping.  I don’t know where her nursery will be.”

“Uncle Richie lives in California, so you’ll move in with him, right?”  Steph slid into her seat, catching the last part of Allegra’s commentary.  Then she frowned.  “Or will you live in his condo in Philly so you can be close to the family while he’s away?”  The frown deepened.  “Oh, but then there’s Ava...”

“And now you understand the dilemma,” she made light, plastering on a smile and patting the girl’s arm affectionately.  “So when you figure it out, you’ll let me know?”

The beautiful blue eyes of Dot’s daughter, several shades lighter than Allegra’s and Jon’s, remained troubled.  “You’re not going to call off the wedding before it even happens are you?  I was really looking forward to going to Hawaii.”

“And there you have it,” Dorothea remarked drolly.  “Just when you think there’s all this insightful concern, the truth comes out.”

“Mother, I am concerned about Allegra’s problem, but her decision impacts us all.”

Allegra coughed into her hand, fighting the laughter that welled up in her throat.  Jon and Dorothea’s children were amazingly mature and composed for their age, but in the end, they were still just kids.

“I’m sure we won’t be cancelling the wedding,”  Allegra assured her.  “You just found my perfect wedding dress.  You did such a great job that I’m considering taking you shopping for our rings too,” she laughed.

Stephanie’s eyes lit up brighter than Broadway.  “That’d be awesome!  I think you need something simple but elegant.  Kinda like the antique-y jewelry you got for the wedding.”

If the girl had no other skills in life, she could make a fortune as a personal shopper.  She had a keen instinct and the uncanny ability to get in someone’s head.  Simple, old-fashioned rings were exactly what Allegra had been envisioning.  In fact, she hoped Richie would agree to silver bands adorned with nothing but engraving much like the vines on Baby’s faceplate.

Dorothea’s sigh drew her attention from Stephanie. 

“What?” she asked her friend, who was again looking at the screen of her phone.

“Looks like it’s just the three of us for lunch.  Lexi had something come up.  She won’t be able to make it.”

“That’s too bad.”  Allegra opened the menu, silently thinking that maybe she should stop in and pay Lexi a surprise visit.  There was always a chance that she was making something out of nothing, but this was way too weird.  “The salmon salad looks good, but I don’t think Bug is interested in the borscht.”

“Ohhh, Allegra…”  Stephanie’s eyes snapped up from her phone screen, going wide with wonder at her cousin.

“What?  You think I’m actually going to eat borscht?”

The girl rolled her eyes in disgust.  “Not that.  You’re on the internet.  Pictures and a couple of quotes from the airport yesterday.”

“Oh.”  She ducked her head back into the menu.  What had seemed brilliantly inspired at the time now seemed silly.   Allegra felt she’d be better off taking cues from Dot, who did nothing but smile like the Mona Lisa when the press buzzed around.  She never threw out flippy comments in an effort to seem carelessly in control of an uncontrollable situation.

“Lemme see.”

Stephanie obediently passed the phone over to her mother, who skimmed the screen and laughed out loud.  “You made the pap introduce himself and told them Richie’s the lucky one?  Oh my God, Allegra, that’s priceless!”

She bit her lip nervously, asking, “You don’t think it’s a little childish or arrogant?”

Stephanie and Dot both snorted and shook their heads in denial.

“Honey,” Dot told her, returning Stephanie’s phone.  “I’m envious.  A lot of times I feel stupid being a mute piece of arm candy for Jon, but it’s saved us countless arguments.  I don’t piss Jon off by saying things I shouldn’t and, over the years people have created the illusion that I’m this wise, Yoda-like woman.  It works for us, but it took years to find my niche.  I’m more than a little jealous that you found yours so early on.”

It was Allegra’s turn to snort.  “Haven’t you heard that old adage?  Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.  I opened wide.”

“You’re just showing the world you’re not a celebitchy or a gold digger,” Stephanie defended.  “Uncle Richie is the lucky one, and I think his fans will be happy that he’s found someone like you.  He got it right this time.”

“Celebitchy?  Stephanie Rose, you know better!”

Stephanie pinned her mother with a look.  “Really, Mother?  You're gonna pretend that doesn't describe more than one of his exes?”

Out of the mouths of babes…

They all raised their water glasses and silently toasted the sentiment.