Agreeing to meet Ava

Jen spent the next week making up for lost time at work. She was really going to have to reconsider all the vacation time she was taking; it was quickly running out. All week, she and Richie had been talking about Ava. Richie really wanted Jen and Ava to meet; the woman was balking. She was so afraid of messing something up with the most important person in Richie’s life.

One night, she screwed up her courage and asked Jon for his opinion. She wanted to know how Ava handled meeting the other women in Richie’s life, and was shocked to find that other than Denise, who was somewhat of a family friend, Richie hadn’t brought any of the others home. That made her feel a little better until she really sat and thought about it. Then she got extremely nervous.

She chalked her sleeplessness up to those nerves. Since arriving back home Monday afternoon, she hadn’t been able to sleep more than a few hours at a time. Not wanting to take more narcotics, having hated the fuzzy feeling the pain meds had left in her head, she called her doctor who recommended a mild dose of Melatonin before bedtime. It took a few days for it to kick into her system, but she was finally getting some sleep. Maybe, she thought, she’d sleep better if she hashed this out with Richie once and for all.

Sunday night, Richie was just settling in to watch Ghost Rider for the umpteenth time with Ava, when Phantom poured from his phone. Share each day with me, each night, each morning / Say you love me, You know I do / Love me, that's all I ask of you...

“Hey there Jennifer,” Richie said warmly, frowning when he checked his watch. “Everything alright? I thought you had taken your meds already.” Richie was concerned about Jennifer’s trouble sleeping, but after trying to step in and offer advice about her knee and getting firmly but gently rebuked (she saw it as giving orders), he thought he’d stay out of this one.

“I did,” Jennifer said. “I’m sleepy, but I can’t go to sleep without telling you something first.”

Her voice sounded serious and Richie was instantly on edge. Ava noticed the change in her father, and switched attention from the movie to his face.

“Is everything alright?” Richie asked her. “You sound like something’s wrong.”

“Something is wrong, and I want to apologize for it.” That was all Jennifer said. Richie’s mind what spinning. What the hell was she talking about?

“Jen, darlin’, I have no idea what you’re talking about, but you’re making me extremely nervous.” He saw his daughter watching him avidly, and grinned at her, motioning her to get back to her movie.

Ava, wanting to hear what was going on and being no dummy, turned her eyes back to the screen, but kept her attention on her father. That way he wouldn’t leave the room to finish the call. She was upset that her father hadn’t brought his girlfriend to meet her. He talked about Jennifer and her family, and they sounded cool and she really wanted to meet them. She was disappointed when she couldn’t go to the ArenaBowl with them, and thought for sure Jennifer would have come home with him after, but she didn’t. Then her father told her about the injury to her leg, and Ava sort of understood why the woman wouldn’t want to come out to LA where she didn’t know how to get around, but Ava thought it was crazy that they weren’t going to Boston to stay with her.

Ava hadn’t seen her father this happy for a while, and was smart enough to know that this Jennifer person was most likely the reason he was almost back to his old fun daddy self. Ava really REALLY wanted to meet this woman. Why didn’t this woman want to meet her?

Now her father was making that face again. That face that said that something was wrong, but he didn’t want anyone to know. Ava laughed to herself. Yeah, like it didn’t take all of a week for her to figure out that particular face. She listened intently, wishing she could turn down the volume on the movie, but knowing she couldn’t.

“Jen?” Richie said into the phone again.

“Rich, I’m sorry,” Jennifer began. “I’m sorry for making you think that I didn’t want to meet your daughter. I do. I really do want to be part of your whole life.”

Ava watched as whatever Jennifer was saying made him smile. Good, she thought.

“I want that too, baby, you know I do,” Richie slanted a look at Ava, who had a half-smile on her face, and he knew it wasn’t over Nicholas Cage, who was presently beating the shit out of a group of bikers. “What changed your mind?”

“I talked to Jon,” Jennifer said after a moment’s hesitation. “Please don’t be mad. At either of us. He told me that you haven’t brought any of your other girlfriends home to meet your family since Denise. Is that true?”

Richie looked at Ava again, and stood up from the couch and circled to the back of the room. “Jennifer, I’m not proud of the way I handled my life after Heather and I split. But the one thing I tried to do was shield Ava from most of my mistakes.” He laughed humorlessly. “Even in the back of my head, I must have known that those women were mistakes if I didn’t want my baby girl around them. You are not a mistake.”

“I know,” Jennifer said. “I know that for you to even want to bring me into your daughter’s life that you mean for this to work, and I just got scared at what that meant, and even more scared at the thought of screwing something up with Ava. I didn’t mean to push you away, and I’m so damned sorry, you can’t even imagine.” She was close to tears.

“Jen, honey, it’s alright. I’m just glad you had a change of heart.” He looked over at Ava, who was making absolutely no pretense at watching the movie anymore. “When can we come out to Boston?” he said a little loudly so Ava would hear him. Ava smiled widely.

Jennifer laughed. “Tomorrow if you can manage it. Come whenever you can. I miss you something fierce, and I can’t wait to meet your daughter.”

“Do you want to talk to her?” Richie asked. Ava ran nodded enthusiastically, and Richie laughed. “Apparently she wants to talk to you.”

“Sure,” Jennifer said, “but not too long, I’m fading fast. I love you.”

“I love you too,” Richie said. “Here’s Ava, hang on.” Richie covered the mouthpiece. “Not too long, baby girl,” he said. “It’s after 11:30 her time and she has work in the morning.”

“Okay, daddy, just give me the phone,” Ava said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Richie laughed and handed her the phone.

“Hello?” Ava squeaked. “It’s SO nice to finally talk to you!” Richie chuckled as Ava took the phone and began circling the room.

“Of course we can come tomorrow!” Ava said. “I don’t have to be at school for four whole weeks.”

“Ava,” Richie warned. “We are not staying all month. You’re spending some time with your mother and Jack, remember?”

Ava flapped a hand at him, in a gesture that was pure Heather, making him choke back a laugh. “Do you have a pool? Oh! Or a dog?”

Richie heard Ava laughing and talking animatedly and knew that she and Jennifer were bonding already. A weight lifted off his chest he didn’t realize was there. One down, one to go. He wondered how Jennifer would feel if they stopped to pick up his mother on the way?