Meeting Denise and Lucia

Saturday morning, Jennifer and Richie were woken by Ava storming into their room. “Daddy! Jennifer! It’s Saturday!”

Richie rolled over and groaned. “Baby girl, it is way too early to be up.” He covered his head with a pillow. Jennifer laughed and poked his ribs.

“C’mere, Sundrop,” Jennifer said, raising the covers to let Ava come in. The little girl climbed in and crawled across Jennifer to lie between the two adults. She started chattering to Jennifer about the things she wanted to do this weekend, knowing that Jennifer was flying home on Friday.

A few minutes into her recitation, she started to giggle. “Daddy’s snoring,” she whispered loudly, making Jennifer chuckle.

Putting a finger to her lips, Jennifer slid out of bed. Ava followed. The two girls grabbed pillows and circled around to Richie’s side of the bed. Jennifer held up three fingers and started a countdown. When she got to one, they attacked, Ava going for the face, Jennifer for the stomach.

“OOF!” Richie grunted, then counter-attacked. He grabbed his daughter and flung her onto the bed, shrieking and giggling the whole way. Jennifer took a step backwards.

“Don’t you DARE,” she said, holding up her hands in front of her.

“Don’t make me chase you, woman,” Richie growled.

“No! Don’t chase me,” Jennifer said, gasping with laughter. “I can’t run.”

“Not my problem,” Richie said, and leapt from the bed. Jennifer did the best she could, but her hobbling was no match for Richie’s stride. He scooped her up and dropped her on the bed next to Ava. He grabbed the covers and brought them up over the girls’ heads.

“DADDY! NO!” Ava yelled. “Block your nose,” she said to Jennifer.

Richie burst out laughing. “Young lady, I am not going to fart on you,” he said.

Jennifer laughed so hard, tears streamed down her face. “Oh God, you don’t do that to your own daughter, do you?” She turned to Ava. “Does he?”

She nodded solemnly. “Yep, he does when he thinks he’s being funny.” She wrinkled her nose. “It really stinks.”

“ENOUGH!” Richie bellowed, sending Ava and Jen into a fit of giggles. “Why are you up so early, young lady?”

Jennifer answered. “Because your daughter woke me up.”

“Not you,” Richie said, exasperated.

“Are you calling me old?” Jennifer said, putting on a pout.

Richie rolled his eyes. “Cut the crap, you’re younger than me.”

Ava was laughing and wiping tears from her eyes. “You’re funny, Jen; you make daddy crazy.”

“Of course I do,” Jennifer agreed. “It’s fun.”

Richie looked at Jen with eyes that darkened briefly with lust. “You sure do drive me crazy,” he said with a rumble that went straight to Jennifer’s core. He slapped Jennifer’s butt and she squeaked. “C’mon, girls,” he said. “As long as we’re up, we may as well have breakfast.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Around noon, they plugged Denise’s address into the GPS, and saw she was only about twenty minutes away. The route the GPS selected brought them by Universal Studios. “Can we go to Universal tonight?” Ava asked as they passed the theme park.

Richie groaned. “Really? Tonight?”

Ava nodded enthusiastically. “They have this horror thing where the backlot is set up like a haunted house kind of thing. There’s this burned looking guy with knives on his hands, and a guy with a leather mask, and some hockey mask guy…”

Jennifer laughed. “Freddy, Michael, and Jason,” she said. “The three bad boys of horror. Really, though, you like that kind of thing?”

Ava nodded. “I love horror movies and scary books and stuff like that.” She turned her eyes on her father. “Pleeeease, Daddy?”

Richie looked at Jennifer, who just shrugged. “We’ll see if we can get tickets,” Richie said shaking his head. “Her mother is gonna kill me,” he muttered under his breath.

They pulled up in front of a typical San Fernando Valley one-story home in Studio City. As they were parking, the front door opened, and a woman came out, smiling hugely. “Hath, darlin’, you made it!” she called as she came down the steps.

“Who’s ‘Hath’?” Ava asked as they walked up to the house.

“I am,” Jennifer said. “It’s the fake name I use when I go online. Denise!” she called as they approached. The two women embraced. “Denise, this is Richie and Ava Sambora. Rich, Ava, my friend, Denise.”

Richie took Denise’s hand and leaned in to kiss her cheek. With a sidelong glance to make sure Ava wasn’t paying attention, he nuzzled her neck. “Nice to finally meet you,” he said, his eyes crinkling when he smiled.

“Likewise,” Denise said. “Come on in. Steve’s out back, and Lucia and Jeff should be here any minute.”

Denise led them through the house and out back. They had a large yard with a lush grassy area on one side and a sparkling pool on the other. The clear water looked very inviting, and the grass felt soft enough to run barefoot in.

“Hey there!” a masculine voice called from a lounge chair. Denise’s husband unfolded himself from the chair and approached, a warm smile splitting his face.

“You must be Steve,” Jennifer said, as he came to stand next to his wife. “Thanks for having us,” Jennifer said as he shook hands with her and Richie.

“Any friend of Denise’s is welcome.” He looked at Ava. “Well hello,” he said. “I’m Steve.” He held out his hand for Ava to take. “I have students about your age,” he said. “Are you crazy into sports like they are?”

Ava smiled. “Only if they’re highly competitive.”

The five of them settled down with plates of fruit and cheese and cold lemonade and got to know each other. After a short while, a voice called out across the yard. “Hell-o-o-o-o-o…”

“LUCIA!” Denise called. “BACK HERE!”

“Well of course you’re back here. Is that their car?” she asked, then stopped dead at the sight of Richie sitting there. Jeff crashed into her.

“Keep moving, babe,” he said, “and for God’s sake, pick up your tongue.” He rolled his eyes at her and shouldered past her.

Jennifer did a double-take. Lucia’s friend Jeff was almost a dead-ringer for Jon. Jeff was a bit taller, and more barrel-chested, but he had the These Days hair and the same piercing blue eyes and chiseled jaw. Jennifer looked at Denise and winked. “Wow,” she mouthed, making Denise laugh and Richie scowl. More introductions were made, more lemonade poured, and soon, Ava got bored with the adult conversation and began casting longing glances at the pool.

“Honey,” Denise said. “As long as you can swim, you’re welcome to the pool.”

Ava looked pleadingly at her father, who laughed. “Go,” he said.

“Daddy, come swim with me,” she said.

Richie looked apologetically at the others. “Go on,” Jennifer said. “We’ll be fine.” Richie dropped a slightly lingering kiss on Jen’s lips before running off after his daughter.

“Go away,” Denise said to her husband after Richie had left, leaving Jennifer touching her lips and watching him go. “We girls need to dish.”

Steve sighed and clapped a hand on Jeff’s back. “Come on, man, let’s grab a couple of beers.”

When they were gone, Denise took Jennifer’s hand. “Well how’d the meeting go yesterday?”

“Much better than I expected,” Jennifer said, knowing exactly what Denise was talking about. “Heather really was quite nice. I like her.”

A loud splash followed by joyous laughter drew the women’s attention to the pool. “Hey,” Ava called. “Jennifer, are you gonna swim with us?”

Denise smiled. “Go ahead, Jennifer. Go swim with your family.” Jen shot a surprised look at Denise, who just nodded knowingly, then went to join Richie and Ava.

After an afternoon of sun, swimming, and laughter, the men gathered around the barbecue to get dinner going. The women and Ava shucked countless ears of corn and wrapped potatoes with pats of butter in little foil pouches. Ava was the runner, bringing things to the men when they called for them, and helped Denise make a huge salad while Jennifer and Lucia mixed a giant pitcher of Sangria with a good, local red wine and slices of oranges, lemons, and peaches floating in it.

After dinner and cleanup, Steve lit a fire in the outdoor fireplace, and they sat around in comfortable patio furniture sipping their respective drinks and talking comfortably with each other. All too soon, Ava, who was laying on a thickly padded wicker sofa, started to drift off. Jennifer crossed the patio and scooped the little girl into her arms then settled with her on her lap. “Sundrop, you wanna go?” Jennifer whispered in her ear.

Ava nodded. “I wanna go to Universal before you go home though,” she said. “I wanna show you a lot of things before you have to go.” Her voice was getting fainter. “Maybe if there are enough things you like here, you’ll stay…”

Jennifer’s heart caught in her throat, and a sheen of tears sprang to her eyes. “Baby, there are plenty of things here I love,” she said, kissing Ava’s forehead. Richie saw the motion and the tears, and came to sit next to them. He wrapped an arm around Jennifer’s shoulder and kissed her forehead.

“You alright?” he whispered.

“More than,” Jennifer answered. “I think we should get her home though; she’s exhausted.”

“She’ll be really disappointed she couldn’t go to the horror show with you this weekend.”

Jennifer shrugged. “So, I’ll stay another week,” she said. “As long as I can clear it with my boss.” Her boss was going to kill her. It was only a matter of time before he stopped being so flexible with her working arrangements and she had to give up so much of her time with Richie. Either that, or she’d have to give up her job. Shocked at how palatable it was to think about giving up her job, she missed most of the rest of what Richie was saying. She caught the end though, the most important part.

Richie tightened his arm around her. “I love you,” he said.

“I love you too,” Jennifer answered, her mind whirring already with the phone calls she’d have to make. And deciding what she wanted to say.