Chapter 108
Reaching Woodbridge, Richie treated his mother and Jesse to lunch at one of his favorite local restaurants. As they enjoyed their meal, Jesse looked around to see lots of pictures of Richie throughout his life. Clearly a hometown hero and her heart swelled with pride for the man she loved dearly. She reached over at one point and took his hand squeezing gently. When he looked into her eyes, she smiled and he gave her a wink.
After lunch, the couple took Mrs. Sambora home where she insisted, “I wish you two would stay here.”
“Mom, I promise, we’ll be by every day but if Jesse is here, she won’t rest. Besides, we’ll just be a couple blocks over.”
“What are your plans for your time here?”
“Jon wants to get into the studio so we’ll be headed to Sayreville at least three days this week.”
“It doesn’t sound like I’m not going to see you very much,” frowned Mrs. Sambora.
Jesse nudged Richie who had his arm around her. “Rich, I thought we were staying here,” she whispered.
“I’ll explain later. Mom, I promise, we’ll come by every morning for breakfast.”
“And dinner?”
“If we’re done in the studio. You know how I get when we’re working on music.”
“Yes, I do. How am I supposed to plan?”
Jesse spoke up, “I’ll call you to let you know when they’re wrapping up.”
“Thank you, Jessica.”
“And I’ll spend a day with you. I need your help with the invitations.”
“That’ll be wonderful,” beamed Mrs. Sambora.
“We’ll see you in the morning,” said Richie as he gave his mom a kiss on the cheek. He watched Jesse give her a hug before the two made their way to the truck. As soon as the doors were closed and he was getting ready to drive away, he said, “You didn’t have to do that, Jess.”
“I know but she looked really disappointed,” she purred leaning to him and kissing his ear. She’d learned early in their relationship just what that did to him. “You and Ava are all she has now and you’re NEVER at home.”
Richie put his hand up to play with her hair as she nuzzled his neck. “I thought you didn’t want to be away from me.”
“I don’t but if I spend time with your mom, she knows you’ll come by to see her. Plus, I’m scoring points with her.” Jesse ran her hand along the inside of his thigh. “So, why exactly aren’t we staying with her?”
Richie gave a frustrated groan as he grabbed her hand. “I have a place of my own and I want you to see it. It’s a place I use to go by every day going to school and imagined raising my kids there.”
“Is it big?”
“You’ll see in a couple minutes. I want you to see all of my places and pick which one you want to live in when you can’t be on the road with me.”
“I kinda thought I’d live in California so I’d be closer to Stevie.”
Richie shook his head. “No, you aren’t going to have to worry about that. I made up my mind this weekend. I’m going to tell Jackson to go for the jugular. Kevin has hurt you for the last time and I intend to adopt Stevie.”
Jesse didn’t react to this bit of news. She’d known it was just a matter of time before Richie got fed up with the whole situation. Instead, she asked, “How far away are Dorothea and Alejandra?”
“Dorothea is in Sayreville…about twenty minutes away and Alejandra is in New York…about an hour or so depending on the traffic.”
“What about hospitals?”
“There’s Perth Amboy, where I was born, or you could go to New York.”
“Now for the big question. Where do you want me to live?”
“It’s totally up to you, baby. I think you’d be happier here and you’d have support.”
Jesse had been taking in the neighborhoods Richie was driving through and was impressed. You wouldn’t know you were in New Jersey if you’d been blindfolded and dropped in the area. She liked the idea of being in Richie’s hometown too. She put her head on his shoulder and played with his fingers.
No more than a couple of minutes later, Richie pulled into a driveway of a beautiful two-story Victorian home with a sizeable yard and plenty of trees. It very easily could have been a home in Virginia.
“Here it is…home.”
“Richie, it’s GORGEOUS,” she gushed with excitement.
“Are you tired?”
“A little.”
“Why don’t you go on in and take a nap?”
“I wanna look around the house though,” she tried to protest.
Richie placed a kiss on the top of her head, “Let’s go.”
The couple walked arm in arm to the house where Richie rang the doorbell. A small, Oriental lady answered the door greeting Richie happily.
As Richie talked to the lady, Jesse wandered around the living room. There was a piano in the corner and tons of awards around the room. Jesse smiled knowing that he had deserved every one of them. What was even more intriguing were the roses throughout the room. She counted 6 vases with a dozen roses in each. Looking closer at one of them, she realized her name was on the card and she took it out to see that they were from Richie. She checked the next three to find they too were from Richie and on each card, he had something different written. The other two were from Jon and Tico.
The lady had disappeared and as Jesse fingered the keys on the piano, Richie moved to her and wrapped his arms around her. “There’s a dozen roses for each week we’ve been together.”
“They are so beautiful! Thank you,” she said as she melted on the inside. She turned her head to give him a kiss.
“Who sent the other two dozen…or should I even ask?”
“Jon and Tico.” Running her hands along his arms, she asked, “Who was that lady?”
“My housekeeper. She comes in several times a month to keep it looking ‘lived in’.” Jesse yawned and tried to hide it but he felt it. Richie scooped her up in his arms as he said, “I’m taking you to bed now.”
“Just like a rock star….trying to get a woman into bed!” teased Jesse putting her head on his shoulder. She didn’t mind though because she was far more tired than she wanted to admit to him.
“Just the beautiful ones, baby.”
“I hope…” yawn…”I’m the only beautiful one to you.”
“Definitely!” reassured Richie.
Jesse remained silent as Richie made his way upstairs. Her thoughts were on Richie but the motion of his walking and the sound of his heartbeat lulled her to sleep.
At the top of the steps, Richie asked, “Baby, you’ve been really quiet. Are you okay?”
Jesse heard him but she was in that place between being awake and being sound asleep….aware but not able to answer.
When she didn’t answer, Richie looked down at her. “You were exhausted, baby! Why didn’t you tell me? Well, that’s okay. You can sleep now,” he said softly and placed a kiss on her forehead.
In the master bedroom, Richie set Jesse on the bed and covered her with a blanket. He leaned over to brush her hair back as he said, “So beautiful and so mine. I love you, Jess.”
