“Jon told me about your family
Rachel…………I’m sorry if I upset you with my questions last night.”
Rachel shook her head and smiled
warmly at Carol, seated on a lounger beside her. The morning tennis game had
gone off without a hitch with John Sr proving to be an impressive partner as
they had successfully beaten Jon and Stephanie in straight sets. After agreeing
to set up something more regular for the future, everybody had returned to the
Bongiovi house for some fun by the pool where Jon’s boys were currently
shrieking in delight as he repeatedly dunked them underwater off his shoulders.
“There’s nothing to be sorry for
Carol, they were logical questions but I just didn’t want to be a downer or
risk upsetting the boys……”
Sitting up on a lounger beside her
grandmother, Stephanie hugged her knees to her chest and looked curiously
across at Rachel, her young voice cautious but respectful.
“If you don’t mind me asking Rachel
but….how old was your daughter?”
“She wasn’t quite fifteen at the time
Stephanie.....,” Rachel’s heart skipped a beat at the question but her voice belied
any emotion. “.....and my son was ten.”
“What were their names?”
Escaping the frenzied activities of
his sons for a few moments’ respite, Jon pulled himself out of the pool just in
time to hear Rachel answer the question.
“Lauren and Tyler.”
Surprised to hear her talking so
freely about a subject that had been so taboo a while back, Jon was about to
swiftly change the subject until Stephanie asked interestedly, “Do you have any
pictures?”
He watched in amazement as without
hesitation Rachel bent down to retrieve her phone from her bag.
“Sure, right
here, I copied a lot of photos onto my phone before I left California.”
Stephanie eagerly reached across Carol
to take the phone Rachel offered her, flicking her father an annoyed glance
when he settled himself on her lounger, showering her in drops of pool water in
the process.
“Seriously Dad??”
Rachel watched in amusement as Jon
flicked his hair back and playfully wrapped a wet arm around his daughter.
“Chill out honey, I just wanna see too…….that okay Rach?”
When she nodded, Jon
dropped his attention to the phone, squinting against the sunlight that bounced
off the screen as Stephanie scrolled through the pictures. Images of a Rachel
who existed before he had ever met her filled his eyes, a laughing and relaxed
woman posing on a veranda with her family, a glistening blue ocean behind them,
a dark haired man smiling at the camera with his arm draped around her neck and
two sandy haired kids sitting to either side of them. Another of the same man,
although younger still obviously Nick with what looked to be his baby son
nestled in his arms and followed by a shot of Rachel struggling to hold onto
their toddler daughter as the child reached up to grab an ornament off an
enormous Christmas tree.
Stephanie oohed and gushed over the cute pictures
while Jon silently watched the images roll by, a twinge of sadness combined
with a stab of jealousy filling his belly as he was transported into what had
once obviously been a very happy life. He cursed himself silently for allowing
himself to feel somewhat threatened by a man who was no longer even in this
world but the last picture stirred something inside his gut that previously
he’d only felt with Dorothea – possessiveness. It was an old one, Nick had
scraggy ruffed up hair and Rachel was rocking a perm that would have challenged
Lita Ford’s back in the day and both had New Year’s 1988 cone hats nestled on
top of their heads. But it was the look on Rachel’s face as she stared up at
Nick that felt like a punch to the stomach, there was nothing posed about the
picture, it was purely intimate and he almost felt like a jerk for looking
through the window of her past.
When he glanced back up at Rachel, the
shadowed pain that still lurked in her eyes snapped him back to reality, he had
no business feeling anything other than love for her. Everybody was entitled to
a past and she had lost more than anyone should have to endure. With a grin, he
shook his head as Stephanie handed back the phone, “Way to rock that eighties
hair babe! I think your hair was bigger than my whole band’s put together!”
“Enough of the hair jokes Jon, don’t
forget who created them!” John Snr piped up from the table where he’d been
flicking through a newspaper. “If it hadn’t been for me…….”
“Yeah Pop, I know I know, I’d be
flipping burgers right now!” Grinning at his father, Jon got up to grab a towel
from the pile beside Rachel’s lounger. Bending down he murmured in her ear,
“You have good taste in men baby, he was a good looking guy - almost as pretty
as me!”
With her phone safely stored away, any
signs of trepidation vanished from Rachel’s eyes as she laughed down at him.
“And he was every bit as humble as you too!”
Chuckling Jon threw the towel
around his shoulders and dipped his lips to hers for a soft kiss before
standing back up, aware of the sideways looks he was getting from the rest of
the family.
“But I’m willing to bet I’m a better kisser…..”
With a laugh he
sauntered off to grab a drink leaving a slightly blushing Rachel grinning after
him as she lay back to pick up her book. It seemed she was well and truly ‘out’
to the family now…..
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Good
morning sunshine!”
The sound of Jon’s familiar voice
washed away the last dregs of the fitful sleep Rachel had succumbed to after
she had crawled into bed alone the previous night. She wasn’t sure whether she
just missed the feeling of his frame beside her or if it was the dreams that
had kept her mind flipping in a panicked turmoil but she felt as if she’d just
spent the night sleeping on rocks. Blearily blinking at the bedroom around her she
grasped the phone tighter against the pillow and mumbled into the speaker.
“Hey…..what time is it?”
“A
little after nine…….you okay?”
The concern that filled his voice
made her smile; even over a phone line he was able to read her like a book.
“Yeah…….I just didn’t sleep great
that’s all…..everything okay with you guys over there?”
A throaty chuckle filled the line, she
could almost see the painful grimace she knew he was making.
“Oh
peachy, I had two kids bouncing on my bed before the damn birds were even
awake……..”
Rachel chuckled softly, a fleeting
reminder of early morning wake up calls with her own kids filling her memory. As
she silently reminisced Jon gently cleared his throat;
“You
know Rach, you can tell me if you need a break from my parents and the kids,
I’ll understand….we can be a lot to take in……”
“No!” She shook her head anxiously
down the phone; “I mean, I’m fine Jon honestly – your family are great!
Yesterday was really fun, I enjoyed myself……”
“Yeah?
Well then think you can handle going out to breakfast with this group of
crazies? Jake wants waffles, Romeo wants pancakes, Jesse wants eggs and Steph
wants French toast……..need I go on?”
“No Alice today huh?”
“Nope,
I must’ve been outta my mind to give her the weekend off! There’s a great diner
down the road, the most greasy spoon you’ve ever seen – whaddya say?”
“I say give me time for a quick shower
and I’m good to go!”
“You’d
be faster if I came over there and helped………”
Grinning in delight, Rachel shook her
head at his wicked deference as she slid out from beneath the crumpled bed
sheets. “I think we both know it won’t be faster if you help! Pick me up in a
half hour?”
“Jesus…….the
things I could do to you in those thirty minutes baby…..”
“You’re a complete pervert! See you in
a bit.” Rolling her eyes at his evil chuckle, she ended the call and got
stiffly to her feet. The exertions of yesterday’s tennis match obviously hadn’t
gone unnoticed by her muscles and she groaned as she padded her way barefoot to
the shower. The needles of hot water pierced their way invitingly under her
skin, soothing and relaxing as she let the water wash away the fading remnants
of her nightmares. She needed to move on, for Jon’s sake if not for her own.
The way he picked up on her every uncertainty was uncanny and somewhat undeserved
in Rachel’s eyes. She’d seen how carefully he’d watched over her yesterday, his
blue eyes clouding with worry whenever he’d caught her gazing at his kids,
ready to tone things down if he thought it was all getting too much for her.
What he didn’t realise though was how much happiness being around his family
brought her, they had been nothing but welcoming, even Jon’s mother and by all
accounts she was normally a tough nut to crack. Rinsing the shampoo from her
hair, she tipped her head back and faced the warm cascade of water for one more
blissful moment before knocking the shower off and stepping out, ready to gladly face the chaos that was Jon's family one more time.
