Chapter 65

It was an unusually clear New Jersey winter day, with the sun shining brightly overhead. Rachel pushed back from her computer, intent upon taking advantage of the blue skies for a stroll to her rock star’s 'office'.  He and Richie were working together and she was looking forward to a break from the tensions of her day, courtesy of the two men across the road.

There was still a patch or two of snow on the ground as she made her way across the familiar path to Jon’s studio. She could feel her nose getting cold and chastised herself for being fooled into thinking it wasn't cold enough to justify gloves for the short walk.

Brisk strides had her jogging up the stairs leading to the studio where she hoped to find warmer temperatures. She opened the creaky door and made her way down a short entryway. So as not to interrupt a crucial creative moment, she took great care to enter quietly and as she approached she could hear guitars, singing and then Jon speaking. 

“Let’s go back to the second part of that first verse…”

Acoustic guitars accompanied Jon’s singing, “We ain't got much but what we got is all that matters, We're picking up the pieces trying to put ‘em back where they belong.”

The guitars once again fell silent. “Yeah, I like it better there.”

Rachel poked her head timidly around the corner, catching the eye of her man. She was rewarded with a relaxed, welcoming grin on Jon’s still-unshaven face as he greeted, “Hey, Blondie.”

She almost whispered, “Is it a bad time?”

“You're not in church, honey. No need to be so quiet.”

Richie had been slumped over a guitar but now snapped his head in her direction. “Yeah sweetheart, we wanna hear you make some noise. Scream a little even!” He stood to kiss Rachel’s cheek and then questioned Jon, “Didn't your mama teach you to stand up when a woman as fine as this one enters a room?”

“Yeah, but my dad taught me it’s easier to get a girl to sit in your lap if you stay seated.” He patted his denim covered leg and held out a hand in Rachel’s direction. “C'mere.”

Rachel crossed the room and settled comfortably into Jon’s lap as Richie placed his guitar in the stand next to him and announced with a slight smirk, “I gotta go pee. You two carry on without me.” 

She wasn’t sure if the guitarist had just made an excuse to briefly leave the room for her benefit or not, but she appreciated the chance to sneak in a hot kiss on her man.  

“It’s gonna be an early day for me. Are you gonna be late?”

“I don't think so. Rich has plans tonight, which is good, actually. I’m tired. I want you, a bottle or twelve of wine and a quiet evening and the sooner I can make that happen, the better.” 

“Mm…. that does sound enticing. Do we have to wait until tonight? Let’s just cut the day off early and start now.” 

They often threatened to ‘play hooky’ but never did, both of them driven by the challenges their work provided. Devotion to their respective careers was one of the areas in their relationship that had never proven problematic even though both professions sometimes required large chunks of time. It was common for Rachel and Jon to go for days with their paths barely crossing but it made the together time they managed to carve out all the more rewarding.

“I'll be done in a couple hours,” he offered. “We could have dinner in the Pub – build a fire, maybe play that game of pool you claimed you wanted to play all those months ago.”

His eyes had long since left Rachel’s, focused instead on her bottom lip as his finger traced along the edge of it. It wasn't her intention to do anything more than merely amuse him when she took the barest tip of that finger into her mouth and gently sucked. “I could do that. Curled up with you in front of a roaring fire, surrounded by more liquor than any ten bars have stocked… that’s my idea of Heaven.”

“Gawd, you're a woman after my own heart. Tell ya what…  I'll take care of dinner, I want you to just totally relax tonight. Sound like a good plan?”

Before she could respond, a smooth voice loudly warbled out the lyrics, “Love is a wonderful thing…”  as Richie noisily crossed through the studio and back into the control room. Plopping back into his chair he swirled around like a little boy on an amusement park ride and kicked one leg over the other.

“You two lovebirds kiss and make up pretty fast and I want you to know I’m grateful for your forgiving nature, Rachel. My buddy here is a royal fucking Godzilla when the two of you are on the outs. As a personal favor to me, try and limit his meltdowns to when I'm on the other coast, will ya?”

Still nestled comfortably in Jon's lap, Rachel's eyes danced merrily as she twisted to address Richie. “If he has many more meltdowns I’m gonna send him to LIVE with you.”

With his face contorted in mock pain, Richie shuddered. “God help me – NO! I've lived with him when neither of us could afford to live anywhere else. You're stuck with him now. I’ve already put in my time.”

“Just my luck.” 

Jon squeezed her closer and nuzzled into her neck. “You're gonna have to keep me. Nobody else will have me.”

“Well, on that note…” A quick kiss to his cheek had Rachel rising from Jon’s lap. “I’m gonna let you two get back to work. Call me when you're finished for the day, okay?” 

“With the right incentive, that could be sooner rather than later, ya know.”

Ignoring the man she couldn't wait to see again later that night, Rachel patted Richie’s arm on her way out. “Get him back to work will ya? I need some number one hits written in here. His charm is waning, so he’s gonna need the money to keep me interested!"

She was around the corner and out of earshot when Richie waggled his eyebrows at Jon as he reached to retrieve his guitar from it's stand. “I like her.”

Jon nodded his understanding to his longtime friend, “Told ya.”

                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dinner was quiet and intimate, followed by a suggestive game of pool that they almost finished before the stress and recent sleepless nights caught up with them. They were curled up together on one of the pub’s oversized sofas with a cozy fire blazing before them when Jon leaned over and reached under the couch to retrieve two festively wrapped boxes. He placed both small packages on Rachel’s stomach with a pleased grin.

“What’s this?” she asked lazily. To say Rachel was relaxed would be a gross understatement. The combination of the hearty dinner, ample wine and Jon’s thorough kisses had left her contented on every level. 

“Olive branch. Open them and you'll see.”

She eyed the two matching red bows and gave a half-hearted effort to discern what the little boxes might contain. She couldn't be sure but in her experience, small packages generally meant jewelry.

“Does it matter which one I open first?”

“Open the bigger one first.”

The wrapping paper and bow were torn off and unceremoniously tossed to the floor before she lightly shook the flatter of the two boxes and lifted the lid. His cocky smirk had Rachel’s face glowing and a sheepish grin curled her mouth up. She said nothing, waiting for him to explain. 

“Lost Highway…. our latest record. Listen to it. Memorize it. Learn from it.”

She couldn't resist teasing him. “Is it any good?”

“Are you kidding????” Jon's blue eyes sparkled with pretend outrage as he jabbed a tickling finger into her side. “It’s brilliant! Probably the finest music you'll ever hear!”

“Well, at least you're objective.”

He blew out a snort of mock disgust and nudged her leg. “Enough, smartass. Open the other one.”

The next small box contained three shiny new keys, each engraved with a different letter –   “N”, “S”,  and “E”. Rachel felt bad that she wasn't making the connection, especially finding his eyes filled with barely contained excitement when she looked into them with a puzzled frown. “I can see they’re keys…. but keys to what?”

“Keys to every property I ever spend the night in.”  Jon informed her proudly, taking the keys and holding each one up in turn. “‘N’ is for here – Navesink or New Jersey, if you will. ‘S’ is for SoHo and ‘E’ is East Hampton. You also have your own alarm code – 4047. I thought it would be easy for you to remember since it’s the address of your house in California.”

“Okaaaay….. why do I need keys to YOUR houses?”

Sitting up taller, Jon squeezed her hand firmly and gazed at her with eyes swimming in such sincerity that Rachel's breath hitched in her throat.

“Because I don't want us sleeping across the road from each other anymore. Whether we're head over heels in love or ready to strangle each other, at the end of the day we sleep in the same bed, under the same roof. We don’t turn our backs on each other and we don't run away from any problems we're having. It does nothing but make things worse.”

Rachel opened her mouth to speak and he silenced her with a tap to her lips before continuing on with his obviously prepared speech. “If we can't talk, fine. But it’s like you said, we WILL treat each other with respect. If we respect each other enough not to make things worse by shutting the other one out, we'll get through anything.”

The conclusion of his little monologue was met with silence. Knowing that Jon would allow her the time to process all that he'd just said, she felt comfortable to let the silence hang in the air. But she  wondered what the bottom line was to this key thing. 

“What brought this on?”

“We're working on a new song. The premise is two people getting through the tough times. I was thinking about us and how, no matter how bad things are between us, we can always ‘find forgiveness’, if you will, when we come together in bed. It’s what neutralizes everything bad between us. It doesn't erase it, it just brings it down enough that we can work through it.” He was on a roll and Rachel knew to let him finish his thoughts before weighing in. “You're right – we fight dirty with each other. I don't like it any more than you do but I think if we’re committed to putting pride aside when we turn out the lights and we sleep next to each other… then we’ll always find a way to work things out.”

“Jon, I’m not…” Another tap to her lips let her know she'd misunderstood. He wasn't done yet. 

“Just let me finish. You and I are at our best when we're together and that won't always be possible. I don't like what went down between us a few days ago and I like our complete avoidance of each other even less. Neither of us making a move for two days is just stubbornness… on both our parts.”

'CEO Jon' had waltzed into the Pub and kidnapped 'Relaxed Jon', much to Rachel’s chagrin. This guy couldn't sit still for more than ten minutes before he had a new project he was working on. And that restless energy had him rolling off the couch and walking to the area behind the bar. His pitch continued while he uncorked another bottle of Napa Valley's finest, retrieved from the wine fridge. 

“If we were living together, you would never have told me you felt ‘stuck’ and that you wished you could go home. I wouldn't have felt like I'd been punched in the gut and things wouldn't have spiraled out of control. If we knew that nobody was leaving, 90% of that disagreement would have been a moot point. This way, no matter what, at the end of the day we'll both be committed to say ‘Uncle’ and get to the other one.”

Again, her initial reaction was complete silence.

For a man of the world, Jon was surprisingly naïve in some ways. As if he could just will it all into place. He thought that giving her a house key implied the kind of commitment he thought she was looking for. In reality, there was no commitment, at least not in Rachel’s eyes. However, she understood him well enough to know what he was going for and for once, Rachel decided to hold his hand and jump into his world. She could look for the safety net later.

“I’ll have a key made for you tomorrow…. to my place.”

Jon looked like he could've been knocked over by a feather. And then he looked at her like she’d grown a third eye in the middle of her forehead. 

“That’s it? You’re not gonna argue with me?”

His mouth was actually hanging open and Rachel was as delighted with herself as she’d ever been. To stun Jon Bon Jovi into such a state that his mouth actually gaped was a priceless moment in time.

“Nope. I have a sweet tooth. Do we have anything for dessert?”

After a second or two, Jon regained his composure enough to close his mouth and then squinted his eyes at her while shaking his finger back at forth. “OH no, no, no, no, NO!!! You're never that agreeable. What’s up?”

A simple shrug of her shoulders was all he got and she knew she'd shocked him. “You told me a long time ago to just jump off the ledge and you'd catch me before I hit the ground. So I jumped.”

Suspicious eyes were zeroed in on Rachel and she knew he was questioning if there was a curveball about to be thrown his way. “Right……….. So you're not going to analyze this to death?”

“Newsflash… I don't need to put a lot of thought into committing to sleep in the same bed as you every night. I happen to relish sharing the same bed with you. The sleep thing we're gonna have to put some effort into but we can work on that part later.”

Jon gave an overly zealous shake to his head before crawling back next to Rachel. “The other night I was thinking you were like lightning – ‘predictably unpredictable’. Just about the time I think I have you fingered, you do something completely contradictory.”

“Ummm…. I want credit - right here right now - for not making a suggestive comeback to your ‘fingering’ remark.”

“So noted.” Jon held up his hand and wiggled his little finger in the air, “Let the record reflect the parties have hereby agreed to sleep together forever and ever, amen. Seal it with a pinky swear, little girl.”

He was so adorably cute, Rachel couldn't help but shake her head at him as she entwined her pinky with his. “How did someone as nerdy as YOU come to be considered such a sex symbol?”

His finger squeezed tightly around hers and he pulled her closer against him. “I have creative PR people.”

“You disappoint me,” she told him with a sad sigh. “I was hoping you'd offer to show me why you’re considered such a sex symbol. Maybe we'll put my new CD on and you can seduce me to a little something off Lost Highway.”

He laughed hard enough to actually snort. “Christ… I'd never be able to get it up. You're better off to let me set the stage.”

“Control freak.”

“Said the pot to the kettle….”

Rachel slid her leg over his and crawled up his front, kissing the fine smattering of fur at the top of his shirt. “I’m glad you showed up at my house last night. I missed you.”

She felt him kiss the crown of her head and wrap his arms around her, resting them on her butt.

“We're good together Rach." His innocent touch to her posterior had suddenly and decidedly taken a less innocent approach.

“And now, I’m gonna show you why I'm such a sex symbol – by ravaging your willing little body into mind-numbingly wild, hot sex. All over this Pub.”