Chapter Sixty-Nine

The car rolled to a stop outside LAX and Richie grimaced.  He had been hoping for a miracle and that no paparazzi would be skulking around the airport.  He looked out the window again.  Fuck. No such luck.  He dug his sunglasses out of his pocket and turned to Stephanie.  “You might want to put your sunglasses on.”

She looked past him and out the window and turned back to him with a frown.  “Do they ever go home?”  She dug her sunglasses out and put them on, pushing them up on her head until she was ready to get out of the car. 

“I think they take shifts” Richie answered and took her hand.  “Ready?”

She nodded, “I guess.”  This was the part of his life she liked the least and she didn’t think she would ever get used to.   She flipped her glassed down over her eyes.  She could learn to tolerate it, but she would never get used to it.

He opened the door and stepped out and gave a wave and a smile for the cameras before turning to help Stephanie out.  “Don’t make eye contact” he murmured in her ear “and keep walking, sweetheart.”

She nodded and hitched her carry-on-tote-purse up on her shoulder as she stepped by him and onto the sidewalk.  Extending the telescoping handle of her suitcase up, she moved with Richie into the bustling airport and away from one crowd of blinding flashes and inane questions and into the middle of another.

 

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“Well, that was fun.”  The sarcasm all but dripped from the words as she settled into her seat and tucked her bag under the seat in front of her.  The paparazzi had not only followed them into the airport, they had harangued them all the way through check in and as far through the security line as they could possibly get. 

Richie buckled his seatbelt and picked up her hand.  “Welcome to my world, sweetheart.”

Stephanie sighed and rested her head against his shoulder.  “I don’t know how you handle that all the damn time.”  She had come close to mouthing off to the lot of them, but she practically bit her tongue in half and kept her mouth shut. 

He shrugged his free shoulder.  “You get used to it after a while.”  He had been living with it for more than twenty years, it was easier to ignore them now.  She’d get used to it too.  Eventually.  “You did great though.  If you don’t acknowledge them, they eventually go back to whatever hole they crawled out of and wait for another warm body to latch onto.”

Sitting up, she turned and looked at him.  “I suppose now they’ll figure out who I am and I’ll end up looking at myself in one of the rags in the rack at the grocery store, right?”  She’d been out with him more than once and the paparazzi had snapped their pictures, but so far, her name had remained a mystery to them.  She was only his “guest” or “lady friend” or some other such nonsense. 

Richie smiled at her, “probably and then people will be asking you for your autograph.  The paps will be chasing you around and I’ll be cast aside.”  He sighed dramatically.  “You’ll be more famous than me.”

She laughed and nudged his shoulder with hers.  “Goof.”

“You gotta laugh about it, sweetheart.  It’s too ridiculous to take seriously.”

She nodded and looked out the window, determined not to let that part of his life get to her any more than he let it bother him.  If he could let it roll off his broad shoulders, she could let it slide off her slim ones.

After a short layover in Chicago, their flight landed in Rochester, New York without so much as a hiccup of turbulence.  When Richie reached for his sunglasses, she stopped him.  “I can pretty much guarantee you won’t need those here.”  She glanced out the window and then back at him.  “At least not until we get outside.”  Besides, she loved being able to see his eyes.

Together they deplaned and headed through the security point and down to baggage claim.  No one seemed to notice him and if they did, they didn’t act on the recognition.  It was a welcome change from what they left in Los Angeles.

Their suitcases came around on the conveyor and Richie grabbed them both and followed her out and to the shuttle that would take them across the airport grounds to the rental car lot. 

He let her do the talking to the car rental agent and followed her out when she had the keys in her hand.   They stopped in front of a black Nissan Maxima and she popped the trunk.  Once they had their things in the car he slammed the trunk shut and, out of habit, he moved around to the driver’s side of the car.  She was already behind the wheel adjusting the seat and the mirrors.  He opened the door and leaned in, “who says you get to drive?”  His lips curled into a pout.

His face was right in front of hers and she couldn’t help herself.  She pressed her mouth to his, kissing away the pretty pout.  “I do since I used to live here and I know where we’re going.”  He didn’t move so she kissed him again and smiled.  “Stop pouting and get in.”

Once he was in and his seatbelt was buckled she started the car.  “When we get to Jersey, you can do the driving.  The jug handles and the whole turning-right-to-turn-left thing gives me a headache.”

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The drive to the hotel was short and they got checked in and up to their room without a problem.  The Marriott was no Four Seasons, but the room was clean, it had a bed and a bathroom.  It would serve its purpose.  After putting a few things in the closet and their toiletries in the bathroom Stephanie moved across the room and took a moment to look out the window.  Everything was familiar and foreign at the same time.  She shook her head slightly.  What was wrong with her today?

Richie watched her for a few minutes before stepping up behind her and sliding his arms around her waist.  “Everything okay?”  She had been going through the motions today and anyone who didn’t know her like he did wouldn’t notice anything wrong, but he did know her and she wasn’t quite herself.  He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.  “What’s going on?”

She brought her hands to rest on his forearms.  “It’s a little strange to be the one coming to visit.”

“What do you mean?”  Their shadows grew long in the waning daylight.

She ran her short nails idly along the hairs on his arms.  “I was never the one who went away” she told him quietly.  “I was always the one who stayed.  My sister and brother did the leaving thing for school, their jobs.  They eventually came back, but I was the one who was always here.  It’s just a little strange to be the one coming back now, knowing that I’ll be leaving again.  Knowing that this isn’t really home anymore.”  So much had changed in her life and some days it was harder to come to terms with it than others.  Today was one of those days when it dragged at her and she could hardly stand under the weight.

He hugged her a little tighter.  “It wasn’t your time to leave before, it was theirs.  Now, it’s your turn.”  He turned her into him and his lips found hers in the last dregs of daylight.  He didn’t push for the heat he knew he could find.  Instead, he kept the kiss light and easy, giving her the comfort she so obviously needed.

His kiss, mixed with the strength and warmth she found while wrapped up in him, went a long way in evening her out, leveling her system so she could face the emotions that were bound to surface in the next few days.  She eased her mouth from his and turned her head to rest her cheek against his chest.  “Thank you.”

He rubbed his hand lightly up and down her back.  “For what Sweetheart?”

She stepped back from him slightly and looked up to his face.  “For always knowing just the right thing to say and do to make me feel better.”

Before he could open his mouth to say anything, the theme song from the television show Charmed emanated from Stephanie’s purse.  He raised an eyebrow question.

Stephanie rolled her eyes.  “My mother.  She’s wondering where we are and why we aren’t they’re yet.”  She fished her phone out of her bag.  “Hi mom.  We’re just getting ready to leave the hotel.  We’ll be there soon.”  She ended the call and looked back at Richie.  “You sure you’re ready for this?”

He grabbed a hotel key off the desk and slipped it in his pocket and took her hand.  “Let’s go before she calls out the cavalry to come find us.”

 
Stephanie followed him out of the room and down the hall.  Her mother would do just that too she mused.