Chapter Ninety-Five

Hey, this is Richie, you know the drill.  I’ll hit ya back.

She sighed and pressed the icon to end the call.  Three days.  It had been three days and still they hadn’t been able to connect.   As tempted as she was to text him or leave a message, she really wanted to talk to him in person, face to face.  She just couldn’t have this conversation over the phone.  It wouldn’t be right.

Tucking the phone into her pocket, she headed down the basement stairs.  She still had a multitude of boxes folded up and stashed down there from when she moved in.  Might was well get a head start on the packing while she had some free time. 

She was tempted to just throw her shit in the boxes and get it all done and over with, but, starting in the office, she did it the right way.  Wrapping everything back up in newspaper and tucking it away carefully in the reconstructed boxes.  What a pain in the ass.  But it kept her busy and the music kept her from checking her phone every three seconds.

Not so far away in Calabasas, Richie was doing some packing of his own.  The back end of the Hummer was open and he was loading everything for their vacation and herding Ava and her friend into the backseat.  “Come on girls, we’ve got a seven hour ride ahead of us.  Let’s go!”  He felt the vibration of his phone in his pocket and had to ignore it while trying to get them ready to get on the road. 

Settling in the driver’s seat he looked to the rearview mirror, “you girls all buckled in back there?”  Getting their nods he started the car and pulled his phone from his pocket and plugged it into the car charger.  Swiping his finger across the screen he saw the missed call and, seeing that it was Stephanie, shot her off a quick text.

<Hey Sweetheart, we’re on the road.  Call u later.  ;)>

Finding the GPS he set the address and pulled out, headed for a much needed and much anticipated ten-day respite from the world.

~

Rolling over, Stephanie punched her pillow and sighed.  Sleep was being elusive, again.  Sitting up she kicked the sheets until they unwound from her legs and she rolled out of the bed.  She couldn’t do this anymore.  Too much time was going by without talking to Richie.  She didn’t know if he was deliberately ignoring her or if he just wasn’t getting his messages.  But she couldn’t wait any longer.  Grabbing her phone she shot off a text to Ava.  Maybe she’d get an answer from her.

<Hey, call me back.  I need to talk to you.> 

Ava grabbed her phone when it vibrated.  She didn’t want to aggravate her father any more than she may already have.  Her normally content and complacent Papa Bear had been replaced by a much crankier kind of bear since they left the other day.  Glancing down at the screen she was surprised to see it was Stephanie calling her.  She quickly and quietly made her way out to the deck to call her back.

Stephanie didn’t wait for the phone to finish its ringtone before she answered the call.  “Hi sweetie, thanks for calling me so quickly.”

Ava leaned on the rail looking out over the water.  “No prob.  What’s up?”

Stephanie curled up on the window seat.  Just how much should she tell the daughter of her boyfriend about what was going on?  “I need to talk to your dad and he’s either ignoring me or he lost his phone.”

“He’s been pretty cranky since we got here, so it could be the ignoring thing.  What’s going on with you two?”

Stephanie sighed.  “That is probably all on me.  The cranky I mean.  He asked me a pretty serious question while we were in Europe and I told him I needed some time to figure some stuff out.  Now that I’m ready to talk to him he’s apparently dodging me.”  She shook her head.  “I don’t really want to have the conversation over the phone but I don’t know how else to get to him.”

Ava didn’t hesitate.  She wanted her father to be happy and if she had to intervene on his behalf, so be it.  “You should come up here and talk to him.”

“I couldn’t intrude on your vacation time with your dad.  It’s too special to him and to you.  If you could just have him call-”

“Don’t be silly” Ava interrupted.  “You got pen and paper?  Write this down.”  She waited a beat when she heard Stephanie rustling around before rattling off the address.  “It will take you about 8 hours if you’re driving.  Kelly and I will make ourselves scarce so you guys can work out whatever is going on between you.”

Stephanie’s lip curled into a half smile.  For a sixteen year old she was pretty damned intuitive.  “Thank you sweetie.  See you some time tomorrow.”

Ending the call, Stephanie pulled her suitcase out of the closet and packed her bag.  She had a long drive ahead of her.

She managed a couple hours of sleep before her nerves, excitement, whatever got the better of her.  She quickly showered, tossed her suitcase and purse in the car and she headed out.  She had debated calling Richie, but decided against it.  He wasn’t answering her so she would just drive up there so he couldn’t not talk to her.

Mile after mile, hour after hour she cursed herself for not seeing what was right in front of her the whole time.  Her family would always be there, no matter if she was across town or across the country.  Her home wasn’t about the city or state she lived in or the four walls and roof that sheltered her.  It was the person she was with.  At one time it had been Mark and Ben and it had been wonderful.  But that chapter of her life was over.  Richie and California were the next chapter in her life, they were home now. 

If he would still have her.

By the time she found the house, she was about two straws short of a basket case.  She had nearly talked herself into turning the car around and going back home at least seventeen times.  And she had never been this nervous to talk to him before.  The gravel crunched under her tires as she pulled around the drive.  Her face fell.  His enormous Hummer wasn’t here.  They weren’t here.  Sighing she dropped her head forward to rest on the steering wheel.  All that time on the road and they weren’t even here.

Sucking in a tremulous breath she opened the heavy car door and stepped out.  Her arms immediately went up over her head in an attempt to stretch out the eight hours of driving from her body.  She could at least walk around and work out the kinks before getting back in the car and finding a place to stay for the night. 

Walking out into the lawn she stared up at the house.  It was impressive.  The two story structure wasn’t nearly as big as the house he owned in LA, but it was still big by her standards.  Surrounded by Pine trees, it was shrouded in shade and she could hear the gentle lap of water.  Following the calming sound, she wandered around the back end of her car and around the side of the house, following the path to the deck and out toward the dock.  The sky was impossibly blue and the bench at the end called her name. 

Just for a minute. 

She wandered out and sat down on the bench, watching the water, listening to the gentle call of the birds.  The sun warmed her and she had nearly dozed off when the slamming of a car door startled her to full wakefulness.  She blinked her eyes and looked around, spying the back end of the black SUV. 

He was back.

~

Richie stared at the back end of a very familiar maroon Camaro parked in his driveway.  What was she doing here?  Grabbing the small bag off the seat next to him he climbed out and started to follow the girls to the door.  He ducked his gaze and found the car to be empty as he moved past it.  He looked up to the front of the house.  She wasn’t sitting on the steps or in one of the chairs.  So, where was she?

He pulled his new phone out of the bag and started to press in her number and stopped.  When he’d activated his new phone and they’d transferred all his information, he seen the texts and listened to the voice mails.  She had said she wanted to talk to him and probably didn’t want to do it over the phone, that’s why she was here. 

“You okay dad?”  Ava and Kelly had paused at the front door, waiting for him.

He waved her off, “I’m fine.  You guys go ahead inside.”

Ava watched him look around again and smirked.  “Try out back.”

He stared at his daughter, her expressive eyes couldn’t hide anything.  She had given Stephanie the address and told her to come here.  “Go inside” he said distractedly as he headed toward the back of the house.

She didn’t look up until his shoes stopped in front of her.  She greeted him the way she always did with a warm smile and a quiet “hey you.”

He leaned on the railing across from her.  “Hey yourself, sweetheart.”

When he didn’t say any more she stood and took a tentative step toward him.  “Don’t be mad at Ava for telling me where you were and that I should come.  I wanted to talk to you and you weren’t answering my texts or my voice mails.

He dug into the bag that dangled from his fingers.  “My phone shit the bed.”  He held up the new Iphone he had purchased that afternoon.  “Had to get a new one and I just got all your messages.”

“Oh.”  She bit her lip.  Maybe she shouldn’t have come.  Maybe she should have just waited one more day and he would have called her.  She looked down at her shoes.  Now that she was here with him, face to face, she couldn’t find the words to say everything she needed to say.

He cleared his throat, “so, what was so important that you had to drive all the way up here to talk to me about?”

She raised her head again and caught his gaze.  Indifference blazed in his normally warm, friendly brown eyes.  Had she done that?  Did she ruin everything?  She took a fortifying breath.  Only one way to find out.   “I talked to Jess and she helped me figure out a few things while I was in New York.”

He shifted against the railing.  “Yeah?”

She nodded her head.

“And?”  He wasn’t giving her anything.

“Jess and I had a long talk and she helped me understand what my real issue was and basically told me to follow my heart and that they would always be there, no matter where I lived.”  Her eyes started to sting and she closed them.  She was not going to cry.  She moved, stepping up to stand next to him.  She rested her forearms on the railing and faced the water. 

“Did I screw up, Rich?”  She asked quietly.

Setting his bag down, he turned and imitated her pose.  Looking at her profile he could see the sheen of wet in her eyes.  He couldn’t let her suffer any longer.  He hadn’t meant to make her cry.  “Maybe just a little, but not so bad we can’t fix it.”

She whipped her head to look at him and a lone tear escaped down her cheek.  “You really mean that?”  The tear caught the corner of her mouth where it started to curve up into a hopeful smile.

His big, gentle hand came up to cup her cheek, his thumb, wicking away the stray tear.  “Really, Sweetheart.”

She turned to face him fully.  “I’m sorry, Rich.  I’m so sorry.”

He straightened and pulled her into his warm embrace, “I know.”  He pressed his lips to the top of her head and released her, taking her hand instead.  Leaning down he picked up his bag and gave a gentle tug on her hand.  “Come on inside, we’ll eat and send the girls to the movie room so we can talk.”

They walked back around to the front of the house and stopped at her car to get her things.  He saw just the one small bag and her purse on the seat.  “How long are you staying?”

She gave him a hopeful smile, “how long do you want me here?”