Pulling up to her parents’ house, Stephanie parked behind her
brother’s car and shut the car off. Her
sister wasn’t there yet but that didn’t surprise her. Her family always joked that Jess would be
late for her own funeral. The woman was
never on time for anything. It was just
who she was.
Stephanie shut the car off and pushed her door open, pausing to
look over at Richie. They had had a good
day. After their stop at the cemetery
she had taken him to the Highland Diner where they fueled up before heading to their
first stop on the tour. She rested her
hand on her stomach. She was still full
from the huge breakfast she had eaten.
Then she had taken him to Highland Park.
There was nothing quite like western New York in the springtime.
Especially in her little corner of the world.
For ten days each May, starting right around Mother’s Day, they had a
festival to celebrate their most famous flower.
The park boasted 1200 lilac shrubs in 500 varieties over its 150 acres. Not to mention the Japanese Maples, 35
varieties of magnolias, a pansy bed that was home to 10,000 plants, a rock
garden, more varieties of azaleas than she could name.
There was also a Vietnam Veterans Memorial, an Aids Garden of
Remembrance, the reservoir and the Conservatory which, along with the Lilac
arches, could be rented for weddings. It
was an amazing park and when everything was in full bloom, the scent was beyond
intoxicating. She loved the part of the
park that had all the flowers. The other
part, during the Lilac Festival anyway, was all the food, arts and crafts and
music. The music was mostly local bands,
but every now and again they managed to get at least one bigger-named act. There had only been a couple of local acts
there earlier today, but over the weekend she was sure there would be someone
more well known.
She pushed herself from the car and shut the door. She and Richie had shared a pretzel while
they wandered through the park. She had
pointed out different things here and there for him and he took pictures along
the way, sending a few to his mother.
Every now and then she would stop to smell the flowers and he would
tease her, because didn’t they all smell the same? They had taken pictures of each other and had
cajoled one passerby to snap a picture of the two of them. It had been fun.
Then she had taken him down to Ontario Beach Park and introduced
him to the deliciousness that was an Abbott’s Frozen Custard. Nothing else quite like it in her
opinion. They had shared a chocolate
cone with mint sprinkles and walked the sad excuse for a board walk along the
shores of Lake Ontario. She had him walk
out on the pier that separated the Genesee River from the lake and down to the
lighthouse and back as well. It wasn’t
the Pacific Ocean or the Santa Monica Pier, or even the Jersey Shore, but it
was the beach and seaside she had grown up on.
Her only disappointment of the day was that the carousel down at
the beach hadn’t been open yet. She
frowned. It wouldn’t be open until
Memorial Day weekend. Even at 42 years
of age she still loved that particular carousel. It was built in 1905 and still remained in
the same place to this day. It was the
only menagerie style carousel in the area that she knew of.
Pulling herself from her reverie she glanced to the front door to
see her little niece Bryana with her face pressed to the glass and a huge smile
on her little toddler face. She waved
and smiled back and looked up to find Richie standing in front of her.
“You were a million miles away Sweetheart. Everything all right?”
She nodded and took his hand, starting toward the front door. “I was just thinking about what a nice day it
was today. I had a really great time
showing you around today.” And she had,
too. The one thing that had surprised
her though was the fact that no one seemed to recognize him today. It had been nice to be able to be out and
about and not have to worry about who might be taking a picture or where it
might end up. She opened the front door
and they stepped inside. The girls came
running and her brother and sister-in-law hung back, a little uncertain about
the man standing next to her. Stephanie
knelt down to hug her nieces. Here is
where the recognition would come and the looks of awe would happen. But she knew that whatever pictures might get
taken here tonight, none of them would end up in a grocery store rag somewhere.
She hugged the girls tight and got good squeezes in return. “Oh my gosh, you guys are getting way too big
for me.”
Little B smacked a kiss on her cheek. “I’m 3 now Auntie Steph. I’m a big girl.”
Stephanie picked her up and, with Richie’s hand at her elbow,
stood with the little girl in her arms. “That’s right, you had a birthday last
month. Did you get the presents I sent?”
The pretty little girl with the dark curls and big blue eyes nodded
her head and leaned back, “I wearing the dress!”
Stephanie looked down at the little purple shirt dress with
Tinkerbell on the front of it. “Well, so
you are. I’m glad you like it.”
She nodded her head and wriggled to get down. “Dolls too” she yammered as she ran back
toward the family room.
Stephanie wrapped her arm older niece Serina. She was eight now and getting so tall. “Hi sweetie.
If you get any taller you’ll pass me right by.”
The shy girl with the dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes smiled. “No I won’t.”
Stephanie nodded, “one day you will. How was your birthday? Did you get your gifts too?” Her brother’s family all had April birthdays.
Serina nodded, “I did. Mommy’s going to take me shopping so I can
use the gift card and I made a bunch of designs with the fashion plates.” She hugged her aunt again and raised wary
eyes to the man standing behind her.
“Who is that?”
Stephanie reached back and took Richie’s hand with one of hers and
Serina’s in the other and walked toward the kitchen where her brother and
sister-in-law were standing. She looked
down at Serina, “this is my” she looked up at Richie and then back at the girl,
“boyfriend, Richie.”
Serina looked up at him thoughtfully for a long moment. When he smiled at her, she smiled back.
“Hi.” The commotion at the front door drew
her attention had her scurrying around through living room and squealing,
“Marissa’s here!”
Stephanie smile at Richie, “that was Serina. She’s 8 and easily distracted.” She turned to her brother, “this is my
brother Chris and my sister-in-law Marie.”
Chris shook Richie’s hand, “hey man, nice to meet you.”
Marie on the other hand, didn’t move, didn’t say a word. She just stood there, star struck, until
Chris nudged her. She blinked, turned a
very unflattering shade of red and laughed.
“Hi. I’m Marie. It’s nice to meet you.”
Just then Jess and Frank and the kids made their way from the
front door to the kitchen. “Hi” Jess
sing-songed. She set her things down and
her mother took the bottle of wine she offered.
“Sorry we’re late.” She turned
and wrapped Stephanie up in a hug.
“Missed you.” Easing back she
smiled, “now, introduce me to your man.”
Stephanie made the rest of the introductions. Jess wasn’t quite as star struck as Marie
had been.
“Hi, I’m Jess.” She shook
Richie’s hand. “It’s nice to meet
you.” She leaned in and pecked his cheek
and leaned up to whisper in his ear “you’d better be taking good care of her
out there.” She stepped back and he
nodded his head.
“No worries there darlin’.”
He had a good thing going with Stephanie and he wasn’t about to do
anything to screw it up.
She smiled. “Good.” She cocked her head and looked at him, a
wicked grin spreading across her face. “Can
we get tickets to the next show you do around here?”
Stephanie rolled her eyes and shook her head. Leave it to Jess to throw that out
there. “Jess?!”
Richie just laughed, he liked this Jess. “I’m sure that can be arranged.”
Introductions were finished, drinks were poured and the group each
went in different directions, the men going outside to grill the chicken for
dinner, the girls settling in the sun room to chat.
“Oh my God,” Marie said in between sips of wine. “I can’t believe you’re really dating Richie
Sambora.”
Stephanie watched out the windows as the man in question tossed a
football with her brother, brother-in-law and the kids. “You know Marie, sometimes I can’t believe it
either.”
If you're interested, here are links to some of the sights described in this chapter:
Highland Park - there's a link on the left for the Lilac Festival
Ontario Beach Park - scroll about halfway down and you'll see the carousel
I'm glad everything is going well so far. Typical kids, they either just don't care or have a three second attention span. Can't wait til they go to Mama Joan's. The links are great. Can't wait for more of this great story.
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