20:The Marina

August 11

“Where is everybody else?” Charlie asked of Lilah, who had greeted them with a smile from behind sparkly oversized sunglasses.  She was waiting in Three Mile Harbor parking lot when they arrived and announced herself as their one-woman welcoming committee. 

The long, orange sundress that she wore as a swimsuit cover-up swirled around her calves when stepping in to give Charlie a quick hug and simultaneously greeting the boys.  “The guys are picking out jet skis.  Stephanie and Des don’t much care for this kinda thing, so they took the younger kids to the beach instead.  By the way, M.J. loved those candy tattoos and that made Daddy happy.  Thank you again.” 

“I’m glad to hear that.  It makes me happy, too.”  One less bit of guilt when it came to the Bongiovi clan.

“I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of meetin’ your other family members.”

Charlie wasn’t exactly the queen of social graces, but her manners were usually a little better than that and she blamed it on Jon.  Why, not right? 

This command performance today prefaced by nothing more than “just ducking be there” – which still made her laugh – had her a little on edge, quite honestly.  She’d tossed and turned as her mind spent most of the night in overdrive, both wondering why he “needed” to see her and vividly reenacting the explosive encounter in his back yard. 

She’d also been annoyed to prove herself right about the vibrator not doing the trick anymore, so after getting turned on by the reenactment, she was left with an unfulfilling orgasm.  Other than shop online for something that had extra bells, whistles and a live man attached, all she could do was blindly hope that another round of hot sex would come knocking on her door. 

Apologizing with the disgusted shake of her head, she made the introductions.  “This is Jon’s sister-in-law, Lilah Bongiovi.  Lilah, this is my brother Luke and his daughter Sydney.”

“Oh my, you’re a pretty thing,” Lilah admired with a Southern drawl pronounced enough to have “thing” sounding like “thang”.

Sydney was pretty, even though she looked nothing like the rest of the family, and Charlie beamed proudly at her twenty-year-old niece.  Her mother's Anglo genes had overpowered the darker, Italian side of Syd’s heritage, resulting in her blonde hair and blue eyes.  Honestly, after meeting Stephanie, Charlie thought her niece looked more like Jon’s family than hers.

It wasn’t until Lilah extended a hand to Luke that Charlie realized her faux pas.  She was calling him pretty. 

Much more relaxed this morning than he was yesterday, her brother took it in stride by shaking her hand with a good-natured laugh.  “Thanks, I think.” 

“And of course you’re lovely, too, darlin’,” she assured Sydney with a warm pat on the arm.  “Now let’s go find those Bongiovi boys, shall we?  When I left ‘em they were askin’ which model is the fastest.  Lord help us all.”

J J J J J

There was no practical reason to rent a Waverunner for each of their twelve-member party, particularly when a good percentage of them had no experience or were too young to ride alone.  They agreed to double up and kept it at six, along with that many paddleboards.   She was pleasantly surprised that Luke wouldn’t let her pay anything on their portion of the bill since she was paying for the rental cottage.  Then again, Jon refused to allow Luke to pay anything either, saying that he’d invited them as guests. 

Having seen his bank statements, she acknowledged that this outing wasn’t going to break him, but he didn’t have quite the same financial standing he once did.  He was also about to take on what she assumed was an astronomical expense for that Vancouver thing, and one piled on top of the other was enough to make up for the loss of guilt over Micah Jane’s tattoo fascination.

He has more money than you and Luke combined.  Let it go.

The boys were dying to get out on the water with the machines, so Jesse took Jake with him, Noah and Caleb rode together, and Matt drove for Romeo while the rest of the group watched from the dock.  There was such pure delight shining out of all their faces that it made Charlie just as happy as they were. 

For the first time ever, she also got to experience what appeared to be a happy Jon.  With his arms folded over his chest, he and Tony shot the breeze with Luke, and more than one round of laughter could be heard coming from that group.  She was surprised that he even managed to include Sydney, with the breeze carrying just enough to reveal that he was asking her about school and appearing genuinely interested in her responses.

She was starting to believe that there was more to him than the average musician.

He isn’t surly with everyone, just you – and Lilah.

The view of him in low slung board shorts that flaunted his finely muscled limbs, his broad, hairy chest and abs that were almost washboard perfect was enough to make her not mind that he disliked her.  Hell, when he threw back his head with delight, smiling wide as the wind blew through his already messy hair, she didn’t really care about much other than having him back between her legs. 

She might just ask him for it outright if she ended up having to touch that bare skin today, although there was no fear of that in sight.  After nodding a silent greeting at her, he seemed to be deliberately keeping his distance, which completely contradicted his decree that she come along today.

“Lord a’ mercy,” Lilah murmured beside her.  “There’s nobody that turns me on more than my husband, but even I can appreciate his brother’s physical attributes.  Jon’s not as pretty as your brother, in my humble opinion, because I like ‘em dark, but when he wanders around with a shirtless smile?  Dayum.”

Charlie chuckled softly, loving this woman’s outspoken nature. 

“How did you meet Tony, if you don’t mind my asking?  I have in my mind that you marched right up to him and told him he was pretty, just like you did Luke.”

“Are you kidding me?” she laughed loudly.  “No and hell no.  It’s only bein’ part of this family that’s made me so bold.  I was a semi-backward wallflower when I met him.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Oh, honey, it’s so true.”  The smile on her face faded to one that spoke of fond memories.  “I stalked him halfway across Europe before I ever got up the nerve to talk to him, and then I botched it.  Big time.”

Lilah went on to fondly provide highlights of her fated days as a Bon Jovi video groupie, walking away from Tony with a broken heart, his return at the same time as the loss of their first child, and the he planned as a surprise for her.  While she didn’t envy what Lilah had been through, Charlie couldn’t deny a sense of jealousy at what she had now.

“How long ago was all that?”

“Mm,” she speculated thoughtfully, while toying with one of the scars on her neck.  “Next week will be four years ago that I lost the baby.” 

Charlie’s heart squeezed at the same time her hand squeezed Lilah’s.  “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be,” her new friend ordered.  “I should tell you that Dorothea was the only thing that kept Jon from having me investigated and arrested, if he could figure out how to do it.  He hated me, but she fought for me, even with Tony.  She’s one of my best friends and I hate that she and Jon split up.”

Dorothea Hurley was a likable person, there was no doubt.  Charlie had first met her several years ago in a karate class, and the two women had connected for some reason.  Karate wasn’t the passion for her that it was for Dorothea, and they didn’t see much of one another when Charlie moved on to kickboxing.  When she got the call to represent Dorothea in the divorce, it had probably been a good two years since they’d last spoken.

“I like her.”

“Nothin’ about her to not like, really,” Lilah concurred.  “Much as I adore her and want to kill Jon, he still deserves to be happy.  I’m hopin’ he doesn’t go the rest of his life without somebody.”

Unwilling to touch that statement with a ten-foot pole, Charlie instead broached another delicate topic, “Lilah, since you don’t seem to mind sharing, do you mind me asking about your scars?”

“I’m only surprised it took you this long to ask,” she said with a look of amusement.  “Most folks can’t contain themselves.”

“Let’s go, Bluegrass!” Tony called from the end of the dock.  “We’re up!”

“The scars aren't worth talkin' about,” Lilah assured with the wave of a hand, grinning from ear to ear as she scurried off to join her husband on his “water motorcycle”, as she’d called it earlier.  Luke and Sydney had just left the dock, while Matt and Romeo were taking one last lap.  The other boys had gone off to gear up for the paddleboards.

All of that sounded fine and dandy until Charlie reached the bottom line, which had her and Jon standing alone on the dock, the last two waiting their turn on a Waverunner.  She was going to be riding with Jon.  Behind him.  With her arms around his bare torso.  Touching him.

I’ll be a frigging monkey’s aunt Matilda.

“You ever been on one of these things?” he asked neutrally, without looking away from the water.  The fact that she was going to be plastered to his back was apparently not a surprise to him.

“No.”

One corner of his mouth curled upward in a smirk, and she thought he might have cut her a look that was hidden by tinted lenses.  “Lock your thighs around me like you did the other night.  You’ll be fine.”

Her modest black one-piece swimsuit suddenly felt as oppressive as full scuba gear, and she had to fold her arms to cover nipples that went hard at his words.  She despised this man.  Despised him.

“Are you flirting with me?” she bitchily demanded.

His rude snort was instanteous. “Fuck, no!  But I do wonder if you still hate wanting me.”

“Abso-frigging-lutely.”  This whole chemistry thing was a cruel practical joke.  She would pay good money to have this feeling with somebody – anybody – else. 

“Ditto, Counselor.”  His chin dipped a single time to emphasize the point, and then there was a heartbeat of silence before he added, “Wanna commiserate over an orgasm?”

Her lungs seized almost as fiercely as the muscles between her legs. 

“Is that why you needed to see me today?”

Finally turning to look at her, he said, “No, but I forgot that at home, so come over tonight about ten.  I’ll wait for you by the pool.”

Matt was just guiding the jet ski up to the side of the dock, meaning that Charlie only had mere moments before she was going to have to put her aroused body in contact with Jon's.  Once that happened, she wouldn’t be able to say no.  If she was going to do it, it had to be now.

“What’s it going to be, Counselor?” he quietly pressed. 

Who in the hell are you kidding?  You’re not going to say no.  The sex was too good and, besides, you owe Izzie.

“Bring a rubber or a note from your doctor.”