75:Keeper

“Oh.  Mygod.  I think I just came.” Charlie breathed when the garage slid open to reveal what was stored inside.  She’d thought making the trip to “Graceland” so that they could drive to his friend’s house was a monumental waste of time.  Until now. 

“What?” Jon was standing at her side and laughing, although he appeared to be quite pleased by her reaction to his car.  “You’ve never seen a Viper before?”

Classic cars were more her speed, but the Dodge Viper in a subdued shade of red was nearly as appealing as any American muscle car she’d ever seen.   It certainly had a far cry more personality than most of the automobiles coming off today’s assembly lines.  It was… sexy, and she itched to stroke the gracefully arched fender. 

“You’ve seen naked women before, but you still know how to appreciate one.  I love this color.”

His grin was as wide as his stance, and he folded his arms over the Notre Dame Irishman on his chest to cup a palm over each elbow.  “It’s called ‘Adrenaline Red’.”

“How freaking appropriate,” came her murmur as she sidled inside the garage next to the vehicle.  “I know my adrenaline would be rushing if I was behind the wheel of this thing.”

“You wanna drive?”

Jesus Minerva.  Did she want to drive?  What kind question was that?

“Hell, yes!  Are you actually going to let me?”

The way he was watching her, Charlie wished for the ability to see through the tinted lenses of his sunglasses.  As it was, she could only speculate that he was considering the idea, not what his decision might be.

“What’s it worth to ya?”

She shook her head with a roll of the eyes.  “Please keep in mind I didn’t ask.  You quasi-offered, so don’t try and leverage it for what I think you want to leverage it for.”

“Well, tell me, Counselor.”  An arrogant lift of his chin punctuated the introduction.  “What is it you think I want?”

What did she think he wanted?  The same thing he wanted in her bathroom two hours ago.  The rest of her emotional drama and a willingness to confess her sins to her sons.  What else could it possibly be?

“Same thing you wanted earlier. My guts in a jar.”

“I do…” he conceded slowly.  “But not today.  Today I want you to relax and enjoy yourself.  That’s all.”

Well.  That was incredibly unexpected.   Here she was thinking that Jon had created another opportunity to push his agenda, and he only wanted something simple – for her.  Didn’t that make her feel about two inches high?

Turning her back on the beautiful piece of machinery, she approached him without speaking.  It took two tries, but he finally allowed her to unfold his arms, step into them and slide her own arms around his waist. 

“Unless I’m horribly mistaken, you’re being sweet.”

His smile and the sinewy forearms propped on her hips were as comfortable as his tone when teasing, “I dunno what you’re talkin’ about.  I just wanna drive your Mustang.”

God forbid he actually admit to something softer, but she hadn’t expected him to, and his response actually delighted her.  She loved it when he was playful and happy. 

Grinning up into his face, Charlie told him, “Good.  It’s still at Teterboro, so you can bring it to Brooklyn for me.”

“Perfect.”  He sealed the deal with a quick kiss.  “You passed your Viper’s license exam with flying colors.  Ready to go to Edison?”

“Is that where Dave lives?  Don’t Lilah and Tony live there, too?”

“Yeah, but don’t get ideas.  I just saw them yesterday.  That’ll do me for a while.”

She patted his cheek good-naturedly before easing out of his arms.  “I don’t know why you don’t like her.”

“I like her fine,” he disputed, tossing the car key to her.  “When she minds her own damn business.”

Charlie could see his point but didn’t share the same aversion to Lilah’s special brand of caring. 

Pausing before she opened the driver’s door, she lifted a reproachful eye while looking across the glossy red roof of the car at him.  “If she had minded her own damn business when it came to inviting me over for dinner, there never would have been that night behind the guest house – or the ones after it.”

This time, she didn’t have to wish for the ability to see through tinted lenses.  He lifted them to readily display eyes that smoldered with a banked heat.  “Counselor, there’s not a fucking thing in this world that could’ve kept us from ending up against a wall somewhere.  She pushed a different timetable.  That’s all.”

That gaze held her like a magnet and stripped her as effectively as a real magnet would strip the information from a credit card stripe.  It left her completely unfiltered.

“I can’t decide whether to ask if that means you believe in Fate now or if you’ve ever had sex in this car.”

“No to both,” he snickered, plopping the sunglasses back onto his nose.  “And I own too many beds to be interested in ruining my leather seats.  But you can blow me on the way home if you want – as long as you swallow.”

Based on the quirky twist of his lips, it wasn’t hard to determine that he was kidding, but Charlie dropped into the driver’s seat with a huff of disgust anyway.  “You’re such a pig sometimes.”

“Crude motherfucker,” he reminded, settling into the car and fastening his seatbelt as she did the same.  “You were warned early on and still kept coming back, so save the righteous indignation bullshit.”

Her cheeks ached with the effort of holding back the smile that wanted to claim her face.  There were times when she found it difficult not to laugh at him.  Here was this supposedly “crude” man, whom she could recall being overtly polite and politically correct when they first met, despite his intense dislike for her reputation. 

There were times when she thought he was two different people – Jersey Jon and Sophisticated Jon.  Both men charmed her in different ways, but it was the combined Jersey Sophisticate who held her completely smitten.  The two sides of his personality blended together in such an appealing way that Charlie was hard-pressed to resist him – and the more time they spent together, the less she wanted to.

“Sometimes I can fully understand why hordes of women stalk you,” she observed drolly as the powerful engine roared to life at her touch.  “Others… not so much.”

Glancing in both directions to check the space on each side of the car, she saw his face brighten.  “Now there’s something I hadn’t thought of until now.  Maybe dating a lawyer will discourage that shit.”

If they knew he was dating a lawyer, it might, but Charlie heard the faint echoes of Owen’s voice saying that he didn’t like her friendship with Jon, and the veiled threats that followed.  The public wouldn’t be finding out about her for a very long while.  She was going to have to push aside some of the other skeletons in Jon’s closet to make room for herself. 

J J J J J

Charlie’s first impression of David Bryan’s home was grandiosity.  Large, looming and bordering on pretentious, it made Jon’s “Graceland” look understated by comparison, and she said as much while shifting the car into Park after their twenty-minute drive.

“The house fits his personality,” Jon laughed unconcernedly as they exited the vehicle.  “You’ll see.”

“Is he obnoxious?”

“Counselor…”  The admonishment came with a shake of the head as he took her hand in his.  “He’s from Jersey.  What the fuck do you think?”

Chuckling, she acknowledged that he was probably about as obnoxious as Jon and his brothers were – when it suited them.  That was confirmed the moment the massive front door swung inward to admit them.

“Well, well, well…”  Dark blue eyes skimmed up and down Charlie’s loose hair, khaki capris, navy top and sandals.  “So this is the rebound girl.  Funny, I was expecting her to be inflatable.”

“Shut the fuck up, Lema.” 

Jon’s words didn’t carry any heat, but Charlie felt her smile go brittle at the welcome.  She wanted to like the man whom Jon had befriended so many decades ago, but if this was any indication of his personality…  Well, she just hoped he wasn’t as legitimately obnoxious as he seemed. 

“Counselor, this is one of my oldest friends, Dave Bryan, also known as Lema.  Dave, this is Chiara Del Vecchio.  We haven’t been dating long, so don’t scare her off.”

The curly, blonde man’s smile wasn’t much warmer than Charlie’s own as he extended a hand.  “She doesn’t look like she scares much, man.”

“True ‘dat.”

“Please, call me Charlie,” she invited simply as she put her hand in his,  because Jon was the only one who used her given name and she liked it that way.  “And I’m a lawyer, so no.  I don’t scare much.”

Lifting her hand to his lips, navy eyes studied her intently as Dave bussed the knuckles with a kiss.  “Enchantee`, Counselor.”

“Charlie,” she quietly reiterated with a nod before reclaiming her hand.  That name was also reserved for Jon’s use.  “It’s my pleasure – I think.”

One dark-blonde brow kicked up with chastised acknowledgement as Dave shifted his attention to Jon.  “She’s a hard-ass.”

That personality assessment only stirred an amused smirk from the man at Charlie’s side.  “She can be.”

“She’s also standing right here.”  What was it with men today talking about her as though she wasn’t in the room? 

“So she is,” Dave observed with manufactured cheerfulness before turning to lead them into the depths of his home.  “C’mon.  I promised to provide midday sustenance, and it’s wilting.  Lexi – my wife – is out for the day, so I had the housekeeper toss together some salads.  Nobody wants me near food preparation, including me.”

Charlie was on the verge of following along behind their host when she felt Jon’s fingers twine into hers and the heat of his breath warmed her ear.  “Lighten up, Counselor.  He’s one of the good guys, I promise.”

For some reason, that didn’t do a thing to release the tension sitting in Charlie’s shoulders.  This man was the first person in Jon’s world that she hadn’t known prior to the inception of their sex life, and he was clearly suspicious of her.  The arrogant judgment was making her uncomfortable, and when she was uncomfortable, that’s when the bitch tended to surface.

“Sorry,” she murmured.  “I’ll try.”

Things after that weren’t quite so strained.  Then again, after that, Charlie wasn’t all that involved in the conversation, either.  The two men discussed the upcoming touring month and Broadway, of all things.  Jon was apparently interested in providing some financial support for Dave’s newest endeavor, which intrigued Charlie.  She’d forgotten until that moment that Jon’s keyboardist was involved with the musical Memphis, and had actually received Tony awards, if she wasn’t mistaken. 

“So what’s the focus of your new production?” she inquired pleasantly, pushing away her half-eaten salad and tired of being ignored. 

“Princess Diana.”

She couldn’t say that she’d ever been one of those who was enamored by English royalty, but it was a popular area of interest for a lot of people.  “I’m sure you’ll do well.”

“Yeah?”  The corner of his mouth curved up in a disbelieving smirk.  “I’m sure that was meant to be encouraging, but you sounded bored as hell just now.”

Before she had the opportunity to respond, Jon interceded while his hand rested on her thigh under the table.  “Chiara’s interest leans more toward Disney princesses – or Disney in general.  She’s a Peter Pan aficionado.  We’ve been trying to get to Neverland, but things keep coming up.”

“Disney, huh?”

“Disney,” she confirmed without embarrassment.  He wasn’t going to make her ashamed of what some might see as a childish interest – the way Owen had.  “I painted a couple of walls in my bedroom with Disney characters and have a Tinkerbell tattoo between my hip and thigh.”

His fork paused in its stabbing attack of salad greens and, again, that dark-blonde eyebrow kicked up with the understanding that he’d just been politely told to go to hell.  “Skulls are more my thing, but that’s cool.  I just didn’t peg you for having an inner child.”

“That’s because you decided I was a bitch on wheels the minute you opened the door.”

“Chiara-“ 

The long fingers of Dave’s free hand went up to halt the attempt at intercession, and he met Jon’s eyes with a shake of his head.   When Jon nodded in return, Dave redirected his attention back to Charlie.

“Lady, lemme tell you something.  I don’t have a damn thing against you, but the Jovi grapevine has it that you tried to fuck my friend over in divorce court before you started fucking him in bed.  It’s my job to question your motivation and make sure he’s not been lobotomized by good pussy.  Sorry if you take that shit personally, but it's just the way it is.”

That quickly, Charlie’s tension eased.  Her respect for the curly haired man also escalated, because this wasn’t about her.  It was about him protecting his friend, and she was all about anyone who wanted to protect Jon – even if they wanted to protect him from her.

“You’re exactly right,” she conceded quietly.  “Everybody else has been trying to push us together, so I wasn’t prepared to have someone question my motives.  I’m glad he has friends who care enough to do that, though.  Thank you.”

Sighing loudly, Jon looked back and forth between the two of them.  “So we good here?”

“Almost,” Charlie promised with a quick smile.  “Dave’s looking for reassurance that my intentions are honorable, so he needs to hear the words.  He needs me to say I don’t give a fuck about your career or what’s left of your money.  Probably wouldn’t hurt to tell him that I plan on repaying some of that money, some day, someway. Or that I’ll never quit my job to live on your dime.  That enough, Dave?”

The navy eyes that had been so dark since she arrived sparkled with a bit of humor as his mouth twitched.  “Keep going.”

“What?” she inquired, amused now that she understood she and Dave truly were on the same side.  “You need to know that this isn’t even close to me being a hard-ass?  That, God forbid, somebody mess with my family – or Jon – because then ‘hard-ass’ won’t begin to describe me?”

Leaning back in his chair with a smug nod and smile, David Bryan acknowledged lazily, “Yeah.  I think that’ll do.”

“Good.”  Charlie also leaned back with a nod.  “Now don’t throw women in his bed during the tour and we’ll get along fine.  Oh, and share that info with your band friends, would you?  I’d rather not repeat this conversation half a dozen times.”

“Jesus Christ, do you two remember that I’m even here?” Jon groused as Dave cackled with delight.  “It was easier introducing you to my parents.”

“Your parents don’t live with you,” his friend informed him dryly.  “I effectively do for the next month and I don’t want to deal with your fledgling relationship bullshit.  She’s not a rebound girl, she’s a keeper, so just get used to the fucking idea and don’t bother me with your indecision.”

His assessment sent a shiver racing up Charlie’s back, and it only intensified when Jon’s warm blue gaze connected to hers with a quiet, “Alright.”

A keeper.

Did she really want to wait another four years?  Was it really going to make that much difference in the long run?