Nine

The girls finished fixing their lunches and prepared to go downstairs with their plates, to give Jon and Cheryl privacy.

“Do I smell or something?” Jon asked. “Where are you all going?”

Samantha laughed. “We’re not close enough to smell you, but we were trying to be subtle and give Cheryl and you some privacy. I assume you aren’t staying through the weekend?”

Jon chuckled. “As much fun as that would be, no, I have to go soon.”

“Well thank GOD for that,” Hath said as she came up the stairs, shaking out her hair. “You would totally spoil our weekend if you stayed.” She clapped a hand over her mouth and blushed. “Sorry, that sounded horrible.”

“Yeah, it did,” Jon agreed. He raised an eyebrow and just gave her the LOOK. The other girls smiled at Hath’s discomfort, and dug into their lunches, content to watch the show.

Hath nervously continued. “I mean, we sort of had a – uh – oh hell – ” she cast wary glances at her friends, “writing weekend planned, and while you would provide great inspiration by just sitting there…”

“Shut UP, Hath!” the others shouted, their lunches forgotten.

Jon just laughed, and Hath continued. “…we had sort of a bootleg extravaganza planned, and we can’t be all girly and rude with you in the room.”

“Girly and rude?” He looked at her curiously. “Care to elaborate?”

“Uh, no, not really,” Hath said.

“Oh come on,” Jon prodded. “How bad can it be? Come on, what does a bunch of die-hard fans do when you get together and watch bootlegs?” He rolled his eyes at that.

“Pretty much what we do at shows,” Tara offered, “only out loud.”

“Huh?”

“Jesus, you’re gonna make us say it?” Queenie added. She looked to Cheryl. “Cher, you tell him.”

“Well,” Cheryl said, then smiled evilly. “We’ll pretty much spend the weekend undressing you all with our minds and talk about all the things we want to do to you. We expound on your skill and the music of course, but mostly your various body parts. You know, your ass, Richie’s chest, Teek’s arms, and David’s thighs.”

Jon burst out laughing and looked around at the other women. None of them had bolted, but none would make eye contact with him, either. “Oh re-e-e-e-e-eally?” Jon said. “Well maybe I’ll have to stick around for that.” He pulled Cheryl down into his lap. “I’m sure I can think of things to do if that gets boring.”

“Not gonna happen, rock star,” Samantha mumbled. “You must have ovaries to be invited to this party, sorry.”

“I’m going for a walk on the beach,” Hath announced, face blazing. She stood, thrusting a hand in Jon’s general direction, still not looking at him. “It was beyond awesome meeting you, and uh, hell, I’m really looking forward to the next record.” Jon grabbed Hath’s hand and motioned for Cheryl to get up for a moment. He pulled Hath in for a quick hug, making her squeak, and planted a brief noisy kiss on her mouth.

“It was fun meeting you, Hath,” he said. “Richie’s gonna be sorry he missed meeting you. You guys would get along great. And I meant what I said in that voicemail, doll.”

“Oh hell,” Hath said. “No promises,” she muttered, and made her escape.

Queenie, Tara, and Samantha shared looks and stood. “We’re gonna go with Hath,” Samantha said to Cheryl. “Jon, it was fabulous to meet you again,” she said.

“Again?”

“We met briefly last year in Kansas City,” she said.

“That was YOU?” Jon gave Sam a once-over. “Damn. Did we do those things Hath wrote about?”

“No!” Samantha shouted, turning red. “I really need to go now,” she said. “I have to go hit Hath over the head with a rock and toss her body off the jetty.”

Jon laughed and opened his arms. “What, no hug?”

Samantha chuckled. “You bet your ass I’m taking a hug,” she said. “One of those kisses too, if you don’t mind.”

Jon complied and Sam left the room. Queenie and Tara looked at each other and at Jon. Jon looked ready to say something, but Tara held up a hand. “Please, I don’t want to know. Whatever you’ve read, I just don’t want to know.”

“Me either,” Stephanie added. “Please.”

“You guys are no fun,” Jon said. He passed out hugs and kisses, then turned to Cheryl. “Samantha won’t really kill Hath, will she? She seemed pretty pissed off.”

“Nah,” Cheryl said, settling back onto Jon’s lap. “It’ll be fine.” They sat in comfortable silence for a long time, listening to the waves crash to the beach. “So,” she said finally, sighing. “Look, I’m not good at the whole morning after thing, okay? Last night was just amazing, and I don’t want to ruin it by being all weird now, but dammit I don’t know what to say.” She was fiddling with her rings.

“’Salright, Cheryl,” Jon answered. He wanted to chuckle at her outburst, but didn’t think that would be a good idea. “You said it already. Last night was amazing.” He nodded to her hands. “You obviously have a lot on your mind, things you want to talk to your girlfriends about, and I should head back.”

Cheryl nodded, and reluctantly climbed off Jon’s lap. Hand in hand, they went downstairs so Jon could get cleaned up and get the rest of his stuff. She needed to dress as well. When they were ready, Cheryl walked him out to the car. She saw the girls up the beach, walking arm in arm in the surf. She’d join them soon, and they would talk her out of her guilt, because they were her friends, and any one of them would have done the same thing in her position.

Jon pressed a button on the remote, and the Ford chirped in response. He leaned on the hood of the truck and opened his arms. Cheryl went willingly, and snuggled into his chest. After a few minutes of taking in his scent and listening to his heart, she pushed back.

“Drive safe,” she said to him, smiling. Jon pulled Cheryl to him by the nape of her neck and kissed her hard. Cheryl grabbed Jon’s lapels to keep from slipping to the ground. “Damn,” she said. “You are dangerous.”

“Nah,” Jon said, before chuckling. “Just that good.”

Cheryl laughed loud and hard. “That you are. Okay. Bye, Jon. It was incredible meeting you.”

“You too,” Jon said, meaning it.

Cheryl stepped back to let him get into the truck. She watched as he put on his sunglasses, buckled his belt and flipped on the GPS. A minute later, he was hitching his right elbow over the seat to look behind him, and backed out into the street. With a toot of the horn, and one last devastating smile, he was gone.

~*~ THE END ~*~