Chapter 13 Up up and away

After a grueling, but exhilarating tour leg, the guys had a few days free before they were back on the road. So, they all went their respective ways to see family while they could. Teri would join them the following week. Richie wanted to spend a little time with her now. He didn’t want to wait. Ava was staying with him while he was home so he had time with her too. His PA was taking care of some of his business deals in the works so he was as free, well, as free as can be for 48 hours. He could hook up with tour in Jersey as easy as flying and meeting up with the boys in Texas which is their next show. As it happened Teri was back in California for a few essential meetings with Don. She was heading home in a few days too.

He picked up the phone to “talk” to Jon about his plans.

“Jacob.” said Jon’s youngest into his father’s phone as he tried to sound like his dad.

“Hey, Jakey it’s Uncle Mookie.” Richie said with a smile.

 “Hey, Uncle Mookie wassa up?” Richie laughed aloud as the child sounded exactly like Jon.

“Hey, Brutha man wassup?” He replied.

“Daddy’s watchin’ me. I took his phone to take calls. No one lets me. He’s in his work room.”

 “Does Dad know you got the phone dude?”

 “Nah, what fun’s in that Mookie?” Richie laughed again at both the reasoning behind the phone in Jon’s youngest 

hands and the shortened nickname.

“Jake, where the hell’s my phone?” Jon bellowed as he went to make a call and couldn’t find the phone he knew he left on his desk.

“Uh oh, gotta go Mook. Dad’s mad.” Jacob said as he handed the phone over to Jon.

 “Ya think?” Richie replied. He was still laughing as he heard Jacob try to talk his way out of his dad’s wrath for taking the phone. ‘ALL the kids answered the phones but me.’ Was Jacob’s excuse as to why he answered Dads business phone. He figured if he reminded his Dad that his brother and sister did then he should too. The last thing Jake said as he ran to play in his room was. “It’s okay it’s Uncle Mookie.”

“But what if it wasn’t…” The sentence trailed after Jon’s youngest as the child ran to play. Jon shook his head and turned his attention to the phone call.

“Hey Rich, wassup?”

 Richie lost it. He laughed hard. There were tears in his eyes and he spewed the sip of coffee he took waiting for Jon to pick up the phone all over his patio. Ava just shook her head as she jumped back into the pool with a couple of friends she had over.

“Man, you better watch out, you sounded exactly like Jakey.”

 “Don’t cha mean Jakey sounded like me bro?”

 “Nope.”

 “Ha, ha, Rich, very funny.”

Richie got to the point.

“So, you gonna write this week? I need an excuse to head east. I wanna spend time with Teri.” Jon sighed.

“Richie, man why do you need an excuse? That’s so not like you.”

 “She’s different man. I’m not sayin’ anything. I just want to explore my options.” Jon mulled that over. With a long suffering sigh, he said.

 “Okay, when am I gonna write?”

“Thursday.” Richie replied.

After a shake of his head he said into the phone.

“Hey Rich. I have a bunch of stuff running around in my head. Wanna come out Thursday and see if we can get a song or two out of it?”

“Sure man that would be great and you know what? Teri is heading back East Thursday so maybe I’ll hook up and take the same flight. It’s just as easy to meet the band in Jersey to start the next leg as it is to fly out from LAX. I’ll call you with details. Bye.” Richie hung up. But, not before he heard the chuckle coming from his longtime friend.

With a shake of his head and a look over at the kids in the pool he continued. Ava had a few friends over this afternoon and he was sitting on the porch keeping an eye on them. Not that they needed it but Richie felt better if he was around. It was too beautiful of a day to be inside anyway.

“Okay that was easy. Now let’s see about the next obstacle. I’ll take the biggest one first.” Richie got more comfortable then hit the appropriate phone number.

 “Hello Ma?”

When he finished his call and had tentative dinner plans with his mother to meet Teri on his next tour break he called Teri. He was such a mother’s boy that he wanted her to love each of his girlfriends and this one was different. He wasn’t totally ready to explore what that meant, but she was. Richie thought it would be hard to tell his mom about Teri. She had sat him down and talked to him about all the girls he was dating at once. Richie laughed and explained they were just “dates” for the event nothing more. That mollified her and he was able to tell her a little about Teri without going into details yet.

“Teri’s phone this is Susan."

“Suzie Q my friend, how are you?” Richie asked. He was very happy with the knowledge that his plans were falling into place. He stretched out on his chair and got comfortable.

“There is only one person who can get away with calling me that. Richie Sambora, wass up?

Richie smiled at Susan’s question.

“Not too much. Teri around?” He got right to the point.

“Yes and no,” Susan quipped. “Technically she’s here but she’s on a conference call with Al. There’s a major issue in Connecticut that may close us down unless something is figured out.”

“Not good. Have her call me when she frees up.” Richie said. His mind already on different things like dinner for the kids. Do you think they would want sushi or burgers?

“Yup, will do. It may not be for a couple of hours.”

“No problem, it’s all good. I have dinner plans tonight, but, have her call any time. I’ll take it. My kid will understand.”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll let her know. Have fun with your daughter. Good taking to you Richie.”

“You too Suzie Q.” Richie was in a great mood.

They rang off.

An hour later Susan brought Teri up to speed about what she missed while in her crisis.

“And finally, Richie called. He said to call him when you free up.”

She at length told her about her new name from Richie. But with a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye. She is out for retribution. For sure.

 “Figures I missed that call. The one I would have loved to take.”

Teri went into the bedroom to make her call to Richie. They briefly talked as he was leaving for a dinner out with the girls.

 Richie called back after word to talk some more.

 “Hey you. How was dinner with?”

“It was fine thanks. Typical actually.  She wanted Sushi for dinner. I’m all over that. Love it.

Teri tucked that away for later. She never tried it but was willing to give it a shot.

“So tell me more about you?” She asked of him.

“Like what?”

“Oh I don’t know. What’s your favorite kind of food? ”He smiled. It was typical question that couples ask in the beginning of their relationship. He got more comfortable on the couch.

“Restaurant, Homemade or store bought?”

“Oh, homemade. I think that shows love. Store bought is fine but if you take the time and effort to make something from scratch it shows how much it means.” Teri crossed her fingers as she said this. Gloria always said she could burn boiling 

water.

It was Richie’s turn to tuck that away. Maybe someday she will… There I go again. But this time I think it’s a good thing. Let’s move this up a notch.

“Before I forget. Suzie Q is looking for retribution you may want to be on your toes around her. She is known for her paybacks around the theatre.”

“Speaking of Suzie, does she handle your personal stuff as well as the theatre?”

“Nah. I do the personal stuff myself. I actually am spending the evening taking care of a ton of things. I was thinking of hiring someone but why do I need two assistants?”

“Just a thought. I have three. I was surprised you only had Suzie as you are so busy.”

“Mmmm Something to think about. When I have time to think, that is.”

“Listen I talked to Jon and we are going to do some writing on the last couple of days of our down time. I thought we could fly East together.”

“Oh yeah? You’re leave that soon? Now this is cool.”

“Yeah I thought so too. Just give me your flight info and I’ll have Deni take care of it.”

“So, tell me more about all your assistants. Who does what? I really do need someone to keep me on time and someone to pick up my juggling act of appointments and commitments.”

They talked for about an hour more when simultaneously, Ava started to call her dad and Teri’s other phone started to ring.

Richie promised he would be in touch about the flight. As he hung up Teri heard his daughter wheedling her way into dad picking up pizza, ice cream and other goodies for the girl’s spontaneous sleep over.

 Teri smiled a bit jealous of Richie’s evening plans as opposed to her spending the evening on the phone with Al hashing out details on their fix to keep the theatre not to mention the show alive outside of some pretty big issues the physical building was having. If they couldn’t work it out at an acceptable cost to the board. The theatre would be in 

danger of being shut down.

Richie called Deni to have the tickets moved around so they are together on the flight and Teri with a sigh called Al. She didn’t see any way around this one.