1.

Three A.M. and he was awake. Now that was usually the norm for him, especially when on tour, but the tour had been over for two weeks. He groaned and pushed himself upright. Sleeping on the tiny couch in the RV wasn’t very conducive to sleep, but he had insisted she sleep in the bed and because of that he was wide awake. Stretching his arm out, he grabbed his acoustic and settled it on his lap. If he couldn’t sleep he might as well work on the song that had settled into his brain and wouldn’t leave him be. Playing music helped him think, just like a good hot shower, it always cleared away cob webs, but hot showers in what passed for a shower in this vehicle was more a lesson in futility. He never could get every part of him rinsed at once, the shower was just too tight and he was just too big.

His hand wrapped around the neck of the guitar as long fingers settled onto the strings and began to strum. His eyes closed as the melody played along with his memories. As they pulled away from the Woodbridge Township Hall he’d told her he had two weeks before it was time for him pick up Ava for his month with her. He’d already decided that Ava had to meet Linds. In some odd way he just knew Linds was going to be someone he would keep around. Within moments of hearing that she’d snagged his computer and set them a route that would take them across the states.

It had been two weeks of nothing but laughter as they rode the highway and stopped everywhere she wanted. She’d told him he’d get a real vacation with her, not some frou frou fancy rock star vacation that meant lazing on beaches, ritzy restaurants or room service and he had gotten just that. If it wasn’t for his princess he would have been happy to just keep traveling.

Fuck he’d traveled the world no telling how many times and he’d seen his fill of exotic things, but he had to admit seeing the world as she saw it had been an education, from the world’s largest light bulb, Mighty Joe Young Memorial and the miniature trains right in New Jersey to the Mystery Hole in West Virginia. Ok, admittedly he had loved the toy trains, made him feel like a kid again and the mystery hole had worked his mind. It was a place he’d never forget with its water flowing up hill and everything defying gravity, even now he marveled at how nature worked. But that was the least of it.

Hell, every state had held some oddity she wanted to see, the Goodyear Rubber Museum in Ohio had taught him more about rubber than he ever cared to know and Indiana’s largest ball of paint had him wondering what other things people got up to in their spare time. And that wasn’t the end of it, oh no, not for Miss Lindsay.

Her next stop had been in Illinois and all she had said was, “knowing you, you’ll love this one,” and he had. He’d always loved crosses, wore them every day, had them all over his home and seeing the Bald Knob Cross of Peace, well it spoke to him. That day had settled him in some odd way and it was all because of a lady who had said she could show him what real meant. It was that day more than any other that he had finally felt peace after the last couple of years.

He shook his head as the memories of the replica Stonehenge of Missouri rose, his laughter as he played a rock n roll version of a Celtic tune and Lindsay had danced around the stones in the field. His smile grew as the memory played out in his mind. She’d seemed waif like, almost like a fairy. Each place was emblazoned in his mind and Lindsay danced through each memory unabashedly smiling, teasing him, and driving him to distraction.

She’d taken photographs all along the way, but he knew his favorite photo would always be the one taken of him in front of the Paul Bunyan Muffler Man of Oklahoma. Oh it wasn’t because of the statue or even the place really, although it being near a bowling alley had her dragging him in to bowl a few games. Fuck that had been fun, he hadn’t bowled in ages; it helped center him and get him back to that young Jersey guy he claimed to be. All that had been great but what had made that one place more memorable than the others was when she’d slipped on the shiny bowling alley floor, he’d caught her and gotten a kiss for his efforts. That kiss still teased his memory like a flame teased a moth. She’d not kissed him before, and that one kiss had lit a damned fire in his gut that just burned hotter each and every day.

They’d held hands in silent reverence at Davy Crockett’s grave and he’d learned just how good the softness of her small hand felt in his, they’d laughed over burgers in a restaurant that boasted a huge long horned steer skull for an entrance and he’d decided that her laugh had to be in his life forever, but it was the pure magic of the Ghost town in Bishop California that had settled it deep into his gut. This woman, this real woman, who had taken a chance and went with him, who was real beyond real, was better than anything he’d ever found in California, well except for his Ava, but she was in a different category.

He wanted to make her his, but she’d turned down each and every pass or flirtation he’d tossed her way. She’d smile gently and tell him they had to get to know each other better. Well dammit

they knew each other now, so how could he make her his?

~~

She turned, her eyes fluttering open at the soft melody echoing in the small confines of the RV. Glancing down at her watch she shook her head. It was nearly four in the morning and he was still awake? They had stopped in Bishop for the night and she knew the next day would have her seeing the home of the man she traveled with and meeting his daughter to boot. She was a bit afraid of that, what if Ava didn’t like her? But when she’d broached that to Richie he’d laughed and tweaked her nose affectionately. “Darlin,” he’d said, “she’s a lot like her dad, she’ll adore ya.”

She smiled as she recalled the days of traveling. Not once had he complained about the crazy out of the way places she’d drug him, from concrete dinosaurs to light bulbs and all spots in between. He’d actually enjoyed it, even commenting on how nice it was to see things as a normal person. Well she’d promised him that and she’d delivered, and he’d delivered on all his promises too. God, it had been excruciatingly hard to keep him at arms length. He was always finding a reason to brush against her or simply take her hand. Fuck but he smelled so good and was so tall and strong. But she didn’t just fall into bed with a man, not even if that man was Richie Sambora.

But that had been two weeks ago, and now? He’d opened up to her, more than she could have possibly expected, telling her of his life, both professional and personal, and she’d listened, really listened. Inside the words she heard the hurt and loneliness, of losing a woman he thought loved him, to the absolute joy she’d given him when she had Ava. The man deserved more kids, it was a shame he only had the one and she’d told him so. He’d winked at her and said, “Oh hell Darlin, don’t count me out, I ain’t dead yet.”

He was something else, something that defied description and nothing at all like the man most saw in interviews, and she loved him all the more for it. Hell to be honest, she’d crushed on him for years, but in two weeks she’d learned what it was like to just fall in love with the guy too. Her eyes went wide at the thought. She loved him? Where had that come from? She shook her head as the thought took root and settled in. Well it was true, she did. She loved his gentleness, his humor and his intelligence. Somewhere between week one and week two she’d forgotten the musician and just started seeing the guy. A guy who was so lonely and hurt that it called out to her to make it better, if she could just figure out how.

She sat up and moved towards the middle of the RV, her hands brushing back her sleep mussed hair as she stood before him. God he was just gorgeous and so lost in the melody that he had no idea she was there. She cleared her throat, receiving a smile as the music faded off and eyes shadowed by the night glanced up her way.

He took in her sleep mussed appearance, her slender form dressed only in a big floppy tee-shirt and smiled. “Did I wake ya Darlin?”

Linds shook her head. “Not really, I heard the music and it made me curious. Couldn’t sleep?”

He gave her a waggle of the brows and nodded to his guitar. “Melody wouldn’t leave me be, had to work through it before I could sleep.”

She shook her head and started to laugh. “Had nothing to do with trying to put six foot of man onto a five foot couch again?”

Richie’s shoulder lifted in a shrug. “Naah, I know how to fold myself into small spaces. I learned it years ago on buses and planes Darlin. I can sleep anywhere really.” He settled the guitar back onto its place of honor in the one soft chair in the sitting area. “But I’ve whipped the melody into submission so I’ll quit interrupting your sleep.” He leaned back on the couch and propped his legs on the back casually. “See told ya I’d fit.”

Her head tilted as a slow hot smile began on her lips and made her eyes sparkle even in the shadows of the night. “So you’d rather sleep there than say on the bed?”

His legs shot off the couch onto the floor of the RV as he sat back up, his eyes honing in on that smile of hers that said more than any words could. “Are ya saying what I think you’re saying Darlin?”

Her hand reached out to his as her smile grew wider, “I think we know each other pretty well now; we’ve waited long enough don’t you think?”

He was off the couch before the sentence was finished.