79 - Super Sperm

“I didn’t have a chance to ask earlier, did you find a place for your stuff?”  He stood in the bathroom doorway, toothbrush in hand and a bit of toothpaste at the corner of his mouth. 

“Yes.  Lucky me, there’s even room for more,” she replied with a little grin, pulling back the comforter that made his – their – bed a dark island in the midst of a dark wood floor. 

While they’d barely had the chance to speak to one another throughout the remainder of the evening, both were well-aware of the other’s presence.  Their eyes repeatedly found one another with a little smile or some other subtle sign of encouragement.  She felt truly connected to him, even amidst the chaos. 

A tranquil spot in the storm.  You’re doing okay so far, Sheridan.

Dinner had been typical Friday night fare of pizza, for which Mandi joined them all before she and Jesse went out to the movies.  The chattery teen had acted quite awkward at first until she finally asked if she and Jesse were cousins now that Jon was technically her uncle.  She was much relieved after being assured that there was nothing incestuous about her and Jesse dating. 

Dinner done and younger boys involved in a video game, Jon had found himself on one after another lengthy call as the evening wore on.  A couple of them were merely perfunctory, informational calls to his brothers so that they weren’t blindsided by the press release on Monday.  Very short, sweet and to the point communications where his siblings congratulated him on the pregnant wife and promised to get together soon.

His parents’ reaction was better than her parents, although she did hear him reminding his mother of his age at one point in the conversation.  As he finalized dinner plans for later in the week because they, as he had predicted, wanted to meet her, her own mother had phoned to apologize for her earlier behavior.  The apology seemed sincere enough and Sheridan had accepted it and the grandchild delight at face value.

Family properly brought into the loop, the next round of calls began to his close friends and band members.  The first went to Richie, who hung up on him, but that didn’t dissuade Jon from the task at hand.  He pushed down the list to David who ended up demanding dinner with the Bongiovi clan the next night.   Whatever the slightly unbalanced man said had gone a long way toward easing the lines in her new husband’s face.    

Sheridan developed a soft spot for David Bryan in that moment.

While he went through the same script and answered roughly the same questions with Obie, Tico, Hugh, Bobby and Paul, Sheridan chatted with Riley, who’d had the opportunity to build up her own barrage of questions.  The most pointed of those was with regard to Dorothea and if Sheridan was going to get along okay with the ex-wife.

God only knows. 

“Jon?” she called when the water stopped running in the sink.  He reappeared, this time turning out the bathroom light as he wiped a hand over his mouth.  Soft, jersey-knit pants hung low on his hips before he let them fall to the bedside floor and climbed in next to her. 

One thickly muscled forearm hooked around her waist with a frown.  He’d already expressed his displeasure at her Aerosmith t-shirt being in bed, but he didn’t say anything about it.  Sheridan needed some acclimation time before she would feel comfortable sleeping here in the buff.  She wasn’t used to having children in residence and it made her uneasy that they could walk in at any minute.

“What, baby?”

With a sigh, she snuggled down into the insanely comfortable bed and looped a reciprocal arm over his waist.  “I’m sorry if I stepped on your toes with Dorothea tonight.  I had no idea how things went with Stephanie and Jesse, but you looked a little worse for wear when you got home.  I didn’t want you to use your energy defending me when you still had two more kids to get through.”

Thank God, the two younger boys had basically been a non-event.  Dr. Rennicke had obviously sprinkled some magic therapists’ dust during their appointment today, and Sheridan thought it was probably a good idea that Jon had given the woman some advance warning.  Upon hearing their father’s marriage announcement, Romeo and Jake had taken one look at their mother nodding encouragingly through an acceptable rendition of a smile, and simply said, “Okay.” 

There hadn’t been much more reaction than that when the baby was mentioned and Sheridan wondered if they really understood what was going on.  Maybe there would be more from them later, but for now there was nothing that presented a concern.

“You handled it fine,” Jon assured her now.  “You weren’t a bitch, but very calm, cool and collected.  I probably would’ve made it a bigger mess than it was, so I appreciated your intervention very much.”  He nuzzled a kiss against her temple.  “I kinda liked Don’t-fuck-with-me-or-my-family Sheridan.  Very Jersey for a Connecticut girl.”

Her arm cinched tighter around his waist and she pressed her body into his.  “Mmm...  Told you I was going to pull my weight in this.  So what happened with Stephanie?  I assume Jesse is okay based on his forced tolerance of me at dinner?”

“Jesus,” was the disheartened groan that found her ears.  “It wasn’t good.  Steph is mad at me and Jesse was too, but for a different reason.  Both say it’s nothing to do with you, if that makes you feel better.”

“If they’re mad at you, then no, I don’t feel better.  What did they say?”  She nudged him with her knee.  “Spill.”

With that bit of prompting, he brought her up to speed on what had transpired with his teenagers.

“I’m sorry.”

“Mm.  Me too, but I probably should’ve handled it better.”

She pressed a kiss to the base of his throat.  “No regrets.  What’s done is done and we’ll work through it.  But you know the great thing?”

When she tipped her head back, he looked inquiringly down his nose at her.  “There’s a great thing?”

“Mmm-hmm.  We made it through today.  And tonight, in each other’s arms, we’ll build the strength to get through tomorrow.”

He snickered quietly and tucked her head beneath his chin, hugging her tight.  “That’s pretty good, Kitten.  With Richie pissed at me, I might have to recruit you as my new co-writer.”

❧❧❧

“Did he tell you?”

Kicking his feet up on the coffee table in his living room, David stifled a sigh at Richie’s accusatory greeting.  He really had no desire to get in middle of the disagreement simmering between the two men who were typically closer than brothers.  Hell, he loved both them as though they were his own brothers – not to mention that he genuinely liked Sheridan. 

He wiggled his ass into the uncomfortable spot between a rock and a hard place and tried his best to disengage himself.

“Dad told me about the birds and the bees years ago,” he drawled, dropping his head back on the sofa with a smirk.  “Too bad it wasn’t before I ended up with three kids.”

“Stop being a fucknut.  Can you believe he married her?  Feels like a goddamn slap in the face to me.  Her pussy must be honey-coated gold.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, David contemplated whether or not to take the high road or the one right through the gutter. 

Since when do you even consider avoiding the gutter?

“It might be.  Girlfriend is pretty damn fine to look at.”

“Girlfriend is likely a scheming bitch.  Dottie thinks the same thing.”

That had him jackknifing up to plant his feet on the floor and lean forward with curiosity.  Rich was comparing notes with Dot?  What the hell was that about?

“Since when do you and Dot exchange opinions on anything?  You were the first one she called Satan, as I recall.”

“I called to ask her what she thought, figuring that she’d met the woman.  Dottie’s a pretty smart lady.”

This time David’s sigh was audible.  “So you think Jon’s ex-wife’s opinion on the newer, younger model is perfectly objective and unbiased.  You really are drinking again aren’t you?”

“You’re just pissed because you haven’t met her yet.”

“Au contraire, my friend!  I’ve met her a couple of times and they’re all coming over here for dinner tomorrow night.  My personal opinion is that you and Dot both are jealous bitches.”

Richie’s sound of disgust was brash and loud.  “Why the fuck do I have to be jealous for?”

“He found a good woman not once, but twice.  And this one looks like she should be one of your Hollywood types.”

“Wrong answer.  I don’t have a jealous body in my bone.”  His voice became muffled as David heard him thanking his housekeeper for something.  “Leaked exaggeration of something that happened at my house, she gets pregnant and now he’s married her?  That’s all a little too coincidental, don’t ya think?”

“Rubbers break, Super Sperm leap birth control in a single bound, women get pregnant.  It ain’t all that farfetched, and you know Mr. Honorable-Responsibility-Guy is going to marry the girl.  That’s just a given.”  His feet went back up on the coffee table as he leaned back into the couch with a wry grin.  “Hell, I’m only surprised you don’t have more Sambora spawn running around the world.”

Richie chose to ignore the jab about his lack of Super Sperm and obnoxiously argued, “I might believe it was an accident if other things hadn’t happened.”

“Rich, man...”  David so badly wanted to point out the other options for the press’s speculation of Richie’s drinking demise.  If he didn’t do it then nobody else would, since the guitarist wasn’t speaking to Jon.  It was practically David’s civic duty.  “There are other possible explanations for that little news tidbit ya know.  Did you ever think about Grace?  She sees a lot of shit, dude.”

His voice dropped by several decibels when he quietly spat, “That’s bullshit.  I sign Gracie’s paycheck.  She isn’t going to bite the hand that feeds her.”

“You sign a paycheck she doesn’t need.  The former GI Jane has Uncle Sam footing her retirement.  She uses taking care of you as a hobby, and you know how she likes things to be ship-shape.  You’ve told me that yourself.”

“Not buying it.  She’s too close to the family.”

Richie could be the sweetest guy ever, but he was a stubborn sonofabitch when he got his mind set on something.   If David couldn’t drive home the point of Sheridan’s potential innocence then he’d choose a different point to smack Richie in the head with.

“Whatever.  The bottom line is that you wouldn’t have to worry about this garbage if you’d just give up the booze.  Get your shit together if you can’t hold your liquor old man.  Don’t make me organize some stupid mother-fuckin’ intervention.”

“Hey!  I’m not drinking.”

David doubted that.   This week maybe he wasn’t drinking.   Sambora wouldn’t be all bent out of shape over Sheridan’s ‘betrayal’ if there wasn’t a fair amount of truth in the tale that was finally starting to fizzle out of the gossip rags.   

“Then pick your twisted panties out of your ass and be happy for the man.  He was smart enough to make us all millionaires.  You don’t think he recognizes a scam when he sees it?  Give the girl a chance and... think about what I said.  Stranger things than a disgruntled housekeeper have taken men down.”