Chapter 12...enjoy

Thank you so much for reading everyone...my sister's friend's hubby is a photographer for the New England pics and got this pic of Jon at the Patriots/Brancos game on Saturday night...not the first one she's shared with me...I told her we so need to go to a game next year with her photographer friend....:) That being said...here is the latest add...enjoy.

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The show started off amazing as usual. He started off in the back for “Last Man Standing” and then moved to the front of the stage. He saw her sitting down and winked at her. Behind her, she heard a scream.

“He just winked at you!” a girl sitting next to her grabbed her excited. “I’m so jealous.”

She just smiled, and got into the show. It had been so long since she just enjoyed a Jovi concert.  Before she knew it, she and the other girls were jumping up and down and cheering along with the music. He stopped in front of her whenever he could.

After they finished Richie’s solo set, one of the security guards came for her.

“Paul,” he hissed as the crowd cheered. “I’m supposed to be off tonight.”

“Boss wants you sitting near him for this,” he said.

She smiled. “Oh, ok.”

He brought around to the front of the pit where there was an empty chair right up close to where he was walking out on to the circle, and everyone in the crowd was cheering.

He placed one finger to his lips to quiet the crowd down.

“I’d like to dedicate this next song,” he said, and the crowd went wild. “To a wonderful person who has recently come into my life. As I’m sure you guys have all heard from the tabloids, I’ve recently split up from my wife, and I’m sorry ladies, but I have someone special who is absolutely amazing. So Steph, this whole next set is just for you. Thank you for loving me.”

They went right into Thank You for Loving Me, followed by Always, followed by Bed of Roses and Richie and Jon did a very touching duet of I’ll be There For You. Only those that were sitting right near the front saw Jon lean over the circle after the set and pull her close to him for a kiss.

She broke away with a huge smile. “Get back to work,” she whispered into his ear. “My boyfriend will be jealous.”

“Screw the boyfriend,” he whispered back while Richie went into a guitar solo, “I just dedicated lots of stuff to you.”

She laughed. “Thank you. I love you so much for that.”

“I love you too baby,” he said. “Time to go back to work.”

She gave him one more quick kiss and then headed back to her seat in the front row as they were done in the circle. The girl who was sitting next to her grabbed her arm. “I wonder who the lucky girl is that nabbed him so quickly.”

“What do you mean?” she asked innocently, while Jon watched from the stage, hoping she had gone unnoticed during his serenade. She still had her all access pass in her purse.

“He dedicated those last few songs to someone that was in the audience. Probably sitting on the other side of the circle. I mean, he must not care that much if she’s sitting over there and not in the front row.”

“Maybe she as an all access pass and he wanted her there during that part of the show. I think it’s romantic,” she said with a smile.

“Maybe,” the girl said. “You’re probably right. She is soo lucky. Jon is hot.”

“That he is,” she said. “Let’s enjoy the rest of the show now.”

He saw the girl stop talking to Steph and was happy that the girl stopped bugging Steph, and he went into another set. The audience was on fire tonight. They were all on their feet and Jon loved it when the crowd was like that. They did three encores and Steph loved every minute of it. She knew after the third encore they were not coming back out and she reached in her purse for her all access pass and took it out and waited for the crowd on the floor to clear a little before heading backstage to see the guys.

The girl and her friends who had been sitting next to her were still there and she spotted Paul and gave a little wave.

“Oh my god,” the girl said with an excited smile. “Do you know the security guy?”

“Yes,” she said sweetly, as Paul walked over.

“Can he get us backstage to meet the guys?”

“I don’t think so,” she said. “He could lose his job for that. Besides, the guys are probably long gone by now.” She winked at Paul.

“Are you band security?” the girl asked. The whole group of them were drunk from way too many beers during the concert. “If he’s band security then the guys are probably still back there.”

“Ladies, it is definitely time to clear out,” Paul said.

“But we wanna meet Jon!!” the girl whined. “I’m so sure I’m prettier than the girlfriend.”

Steph stifled a laugh. She wasn’t getting out of here until Paul got these girls out of here or she’d be trampled. Just then her phone beeped with a text asking her where she was. She wrote back that she was avoiding being trampled by the drunken women who were in the front row dying to meet him and that one of them was sure she was prettier than her.

He wrote back. “Lol. Did you tell them its you?”

“No,” she replied, “But I am tired and want to get some sleep.”

“Sleep is good,” he wrote, “Especially since the guys and I have decided to fly out in the morning instead of tomorrow night. I want to show you Italy a little. Is Paul having trouble getting rid of them?” he wrote back.

She rolled her eyes. The girl that seemed to be the ringleader of the bunch was had her arm on Paul and was batting her eyelashes at him. She was trying really hard, and the arena was more or less empty with the exception the remaining employees doing clean up. “I’d say so,” she replied.

“Richie and I will handle this. When we come out you head back stage. We’ll meet you back there in ten minutes. I’m pretty sure we’ll be a distraction and you’ll go unnoticed.”

“Ok,” she grinned. In about two minutes, Richie and Jon walked out freshly showered, and the girls started screaming with delight.

“Ladies,” Richie drawled. “We need our guy Paul here and we hear you’re distracting him.”

The first girl that had been annoying her walked up to Jon and put her arms around. “Jon, pick me over the girlfriend. I’m way better than she is.”

Jon chuckled softly and pried the girls arms around her. “Sorry ladies, I am a one woman man. I’m glad you enjoyed the show. Can we get you an autograph? We’d like to go back to our hotel. We have an early flight out of here in the morning.”

Steph could tell the girls were going to back off and winked at Jon and quietly walked towards the back stage area.

As she was walking over there, she heard the main girl speak up again loudly. God this girl was getting really annoying. I don’t want your autograph Jon. How about if you come back to my hotel tonight? I’ll give you something that you’ll never forget.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Steph waiting in the wings and grinned, and quickly scribbled something on a t-shirt for the girl. Richie had just finished signing all of the other girls t-shirts, and Jon spoke up. “Sorry, but I really have to go with my girl over there.” He walked away with Richie behind him. “Goodnight ladies!” Richie called.

Jon walked right up to Steph while the girls stood there with their jaws hanging open, and took her in a big kiss right in front of them. He pulled away and put his arm around her and they continued to walk to the back stage area. Once they were completely out of earshot, Steph, Jon and Rich started laughing.

“I think you crushed that poor girl’s heart, honey,” Steph said.

“I’ve crushed a lot of hearts over the years. It’s the nature of the business.”

“Our days of being with those kinds of girls are long since over,” Richie said. “When that girl wakes up in the morning she probably won’t even remember where she got Jon’s autograph from.”

“Thanks for coming to my rescue guys,” she said.

“Anytime,” Jon said. “Did you enjoy the show?”

“One of the best I’ve ever seen,” she said with a huge smile. “Especially the set you played for your new girlfriend. That was so sweet. She’s a lucky lady.”

Richie laughed, and Jon played a long. They had fun with that earlier today. “Not as lucky as I am. Apparently you forgot all about the boyfriend and are coming with me.”

They climbed into the waiting car with the rest of the guys to head back to the hotel and Steph rested her head happily on Jon’s shoulder. “My boyfriend gave me a free pass and you’re it, so I better take good advantage of it,” she said squeezing his knee.

Tico laughed. “You too make us sick. So happy and in love.”

“Damn straight,” Jon said planting a kiss on Steph’s forehead. “This girl and I will be happy forever.”

She wrapped an arm around his waist. “I love you.”

David laughed. “You guys are too cute.”

“Thank you Lemma,” Jon said, and noticed Richie was quietly texting someone, “Now if we can just talk to Richie’s mystery woman, we can give the Jovi family approval of her too. Rich, you should call her, so we can all talk to her.”

“Yeah, Rich,” Tico and David piped up. “You’ve kept this one under wraps for way too long now.”

“Guys,” Richie said, “You’ll meet her soon enough. Like after we get back from the tour and are in the states again.”

“We know, man,” Jon said, “But we just want to hear the voice of the woman who makes you so happy.”

“I’ll send her a text and tell her you guys all say hi,” he said. “Will that make you happy?”

“We’ll send the text,” Tico said grabbing Richie’s phone.

“Teek,” Richie said, annoyed. “Give me my phone.”

“Is this her?” Tico asked. “You call her D? There’s no picture”

“Yes,” he said exasperated. “Now can I please have my phone?”

“Sheesh,” Tico said, “Lighten up. We’re just trying to have a little fun.”

“I know,” Richie said, “But if you guys can respect my privacy just a little bit longer, I promise you’ll get to meet her.”

“Ok,” Jon said. “Sorry. We didn’t realize you were so protective of this.”

“I am,” said Richie. “Just because I don’t want to mess anything up just yet and she’s not here, and your approval on this matters, so I want to introduce her to you guys when the timing is just right.” He stopped to write a text, and laughed when it beeped back. “She says hi, and to leave me alone so we can continue our conversation.”

Steph remained silent through the whole exchange, annoyed once more that Richie was putting her in this position.  They pulled up to the hotel and all got out of the car and headed inside. Richie looked at Steph while Jon said good night to the rest of the guys and mouthed an I’m sorry at her and she just shook her head.

They went up to their room, and Steph and Jon changed and were ready for bed. They crawled in and she kissed him. “Thank you for tonight. It was awesome.”

“Mmm…” Jon said when the kiss was broken. “I’m glad you like that. Hey, you were awfully quiet on the way back here when we were bugging Richie. I would have thought that you would most definitely have had something to say to him to convince him to let us talk to her.”

“Nah,” she said. “He’s entitled to his privacy. He must have his reasons.”

“Well,” he said wrapping his arms around her. “It won’t stay quiet for long. Once they go out in public the press will find out, and it would be better for her to get to meet us before that happens.”

“It would be better for all of us if that happened,” she said honestly.

“Why? Do you know something I don’t about this girl? I know Richie is like a big brother to you.”

“No of course not,” she said quickly. “I was just thinking if we met her before the press finds out, then we can give her pointers on how to deal with the press and a statement can be prepared about them. I mean, your divorce was just finalized and it was in the press within a couple of days after Dot called you to get the papers ready, and now there will probably be me in the press.”

“I didn’t really think of that tonight little one,” he said. “Do you need any help in dealing with the wolves?”

“I can handle it,” she said snuggling up against him. “I have you and that is all that matters.”

“I love you baby,” he said kissing her.

“I love you too,” she said, and then yawned.

“Do I bore you?” he teased, and then yawned himself.

“No,” she said sleepily. “But I think we’re both wiped, and we have a 7 am flight tomorrow. So we should get some sleep.”

“I agree,” he said, holding her close to him. “Steph?”

“Yes Jon?” she said.

“I’m glad you told me you loved me too. You have no idea how happy I am.”

“I’m happy too,” she said. “I feel very lucky that you love me.”

“I’m the lucky one,” he said sleepily. “You’re right. I am tired.” He closed his eyes.

“Good night baby,” she said softly, closing her eyes.

“Goodnight beautiful,” he said.