John Francis

Sunday morning dawned with a fury as a mid-winter storm hit the northern United States. The wind roared at gale force levels as a heavy snow blew in, quickly covering the roads and slowing down the early travelers. Inside an opulent house in New Jersey, Jon stirred as snow pelted the windows of his bedroom. He looked at the woman sleeping in his arms. She pressed closer to his warmth as she slept and he brushed back a curl from her face. A soft smile crossed her face as she woke at his touch. She turned to face him.

“Good morning.” Jon smiled at her.

“Good morning.” Amanda spoke, smiling back at him.

“Did you mean it?” He asked, a slightly unsure tone to his voice.

“Yes, I meant it.” A dazzling smile grew as she answered him.

“Are you sure?” She squinted at him.

“Yeah, baby, I’m sure.” He kissed her nose and then drew back to see her face.

“You know everybody’s gonna think you’re crazy, right?” Her voice was lightly mocking as she asked him this.

“Not anybody who really knows me.” He grinned at her.

“Jon, your mother hates me.” She reminded him.

“Amanda, my mother can shut the fuck up!” He growled.

Her jaw dropped at his words and a giggle escaped before she could prevent it.

“I’m sorry…” she laughed as he raised a hand to begin tickling her. “Jon…I’m sorry! Jon!” She laughed harder as he attempted to bury her under pillows.

She pushed the pillows away and finally managed to stop giggling, but his smile wouldn’t allow hers to die away.

Amanda looked at Jon and her expression sobered for a moment. She cocked her head to the side and spoke softly.

“Thanks for listening to me. For wanting to try.”

“Damn woman! I had to!”

He laughed almost to himself. “Don’t ever tell Sambora you turned me down three times! I’ll never hear the end of that!”

Amanda shook her head at the man in front of her. She was coming more and more to realize that Richie would always figure into the equation for Jon and she was glad he had formed a friendship with her.

“Not my fault. If you weren’t such a ‘guy’ with that knee-jerk reaction to ‘sharing your feelings’, you might have had a different answer.”

He raised eyebrows at her with that statement and then lowered them to scowl slightly.

“Did you just insult me? Your fiancée?”

That startled a laugh out of her.

“No…well, yeah, a little.”

He smirked at her.

“Admit it, Jon, you’re used to getting your own way. Right?”

The smirk turned into a full on self-satisfied smile.

“I did get my own way.”

She punched him in the stomach.

He laughed as she grimaced and shook her hand.

~~~

Eric joined Dorothea that evening on the balcony of their room. She was sitting outside relaxing after one of their day trips and with a smile she took the glass of wine he brought.

“How’re you doin’ hon?” He joined her at the table, casting a glance at her face as he did so.

“I’m really good. Those dolphins today were amazing.” She sipped slowly at her wine.

“Yeah, they were, but that’s not what I meant.” His gaze was loving as he caught her eyes.

“I know what you meant and that’s really good too. I love you, Eric. And I’m really happy to be your wife.” His hand was warm in hers as she covered it.

“I’m really glad to be your husband, but since that gives me new ESP powers…” he chuckled at her mock frown at him, “…I can tell when you’ve got something on your mind. So give it up…”

Shaking her head at him in amusement, she nodded.

“I do. I think Jon is going to ask Amanda to marry him.”

“What makes you think that? Did he say something?”

“No, it’s just…I know him…when he goes after something he gets it.”

His moved his hand to hold hers. “Are you okay with that?”

“I am…but…I know I shouldn’t feel this way, but I’m a little pissed that she’s going to get what I always wanted. She’s going to get his attention whenever it’s not on work because she doesn’t have kids and she’ll go with him.”

“Doro, you never did say why you didn’t travel with him, even after you had Stephanie and Jesse, you could have gone. Why didn’t you?”

“I thought I could do both, but I wanted the kids to have a stable home, the same bed, friends. But things really started changing when I stopped traveling with him. That’s when we started to lose each other and we never went back.”

Eric winced a little at the hint of loss still evident in his new wife’s voice. He had known going in that marrying the woman who had been married to a legend was going to be hard. The only two things he had to offer her were constancy and his love.

Dorothea saw the small face Eric made and leaned forward in her chair to touch her lips to his.

“I know what I want, Eric, and this is it. Being with you, having you with me, this is what I want. I love you.”

Eric pulled her to sit on his lap, kissing her softly and cupping her face in his strong hand.

“I love you too, Dorothea.”

The sunset that evening was particularly lovely.

~~~

Amanda blinked at Jon.

“Fiancée? Is that what you just said?”

He looked at her wide eyes and started to laugh.

“Yeah, when two people get engaged, they are called a fiancée…” He laughed harder at her sudden glare.

“I know that! It’s just…that makes it more real…”

It almost seemed as if a light bulb turned on over Jon’s head as he suddenly jumped up and walked over to his dresser. Amanda watched him in silence as he took something out of a drawer and came back over to sit on the side of the bed. He looked at her, a crooked grin on his face.

“Let’s make it more real…hold out your hand and close your eyes…”

She continued to look at him.

“Manda…close…your…eyes…” He looked at her and put his hand in front of her face.

“Okay, okay, they’re closed…” She moved his hand away and tilted her face so he could see her closed eyes.

Jon opened a small black box and took her left hand in his hands. For a moment he hesitated as he realized he had never checked to see if it was her size, but it seemed luck was on his side as it slid onto her finger. The center diamond was large, but her fingers were long and it seemed just right to him.

“You can open your eyes…” He instructed her, looking at her face.

She looked at her hand. Memory stirred and she squinted in remembrance, bringing the ring closer. She turned her hand to the right and then to the left and then turned the light on to see better. Memory suddenly flashed and she gasped and with enormously wide eyes she turned to him.

“Is this…the auction…you bought THIS ring at that auction…” Her voice trailed off as her mind thought back to that time and she tallied the days.

“JON! You bought this ring our first week together!” She shook her head and looked at him, trying to understand.

“Yeah, I did…” He ducked his head a little at that as she continued to stare at him.

“You said it was for your mother…that she loved this color!” She asked him as she remembered more of that night.

“I didn’t want you to know yet…it was never for my mother…” He captured her with his eyes.

“It was always for you.”

His voice was soft as he told her this and he watched as her eyes suddenly filled with tears.

“Jon, don’t say things like that. You don’t have to make things up.” She grimaced a little with these words and he moved his hand to her chin, turning her face to his.

“I’m not making anything up. I got this for you. I had this feeling, that we were going to be together for a long time. It’s just that my long time is forever.”

His eyes met hers and she saw the naked sincerity in them. It’s always in his eyes, she thought again.

“You mean that, don’t you?” She asked him wonderingly.

“Yes,” his nod of agreement was sure, “I mean it.”

She looked from her hand to his face and the beauty she saw there eclipsed anything fashioned by man.

Slowly his smile engulfed her as he pulled her into his arms and shared their first kiss as an engaged couple.

~~~

Standing in the shower a while later, Amanda let the warm water run over her body. Jon had showered quickly and gone down to make coffee. She had asked for a few minutes and after giving her a kiss he left. Amanda washed her hair, grinning as the ring caught in her hair and she had to untangle it. She kept looking at it as she bathed, smiling at her hand, until a thought hit her and she suddenly clutched the ring to her chest.

Holy shit! A million five! On my hand! MY hand! She moved rather numbly after that, finishing her shower by rote, drying and dressing without conscious thought. Grabbing a sweater, she moved to the stairs, clasping her left hand in her right. I have almost two million dollars on my HAND! She went down the stairs and through the living room, moving toward the kitchen and a much-needed cup of coffee. She blinked when she entered the kitchen as Jon turned in the chair to see her. Seemingly without a glance at him, she went to the coffee pot and poured a cup, grabbing the cream, and sitting with a plop at the table.

Taking a sip of the coffee, she turned slightly startled eyes to Jon. He raised his eyebrows quizzically at her expression.

“What’s the matter, baby?” He asked with a smile in his voice.

She actually took a breath to tell him and then suddenly a tremendous blush overtook her as she realized how juvenile she would sound.

“I…uh…I think I really needed some coffee this morning…” She finished rather lamely as she tried to turn his interest from her near faux pas of a moment ago.

He cocked a half grin at her and she wasn’t sure she had gotten away with it, but he didn’t pursue it and in a few moments she shot him a genuine smile.

“I’m a little overwhelmed here…” her smile widened as he grinned at her. She held out her hand, emphasizing the ring.

“This is…so beautiful…it’s amazing…but…” she stopped as he frowned suddenly and shook his head at her.

“No ‘buts’, understand?” His voice was low and he looked at her intently.

“I know what it cost, I bought it, remember? I got it for you and it’s not too much, so stop thinking that, okay?” He took her hand then, holding her eyes with his.

She nodded, but her eyes were still unsure. Grinning crookedly, she shook her head.

“Please tell me you have it insured?”

Jon again threw his head back and laughed.

A small chuckle broke through as she spoke again. “Why do I think this is gonna get crazy?”

He laughed even harder, throwing his arms out wide.