Chapter 62

“Do you what?” Jon was stunned. Okay, so Stephanie seemed to have calmed down from the instant hate, but now she wanted to play brothers and sisters with Jay? Seriously?

“I-I-I mean……” Steph stuttered her way into an explanation. God, what? He thinks I want to suddenly embrace the whole ‘I have a big brother’ thing? Puhleeze. A big brother who, until an hour ago, I thought was the hottest thing on the planet? That I wanted to…….uhh yeah, sure dad. She felt a wash of near-nausea as it sank in again that the guy she’d been lusting for since the first day she saw him at Wachovia, the hot guy she’d teased her school friends about, that she had more of a chance than they did, because of who her dad was……..that same hot guy was her brother! Okay, half brother, but still a blood relative. Just…….ewwwwwww!!

Jon could see the flickering emotions on her face, and he had a fairly accurate idea of what she was thinking. Not that he’d be the one to raise the subject - not exactly daddy-daughter stuff, discussing which guys she found attractive. At least not this daddy and daughter. He’d have been happy to do what Richie had always teased - put her into the nearest, best secured convent he could find. Anything to keep his little girl. But wasn’t that a sentiment common to every decent father?

“I meant, are you going to make some kind of public announcement? That he’s your…..son?” Steph’s eyes studied her dad’s face. “You are, aren’t you? You’re going to do it before that guy who hurt Jay’s mom gets the chance to do it. So he can’t use that to try to get attention off what he did.”

Jon looked at his teenaged daughter with a new respect. Sure he knew perfectly well she was growing up - hell, it was hard to miss as she grew more beautiful and womanly every day - but this was the first time he’d realised, or understood, that she was growing up so fast mentally, too. Perhaps it was a side-effect of having a famous parent, that some of the childhood innocence was stripped away. Or perhaps it was down to her exposure to the media from the ‘other’ side, through her internship at the magazine. Either way, his daughter had a good handle on how things could be ‘spun’ in the media, and she’d caught onto his intention within about a nanosecond. Hell, she’d figured it out faster than Jon had made the decision.

“I was intending to, yes.” He replied carefully, watching for her reaction, not really surprised when she just nodded.

“I don’t like it, dad. I don’t like that you did this to mom, even if it was twenty years ago. I don’t like that we only got told because you were afraid of it hitting the papers.”

“Hey! Not true.” Jon protested. That stung. “I told you now because the last thing I wanted was for you to find out from the papers, or the TV. I wanted to be able to explain it to you and your brothers.” He sighed. “I did a great job of that, huh?”

There really wasn’t much Stephanie could say to that.


Jay had been in the hospital room for a few minutes, and Richie was starting to get antsy. Not that Billie was his responsibility or anything, but dammit he considered her a friend and wanted to know how she was. He supposed it was a good thing that Jay hadn’t been kicked straight back out by some protective nurse, and there was that call from Kadie when she’d said Billie was okay, but……..the stubborn streak in him was possibly only surpassed by the one that ran through Jon. And clearly also through Jay. Reaching a decision, Richie pushed himself away from the wall he leaned on and walked over to the door, knocking gently before pushing it open.

“Hey.” He murmured, not wanting to disturb Billie if she was asleep, looking for Jay. “How’s she……wow!”

He pushed the door wider, astonished to see Billie sitting almost upright, her color good and a smile on her lips.

“Richie!” She grinned more broadly, holding out a hand. Clearly, now that the physical side was improving, the feisty cowgirl was coming back to the fore.

“Well, shit!” He swung the door closed behind him, advancing across the room to the bed, seeing the happy grin on Jay’s face, too. “Talk about a fast recovery!”

He leaned over the bed, hugging her carefully, and Billie reached her arms as far as she could around his broad body, rubbing her palms on his back.

“Thank you.” She whispered.

“For what?” Richie drew back, frowning slightly in confusion.

“For……..for finding me? For helping me?” Her voice dropped. “For saving me, from what Doctor Riviello has said.”

“If I hadn’t let you go……..this wouldn’t have even happened.” He said, voicing what had been niggling at the back of his brain since he found her bleeding. His wandering thoughts were interrupted by Jay’s voice.

“Hey! Richie, you saved her. And as for ‘letting her go’?” He chuckled, his eyes playful as he looked at his mom. “Have you ever tried to stop my mom doing something?”

“Hey!” It was Billie’s turn, stretching a hand toward her laughing son. “Get over here so I can smack you!”

“No way!” Jay chuckled, and Richie finally joined in the laughter, his feelings of guilt eased now that he’d made himself say it.

“Coward.” Richie smirked, moving back from the bed. “But I don’t blame you!”

“Ganging up on me already?” Billie groused, but her eyes were sparkling. “Guess I’m officially getting better then - the teasing has started again.”

“Hey, they don’t tease……..” Jay began, and she finished it for him.

“…..they don’t love. I know.” She grinned at Richie. “As you can see, I raised him to be very respectful of his elders.”

“Ahhh………so that’s why he keeps hitting people?” Richie laughed. “First Jon, then Fabian.” He managed to imbue the name with his utter disgust.

“Yeah, well, the first I can sort of understand.” Billie said. “And the second I downright applaud.”

“Hear hear.” Richie echoed softly.