Chapter 109

Once they’d finished lunch, Richie offered to give Linda a quick tour of the arena before soundcheck, and before they left the room he grabbed a pass for her, ensuring she’d have no trouble getting into all areas of the backstage. He gently placed the lanyard around her neck and flipped her hair out from underneath it, then grinned and gave her a gentle kiss, leading her out of the room. The tour didn’t really take long, and they finished up back at the stage just as the other guys were climbing the short flight of steps to start soundcheck.

“Okay, girl, I gotta do some work I guess. Do you wanna sit in on this, or do you want to go see if your friends are outside?”

“I’ll sit in, if it’s okay. I don’t want to get in the way.”

“You won’t be in the way, Linda, but it will get pretty boring. Grab a seat, though.”

He gave her another swift kiss as she took a seat, then he bounded up onto the stage to get started. Truth be told, soundcheck wasn’t too exciting to watch, but Linda enjoyed seeing them just working. Once before, on a fan club trip, she’d been at soundcheck, and she could see now that the guys were different when there was an audience for soundcheck. This time, though - while they didn’t exactly ignore her - it was more relaxed, though there was the odd moment of tension when something just wasn’t right. She’d always seen Jon as pretty much of a perfectionist, but she was slightly more surprised to see how insistent Richie was that his guitars be absolutely perfect.

The stage setup was pretty simple, much more basic than she’d seen on the tour, but there were still a couple of tiny fan pits on either side of the stage, and she wondered if any of her friends had managed to get wristbands. As usual, of course, the stage was backed with the huge screen, so that all the crowd could get a good view of the show, but at the moment the screen was dark.


Sara sat in the back of the limo, the divider between her and the driver closed this time, mainly because she was using the journey time - and the spacious car - as an opportunity to change into some of her new underwear and a new top. The jeans she’d worn to travel would just have to do for the moment. She had been going to wear one of her new t shirts, with yet another slogan, but she remembered that Jon’s wife, or ex-wife-to-be, and kids would be there, so maybe this wasn’t the time for her usual style of shirt. Instead, she wore a fine black tunic with silvery white embroidery around the jebellah neckline. The top managed to be both sexy and demure, plus it was perfect to wear with her new black underwear, so Sara was pretty happy.

Her excitement to see Jon was warring with the nerves over meeting the other guys and, more importantly, meeting Jon’s family. She brushed out her hair as the driver announced they were just arriving at the venue, then she threw all her junk back into her bag and zipped it closed. A quick spray of perfume and she was ready to go.

The limo pulled through into the parking area and stopped, the driver quickly coming around to open Sara’s door. She caught his quick double-take when he realised she had different clothes on, and she just thanked him and headed for the door he indicated.


During soundcheck, Jon usually left his cellphone lying at the foot of Tico’s kit, because he’d found from experience that the phone interfered with the mic. He’d still hear it - or at least somebody would - if it rang. They reached the end of their final run-through of one song and Jon hopped down off the stool he was sitting on.

“Back in a minute.” He said, and as he walked backstage, he heard Richie yell something about ‘you shoulda gone before we started!’, and he laughed but kept going.

Tico was having some issues with the pitch on one of his drums, and kept drumming as he spoke to his tech, trying to get it right, and that was probably why nobody heard Jon’s phone ring, since it still sat beside the drums.


Standing in the corridor, Sara couldn’t believe it when Jon’s phone went onto voicemail. The security guard who was blocking her way smirked, about to send her away, when she thought quickly and dialled another number. This time she got an answer, as Richie pulled his phone from the pocket of his jeans, flipping it open with a surprised look when he saw the name.

“Hello? Sara?”

“Hi - yeah, it’s me. Is Jon there? He didn’t pick up.”

“He’s around somewhere - he went to the bathroom. What’s up, girl? You haven’t been delayed again?”

“Sort of.” She laughed, glad she’d managed to get hold of one of them. “I’m here, but since I don’t have a pass……….I can’t get past security!”

“Shit! I guess Jon forgot about that. Where are you?”

“I just came in from the car, and I’m just inside the building. Not really sure where.”

“I know where. Gimme a couple of minutes.”

Hanging up, Richie looked around, but there was no sign of Jon. He quickly propped his guitar on a stand and jumped down off the stage, jogging off to the side as everybody - Linda included - looked confused. Richie headed down the corridor, past the dressing room and on toward the entry door. As he looked ahead, he could see the security guard standing theatrically blocking the corridor, and he shook his head at the guy’s attitude. Beyond the uniform, he could see a pair of denim-clad legs which were pretty familiar, and he slowed to a walk as he approached the guard from behind.

“Is there a problem?” He asked the guard, not waiting for an answer as he brushed past to hug Sara. “Hey girl, good to see you.”

“You, too, Richie.” Sara squeezed her arms around his waist as he almost lifted her right off her feet, then he released her again and turned to the guard, who looked embarrassed.

“Sorry, Mr Sambora. She didn’t have a pass, so I couldn’t let her in.”

“I don’t have a pass, either.” Richie pointed out.

“Yeah, but I know who you are.”

“It’s okay, Richie. He’s just doing his job.” Sara said quietly, and the guard smiled at her now, stepping aside politely.

“Thank you, miss. I’m sorry I had to hold you back.”

Richie led Sara along the corridor, taking her bag from her hand and dropping it off in the dressing room as they passed. As he came out of the room, he saw her tugging at her top, smoothing it down, and he grinned.

“Sara - you look beautiful. Jon’s gonna flip when he sees you. In fact, I’ve got an idea.”


Out in the arena, Jon had come back to the stage to find Richie missing, and nobody had a clue where he’d gone.

“He took a call, then just left.” Dave said with a shrug, and Jon looked out to the audience area, seeing Linda still sitting there, looking just as bewildered as everybody else.

“Where the hell is he?” Jon asked nobody in particular, heading toward Tico to get his phone, to call Richie. Just before he reached the phone, though, he heard Dave yell.

“Richie! Where’d you go?”

Richie was climbing back up the stairs at the front of the stage, and Jon turned to face him, spinning away from the drums.

“Sorry, I had to go collect something.” Richie said, with a slight grin that Jon didn’t understand.

“What the hell could be so important that you disappeared in the middle of soundcheck?”

Jon was standing off to the side of the stage, facing Richie, and wondering why the grin was getting even broader. Unseen by Jon, Sara had come onto the stage from the back, as directed by Richie, and she walked softly to the front of the stage, hopping up on the stool behind the white mic stand. Dave and Tico looked at her, then at Richie, understanding now why he was grinning, and waiting for Jon’s reaction.

“Well, it’s not all that important to me. I actually went to get something that arrived for you, Jon.”

“What?!”

Richie didn’t answer, just nodded over Jon’s shoulder, and he turned his head to see Sara perched up on his stool, smiling at him.

“Hi.” She said softly, and even from the side of the stage, Jon saw a tear break from the corner of her eye, trickling slowly down her cheek.

He wasn’t even conscious of moving, but the next thing Jon knew he was standing by the stool with Sara wrapped tightly in his arms, feeling her arms around his waist, squeezing like she’d never let go. After a long hug, not even caring that the rest of the guys were watching, Jon brought his hands up to the sides of Sara’s face, looking into her teary eyes before kissing her, trying hard to keep himself under control, not to give the guys too much of a show, and not wanting to embarrass Sara too badly. From the way she kissed him back, it didn’t seem like she cared who was watching, and he closed his eyes as he relished the taste of her mouth for the first time in what seemed like months.

Richie watched with a grin, then turned to wave to Linda, beckoning her to come up on stage. Tico, Dave and Hugh came across, too, then Richie spoke, laughing.

“Jesus, you two! Get a room!”

Sara giggled as she broke away from Jon, wiping her tears away, then quickly swiping her fingers over Jon’s cheek, brushing away the single tear that had spilled over his lashes. Jon pulled her from the stool, holding tightly to her left hand, and turned to face the guys.

“As you probably gathered,” he said with a grin, “this is Sara. Sara - Richie you already know - Tico, Dave, Hugh.” He gestured at the three guys in turn, and she gave a shy smile.

“Nice to meet you all.”

Tico stepped forward first, but instead of taking Sara’s hand, he gave her a gentle hug and a kiss on the cheek, which set the tone for the other two guys, who followed his example. Richie waited patiently, then grinned at Sara as he tugged on Linda’s hand.

“Sara - this is Linda. Linda - Sara.”

“It’s great to meet you, Linda.” Sara grinned, moving away from Jon to hug the other woman. “Richie hasn’t talked about much else since he met you!”

“Nice to meet you, too.” Linda smiled as she stepped back again. “Although I think a few of my friends will hate you on principle.”

“What? Why?” Sara didn’t understand.

“They’re huge fans, and you’ve broken their hearts because you’re with Jon.” Linda explained, and Sara flushed.

“Oh.” Was all she said, then noticed Dave look at his watch. Jon caught the action, too, and nodded.

“Ladies, can you excuse us? We’ve got a bit more work to do.” He caught Sara’s hand and pulled her close for another soft kiss. “Baby - you can stay up here, or go down to sit with Linda. Should only be another fifteen minutes or so.”

“I’ll probably go down, but later.” She said with the tiniest smirk that only Jon saw, and he felt it all the way down into his belly because of the words it accompanied. “But right now I need to find some coffee. It’s been a long day already, baby.”

“You and your coffee. Yeah - there’s some along in the dressing room.”

“I could do with a drink, too.” Linda said to her. “Why don’t we both go along?”

“Great.” Sara smiled, liking Linda a lot already, and Jon gave her a final quick kiss.

“Okay - we’ll be along as soon as we’re finished, girls. Sara - you may even find chocolate cake along there.”

Her eyes lit up at that, and Jon grinned as she and Linda left, heading to the dressing room.