Determination

by S. E. Rose

  “Jesse,” I say as I shake his hand.

  “Soooo…where’re Dad and Vanessa?” he asks looking around the quiet room.

  “Vanessa…had some things she needed to speak to your father about. They are in the study,” Elaine explains as she looks quickly over at me. I smile, deciding it best to play along with her game. If she doesn’t want to spill the beans, then neither will I.

  “Oh. Alright then. I guess I’ll grab a drink and turn the game on,” he says as he heads over to a wine fridge that’s under the kitchen island. He grabs a beer and turns to me. “You like baseball?”

  “Sure,” I say with a shrug. He motions for me to follow him, and I thank Elaine, leaving her to her thoughts and heading into a great room with a giant television.

  “Wow,” I say. The screen is nearly eighty inches.

  “Yeah, Dad…uh…well, he likes his sports and Mom likes her movies. I think this was an anniversary splurge for them last year.”

  “It’s nice.”

  Jackson nods.

  We settle into a comfortable silence as we watch Cleveland’s baseball team. About an hour into the game, I hear Vanessa in the kitchen speaking with her mother. I decide to leave them to it and about an hour later she walks into the family room. It’s almost eight, and I’m starving, but I decide not to say anything.

  “Dinner’s ready,” she says.

  Jackson and I get up just as Stan walks in and grins at the score of the game. “They’re up four then. Nice,” he says and walks back toward the kitchen. Elaine has prepared some type of chicken curry dish with rice and a side vegetable. It’s homey sitting around the table passing condiments and chatting. Vanessa’s eyes are rimmed in red, and I know it’s from her crying. Jackson gives her a sideways glance, and she just shakes her head at him. I have a feeling they’ll be having a conversation before the night is over. They ask me some questions about my family and work. I keep it somewhat general as I don’t know how much Vanessa wants them to know. I ask about them, and we converse about some recent current events. Stan and Elaine seem like loving parents, and they dote on their children and ask plenty of questions to all three of us. Pierce and Dean also join us, at Elaine’s insistence, but they are fairly quiet during the meal and then excuse themselves as soon as it is over.

  At nine, after the dishes have been cleared, Vanessa yawns. “I think I’ll turn in early, guys,” she says. “I’m exhausted.”

  “Goodnight, sweet pea,” Stan says as he gives her a hug and kiss and then Elaine gives her a hug as well.

  “I suppose I should call it a night as well,” I say to them. They both nod, and I shake Jackson’s hand again before heading upstairs.

  “In here,” Vanessa calls from a bedroom on my right. I enter it and smile immediately. It is a shrine to Vanessa’s teenage years. Posters of bands dot the walls like mismatched wallpaper, a four-poster bed and matching side table, desk, and dresser round out the remaining furniture. She has an oversized beanbag chair in an alcove next to some type of fuzzy hammock-style chair. There are some stuffed animals and trophies on the one built-in bookshelf. The room itself is painted a deep purple and the carpet is the cream color carpet that tends to be in the homes of this era. There are a few awards on a shelf from when she started to make it in the music industry.

  “The bed is only a full-sized bed. You’re more than welcome to sleep in Jackson’s old room if you want more space,” she says as she pulls some items out of her bag.

  “Would your parents mind if I slept in here?” I ask, not sure of how traditional of a family they are.

  She laughs. “No, you can sleep in here. My parents aren’t religious, and they aren’t old-fashioned. Hell, they lived together in sin for a good year before they got married. My mom’s parents practically disowned her over it, but of course by the time I rolled around they were well over that.”

  “Sounds like an interesting story.”

  “Oh, you know, the stuff of family lore.”

  I smile at her as I grab some items from my bag. She shows me to the bathroom, which is a Jack and Jill style that connects to her brother’s room. Apparently the other two bedrooms share another bathroom. “This is a big house,” I say as I brush my teeth and our eyes meet.

  I usher her into bed and turn out the light. The small confines of the bed have her curling up against me and I almost prefer it to a giant king-sized bed we have been sleeping in lately.

  “Sorry about earlier,” she whispers against my chest.

  “What about?”

  “You know…I sort of lost my shit when I saw my dad.”

  I squeeze her tightly. “It’s alright, mon étoile. I know you needed to speak with him. I can tell you two have a special bond.”

  “We do. I can’t explain it. He just gets me.”

  “I understand.” And I do because once upon a time, I had a dad, too.

  “What shall we do tomorrow?” I ask her.

  “I have a plan,” she says, and I feel her lips form a smile against my chest.

  “Sounds dangerous.”

  She laughs. “Trust me, compared to what we’ve dealt with lately, it’s definitely not dangerous.”

  I laugh and kiss the top of her head. “OK. Goodnight, mon étoile.”

  “Goodnight, Jesse,” she says before promptly falling asleep.

  Chapter 16

  Jesse’s Playlist: “Cecilia and the Satellite” by Andrew McMahon

  Vanessa throws open the curtains and sunshine pours into the room. I admit, I feel slightly silly sleeping in her old bed which has girly purple and lace bedding, but as the sun shines around her magnificent body, highlighting every curve and allowing me to see the shadow of her form even though she has on a large t-shirt, I’m pleased with my surroundings. I squint and sit up as she walks over to the bed.

  “Wake up,” she says and gives me a quick kiss. “You’ll need to be showered and dressed in thirty minutes.”

  She walks into the bathroom, and I hear the shower turn on. I follow her in and snake my arms around her. It’s a bath/shower combo and it’s not spacious, but that just works in my favor. I smile down at her as the water cascades over her hair.

  “So, what do you have up your sleeve today?”

  She smirks. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” I can tell she’s very pleased with herself because she’s grinning from ear to ear.

  “Alright, I’ll play along,” I say as we soap one another.

  “Good, because you don’t have a choice,” she says as she rinses off and steps out of the shower. I follow her.

  “What shall I wear?” I ask.

  “Something comfortable. We’ll be outside.”

  I grab a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and my dressier sneakers and am sitting on the bed when she comes out in a very similar outfit.

  I raise an eyebrow, and she just gives me a smile.

  “Well, this should be fun,” I lament. I hate surprises.

  We grab a quick breakfast. Stan leaves for work, and Elaine is tidying up as we head out with Pierce and Dean in tow. Vanessa hands Dean a sheet of paper, and he nods at her. We drive out to the highway and then slowly make our way south. Eventually, we get off at an exit that is surrounded by farms. We weave around on back country roads for some time until Dean pulls into a farm. I try to read the sign quickly, but don’t have time. When he stops, we all get out and Vanessa takes me by the hand up to a small stand. An Amish man is sitting on a horse and buggy, and I eye him up as I wait for her. She gets us all tickets and walks over to the man. We climb aboard the buggy, which is quite large.

  “What is all of this?” I ask her. She grins but doesn’t answer me as she hands me a bucket of some type of animal feed.

  She hands buckets to Dean and Pierce, who attempt to decline the offer, but she insists. Once we are seated, the man clicks the reins on the horses, and we start to move. A gate opens and then closes behind us. I look around and see that we are suddenly surrounded by animals, but not farm animals, we
ll not exactly. There’s a giraffe, a zonkey, yep, a zonkey, a llama, and a zebra. They all come up to us and Vanessa and the Amish man, who introduced himself as Josiah, show us how to feed the animals. We spend the next hour and a half feeding a whole assortment of animals from buffalo to cows. It actually is quite fun. Vanessa makes me take a number of photos of her with various animals. We take a selfie with a zonkey. The man lets me steer the buggy for a while and then we’re done. Vanessa grabs me by the hand and walks me over to a small petting zoo. She makes me hold a baby goat, so she can take a photo. Eventually, she beckons us back to the car.

  “Hungry?” she asks. I nod. We head to a small restaurant with amazing German food. Her parents meet up with us at this point, announcing they’ve taken a half-day in honor of our visit. This is followed by a horseback ride and a visit to a cheese factory and bakery. It’s an unexpected day. I would have never guessed what she had planned. By the end of the day, I admit, I’m exhausted, but almost pleased to see Vanessa looking so happy. Her parents take us and her brother out to her favorite Italian restaurant for dinner before we head back and pack up the car.

  I walk back toward Stan’s office when we get home and see he’s busy on a computer. He looks up and smiles at me and waves me inside.

  “Just a moment, I need to send this email,” he says. I nod and walk to the built-in shelves along the wall. I look at the photos that are neatly framed and sit scattered about amongst books and trinkets. They are mostly of his children. Then I see it, it’s a photo of the beach we both visited as children. Vanessa and Jackson are arm in arm in front of an ice cream shop on the boardwalk and not five feet away, I am standing along the railing with my sister looking out at the ocean.

  “No fucking way,” I murmur as I pick up the photo.

  “What’s that?” Stan asks.

  I turn and hold the photo up. “I’m in this photo.”

  Stan’s eyes widen, and he looks at it and shakes his head.

  I point to myself and my sister and explain. He smiles warmly. “Well, I’ll be damned. What are the odds?”

  “No kidding,” I say and place the photo back down.

  Stan pats me on the shoulder as we walk out of his office. “Take care of her, Jesse. She looks strong, but her shell is quite thin. She went through a lot as a kid and then going into that business, well, that and other things made her grow up too fast,” he says. Again, I wonder what she went through as a kid, but decide he likely means the pressures of being in a grown-up industry as a child.

  “Don’t be a stranger,” Elaine says hugging me as we get into the car to head back to the airport.

  Stan shakes my hand. “Thanks for bringing my girl here. She needed it.”

  I nod. “I’m glad I could make it happen, sir.”

  He laughs. “No sir, just Stan.”

  “It was a pleasure meeting you both,” I say as we get in the car, but not before Vanessa embraces each of her family members one last time. I can see how hard it is for them to be separated from each other.

  I turn to her in the car. “How’d you become a singer?” I ask. Her roots are so humble, and it doesn’t look like a place where a famous pop star would get her start. Although I’m not sure what a place like that might look like, I just know I didn’t expect this.

  She laughs. “I always sang. My parents figured that I might want lessons. They found a music professor from the local university to teach me. She saw my potential and had me enter some local contests, and by the time I was fifteen, I had my first record deal. It was really being in the right place at the right time. One of the contests drew the attention of a local radio station, the host happened to have a record exec with him that day, and he saw me and, well, the rest is music history, I suppose.”

  “Wow, fifteen is young,” I say to her. She shrugs.

  “I guess so. I spent a year or so making the album, so I was almost seventeen when it came out. It took a few months for it to hit the charts and by then I was halfway through with my senior year. I finished school and moved out to LA.”

  “So, no college?”

  She shook her head. “I did take some college courses, but no. I haven’t had time to finish my degree yet.”

  “What’s your degree in?” I ask, suddenly feeling like this is a first date. The fact that we don’t know that much about each other bothers me.

  “Biomechanical engineering,” she says quickly.

  “Wait, what?”

  She laughs and pokes my arm. “Gotcha,” she says with more laughter.

  I roll my eyes.

  “I finished most of my general education classes and scored high enough on my AP exams to have about twelve hours of college credit when I graduated from high school. So, I started to take some entertainment law classes and business classes and some music theory courses as well. The university I was taking online classes offered to help me make a multi-discipline degree in music business and theory.”

  “Wow, that’s actually very interesting,” I admit. “Way more interesting than all the tech and com classes I took.”

  She smiles. “You excited to see your family?” she asks as we head toward the airport.

  “Yep,” I say as we enter the back road to the private jet area. “It’ll be an interesting weekend, that’s for sure.” I’m curious what Vanessa will make of my boisterous, large, extended family.

  Our flight to Baltimore is short, and we make it in record time to the house on the Chesapeake that my sister has rented for the whole family. It’s near Annapolis and has a giant yacht tethered at the dock. I should have figured. My parents loved sailing and boating. My sister greets us at the front door a little after ten.

  “Oh good, you made it before Mom went to bed,” she says and gives me a look. I roll my eyes. She then turns to Vanessa and embraces her in a big hug. “Welcome, you must be Vanessa. It’s so nice to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you, too,” says Vanessa.

  Jack appears next and shakes my hand then kisses Vanessa’s cheek. I already texted my sister about our bodyguards, so she and Jack shake hands with them, and then send them up to a guest room they’ll be sharing. They mumble something about a perimeter check and I nod at them as they head off to do whatever bodyguard tasks need to be done. My mom comes downstairs and greets us next.

  “Oh, Jesse, I’m so glad you could make it,” she says. She extends a warm embrace to Vanessa. “I’m Eleanor, please call me Ellie. It’s so nice to meet you.”

  After the formalities of further introductions with my niece and nephew and a few other relatives, Jack pulls me aside. “We need to talk,” he says.

  I nod. “Now?” I ask. He shakes his head.

  “You and I can take a run tomorrow morning.”

  I nod my understanding and mingle for a few more minutes before I excuse Vanessa and me to go to bed.

  Our room is a beautiful en suite that faces the water. Apparently, the house has all en suites and six of them face the water. The youngest of the clan are in the front three bedrooms. It’s nice that we are all here together. It’s unusual we have time like this to be together and if everything wasn’t so crazy, I’d actually be looking forward to this weekend.

  My thoughts are momentarily interrupted by pounding on the door.

  “Uncle Jesse, Uncle Jesse,” I hear outside the door. Vanessa stifles a laugh as she walks out of the bathroom.

  “I think that’s for you,” she says with a grin.

  I open the door and am literally mauled down by three small children. They laugh and giggle and hug me.

  “Aren’t you three supposed to be in bed?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.

  The twins are a little over a year old, but they must have their dad’s genes because they are tall. They are also incredibly smart and are already talking up a storm, which my niece says is unusual for kids that aren’t quite two yet. And Leidy, while tiny, is a powerhouse. The giggles still as they realize I am not alone.

  “Rosa, Frankie, Leidy,
this is Vanessa,” I say.

  Vanessa gets down on a knee and shakes hands with all three kids. “Nice to meet you all. I’ve heard so much about you. Your uncle Jesse here is very excited to be seeing you,” she says. I grimace. I mentioned them in passing I think when we were in Moorea. “Why don’t we get you three back to bed before your mom and dad come to check on you?” she says and ushers them out the door and back down the hall.

  After corralling the kids in their room, she returns. “They are sweet,” she announces as she closes our door and locks it.

  “Sweet, huh?” I ask. “I can think of something that’s just as sweet.”

  “Oh really?” she asks innocently.

  I don’t give her time to consider this as I close the distance between us in seconds and am kissing her with such passion that she isn’t able to respond. I lift her in my arms and bring her to the bed. It’s a giant four-poster bed, and I think of all the dirty things that we could do with that bed. I pull Vanessa’s night shirt off and rip her panties and shorts off in another fluid movement.

  She lies completely naked on the bed, gazing at me with lust and something else that fails me at the moment because I’m too fixated on her beautiful body and the fact that I am allowed to look at her beautiful body. I strip off my clothes and crawl up on the bed so that I am kneeling between her legs which I have spread apart with my hands. Her face and chest blush as I do this, and it only makes my cock twitch at how someone so famous can be so shy at the same time.

  She suddenly sits up and bends over, taking me in her mouth before I can react, and I groan. Her mouth is warm and velvety, and she applies just the right amount of suction to make me want to burst, but I don’t want to come in her mouth. I give into the intense sensations she’s creating with her hand and tongue, letting myself go right to the edge before pulling myself from her mouth with a pop.

  She looks up at me through her lashes. She is so fucking beautiful. Those baby blues are going to be the death of me, I know it.

  “Lie down,” I say to her and she complies.

  I look down until my eyes reach the apex of her thighs. She is open for me, pink and glistening and I suddenly crave a taste of her sweetness. I lean down and run my tongue over her sex and up to her clit. She moans and thrusts her hips. I press down on her waist and hold her down while I sample my own private brand of dessert wine, Vanessa. She’s sweet like honey, but with a tinge of saltiness, and I could lap at her for hours. Maybe it’s my control issues, but I love going down on women. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good blowjob too, but the power I have over a woman when my tongue is against her most private parts is arousing all on its own.