Chapter 2

He arrived in Nashville about 3 hours later, but with the time change it was 2am early Saturday morning. Richie actually preferred to travel in the night so to keep away from paparazzi and too many crazed fans. He retrieved his bags and walked out of the airport. Expecting to catch a cab. He looked up and Brad was leaning against his car. “Hey brother” Richie said, surprised to see his friend. “It’s 2am, what the hell are you doing here?” Brad grabbed Richie and gave him a masculine hug with a lot of patting each other on the back. “Couldn’t let you take a cab and sleep in a hotel. Your doing me a huge favor. We are gonna hang out and have some fun.” Brad was saying while helping to load the bags in his car. During the ride back to Brad’s Ranch they talked about Richie’s solo album and who he had collaborated with. Brad had such a beautiful ranch, Richie had never seen before, he knew he’d have to wait till morning. Getting into the house with his luggage he was shown straight to his room. Brad asked if he was hungry and Richie said “I’m actually too exhausted to eat anything. Can we catch up tomorrow, bud? I’d really just like to crash, if you don’t mind?” Brad shook his head “Don’t mind at all. You need your beauty rest for tomorrow.” Richie held up his hand and stopped Brad “Tomorrow? What on Earth do you have planned for me then?” Brad was smiling and had a little trick up his sleeve, “This is a ranch dude, We get up and do work around here. I don’t just hire people, ya know? Besides I have a special friend coming by tomorrow to meet you.” Richie raised his eyebrows at him, “Special friend?” Brad gave a wicked laugh, slapped Richie a hard one on his back and told him to go to sleep. They would talk about it in the morning.
“Great” Richie said, “night brother”.

Richie woke up at 9am, stumbled to the bathroom to brush his teeth and get dressed. Throwing on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He could smell the coffee and couldn’t wait to get a cup. Walking up to the coffee pot he saw a note to head outside to the barn after his
coffee. Richie thought ‘what the fuck? I work with my brain and fingers, not manual farm labor’. He poured the coffee and looked up out the window. Something caught his eye and he stopped stirring his coffee. It was a woman, walking a horse. A beautiful woman at that. He felt guilty as he wasn’t sure if she was Brad’s lady. He would like to find out. He sat at the breakfast nook watching her. The way she walked, knelt down, her long flowing brown hair. Suddenly he heard the door slam and it was Brad. “Bout time you woke your city ass up! I have a woman here waiting to meet you!” Richie almost spit his coffee out, “WOMAN?” he said. “Yeah! That woman right there.” he pointed to the woman Richie had been admiring. Richie pointed to her and said “Th-that woman?” Brad laughed “yes, Sambora, THAT woman. You act like you’ve never seen a woman, but I know better” Richie smiled and asked “ who is she?” Brad answered, “ I know your not real familiar with country music, but she is well known. That woman, my friend, is Harley Stewart.” Richie said “No shit? THE Harley Stewart? She wants to meet me?” He asked, again, surprised. Brad nodded “ yes, she does!” Richie was kind of shocked at the prospect, but intrigued. He knew of her alright. Beautiful woman he actually hadn’t heard her sing but knew she was America’s country music sweetheart. He also knew her husband had died a few years ago to Cancer. This visit to Brad’s may prove to be very interesting, he thought. Richie ran up to get himself together.