Chapter 15 - Hoping It Would Never End

 

 

 

She felt a sigh of relief when the plane tires hit the runway, she was home.  Putting away her ear buds and preparing to get off the plane, she grabbed her phone to see what time it was.  It was 7pm.  She runs through her mind what she needed to do before she headed back to the vineyard.  She needs to get a few groceries, but other than that - that was all she had to do.

While she waited for her car, she quickly text Jon, I'm home.  She drops her phone back in her purse and gets into her car.  It was a beautiful night, so she decided to put the top down.  She missed being home and she was only gone for 2 nights.  Her drive home was uneventful and once she hit the vineyard property, she felt relief all over.  She's back where she wants to be, where she needs to be and where she belongs.

After she brought everything in the house, she put away the few groceries that she stopped and bought.  She was anxious to see what happened with her vineyard while she was gone.  With a bottle of water, she set off to walk the vineyard and check in on the staff.

Jon dropped Beth off at JFK and headed right back to New Jersey.  The kids were with Dorothea so he decides to take advantage of them being gone and reaches out to a friend for some help in packing his house.  There are things that hired hands can't touch.  He's sitting on the couch in the great room and he looks around.  Reaching for his cell phone, he calls David.  He knows that Dave will come and give him a hand.

"Hey."  David says, answering the call from his boss.  "What's up?  How did it go today?'

"It's over.  She's locked up for a very long time." Jon informs his friend, needing Dave as a friend.

"Are you and Beth out celebrating?" David asks Jon.

"She's back in California by now."  Jon tells him, "She left on the first plane out of here."

David can't believe what he had just heard, "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, she wouldn't even let me fly her home.  She flew commercially."

"Man, I am so sorry."  David feels bad for Jon.  He knows that Jon was looking forward to her coming to the hearing, neither of them thought that she would leave so soon.  "Did she see the kids?"

"Stephanie."

"Did you two talk?"

Jon sighs, resting his head in his hand, "For a little while last night."

"That's it?" David asks, hoping that there was more of an exchange between them than what Jon is telling him.  Dave can hear something in his voice.  "Did you spend any time together?"

"We spent Tuesday night together." Jon confesses, but not really confessing.  What happened between them happened in the morning, not the night time.

"How was that?  How did she act?"  David is kind of prying, wanting to know how it went with them.

"Drunk.  She was drunk."

"Beth?!?!?  Beth was drunk?" David really can't believe what he just heard, "Are you talking about our Beth?"

"Yeah, she was so drunk, she slapped me." Jon tells him, a little embarrassed.  "Hey, I called to see if you would come over and help me pack up some stuff, are you busy?"

David has no idea that Jon bought a new house, has no idea that his current house is on the market.  "Help you pack what to go where?"

"I bought a house across the river and I need some help with the irreplaceable stuff.  I don't want movers touching it."

"Yeah man , no problem.  What kind of stuff are we talking?  Should I bring the twins?"

"I need help with McKenna's nursery and the stuff out in the Shoe Inn."  He stands up and stretches, David can hear him yawn.  "No kids.  Mine are gone."

"Let me make sure everything is okay here, and I'll be right over." His trusted friend and employee tells him.

"Thanks!"

"Just remember that I'm coming over in the middle of the night to do this.  My old ass should be in bed."  David laughs and the line went dead.  Jon looks at his phone and sees that he missed a text message from Beth.  The one that said I'm home.  He quickly responded with I Love You.  He tucks his phone into his back pocket and goes on about his business. 

 

He flips all the lines on in the driveway and walks out to the Shoe Inn.  He looks all around and what needs to be packed and feels slightly overwhelmed.  He walks into the engineer room and sees that he still has tape on the reel.  He turns it on and listens to Thick As Thieves, when he originally recorded it.  It hit him pretty hard, he remembers what was going on in their life the day that he recorded it.  It's much different than the version that they just released on the What About Now album that they were gearing up to tour for.  Beth was much of his inspiration on the last couple of albums, Beth and all the girls.  He plays it a second time and it makes him get a little chocked up.  He can't believe that the love that they had then was gone.  The life they planned together was thrown off track so far that it isn't even recognizable.  What did I do wrong? he asks himself.

 

It didn't take David too long to get to Jon's house.  As he pulled down the driveway, he see that there are lights on in the studio.  That's where he heads.  As he walks up he can hear Jon's version of Thick As Thieves, he pauses to listen. He loves what he hears, so much he busts in the room and tells Jon, "We should have released that instead of the one that was released.  This is beyond amazing.  I can hear your turmoil and your heartache."

 

"This came from a solid and frightening time in my life." he slams his fist down on the console, "God damn it, I love her so much."

 

"Did you tell her?"  Dave asks him, "If you love her, you gotta tell her, Jon."

 

"She knows I do.  She knows that I want nothing more for her to be back here with me and the kids."

 

"But did you tell her?"

 

"Not this time.  She was in a hurry to get back to LA."

 

"And you let her go?"

 

"I can only handle so much rejection, I can only be told no so many times.  I think I really have to let her go."

 

"DON'T!" David states very loudly, "You two clearly belong together.  The love that we see when we look at you, makes us all jealous."

 

Jon paces and paces the control room.  "We have been through the worse thing that a parent could go through.  She had to relive her rape yesterday - Jesus, we never get a break."

 

"Go to her.  Get on the plane and go get her."

 

"No.  Can we stop talking about it?"

 

"Sure." David agrees, "Where should we start?  With all the awards or the pictures?"