Chapter 58 - Swimming In The Sand

All of the bags were packed and stacked by the door, waiting for Arrow car service.  The service that Jon uses all the time and usually has no problem with.  Until today.  He looks at the family, all huddled in the foyer, waiting for the car to take them to the Monmouth Executive Airport, where the Bongiovi jet was standing by. 

He turns his wrist and looks at the time, "They are never late."  Frustrated, he looks at Beth and says, "I'll be right back."  He leaves the clan and walks outside, thumbing through his contacts for the car service.  When he finds it, he makes the call and finds out that the car has a flat tire and they will be about another 30 minutes.  Jon found that unacceptable and demanded that they send another car right away.  The girl on the other end of the phone had no idea how to handle his level of anger, so she passively agreed to send another car and apologized.  Jon was furious.  Why did he have to call them, they should have called him the moment that the car he ordered was broken down and delayed.  To Jon, time is money and for every second that the jet sits on the runway waiting for them, it costs more money.

Back in the house he tells everyone what's going on, quickly losing the interest of the kids - who once they heard there was another delay bolted to the living room and started to play video games.  Stephanie and Pete hung back with Jon and Beth, helping with the twins.  Beth, who has Jon Spencer in her arms says, "I guess I could try to top them off while I have a few minutes."  She starts to walk to the living room, with baby in hand.  Pete follows with Brianna.

Jon and Stephanie each take a seat on the stairs of the grand staircase that leads to the second floor of the house.  Jon elbows Stephanie and asks, "How have you been, Rose?  You're pretty quiet."

She smiles at her dad, "I'm good dad, how have you been?"

"I couldn't be any better than I am right now." he admits to his daughter, and she knows what he means.

"How have the two of you been getting along?" Stephanie wonders, with school and her social life, she's been pretty busy and hasn't been home much.  She can see the happiness in her dads face, but it never hurts to ask.

Jon smiles back at her, "We have never gotten along this good.  It feels almost like a dream some days."

"No fighting?"

He shakes his head, "No, no fighting."

"So you're not mad at her anymore?" Stephanie inquires, knowing that her dad was very pissed at her for keeping her drunk driving arrest from him.

"I can't be mad at her for keeping promises to you, I can't be mad at her for hating the way we lived.  So no, I guess I'm not mad at her."

"Is she pissed at you?"

"I don't think so.  Not that I know of anyway.  Should she be?" he reaches over and swoops his daughter close, kissing the top of her head.  "I have nothing to be mad about.  I have all of you; your brothers and your sister.  I have Beth and we are starting a  brand new life together, it's pretty amazing, Rose."

"Don't fuck it up dad, okay.  We all love her and want her to stay, so please?"

Jon laughs at his eldest and assures her, "I will do everything within my power to keep her here, but I really don't think that she's going to go anywhere."  There is a ring of the doorbell, startling Jon and Stephanie.  "I guess our ride is here."  Jon stands to answer the door.

"Sorry for the delay."  Says the driver, dressed in black with a chauffer cap on.  "Can I grab your bags?"  Jon stands back, giving the young man room to grab the many suitcases and baby accessories that he can. 

When the driver left with his first arm full, the whole house could hear, "Jesse, Jacob."  Jon yelled for the boys to help with the bags.  When they all heard it, they stopped what they were doing and headed in the direction of the door.  Beth and Pete were right in line.  Jon Spencer was still latched, so that told Jon that they needed to wait a minute. 

The luggage is packed into the stretch limo and now they were waiting on the baby to finish eating.  Once he was done, everyone was safely fastened into their seats and they were on their way to the real first family vacation that they had. 

St. Bart's was a favorite of everyone's.  Even Stephanie had fun when she was there, although she would rather be somewhere where there was excitement and fashion.  But once they all got settled, with the help of Pete, they all met on the beach and hung out for the rest of the afternoon. 

Beth loved that they were ground floor, on the beach, not too far from the water.  She was able to lay the babies down and hear what was going on with baby monitors.  She decided as she planned this trip that she would use Pete as little as possible.  After all, she's more like a daughter to them than she is a nanny to the children.

Jon and Beth are laying on the beach, the twins are napping and the other kids are swimming.  They have body boards, paddle boards and a couple of jet skis.  So as far as kids in the Bahamas' go - the Bongiovi children are extremely happy and lucky.

Jon reaches over and puts his hand on Beth's butt and asks her, "Hey, are you mad at me for anything?"

"No, why?" she responds with a little bit of skepticism in her voice.

"Steph and I were talking and she asked me if I was still mad at you and when I told her that I wasn't, she asked if you were mad at me."

"Should I be?"  Beth hoists herself up on her elbows and looks over him, "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Laughing, he says, "No, Stephanie wondered how we were doing, I told her that we are doing better than we ever did before and that things are good.  She then questioned if I was still mad at you, and I assumed it was over the whole DUI thing.  When I told her that I wasn't, she asked if you were mad at me and if we fight.  That's all."

"So are you really wondering if I'm mad at you?" Beth asks, "what would I have to be mad about?"

"You tell me."

"I'm not mad, and I think you're right.  We are in a place that's far better than we ever have been before."

"I agree, and I think we needed that time apart just to see where we really wanted to be."

"It didn't hurt, that's for sure." she jokes with him, "I'm just glad that we are where we are and that we are better than ever."

Jon rolls on his side and kisses her, first just a peck and then a full on, almost dry humping kiss. She responds and that made things a little worse for Jon.  They both know that it can't go anywhere on the beach, it was just making out, but a certain body part of his begged to differ.  Seeing that made Beth laugh, and with that vision in her mind - she bites his chin, jumps up and says, "Last one in is a rotten egg."  And off she runs, leaving behind a perfectly good man with an equally awesome erection.  Looking back at him she tells him, "Think about golf, that will make it go away."

He lays there and watches his family play in the water until he can safely get up and join them.  And when he does, little Miss Beth is in his crosshairs.

The family plays together in the water for a few minutes, Jon or Beth needed to get out and listen for the twins.  Beth decided that she would, and she'd let Jon enjoy the kids. Up on shore, she dries off and walks in and peeks on the twins, both are still sound asleep.  She figures they will sleep for awhile, they were awake on the plane ride.  Once she's satisfied that they are okay, she takes her place back out on the beach - where Jon is laying with Romeo.

"Hey guys!" she says, smiling at them, "Done already?"

Romeo pipes up and says, "Dad threw me too hard, I got water up my nose."  He rubs his nose and Jon chuckles.

"I told him to plug his nose."

"I wasn't ready dad."  Romeo says with a little pot in his voice.

"Well, Romy usually when I count to 3 you know that I'm going to throw you."

Beth leans over and looks at Romeo's nose, "I don't see any damage, are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah." he states, giving his dad his version of the stink eye.

Jon holds up his hands, "I'm sorry bud, I won't throw you anymore."

Just then Jacob yells, "Romeo, come on - we're going to snorkel."  Romeo is up off the towel, leaving Jon and Beth in the sand.  They watch the 4 kids head down shore to go snorkeling at the cove. 

Beth looks at Jon, "You really are blessed."

Jon looks at Beth, "Beyond words, I know."

"They are all healthy and happy for the most part.  They are wonderful thoughtful children that will go far in life."

He winks at her, "Thank you."

"I'm serious.  It matters how they are raised and that's why it's important to me to have you in Spencer and Brianna's life."

Jon laughs and points down the shore, "That isn't me.  That's their mom and you, not me.  I take credit for their great looks and their confidence, but the behavior and the character part - well, that all you and Dot.  More you than her, though."

"I disagree.  I see a lot of you in all four of them, more so in Jesse and Jacob."

Jon starts to rub her foot with his and it startles her at first, "I see a lot of you in Stephanie and when you were gone, it drove me crazy."

Beth giggles at that, "What do you see in Stephanie that reminds you of me?"  She starts to rub his foot with hers, and she takes note of the dragon tattoo again.  The tattoo that reminds her of the ugly times in her life, but she treats it as a reminder that love does conquer all, even dragons.

"Sometimes it's just the way that she might move her hand, or the way that she says a certain word.  She never liked shopping until you and now she can never get enough.  She cuts her sandwich like you do and she'll only drink peach tea now.  All of that, she learned from you."

"It could be worse."

"Sometimes it is." he admits, "Sometimes it drives me crazy."

"Like what?"

Jon sits up, brushes the sand off of his hands and starts to tell a story.  "Well, do you remember that gas station on 35 that always has gas 10 cents higher than the one directly across the street?"

"Yeah."

"Well, we pulled in there one day and there was what appeared to be a homeless man sitting outside of the restroom."

"Okay."

"We were getting gas, there was no need for her to get out of the Cadillac, but she felt compelled too."

"What did she do?"

"Being very much like you, she walks up to the man, in broad day light and reads his sign.  It said something about being hungry."

"And?" Beth is trying to get him to get to the point, but he loves to tell stories, especially about his children.

"I at this point got out of the car and walked up to her and as I did I heard her tell the man, I'll take you inside and buy you whatever food you want, as much as you want - but I won't give you money, I'm afraid you wouldn't buy food with it and I want you to eat."

Beth is laughing at this point, she can see Stephanie doing this and it's even funnier because Beth has done it herself.  "What did the guy do?"

Jon laughs, "I needed to remind Stephanie that the Soul Kitchen was just a few blocks away, hoping that help her feel better, but she took him in the little C store and let him buy whatever he wanted."

"Get out, did she really?" Beth is amazed, yet not surprised by the actions of Stephanie.  All of the kids have a big hearts and are generous to a fault, that they get from their dad.

"Yeah, as much as he could carry, of course daddy had to pay for that - but that was such a Beth thing.  I'll feed you but I'm not giving you money, classic Beth Adams."

Beth smiled, that was a compliment..  "She's a good kid."

"Had you never entered her life, I don't think she would have the courage or the guts to do something like that."

"You never know." was all Beth needed to say.