Chapter 70 - She's A Mystery

Jon could have predicted this, he knew something like this was coming.  He could see that she was getting restless and needing more.  She's a hard one to keep down. 

But he thought that he would have more time, that they would have a breather before all hell breaks lose and life has to get back to some type of a schedule.  "I wish you would have talked to me about this before you did it."

"Why?" she asks, having never asked permission to do anything before.  "I seen that it was too good of a deal to pass up."

"Ok, maybe - but Beth, the timing is all off."

"Meaning?"

"The kids schedule is going to start getting hectic and I have a million things scheduled." 

Beth turns around in front of him, "Will you take her out please?"  Beth asks him, wanting to take a few minutes and just sit down.  "I think she might want to eat."  Jon obediently unfastens Brianna and slides her out of the backpack that's strapped on Beth.  Beth turns around and retrieves her daughter, sitting on a park bench, lifting her shirt.  Once Brianna latches, Beth looks up at Jon, "Do you want me to take him out, he's sound asleep?"

"No.  He's fine.  I like him hanging around."  Jon smiles down at her, "Can we get back to the vineyard discussion?"

"Yeah, yeah."  She smiles up at him, "It's gorgeous, Jon.  You'll love it." turning her attention back to her daughter.

"Beth, we really don't have time for it."

"Who doesn't?  You?  The kids?"  she starts to pat Brianna, gentle little love pats on her butt as she nurses, "I have all the time in the world, Jon."

"How do you figure?  You have them, and the other 4.  Our new house, you still oversee the vineyard in California, you're busy with the foundation and then there's the firm in the city.  Do I really need to go on?"

She nods her head, "Please do.  Because they all have key people in place and practically take care of themselves."

"What about the kids?" he snaps at her, knowing how all of this is going to go down.  They went through it not too long ago.  She immersed herself into her work, leaving McKenna with Jon most of the time.  That's a time in Beth's life that she wishes she could go back and get a do over.  Not only for the time that she missed with McKenna, but going back in time, would bring McKenna back. 

Jon watches a look wash over her face that he hasn't seen in a very long time.  He can see the fragmented Beth that left so many bad memories in California and he can see the new Beth that struggles with the many demons, "The kids need YOU now, more than ever."

"They don't need me anymore than they did yesterday, Jon and please don't use them as a tool to get your way.  You know that I'm capable of running everything from right here."

"When will you have time for me?" he asks, sitting next to her on the bench. They can hear the waves lapping up on the shore behind them and they can hear voices in the distance.  Beth looks at him out of the corner of her eye, "When will you and I have time?  As it is, you're up late because of vineyard business due to the time change."

"Rarely." she defends herself.  Gloria and Tony are running it just fine and doing a great job at making her wine, their wine a household name.  Jon just doesn't pay attention to her business that closely.  "I might stay up late one or two night a week."

"That's one or two too many Beth.  You have key people in place, remember.  There is no need for you to stay up late to deal with wine business. You have Gloria and my brother."

"I like doing it Jon."

"Okay, fine." he stands up, seeing that she has an answer for everything, "You do this, and when I see that the kids, the house or we are suffering - I'm putting an end to it."

"Bullshit."  Beth says to him as she repositions Brianna.  "Who do you think you are?  Like you have any control over what I do."

He stops right in front of her, "That right there is what I'm talking about.  How could you do this without coming to me first?"

"I do it the same way in which you release and album and schedule a tour.  It's your job, it's what you do.  And this is my job."

"A vineyard is not a job." as fast as it fell out of his mouth, he wishes he could take it back.  He wishes he never uttered those words, they will come back and bite him in the ass.

"Oh really?" was her reply, as she tucked her self back into her bra and started to burp Brianna.  "It's not a job, huh?"  She stands when she is ready and starts to walk toward the water. "I get that you think it's not a job because I don't get paid what you do, but I love doing it."

"You know what I mean, Beth." he steps in line next to her, Spencer still sound asleep on daddy's back. 

She looks to her left and gives him a look, a look that tells him that she's a little put off by his attitude, "Need I remind you that you my dear, are the one that's responsible for this vineyard obsession of mine."

"How's that?" he can't put it together, he's quite miffed that she may have just spent millions of dollars and she didn't bat an eye, or talk to him about it.  In his mind, he is in no way connected to that.

She laughs as she walks into his space, "It was you, all those years ago that bought that little struggling vineyard in Napa - for ME.  Do you see how you started it?"

"Had I known this would happen, I never would have bought it back then." he winks at her, and waits for her to smile, but the smile doesn't come. 

They are standing on the shore, shoulder to shoulder.  Beth has Brianna in her arms and Jon still has Jon Spencer strapped onto his back in the backpack, Beth is looking out over the water, watching the waves hit the shore, "I enjoy being a vintner Jon. More than I enjoy playing with people's money.  Trying to get the right flavor, the right color while maintaining brand integrity is so challenging for me, I really love doing it." 

He slides his hand up her back and it rests on her shoulder, "I know you do and I hate to be an asshole like this, but at what point are our lives going to be enjoyable?  When are we going to start doing the family dinner and shit like that?"  He gives her a shoulder a squeeze, "I want normal Beth."

With a light chuckle, she throws her head back and says, "We will never know normal, you know that."

"Come on now." he wrinkles his forehead at her, "we can be normal."

"Why now?  Why do we have to be normal now?" she turns and walks up the shore toward their house, "Why do we have to be normal, and what is normal??"

Together, they walk up the shore, Jon reaches over and takes her hand, "I can define normal if you want me too."

She grins, "Please do."  She is right where she wants to be.  They have their perfect babies, in their perfect new home.  All of the kids are healthy and happy, Jon is in the middle of one of their best ever tours and she is embarking on a new adventure for herself.  She loves the man that is holding her right hand and when she looks at him, he still takes her breath away.  There are days when she looks at him and still pinches herself that she is with a man, that has her drive and ambition, he can match her wit for wit and often their strengths compliment one anothers.  She loves this man and the life that they have.  They finally have the life that they deserve, she should be happy and stop at that, and she knows it.

"Normal for me would be, coming home to you in nothing but your high heels and that gauze dress that you have, you know, that white one that shows your curves and looks amazing on you with a tan?"

"That is everything but normal." she winks at him, walking into him and kissing him.  He stops her with his lips on her forehead and takes Brianna from her.  "I got her."  He doesn't let that stop him.

Jon, holding his baby girl, kisses her nose and tells her that he loves her.  Brianna looks up at her daddy and smiles her Bongiovi smile, and that makes Beth smile.  "Babe, this is normal.  I want us raising these two, with the the boys and Steph.  I want us to eat dinner together at night, and hours BEFORE midnight.  I want to put the twins to bed and read them a story together.  I want to give them baths at night and when it's time for us to call it a day, I want us to do it together.  That is so RARE for us."

"Honey, I agree.  But we don't do all of that because of me and a vineyard."

"I know."

"So why do I have to concede and not do what I want to give me personal inner peace?" she asks him as they walk, hand in hand toward the house. 

"I just think it will be easier for your in the beginning.  I need to finish the tour and then I can start."

"What's really going on here Jon?  What are you trying to say?"  Beth can now see that there is something that she should be reading, between the lines, and she has to get it out of him. 

"I don't want the twins raised the way that Stephanie and the boys were." he finally admits.  "They have grown into wonderful children, but they are children of entitlement.  As are Brianna and Spencer, but I don't want nannies and housekeepers raising them."

"They're not."

"I know that they aren't, but if you take on an additional vineyard, that's what's going to happen."

"You don't know that, Jon.  They are old enough that they can go to the office with me a few days a week.  I'll have staff there anyway."

"Beth, I'm begging you.  Please don't do it."

She stops and looks him in the eye.  Their gaze is tight and they are locked in and it's right there that she sees it, she can see that he has just given her an ultimatum.  In the passive aggressive Bongiovi way.