Chapter 83

Stephanie took the last hit off the joint and handed it to Marco to finish it.  She reached into her bag and pulled out her bottle of Patchouli, she had learned early that it covered the smell of pot.  She pulled out her lip gloss that had a strong strawberry taste, applied it in a thick layer and licked her lips.  Her friends at the local school she went to in Redbank had taught her well. Thinking back they were the reason she ended up at Polly Prep, Hell that was like out of the frying pan and into the fire. She thought, as she headed back into the arena.  It was dangerous, but the thrill of sneaking around behind her father’s back, and Lexie wouldn’t say anything, she was still worried about the trio.

Lexie was standing at the craft table with a bottle of water and her cell watching her babies sitting in bonce chairs and watching a Disney movie.  The nanny was sitting on the floor with them, switching camera’s to make sure she wasn’t asleep.  Out of the corner of her eye she watched Stephanie walk into the green room.

“Hey Lexie, how are the trio doing?”  Stephanie asked as she grabbed a bottle of water.

“Watching a movie.  Did you have a nice visit?”  Lexie watched Stephanie take a sip of water.

Nearly choking on her sip of water, Stephanie looked up at her.

“Jesse told me you went out to visit some friends you have on the crew.”  Lexie said as she smiled and then put her phone in her small cross body handbag Stephanie told her she needed to bring.

“Yeah, we grew up around a lot of these guys, it’s like a family, ya know?”  She put the cap on her water.

“That’s great.  When do were go down to our seats?”  Lexie asked, sort of letting the subject die.  She could see she shocked Stephanie.  She would let her stew a little.

“Oh we don’t have seats, didn’t dad show you where we stand?”  Stephanie went over and leaned on the back of Jesse seat. 

“He did, just never stood for a concert.”  Lexie told Stephanie.  “Better make a pit stop then before we had down.”  Lexie gave her the excuse to leave, just wishing she could hear what went on while she left the room.  Wonder is I left my phone on to do a video if it would still record, Lexie thought as she reached into her bag and took out her phone and sent it to record a video and sat it where the kids couldn’t see it.  She headed to the bathroom.

Stephanie waited until till Lexie was out of the room.  She reached over and smacked Jesse in the back of the head.

“What the hell was that for?” Jesse jumped out of the chair and turned on his sister.  Then it hit him, he took a deep breath, patchouli.  Getting an evil smile on his face he laughed.  “You get caught doing something you weren’t supposed to be doing?”

“I don’t know.”  Stephanie said flopping down in his chair.

“You reek of Patchouli, Lexie wasn’t born yesterday, and she went to college.  You think she doesn’t know you were,” he remembered where he was and knew if Romeo heard what he said he would tattle to his dad.  “You know what I mean?”

“I don’t know if she will or not.  Maybe she didn’t see anything.” She held up crossed fingers.

Lexie made sure she flushed the toilet and made a production about washing her hands and coming out of the bathroom.  She smiled at the kids and headed over to the craft table and picked up a cookie, just as Jon came in the door followed by the band and Matt.  Lexie snatched up her phone and ended the recording.

“Hey our magic weapon is here.”  Richie said as he wrapped his arms around Lexie and spun her in the air.

“Hey Mook, I have told you a hundred times, get your hands off my wife.”  Jon yelled over Lexie’s giggles.

Richie put her down and David got his in, picking her up and spinning her around too.

“Lemma, not you too, get your own woman.”  Jon yelled again.

He gave Hugh and Tico the stink eye, they held up their hands and backed up.

David let her drop to her feet and Jon grabbed her hand and pulled her close.  Lexie slipped her phone into her back pocket, before she dropped it.  She really didn’t want to say anything until she knew what she was up against.

They spent time in the green room until Matt said it was time for Lexie and Stephanie to head down to the area they would stand in. 

They were walking down to the backstage area, just before they got to the pit area where the press stood, Stephanie took her hand and stopped her.

“We’ll be with you in a minute Uncle Matt.”  Stephanie told her uncle.  She turned to Lexie, “Are you going to tell daddy what you saw?”

Lexie thought on the answer, they had gotten closer since the wedding and the hospital stay, should she blow it now?

“You tell me, should I? I heard what he said about your graduation party.” Lexie sent the question back at her.

“It’s up to you, it was a slip up, they handed it to me, and I didn’t think a few hits would hurt.”  Stephanie said making it sound like so normal, a casual thing between friends.  “If I promise not to do it again, will you keep it between just us?”

“You mean the three of us, I assume Jesse knows?”  Lexie asked, knowing she had proof on her cell phone.

“Alright the three of us.”  Stephanie sighed.

“If you two don’t come on you’ll have to wait to go out.”  Matt walked back giving Lexie a questioning look.

“Be right there Matt, we’ll discuss this later Steph.”  Lexie told her, as once again they joined Matt. 

Matt left them near the side of the stage and took made his way back to walk Jon and the band.

Lexie was remembering what it looked like empty, turning she look up at the arena almost full, there were a few in the back still empty.  Several flashes caught her eye, they had been recognized. She looked over at Stephanie to see how she was reacting.  She just seemed to be ignoring it.  Lexie was used to being friendly with her fans, this was hard.

She didn’t have long to think before the lights went out and something was pushed into her hand.  Looking down she found a pair of earplugs.  Quickly cringing at the decibel the screams climbed to, she knew her husband was taking the stage.

She stood mesmerized by the way he strutted around the stage and hearing the screams grow, if that was possible, when he shook his ass for them.  She was so into the concert she never noticed Matt had joined them.  She jumped when he touched her shoulder and motioned for her to follow him.  Thinking that it was a short show she followed Matt, who walked her to the side of the stage. 

She stood there for a while, from this point, she could see almost see the back of the arena.  The audience was into the music and clapping, waving their arms and singing at the top of their lungs. 

All of a sudden the music changed to Bed of Roses.  She watched him close his eyes and sing, just like he did at their wedding reception. She was getting into the music, swaying and humming along.  Lord knows, she couldn’t sing, she could hardly carry a tune in a basket.  It wasn’t until he was standing in front of her, she watched him hold out his hand to her.  She reached out and placed her hand in his, just like she did when they were married.  Blanking out everything around them, they swayed to the music. All too soon he leaned her back and gave her a kiss and walked her off the stage back to Matt.

Matt took her hand and looked at Jon and mouthed green room, to which Jon nodded in agreement.  As they walked off, he headed back to center stage and finished the song.  He knew Matt would come back for Stephanie, so one song latter he gave an audible for I’ve Got the Girl.

“You know the good Lord blessed me with two more girls, we all evened up, till my new youngest son swung the balanced back to us men.”  He walked to the edge of the stage and sat down.  He knew she would get the hint, but she didn’t he put down the mic and motioned for her to come over.  Security helped her hop up to sit beside him.  Picking the mic back up he looked out at the audience, this was something he never did before.  “She’ll always be my baby girl, even when she’s older.”  The band started I’ve Got the Girl.

He sat there singing to Stephanie, at one point giving her the stink eye when he inhaled the scent of heavy patchouli.  He would have to be the bad guy when he got back to the hotel.  She had been warned.  All the while singing, he did a mental check and at the end of the song sang, “I’ve got the girls.” A picture flashed of Stephanie sitting in a rocker with Livie and Maddy.  It flashed just a second, but the screams were deafening.

Matt came back, just in time to help Stephanie jump down from the stage, after Jon gave her a peck on the cheek.

Lexie checked on the boys and then the trio, she headed to the bathroom to also listen to the recording.  She heard all she needed to, listening to Jesse and Stephanie talking.  Then she wondered if Jesse had sent her out to catch his sister.

When she came out, Stephanie had joined them.  It wasn’t long till Matt came to send them back to the limo, and onto the hotel. They had the whole floor for the band members, Jon had the presidential suite.  There was a center living room, with a mini kitchenette bar area, and two bedrooms.  She got the kids settled and came back to the bar and got out glasses and a bottle of wine, pulling out the opener and drawing the cork, she would let it breathe till Jon got here.  Going back to the fridge she got out her bottle of Pepsi.  She was about to turn on the television when the door opened and Jon walked in.

“Stephanie Rose, my room now.” Jon’s voice broke the silence in the room.  “I’ll need something stronger, is there jack in there?”  He was so pissed at his daughter to defy his rule and smoked pot.  Jon headed to his room and then came back to the door waiting on Stephanie to join him.

Chapter 82

Jon sat there stunned, that last bit of news came straight out of left field.  He was finishing his second glass of wine when Lexie came down.  He was lost in his thoughts and private demons. 

Lexie went over to the bar and pulled out of bottle of water and sat down on the sofa.

“Penny for your thoughts.”  Lexie asked as she sipped her water.

He didn’t know what to say, the problems with Stephanie started before Lexie ever came into his life.  He didn’t want to burden her with what they had been through.  The fact that Stephanie could be doing drugs again shocked him.  They had gone through this mess back when he and Doro split, and being tossed between parents, she let her friends talk her into smoking pot, pot had led to pain killers and other drugs.  They had gone through therapy as a whole family.  But after the divorce, he thought things were getting better.

“Just glad to be home.”  He sat the empty wine glass down.

“Glad you’re home too.”  She watched the shadows cross his face.

He got up from the chair and moved over to the sofa and sat beside her.  Pulling her into his lap he sighed.

“I have missed you so much.”  He leaned her back in his arms and set his lips to hers.   He lowered her till her back was to the sofa, his lips never left hers. His tongue plundered her mouth.  His hands worked the shirt up, groaning when he felt the front closure of her bra.  Freeing her lush breast, his thumbs pulled and pinched her nipples into begging points. Lexie arched her back at this assault on her body.  Lexie let Jon take what he wanted from her body.  There, in the family room, on the sofa he had her withering and sweating and moaning, screaming his name.

“Wow.”  Lexie finally said.  This was the first time they had made love since the trio was born.  “Maybe it’s true what they say.”  Looking up at her husband.

“What’s that Lex?”  Jon eased off her as their hearts went back to normal, and stood up.  Hell, they were still half dressed.  Her jeans and panties were around her ankles and her shirt was somewhere on the floor.  His shirt must have landed somewhere near hers and his jeans were around his hips. They had gone at it like randy teenagers. 

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” She sat up and watched him pull up his pants.  “That and the sex is off the chart.”

That caught him as funny.  He lost it when he saw her holding in the laughter.

“I love you Lex.”  Jon laughed.

“I love you too, Jon.” She joined in his laughter.

They interviewed four people for a nanny to the trio and to watch the older four.  They both agreed that Robbie’s friend would be the best. They had Helen sign contracts not to publish pictures of any of the kids.  The standard confidentiality contract, she would answer to Lexie, unless she broke the contract, than she would answer to Matt Bongiovi and the lawyer.

She would watch the trio, while Lexie and the older kids went to the Philly show, they sat up a daybed in the trio’s room, when she stayed overnight.

This was the first time Lexie had left the triplets and to spend the night away from them was going to be really hard.  Hell walking out the door of the townhome was torture.

“Mom, you have the nanny cam you can watch the trio from there.”  Stephanie said as they headed toward Philly. Randy had picked them up and loaded their bags and they were on the way.

Lexie sat back for the ride, but kept her cell in her hand.  Checking ever so often.

“Mom, is this your first time to see Daddy in concert?”  Stephanie asked looking up from her Ipad.

“My first time as his wife, but I have been to one concert.  He inspired me to make my main character in his likeness.” She laughed.  “I had been tossing around some ideas, my friend took me to the concert, and we sat near the stage.  The lights came on and I was like that’s him, he’s perfect.”  She remembered about pulling her friends arm out of the socket.  The girls around her were screaming Jon’s name and all she could think of was she had her Max.

“Well, Uncle Matt will give us our laminates and we can either stay in the dressing room or go out and sit in the secured area.”  Jesse told her.  “I usually keep up with those two,” He pointed to his brothers.  “Uncle Tony usually sets up the Wii for us.”

“We can go out and watch the concert.” Stephanie told her.

Jon stood on stage for sound check, he had been told that is family was on the road.  He didn’t rush the sound check, they had been hitting everything spot on, so they were due for a screw up.

“No broken strings tonight Rich, you better not snap one.” Jon yelled as he watched Richie do the lead in for Born To Be My Baby.

Richie rolled his eyes.

“You gonna jinx me Jon, haven’t broken one in three months.”  He stopped playing.

“Just have’m checked before tonight.”  Jon looked down at his teleprompter the words Breathe came up.  “And now we have heard from the peanut gallery.” 

Tico gave him a rim shot and David laughed.  Jon threw up his hands and walked off stage.

The car pulled into the arena parking lot and around to the artist entrance, Lexie’s heart raced a little faster.  They had not only made love on the sofa but twice before he had to leave for Philly, but it felt like she still needed more. 

Matt met them at the door.

“Hey Lex, now that you’re here maybe big brother will relax.”  Matt said as he handed her the laminate for her neck and the pass to go on her jean leg.

“Hey I did my best this morning.”  Lexie teased with her brother in law.

They followed Matt to the green room and he got the kids settled with the craft table and the video games.  He took Lexie to Jon’s dressing room.

Knocking she waited on him to answer the door.  It opened a little crack and a hand reached out and pulled her into the room

“Shhhhhh don’t tell my wife you’re here.”  He backed her to the closed door and put his lips to hers.  When they got their fill of each other he let her come into his room.  “Stan is gonna be mad at you,” Jon laughed. “He’s gonna have to really stretch me out tonight.”

Lexie licked her still tingling lips.  She watched him go over to the massage table.  Taking a deep breath she got that special smile when she watched her husband walk away.

“Hey, you were awfully limbered up last night, we left feet prints on the ceiling.”  She follows him to sit on the massage table and swings her feet.  “So this is your dressing room.”  She looked around.

“Yep” Jon said as he turned on the cool mist vaporizer, then went to the fridge and pulled out two mini bottles of water, and tossed her one.

“Kind of dark and plain.  Not what I expected.”  Lexie said as she sipped her water.  “I guess it’s relaxing, is that rosemary in that thing.” 

“Yeah it helps my voice.  Once I get stretched out I’ll show you the quick change room, it’s under the stage, and light and I have the picture David took of us and the kids on the steps and the one from our wedding.”  He sat beside her and took her hand in his.  “I’m glad you came.”

“Me too, this is my first concert as your wife.”  She admitted.  “I have to admit, there was only one.  I had this idea in my head to write an adult book, but I couldn’t grasp the male lead character. My friend had an extra ticket and you walked out of the stage, well Max had changed my world.”

“Then I’m glad I had a little part in your books, because Max sort of brought us together.”  He reached over and patted her knee. 

Stan finally can in and Lexie moved off the table and watched as Stan pulled Jon one way or the other, Pops and snaps came from Jon’s limbs.  When Stan was sure Jon was ready to take the stage he let him up from the table. 

“I might have some use for Stan, after a long writing challenge to go and untie my pretzel back.”  Lexie told Jon and Stan.

“I’ll be happy to pull out the kinks for you Mrs. Bongiovi.” Stan told Lexie, as he was packing up.

Jon wrapped his arms around Lexie from the back and gave Stan the stink eye.

“Keep your paws off my woman Stan, I don’t share my wife.”  Jon grabbed her hand and ushered her out of the room.  Laughing he took her to the stage.

Standing on the center of the stage, looking out to where the fans will be.  Lexie took a deep breath.

“You face this every night?  How far can you see when the lights are down and you’re in the spotlight.”  Lexie asked him.

Coming up behind her and putting his arms around her and put his chin on her shoulder.

“Not as far as I used to, that’s why in Wanted during seen a million faces, we throw on all the lights and let all the fans be seen.”  He told her quietly.  “I’ll be able to see you and Steph, Matt says you’ll be down here.”  He pointed to the area between the rail and the stage. “You’ll be with the press and the radio people.”

“I can’t wait.” She sighed.  Looking where she and Stephanie were going to be and the fans.  They haven’t been really supportive of her with Jon.  She had been told by Carol that even when Dot and Jon had been first married, Dot had received some death threats.  One fan even set fire to the fence at the house they had on Somerset.  She had an uneasy feeling.

“Hey Jon, we have a tour group coming in, you and Lexie, might want to head backstage.”  Came Matt’s voice came over the PA.

Jon touched his earpiece, “We’re going to quick change and then we’ll head to the green room.”

“Okay, just giving you two the heads up.”  Matt let them know.

“Come on, be careful on the steps.”  Jon took her hand and they headed to his quick change.  “Here it is.”

It looked like the inside of a tent with no roof.  It was in essence four curtains hung from the ceiling, there was an old makeup table and chair.  Blow dryers were plugged into a huge drop cord, on a little table sat an industrial coffee urn with hot tea and the mug that Romeo made for him in school.  There was a clothes rack with several shirts hung up. Their wedding picture and the one of the kids on the steps with the trio, were hung from along with the curtains.

“This is nice, how long do you have down here?”  Lexie asked him, making a circuit of the room,

“One song.”  He moved the brush over a little.  “Richie does his solo and I come down, blow the hair a little.” He checked to see if the blow drier was plugged in. “Holly helps me, her husband is a roadie.”

Lexie turned and watched him, wondering if he feels the same way she felt when he invaded her writing area? 

“We better head back before we’re stuck.”  Lexie went over and took his hand. 

By the time they got back to the green room, Jon had to go do an interview and Lexie went in search of Stephanie.  Jesse told her she was possibly outside with some of the roadies that she knew from past tours.  She followed Jesse’s directions and pulled up short when did see Stephanie, who was standing with a group of roadies.  One of the roadies passed her what to Lexie thought was a joint.  Backing up, Lexie headed back into the arena.  Should she tell Jon or wait until she can talk to Stephanie.  Her mind screamed give her the benefit of the doubt, but she remembered what Jon said the other day about her birthday party last year.  She knew what Pot smelled like from college, and she knew even if you don’t smoke it, you can get a contact high, and the smell lingers on your clothes. She was so torn.