Chapter 90

Jon punched in the access code on his phone to call his wife. 

Lexie jumped when her cell rang in her hand.

“Okay Jon, tell me what happened?”  Lexie asked as she took a deep breath to calm herself.

“Well, Stephanie went to spend the weekend with Dorothea, and I decided to.”  He was telling her what had happen, when she broke in.

“Stephanie went to spend the weekend with Dorothea?  You mean she isn’t there to help you guys this weekend?” Lexie asked almost in a panic.

“We’re fine, Jesse is here and so is Hellen, We got this covered.”  Jon reassured Lexie.  “As I was saying, I took Snowball to the dog park, instead of being at the townhouse when Dorothea got here to pick up Steph.  We got to the park, and I let Snow off the leash.”

“Jon, we never take her off the leash.”  Lexie rolled her eyes and sighed.  Somewhere in the pit of her stomach, she knew she should have stayed home instead of being here. What could go wrong Jon had said, he would have Steph to help him, if he got in over his head. Go have fun, your fans haven’t seen you since the trio was born.  How stupid was she to believe that she could go away for a week, seven whole days and nothing would go wrong.

“I didn’t know that, I figured she would do her business and we’d be back home in five minutes.”  Jon said as he sat at his desk looking at the pictures lined up on top of his desk.  “I didn’t think she would get knocked up the first time I take her to the dog park.”

“I know, I should’ve told you how she is off the leash.  At the river house, we could let her off the leash and she would be fine.  You’ll have to call the vet, he may just say to wait and see.  We could be worrying over nothing.”  Lexie said as she leaned on the headboard of the huge king sized bed.  Sighing she kicked off her shoes.  She was going to kick herself for asking, but she had to know why Stephanie was not home.  “Did Dorothea get in contact with Stephanie?”

“She called my cell to talk about graduation and wanted to know if Stephanie could come for the weekend.”  Jon said feeling that he dodged the Snowball and puppies bullet, only to step on a landmine that was his ex-wife and daughter debacle.

“So you let her go.”  Lexie said.  He never could deny his kids anything.

“It’s only two days, Hellen is here and Jesse and I can handle the trio.” Jon tried to reassure her.  “She be home Sunday and everything will be fine.”  He gave it his best try.  “So how has the set up gone?”  He changed the subject.

“Robbie and I got a great space, we missed Stephanie not being here to help.  We got all the grab bags set up and all the freebies out. I know what you just did, aren’t you ashamed trying to change the subject.”  She had to laugh in spite of herself.

Jon chuckled a little.

“Never could put anything over on you.”  Jon leaned back in his chair.  “Unless it was me over your naked body.” 

“Oh, now you’re going to talk dirty to ME over the phone?”  Lexie laughed.  When Jon was over in Europe, she would talk dirty to him.  Every night, after the show, they would talk to the wee hours in the morning.  She would make sure the On Stage stress was gone so he could sleep.

“Well, since we’re on the same time zone and I have six kids to see to bed, how about I call you after they go to sleep?”  Jon asked.

“Well, since you put it that way, and I do have to be up early for a breakfast with the writers, can we put it off till tomorrow night?”  She told Jon.

“Ah, that was a direct shot.”  Jon grunted and let his head fall down to the back on the chair.  “Shot down on my first attempt to get my wife hot and bothered in her hotel room.

Lexie nearly fell off the bed laughing.  Then she got a knock on her door.

“Hey Lex, you just got an invitation to drinks and dinner from your idols, Sandra Brown and Nora Roberts.  You wanted to me to remind you.”  Robbie told her from the other side of his door.

“Ah, sorry Babe, work calls.”  Lexie told Jon.  “Going out with the girls and that means talking shop then,” she sighed, “Try to go to bed without a story plotline running through my head.”

“Ok Hon, have fun with the girls and try not to get too drunk.”  Jon laughed.  “Remember a hung over writer, with thousands of hyper fans, doesn’t make Lexie a happy camper.”

“I won’t get drunk.  I never get drunk.”  Lexie slid off the bed and went to the closet to pull out a dinner dress.  God that means hose and heels.  “Nora will pump me about the kids and Sandra will want to know what you’re up to, she has such a crush on you.”

Robbie knocked on the door again.

“I’m getting dressed, Rob.”  Lexie yelled from the walk in closet.  “Kiss the trio and I will check in on then later.  Tell the boys to help you, oh Jon, don’t forget you have a doctor’s appointment Monday, going for the zero swimmers.”

“It’s flagged on the calendar, I’ll call you when I get the news.” Jon said.  “Love you.” He said as he hung up.

“Love you more.”  Lexie said as she hung up.

Going back down to check on the boys and then to the nursery to see the trio.  Baths, bottles and then singing with daddy, he had Hellen put all three in his arms.  This gave Hellen long enough to clean the bathroom and take a load to the laundry.

“What song shall we do tonight ladies, Cull?  Something from Disney, little South Side, or one of daddy’s songs?”  He set the rocker to rock. 

Livie and Maddie yawned and jabbered something and Cull chewed on his first and garbled something like Pooh.  Jon began singing the Winnie the Pooh song softly. 

Jon rocked and sang till Hellen came back in.  Hellen walked toward the rocker and got her feet tangled in a toy that was left on the floor and began to fall.  Jon couldn’t do anything to stop her fall, they both heard a bone or two snap as she hit the rocker and the floor.  Jesse head the ruckus and ran in.  By the time the ambulance showed up and took Hellen to be checked out, Jon and Jesse got the trio to bed and Jacob and Romeo to bed.  Jon headed to the hospital and waited to see what was broken and when Hellen would be back to work.

Jon came back into the house alone and wondered how he was going to make a week while Hellen recouped from a broken foot and a broken arm.  He had to call the agency for a backup. Maybe his mom could come and help.  There was no way he would tell Lexie that Hellen would be out of work for up to six weeks.

On the ride home on Sunday Dorothea and Stephanie were pulling off the highway headed toward the townhouse.

“It’s really been nice having you with us this weekend Stephie.” Dorothea told her daughter.

They had spent most of Friday night sitting up talking about graduation, and the college’s she had visited with Jon and Lexie.  Graham’s daughter was heading to NYU, so she could still stay home and ride the Path into the city.

“Yeah it was nice to get out of the house for the weekend.”  Stephanie agreed with her mom.  She had been hinting all weekend that Sarah, Graham’s daughter, and Steph should be closer. After all, she was her step sister.  A step sister that smoked pot and was starting to use harder stuff. In her head she heard he father saying the rules are the same.  It was hard to resist, Mom didn’t care, what was wrong with a little pot? 

“You know Stephie, you’re more than welcome to visit more often.  Maybe bring your brothers for a visit?”  Dorothea said as the car got close to townhouse.

There it was, her mom wanted her to spend more time with her.  She would start college in August, she would be up checking on dorm space in a few weeks.  Her summer was already planned, with the family vacation, now her mom wanted her to spend some time with them.  How was she going to tell her dad and Lexie, that her mom was actually wanting to be her mom again?