Chapter 91

“I’ll let you know mommy.” Stephanie told her mom.  She would have to talk to her brothers, but she already knew what Jesse would say.

As they pulled up to the townhouse, Stephanie was glad that for once there were no paps out front.  She gave her mom a hug and thanked Graham for the great weekend.  Getting out she grabbed her overnight bag from the back. Standing there on the sidewalk and waving as her mom and stepdad pull away, she sighed.  It was good, the sitting up late and talking, then shopping with her mom and stepsister.  Graham had cooked burgers on the back grill and some of her step sister and step brother’s friends came over.  Of course there was pot at the cookout, and of course the Dad rules kept screaming in her mind.  But once her mom and Graham had gone to bed the pot flowed freely. She did her best, but failed.

She used her key and entered a noisy messy house.  There were take-out food bags all over the normally neat as a pin living room.  There was also a smell, it was a mix of poopie diapers and something she had a hard time identifying.  She turned off the TV downstairs and the rushed to her room and dropping off her overnight bag in her room and hurried to the Trios room. Walking into the room, she found where the poopie smell came from.  She found her dad, in the same clothes he wore on Friday when she left.  Jesse and Jakey were there, each holding a crying triplet and a bottle.

“What the hell happened while I was gone?”  Stephanie asked the three older males.  Going over to her dad she took Livie out of his arms.  “Hey big girl, what’s wrong with my sissy?”  She took her over to the changer.  Making sure her diaper was okay, she noticed a red bottom.  “Ut oh, is that what Livie’s crying about?”  She proceeded to take off the diaper and reached for the cream for diaper rash.  Livie sniffed and stopped crying, rubbing her eyes and yawning.  One down two to go, putting Livie in her swing she moved to her other sister.  If Livie had diaper rash, them the other two had to have it.  Taking her from Jesse she took her to the changer, to find the same thing wrong with her bottom.  “Oh Mad, what happened while I was gone.”  Maddie looked up at her big sister and sniffed.  Soon she was yawning and rubbing her eyes like Livie.  Joining her sister in the swings, two happy babies one more to go.  Soon the swings were filled with happy babies.

Once she bagged up the diaper pail, which was over flowing, she took the monitor and the garbage and went to find her dad. Snowball met her at the bottom of the stairs, “They ignore you too Snow?”  She headed toward the kitchen and filled Snows water and food bowls and then went to the kitchen and added an overflowing garbage bag to the one she brought down from the trio’s room.  Grabbing an empty trash bag she picked up the living room.  When she headed back upstairs she was tired and wished she had a joint that her step sister had in her stash.  Her father’s light was showing under the door.  She went over and tapped lightly on the door.

“Come on in.”  He father called out.

Going in she noticed he had showered and had on his workout clothes,

“Going for a run?”  She sat in the chair near the desk

“I thought about it, I’ve been on trio duty.  Hellen fell over a toy on the floor and broke her arm, and I think a foot or leg, three days later and who knows how many hours later it all runs together.”  Jon leaned back in his chair and stretched.  “I called a nanny service and I have someone coming to help until Lexie gets back.  Hellen won’t lose her job while she can’t work.” 

“Why didn’t you call and ask me to come back?”  Stephanie asked.  Not that she wouldn’t have, but she really had a great time.  “Lexie won’t like just someone from a service.  You never know who we might end up with.”

“To tell you the truth, I started to Saturday morning.  By the time I got home, the trio were up and needed to be fed.  Livie doesn’t like oatmeal, or pea’s, I don’t think the stain will come out of my old Pat’s tee shirt.” Jon remembered trying to feed them breakfast. “Uncle Matty did the interview and it’s only short term.  Mom and Dad went to Florida, or she would be here.  She was all for coming home, but dad put his foot down.”

“Tell me you didn’t serve them peas for breakfast?”  Stephanie tried not to laugh.  “Livie likes pears with her oatmeal, you have to mush it all up together.”  She told her father.  That was the one thing about the trio she will miss, once she goes off to college, breakfast with the trio.  “Peas are not liked by any of the trio, unless you give them the whole pea’s to play with.  Green is not their favorite color, they’ll be on whole foods when I head off to college, seems like just yesterday they were born.” 

Jon wanted to ask her about her weekend, but he was too tired.  Tomorrow night, he would be in a better frame of mind and the nanny will be here by lunch.    He still wanted to call Lexie, before it was too late.

“Yeah, I guess I missed a lot of the first months of their time home.  I didn’t even know Livie liked pears in her oatmeal.”  He sighed, he missed most of his older kid’s lives. He tried to stay home toward the end of his marriage, but the fighting and her seeing Graham before they were divorced made it worse.

“Dad, don’t beat yourself up, you’ve been on tour, and it’s your job.  I used to hate you being gone, but I can’t see you being like the other dads.  I can’t see you working in an office.”  She had to admit, they wouldn’t be where they were today, Poly Prep, townhouse and the house on the river, if he worked like Graham.  Seeing her mom as just a housewife had been eye opening.  Granted she has a much smaller house, but she was happy, she remember what it was like before the divorce and remarriage.

“That’s what Jesse said, I guess I must have done something right.”  Jon smiled.  “You better get to bed, you have school tomorrow and I want to call your,” he stopped before he called Lexie her mom.  “I want to call Lexie.”

“I am tired, I have the monitor.” She caught what he about to say.  She didn’t feel bad, yeah she felt closer to Lexie, but she would never replace her mom.

“Thanks sweetie.”  He watched her leave, he knew he should have asked her about the weekend.  In the back of his mind, he was scared of what she would say.

Lifting his phone he dialed in the number. He wasn’t looking forward to this call, she would want to come home on the first available flight or the Jovi plane, and he didn’t want her to cut her time with her fans short.

“I wondered when you were going to call.” Lexie told him.

“Steph just got home and saved my bacon.”  Jon explained.  “The three older Bongiovi men handled this.”

“You should’ve called me, Robbie heard from Helen.”  She scolded him.  “I’ll come home on the next flight.”

“That’s why I didn’t call, you deserve this time, and like I said we handled this set back” Jon leaned back, every muscle in his body was screaming.  “Matt got a replacement, only until Helen gets back on her feet.”

“Jon, I interviewed fourteen applicants before I got Helen, do you think Matt can do this in two days?” Lexie tossed her name badge in her carry on.

“He did it in one day, he only interviewed one woman.”  Jon started to say before Lexie jumped in.

“One day, he only interviewed one woman, oh my God, I can’t believe he did this to our trio.”  Lexie was close to tears.

“Calm down sweetheart, I approved her too.”  Jon tried to explain.

“First your ex has been inching her way back into this family and now you hire someone in one day?”  She sank down on the bed.

“Let’s agree this is not a time we need Dorothea to try some of her junk right now, but it’s not going to last.  Something or someone will screw it up, or she’ll get bored playing at mommy and disappear for a while.  But Matt and I agreed that this lady will be best answer to our problem, we just hired Desie.”  Truth be told it was Desiree idea to help out for the next six weeks as their kids were with Grandma Carol and Gramppy John, for a few weeks in Miami.”  Jon told Lexie.

“You rat, why didn’t you tell me it was Desie watching the kids?  Her I would trust with babysitting you.” Lexie laughed.  She was mad the way Jon teased her, but it was what she said about Dorothea that bothered her.

“So, you think after graduation she’ll go back into the woodwork?”  Lexie asked him.  “I don’t think she’ll be happy until the boys visit, I don’t trust her as far as I can throw her.

Jon had to agree with Lexie, he didn’t trust his ex-wife either. Lexie, was like him in so many ways, when it came to trust. In her business as in his, you had to keep one eye open for the fans that were a little bit off their meds.

“Yeah, I think she will.”  He sighed and looked at the photos again.  Was he sure she would lose interest in the kids after Steph graduated or was this just the first of many interruptions in their lives?  Jon fought a yawn, he had little to no sleep since Friday.  “Not to change the subject, but don’t you two leave in the morning for the next convention?”  He yawned really big.

“Subject changed, awe honey you sound tired, we can talk tomorrow night, and you need to be at the urologist for your swimmer count.”  Lexie pulled out her planner and looked at all the dates and times, a different color for each kid.  Her calendar looked like one of the trio got a hold of it and colored all over it.  “Robbie and I will be heading to Nashville for three days, then on to Cleveland to finish up.  We want to do the Hall and then home.   Maybe the Jovi Jet to bring us home?”  She looked at all the new luggage she had bought to bring home gifts from fans for the kids and him.  Fifty dollars a bag was not an option this trip, not with Nashville and the boots she was planning to buy or Cleveland.

“Jet will be there and waiting.”  Jon laughed.  “Love ya Lex, can’t wait for you to get home.”

“Love you too, rock star.”  Lexie giggled.

Jon hung up and went to check on all his kids, the light was still on under Stephanie door, he tapped and told her to get some sleep.  Hearing a mumbled “okay dad”, he headed to his bed.

Jesse waited until his father went to bed to head to Stephanie’s room.  He taps the door and walked in, he found his sister in bed reading her math book.

“I guess you had fun this weekend, while dad and I were knee deep in toddlers.”  He said as he sat in the chair by the desk.

“Yeah, Mom, Sara and I went shopping, then Graham cooked out, they had some friends come over and we partied.”  She put the marker in her book and closed it.  “Momma wants you guys to visit, I told her I would ask you to give her a chance.”

“Maybe the little bro’s will, but not me.  So you they had a party, was it Columbian or Jamaican?”  He asked.  He would never darken his mother and stepfathers door ever again.  One trip to juvie was enough for him.  He saw the shocked look on his sister’s face, he knew she would never turn down a chance to smoke a joint or two.

“Home grown, Sara’s boyfriend grows it at his grandparents farm, says the corn makes it better.”  She laughed.

Jesse just shook his head.  “One of these days, you’re gonna go too far and it might not be so much fun to go against dad.”  Jesse stopped at the door.

“You smoked pot too.”  Stephanie sat up and leaned toward her brother.

“Smoked as in the past, don’t like what it did to my body, I want to make the football team in college and drugs are not an option at Notre Dame.”  Jesse told her in a harsh whisper.

“You really think you’ll make the team, a freshman, at Notre Dame?  You must be smoking something stronger than weed little brother.”  Stephanie laughed.

“We’ll see Steph, we’ll see.” He walked out on her laughing.