Chapter 98 (OMG Its almost 100 Chapters long)

They were heading to the Jersey house today, the party would be this weekend with graduation on Monday.  Lexie and Hellen brought the trio down early.  They had unloaded the car, fed the trio and put them down for a nap.  

Lexie needed to go down to the apartments.  When Jon and Dorothea were in residence, they had apartments for the staff on site.  Dorothea and her family would stay out there.  Jon had given her the opportunity to redecorate the house and the apartments.  She had turned one into an office for herself.  Really it was the studio apartment attached to the recording studio, but she had updated the staff housing, bringing them up to date.  Dorothea didn’t mind staying on the property, and Lexie was just glad she wasn’t going to be in the main house.

She finished airing out the apartments and went to see if the wine and beer had been delivered and was chilling.  Matt had ordered it for the party and been here for the delivery. She loaded all the glasses into the dishwasher and got it started and headed back to the main house.

Her phone started to sing to her.  The boys had messed with her ring tone AGAIN, this month it played Welcome to the Jungle.  Last month it played the Adam’s Family song.

“Hey Jonny, have you left yet?”  Lexie stopped in the middle of the driveway and looked out at the river.  The tent people would be here later to put up the tent and the pool people would be here later to clean the pool.

“Waiting on the boys to get home.”  Jon said as he sat in the office.  “We’ll pick up little momma from the vet.”  Jon was the one who finally found out his little off the leash visit to the dog park had turned Snowball into a future mommy.

“Okay, I have to head to the grocery store, but everything is set for the weekend.”  She finally made it to the house and went in.  “Before I forget, we had the radio on in the car coming down and Bon Jovi came on and the kids woke up and giggled and Cullen screamed out Da Da.” 

“That’s my boy.”  Jon chuckled. “Happy they giggled instead of screaming and crying.”  He looked up as there was a knock on the door.  “Hang on Lex, think the boys are home, come on in.” He called to the closed door.  Romeo popped in followed by the rest of the kids.  “Boys are here, once I get them loaded well be on the way.”

“That Momma Lexie?” Romeo asked.

“Yes, you all need to get changed and pack up what else you need to take, so we can pick up Snowball and hit the roads.”  Jon told them as they all took a seat.

“Can we have Pizza and salad from Umberto’s for dinner?” Romeo called out.

“Yes Pizza and Salad.”  Jakey added.

“Garlic knots.”  Jesse called out.

“Diet Soda for me.”  Stephanie called out.

“Why don’t you call in the order and I’ll pick it up after I go to the store.”  Lexie told Jon.  He agreed to place the order after he left the vet.

Lexie grabbed her bag and told Hellen where she was going and pulled her beat up car out of the garage.  Her car looked like it might belong to a servant instead of the wife of a rock star.  It made her feel safe for her to drive around.  It was already on social media that they were in Jersey, and there were cars already driving by slow.  Matt’s security team would be there later to set up a check point at the gate.  She pulled out on River Road and headed to the store.

Grabbing a cart she started to walk the store.  She loved being down at the river house, no fans out on the sidewalk daily, and no sneaking out the back to walk Snow.  By the time she got halfway through the store, she wished she had brought the boys or even Stephanie, she had a full cart and needed another one.  She started to walk to the front and leave one cart and get another when she spotted Matt walking a few feet behind her.

“Are you my security?”  She passed off the cart to Matt.

“I’m just glad it’s just us.”  He took the cart and handed her the empty one.  “You do know, you can order online and just pick it up or have it delivered to the house?”  Matt told her as they headed to the baby area.

“I knew that they do it in the city but not in Rumson.”  She added snacks and toddler food to the cart.  Then moved to the chips and started tossing bags of cheese doodles, Frito’s and four different styles of chips and as an afterthought added dips.  She had to have extras because the kids would eat up all that the caterers’ will bring before the party will even begin.  By the time they made it to checkout Matt could barely push the cart. 

As they were checking out Matt scanned the rag mags and hit on the Star with Jon and Stephanie on the cover. Granted it was a postage stamp size picture but he tapped Lexie on the shoulder and pointed to it.

Lexie wanted the floor to open up, because even a little picture might set off Thomas.

Matt tossed one in the cart.   Then turned the others to face the back.  Getting the cars loaded they headed to pick up the order from Umbertos, and then headed home.  Hopefully Jon and the kids will be there to unload the two cars.

Pulling into the driveway she opened the garage door and the two cars pulled in.  Parking next to Jon’s car she texted his cell. Round up the kids to help with the groceries and pizza.  It wasn’t long till all four of the older kids were trooping out the door.

After dinner they got the kids down for movie and snacks, the adult sat out on the patio facing the river.

“Matt found a little shocker at the checkout.”  Lexie said sipping her water.

“Enquirer, Globe or Star?”  Jon groaned as he sipped his wine.

“No, Thomas is gonna have a field day.”  Desi said sitting next to Matt.

Matt got up and pulled the rag out of his back pocket.  Unfolding it, he handed it to Jon.   Lexie put her glass of water on the table and leaned on Jon shoulder and looked at the article.  It talked about stars kids going to college then brought up other stars kids and drugs, and of course Stephanie was front and center.

“IS it bad Jonny?”  Matty asked, he knew what his sister in law and brother was going through, Stephanie has been on a slippery slope.  He knew this one month grounding is just a short reprieve, he was afraid this incident was just the start.

“Not bad, it’s on the celebs and their kids heading off to college, it also touches on the pot issue, which I’m sure Thomas isn’t going to be too happy about.” Jon looked over at Lexie then to his brother.  “So, all in all it’s not bad, the picture is old, but there isn’t any of her pulling a Milly Cyrus.”

Lexie relaxed and leaned back, fingers crossed Thomas will skip over this and see the positive of the write up, who was I kidding, this was another nail in my coffin.

One by one the older kids headed off to bed, Lexie and Jon headed up to the nursery to check on the younger three, then head off to their bedroom.

Matt looked over at his wife.

“You’re quiet.”  He topped off there wine and corked the bottle.

“I’m worried about Lexie, this could ruin her.  Steph just doesn’t give a shit about anyone but Steph.”  Desi told her husband as the cuddled on the porch.

“I think you’re right, this freshman year is going to be an eye opener. Just hope they survive it as a family” Matt drained his glass.  His big brother was in for a rough ride.