Snowball Epelouge

Lexie sat at the antique vanity that she and Jon had shipped back from England on their twentieth wedding anniversary. They had been scouting out locations for her next book and had come across a Victorian bedroom set and had fallen in love with it.  Inky lay curled up on the pillow at the head of the bed.  They had installed steps for him and his mother before she had crossed over the rainbow bridge.  Snowballs death had been a crushing blow to the whole family.  They had taken her out to the cabin for Christmas and on the way home she went peacefully on her princess pillow that the girls had all chipped in and bought her.

Stephanie had gotten married and presented them with their first grandchild, a daughter, Addison Rose.  Stephanie and her husband Stephen, lived in their old townhouse.  Jon and Lexie gave it to them as a wedding gift.  Since it was just the two of them, they had moved back into the house by the river in Rumson.

Jesse and Sally got married during his senior year at Notre Dame, and Jesse was playing for the New England Patriots. They had given Lexie and Jon their second grandchild not long after he signed his NFL contract.  The little boy, Carter John, was named after both grandfathers.

Jake had followed in his father’s footsteps with a band of his own.  He had married a girl he had met in high school, just like his dad.  Jake and Hannah, were living on the road, with an apartment in LA and New York City, in the same building as Stephanie and Stephen.  His band was playing at the new Stone Pony that his father had bought and renovated with his Godfather Southside Johnny.

Romeo was a senior in business management and was working for his brother’s band, the way his uncle Matty had done for years for his father.  He was not married, as he was either at school or on the road.  Not that he didn’t have his own share of groupies.

The trio had split off into three different directions going to college.  Maddy was in culinary school in Saint Gimignano, Italy.  She wanted to open her first Italian Restaurant in New York City by the time she was twenty five.  Olivia had been bitten by the acting bug while on the set of her mother’s movie written about a private investigator, which stared her daddy. She had attended acting at NYU and got her first part on a soap opera.  Cullen had surprised them all when he entered the military.  He was stationed in Greece, and was dating a sweet young girl who made sure he was fed good Greek food, one of twins, she and Cullen made a cute couple, and they would be home for Christmas at the cabin.

Bon Jovi had finally retired, and only got together for reunion shows at the Stone Pony.  Jon had a recurring movie role in all the sequels to Lexie books that turned into movies.  Even with silver hair, the fans still loved him.

They had moved into the cabin when Bon Jovi left the road, but when Jon had bought the Stone Pony they had moved back into the River house and only used the cabin for family get togather’s during the holidays. 

Tonight was Jon and Lexie’s twenty fifth wedding anniversary.  Almost all of the family were coming to the party.  The bedrooms were full with family, even some of the band had made it to town.  Jake and Hannah were staying out in the apartment where the studio was, and Romeo was in the bedroom at the guest house.  She finished her makeup and putting on her jewelry. First the gold paw print necklace with Snowballs ashes in them that she only took off to shower.  The diamond earrings and necklace that had been her bride’s jewelry when they had first gotten married.  Jon was in his closet grumbling about wearing his tie.  Kenneth Cole had sent them both clothes to wear at their silver wedding anniversary, tie included.

“Ken knows I hate to wear a tie,” Jon said as he came out of the closet. Tossing the jacket over the foot of the solid oak canopy bed.  He would much rather spend the rest of the day in that bed than attend the party. Lexie watched him in the mirror as he struggled with the tie.  As always he took her breath away, he was still as handsome as he was the day she first saw him leaning on the bar in the kitchen of the cabin.

“Come here and let me tie it.”  She got up off the bench and turned reaching for the tie.

“I have a better idea, let me get you out of that gorgeous dress, and we can climb into that bed over there and see if I can still make you scream my name?”  He gave her that smoldering look that made her shiver with pleasure.

“If we weren’t supposed to be at a party in our honor, with almost all of our family attending, I would’ve never let you out and you would be screaming my name.”  She took the tie and made quick work of tying his tie and slipping the knot up slowly.  “We can use this tie later, those Victorians must have loved tying their mates to this bed.”  They had found out once they got it home that one of the spindles in the middle of the headboard was perfect for just that thing. They had christened it in just that way the first night.   She gave him a kiss that held promise for later that night.

The bedroom door creaked open slowly and two little heads sneaked around the door.  Carter and Addy Rose peeked in on their grandparents.

“Day kissing again.”  Addy Rose whispered none too softly.

“Day aldways do dat.” Carter informed his cousin.

“We like to always do this.”  Lexie told her two grandchildren.

That brought the two running into the room and grabbing them around the legs.  Both dressed for bed, as the nanny would be watching them.  They had a tea party out on the lawn for the kids today, mini wedding cake and punch.

“You look bootifull Gammie.”  Addy Rose said.

“Yes she does.”  Picking up both grandkids and sitting them on the bed, Jon let them watch their grandparents finish getting ready.

 Putting on his jacket he went and stood behind Lexie, looking at them both in the mirror.  Where was David Bergman when they needed him?  As if by mental magic David had come by to take pictures for them. He caught them standing like that after Stephanie had noticed them and went and got him.  This would make a perfect addition to the family wall downstairs.

“I found them Jesse,” she yelled. “You two slipped away from Callie, and she has been looking for you two.  Its story time!”  Stephanie said as she sat between them on the bed.

“Gammie looks so bootifull.”  Addy whispered to her mom.

“She sure does. And Grampie looks handsome. A tie Mom? You got him to wear a tie?”  Steph laughed at the stink eye she got from her dad.

Jesse came to the door.

“Limo just got here, are you two finally ready to leave?”  He too sat on the bed beside his son watching his mother and father finish getting ready.

We’ll be down by the time you get those two in bed.”  Jon told his son.

After goodnight kisses and a reapplication of lipstick they headed down to the front door.

Reaching into his jacket pocket he pulled out a velvet box and handed it to Lexie.  Inside was an eternity band of sparkling diamonds.  Lexie gasped as he placed it on her finger, next to her wedding rings.

“Here’s to twenty five of the best years of my life with the woman who still makes me scream her name. We’ve had some bumps along the way, but I’m so happy that I found you in that kitchen twenty five years ago.”  Jon pulled her back into his arms for another kiss.

“Ditto.”  Lexie said as she gently wiped her lipstick off his lips.

Acknowledgements

Finally after eight years of writing Snowballs Adventure I can now say The End.  I started writing this as a Temptation short story on Jovination the website.  Readers begged me to keep it going.  Even though the webpage doesn’t get the visits it used too, I kept it going. Through the death of my Grandmother, my stroke and my Thyroid Storm, the last two almost ended my life. It was finally time to put the little white puff of fur to rest.  Thank you to Shelly and Sunstreaked who talked me into writing a temptation and to Elena for making it so much better by editing it to its final form.

Is this the end of my writing?  Ha, I started a new one a few weeks ago that had been whispering to me for months.  Going to take a few weeks off to give Elena a break.  But you know it’s the only thing that keeps me from talking to the walls.

I hope you enjoyed this fan fiction as much as I did writing it.

The End