They had a wonderful morning together, the family eating breakfast with the crew and band that stayed at the hotel.
They all met in a private area of the hotel, having wait staff and security at their disposal. The little ones played while they ate, the older kids interacted the minimum, being lost in their devices and the adults shared horror stories from the road.
It was a dreary morning and no one was looking forward to packing up and leaving, but the road called. Wichita was a short flight from St. Louis, so that made the trip a little less painless.
They arrive at their hotel. Beth ushers the kids upstairs while she leaves Jon and the rest to deal with band business. She gets them unpacked and takes a poll as to what they want to do with their day, knowing that Jon has a show later in the day.
She wanted to take the kids to do something, even if it was just to go shopping. "Can we go to the mall? There has to be a mall here, in the middle of nowhere." Jesse asks, looking out the wall windows, seeing a bunch of nothing. Their hotel, close to the airport has a very grim view. Open fields with miles of roadways, very little greenery to be seen.
"Yeah, let me talk to your dad when he gets up here and we'll go from there." Beth responds to the young man that in the beginning she thought he'd never like her. She smiles at him, remembering what their first meeting was like. To her, it felt like it was 100 years ago, when in fact it wasn't too long ago. She's very proud of the young man that he's become and while she knows that she didn't raise him, she knows that she has in one way or another affected his life. She has in a way, even if it was small, helped groom the man that he is and the man that he will continue to become.
Everyone is a little startled when there is a knock at the door. Romeo yells, "I'll get it." and darts to the French doors that open into the suite.
"Romy, wa....." Beth starts to say, but he reaches the door before she gets there. She's just a few feet behind him. He turns the knob and opens the door. Once it's open they are pleasantly surprised to see Lupetta standing there, holding Brianna and Jon Spencer's cuddle blankets.
Lupetta raises her hand, smiles and says, "You forgot these."
Jon Spencer and Brianna heard that familiar voice and bolted to the door, thrilled to see their best friend and care taker.
"Pete, what are you doing here?" Beth asks her, very surprised to see her. Beth left her at home, to take care of the dog and to have some down time of her own. Beth eases the kids back from the doorway, allowing Lupetta into the room.
"You forgot the cuddles." she winks at Beth, squatting down to say hello to the little ones. "Hi Jake, Hi Jesse, hey Romeo." she adds.
"Seriously Pete, what are you doing here?" all of Beth's gears are turning in her head. Quickly, all of the pieces fall into place. She gives Pete a look, "Jon called you, didn't he?" Beth is getting angry. She knows that he had to have called her, that's the only way she would have known that they were going to Wichita and not doing night two in St. Louis. "Jesse, keep an eye on things for a minute please? Pete and I will be right back." Beth takes Pete by the hand and leads her into the hallway. "Did you see Jon when you came up?"
Pete is freaking out a little bit, not sure where Beth's attitude is coming from. She pulls her hand out of Beth's once they are away from the kids, "Yeah, he's down stairs with Richie and David."
"Come on!" Beth says leading Pete to the elevator. Beth presses the down button and asks Pete, "Why did you come? You could have told him no."
"Beth, I was just doing as I was asked." Pete replies, feeling like a deer in the headlights.
"I asked you to stay home and take care of the dog."
"But Jon called...." she kind of whimpers, hating the thought that Beth might be upset with her.
"What did he say?" she blurts, taking Pete by the elbow and guiding her onto the elevator. "Why are you here?"
"He thought you needed some help."
"With my own children?" Beth is livid by this point, feeling like Jon has undermined her and has no faith in her being a parent. "And you agreed to come?"
"He sent a plane to get me, said you needed help with the little ones." The elevator doors opened and they step off. Beth looks left and then right, "Where are they?"
Pete points to the left, "There's a conference room over there. They're in there."
Beth's feet cannot move fast enough. She doesn't even care if Pete is following her at this point.
As Beth barges into the conference room, she's startled by Jon's yelling and it wasn't at her. However, her presence stopped that. He just looks at her and says, "What?"
"Why is Pete here?" she demands to know. "Why did you call her Jon?"
He exhales loudly then asks, "Guys can you give us a minute?"
"Sure!" Richie answers, welcoming the break from the ass chewing that they were getting. Both Dave and Richie get up and leave the room, crossing path's with Lupetta.
"Don't go in there." Dave warns her.
Pete smirks, "Hi guys."
"Hey Pete." Richie acknowledges, "what's up with Beth and why is she so pissed that you're here?"
"This is supposed to be their time and he called me."
"And you came?" David asks her with some sarcasm in his voice, knowing that Pete really made an error in judgement.
"Jon called and ask that I come give her a hand."
"Yet she left you home?" Richie isn't seeing Pete's logic.
"Yeah." Pete replies, trying to look through the small window of the conference room door, but she's unable to see them. They can hear voices, loud voices but they're muffled and hard to discern what they're saying.
"Pete, maybe you should go be with the kids?" Dave states, not wanting her to witness the mess that is about to unfold. "You're here to help her out, maybe you should go do that?"
Pete looks at Dave and then to Richie. She knows that Dave is right, but she's worried that Jon may want to talk to her, chew her ass for ratting him out.
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