"Babe, I think you did great, even when you lost your cool." Jon assures her, sliding his hand down her back.
Beth takes a big gulp of the water he had just handed her, and after she swallowed hard she replied, "I cracked."
"You acted as you should have. Her questions were tough and we knew they would be.'
"But why did she have to ask about the dream that you had about me dying? How does she even know about it?"
He moves in closer to her, slides his arm around her to try to push, direct, her toward the car, "I told her. She is our friend, Beth."
"But did she have to know about Brianna wanting to kiss me in my casket?" Jon can feel Beth slightly tremble, he can feel that she's tense. "Why did she go there?"
"It's her job." His hand on her as she slides into the seat of their car. "She did what I paid her to do." Beth looks up at him, remembering they did ask for that. They wanted all of their dirty laundry aired.
"She came at me like I had done something wrong." she gets out of her mouth as the car door closes. She watches her husband walk around the front of the car. She inhales deeply, looking passed Jon to Savannah and her crew tearing down and taking apart their equipment.
Once the car is in drive and they start to exit the cemetary, Jon states, "She wasn't targeting you, you know that." He doesn't believe his own words, but he knows that she needed to hear that. He needs, rather, they need to put the past where it belongs.
When they arrived back home, Beth could see Jon was exhausted. As they walked into the house, she grabs his hand, "Why don't you go lie down, I'll make dinner." She smiles as he looks over at her, "Let me take care of you, for once."
He pulls her close and kisses the side of her head, "I'm okay, why don't we make dinner then after that, let's go for a bike ride. We can take the littles."
Walking into the house leaning on her husband she admits, "A bike ride would be real nice." Her memories go back to the better days of their life when things were so much easier and activites were abundant. They were so active as a couple, as a family, but under the Dalton cloud she never really thought about how stifled they really were. "We haven't done that in a long time."
Once through the mud room and into the rear of the kitchen, they paused and heard silence. Jon looked to Beth, with a hint of question, "Do you hear that?"
Beth walks over to the side of the refrigerator where they have a community chalk board. "Well, it looks like they're all at grandma's and they're going to spend the night." The grin on her face growing.
Jon pulls his wallet out of one back pocket and his phone out of the other and leans on the counter. "Hhmm, what should we do?" His grin just as big as hers.
Her head is still on the bike ride, "Well, considering the day we just had why don't we go on a bike ride? We can go into town and get a bite to eat." She winks at her husband, "Come on, let's get changed." She reaches across the counter for his hand. Hesitantly he takes her hand and together they change their clothes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Beth trips, trying to tie her tennis shoe she catches Jon looking at his Ipad with a scowl on his face. She doesn't say anything to him at first, not wanting to get into his business, but she can see his body language change. "What's that all about?" She plops down on the bench in her shoe closet. "That wasn't a good look."
He turns to face her, "It's an email from Paul."
"About?" she questions him, tieing the other shoe.
"Tentative tour dates." he tosses the Ipad on the bed, "I told him that we weren't ready for me to go back on the road."
"Who isn't?" she stands up and reaches over for a sweat jacket, "Go."
He laughs at that, "Go?"
She walks up to him, "If you're ready to go back out, go." Her lips land on his cheek, "When does he want you to leave?"
"The first date is May 1st." He waits for her reply.
Beth pauses, "Um, that's my birthday."
Jon laughs at that. "Do you still want me to go?"
They take their bike ride into town and have a bite at Barnacle Bills with a couple of beers. They try to keep the conversation light, but it never works out that way. With a gulp of her last beer, Beth asks, "How long of a leg are you planning?"
He shruggs his shoulders. "No idea, but it can't be that long. The album is almost 2 years old now."
"Then why go?" she inquires. "It's not needed to support you guys or even the manufacturing costs."
"It's a contract thing, you know the drill."
"I know you also have the best lawyers in the industry that can get you out of it."
He stands, indicating that he was ready to leave, as the bill has already been paid, "That's not me, you KNOW that." He then winks at her. "Let's get home. I'd like to enjoy this evening with my wife."
Beth smiles as she stands to leave with him, "You want to get home to watch the evening news." Not willing to admit that she wanted to see it too.
Savannah had told them that a 90 second snippet would air within NBC'S nightly news, alluding to the rest of the story being aired during the Today show the next morning.
"Don't you?" He asks, taking her hand and leading her to their bicycles. "I know she'll do what we set her out to do. She's great at her job."
Beth admits, "I do want to see it, but I'm a little skeptical. I hope she spins it in our favor and makes Dalton, Brian and Dorothea looks like total assholes."
"She will."
They enjoyed their evening bike ride home and once they returned home, quickly they showered and found comfort in their shared bed, munching on a fruit and cheese tray, with a bottle of 1928 Rosé.
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