Chapter 38

Beth is startled by hands touching her arm.  The flight attendant gently touches Beth to wake her.  "I'm sorry Mrs. Bongiovi, we are preparing to land." 

After a few seconds the fog clears from her head.  Beth puts her seat to the upright position and fastens her seatbelt.  Beth is a little hazy, she can't believe she slept the entire flight.  She looks at her Apple Watch.  It's 5:45pm.  As they ready to land, she digs out the cell phone again and texts Jon that she's about to land.  She knows if she does that he'll have just enough time to shoot up to Teterboro and grab her.

Beth's pilot had to circle the airport for several minutes, waiting for the go ahead to land.  When they were finally on the ground, she deplaned to find her husband standing just inside the hanger door.  He meets her and takes her bags, leans in and kisses her, "Hi babe."  His smile touches his eyes, he missed her.  She leans into his kiss.

"Hi." She whispers back.  "Have you been here long?"

His arm goes over her shoulder and they walk inside, "Maybe 5 minutes if that."

"That's not bad.  We had to wait to land."  

They tossed her bags in the backseat of the Chevelle.  "Do you want me to put the top up?"  he's polite and asks her, hoping she would say no because it's a beautiful evening.

"No.  I could use some wind in my hair.  How are the kids?"  she fastens the lap belt, dropping her pocketbook between her feet.

"Kids are good.  Excited to see you."  he turns the engine over, starting the beast that had a low and sexy growl.

"Where's Dorothea?"  Beth didn't wait, wouldn't wait.  There is no time like the present.  She takes a deep breath, "I hope she's gone."  her tone lacked affect and that was the effect that she was hoping for.

"She's at Molly's."  Jon answered her.  Molly's was a local Red Bank hotel called the Molly Pritcher Inn.  A small but upscale hotel that can provide all that Dorothea needs. "I dropped her off on the way here."  he looks over at her and winks.  He can see her face go from stone cold to pleasantly pleased.  She's in shock, honestly.

"Did you talk to her about that TMZ report?"

He shook his head, "Nope, wasn't going to have the conversation twice.  When you're ready to confront her, we'll do it together."  he puts his hand on her knee.  "Did you eat?"

Beth slides her hand to Jon's, taking it from her knee.  She locked her fingers with his, "No, I slept the entire flight.  Did you feed the kids?"

"They were eating when I left."

"I'll find something at home, unless you're hungry." she squeezes his fingers.  

They worked their way down the turnpike toward home.  It's a cool but beautiful summer night.  Beth doesn't want to give Dorothea the better part of the night so she just gets it out of the way.  "What are we going to do about that story?"  She slides sideways to get a better look at him. 

He can sense that she's upset, but he can also tell that she's not fuming like she normally would be.  "I think we should do nothing."

"Nothing?"  Beth is surprised by that.  "Why nothing?"

He pulls her hand to his mouth, kissing the top of her hand, "I think that if we acknowledge it, it will give her some validity, it will give her pleasure in someway."

"How was she when I was gone?"  That's not a question that she needs to ask, she knows how she was.  She really wanted to know how Jon handled her, while Beth was gone.

He looks over the top of his aviator glasses, "She was fine.  She didn't give me any trouble, except when she wanted to have visitors."

"What do you mean?"

"She had Claire and Cynthia come over to see her and when I didn't let them in, she threw a fit."

"You didn't let them in?"  Beth found that curious.  

"They buzzed the gate and I wouldn't let them in."

"Why not?" Beth laughs.  "Why didn't you let them in?"

"For one, they were bitches when we were married, they went Team Dot when all the shit hit the fan.  And then after that, they have just been miserable bitches."  Jon was getting a little irked telling Beth the story.  "They don't need to be on my property.  If she wanted to hang out, she should have gone to their houses."

Beth laughs.  She can see Jon standing firm and holding a grudge, "You did good.  They are bitches and they don't need to be at our house."

"No good would have come from it."