Chapter 79 - I Guess We'll Always Be

Beth loved jogging through the golf course, especially on a day like today.  The sun is shining and there is a cool breeze coming in over the river.  She loved the smell of the freshly mowed grass.  She pays no attention to anyone as she makes her way through, waving back at a few old men that waved at her.  They always made her smile and if she ran with Jon, they wouldn't wave to her.

While she’s running, she has many thoughts running through her mind.  She keeps trying to change her train of thought, but she keeps going back to who leaked their information and she wondered how Dani was doing.  

She decided she would call Dani and invite her over for dinner, since the kids would be gone.  She would never invite anyone into their home when the kids were there without running it passed Jon first.  However, she can invite Dani over if she wants to, the kids won’t be there.  She will double check Jon’s schedule first, but she thinks it would be nice to hang out with a woman, since it’s been forever since she’s hung out with Amanda or Tammy.  Deciding that as she ran, it seemed to thin her thoughts a little bit. 

Jon made the kid exchange with the long time family friend and nanny, Lupetta.  He kissed his kids and away they went.  They won’t be home for the rest of the week since its Dorothea’s week.  He hated when they would leave, but he also looked forward to the time that he and Beth get to spend alone.  Back in the house, he grabs a glass of orange juice and makes his way to the studio.  He has a feeling that he needs to work through and whether he gets it out with an electric guitar or banging on keys; he knows that the music is his best therapy. 

Once he’s in the studio, he can really feel the need for expression.  He sits at the console and plays and rewinds some stuff that he played with weeks ago.  Listen, rewind, listen rewind – scribble, listen, rewind, scribble….the process has started for what might be their next big hit.  He keeps writing and writing.  Playing the music that he tracked on his own, he can see that he needs the boys to add their ten cents.  But he thinks that he has the lyrics all set.  And with that confidence, he goes into the booth and starts to lay the vocals for a song that doesn’t have all the music.  

Beth ran far enough that she knew that she needed to head back.  She’s thinking she ran about 5 miles and it would be 5 hard miles back, but she was an Adams, she could do it.  And she did. 

Jon could see her running down the driveway from the Shoe Inn and went out to catch her.  “Hey!” he kind of yells.  She doesn’t hear him; she had her ear buds in.  “HEY!” he gets a little louder, but she still doesn’t hear.  He watches her go around the side of the house, like she often does after a run.  She liked to walk the riverbank and cool down.  When they ran together, they would walk the bank and sit on the benches.  The riverside was one of ‘their’ places, they both loved to sit there and watch whatever was going on.

He takes a walk and finds her on the riverbank, with her phone in her hand, and she’s talking.  He doesn’t want to scare her, so he walks up slowly so she can see him.  When she does, she waves and he walks in her direction.  He can tell that she’s on the telephone, but he has no idea with who until she gets off the phone.  

Taking her ear buds out, she walks up to him and kisses his lips.  “Hey baby.” She says with a wink.

“How was your run?” he asks.

Bending over and touching her toes, “It was awesome.  I think it was close to 10 miles.”

“You were gone quite a while; do you want me to get you a bottle of water?”  he asks her.

She shakes her head no and says, “But thank you.”

He sits on the bench that’s closest to them, “Are you okay?”

She stands up, “Yeah, I’m fine.  Why?”

“You were gone so long.”

“I started in the golf course, that’s why I was gone so long.  What did you do after the kids left?” she sits next to him on the bench and unstraps her arm band, wrapping her ear bud cord around her ipod.

“I think I wrote a song.” He tells her.

“What do you mean you think?”

He laughs, “It’s missing the music but I tracked the vocals and a little bit of the piano.”

“Can I hear it?” she reaches over and rubs his leg.  “Before anyone else does?”  She winks, knowing that she hears and sees everything that he does before anyone else does.

“Absolutely.”

“Now?” she bounces a little, “Can we go hear it now?”

“I guess.”  They get up and walk to the studio.  

Once inside, Jon sits her in a chair and gives her a pair of Bose earphones to put on. With them on her head, he starts the track. 

Beth sits there and listens to the song, she’s glad that the music is missing, well most of it.  The song is amazing and Jon’s vocals are some of the best that she has heard in a while.  She thought that The Circle Album was not his best work, although she likes it more than she did the Lost Highway album.  “What’s this for?”  She asks him loudly, with the ear phones on and music playing.  

He smiles, puts one finger to his lips and says “SSSHHH.”

She smiles back, falling even more in love with the man that she thought she already loved completely.  In his studio, he is a different creature, altogether.  She loves studio Jon, until he lets it consume him.  He watches her listen to the lyrics, he can see where he caught her attention and then the look came over her face.  She knows the song is about them.  When she figures that out, she can’t stop her eyes from tearing up.  To her, that is the ultimate gesture of love that she could ever get from him.  He wrote them a song. 

When the song is finished, she removes the earphones and says the only thing that she can think to say.  From her heart, she says, “That is the most beautiful song I have ever heard.”

He smiles at her, “I wrote the lyrics while you were running.”

“Honey, it’s beautiful.”  Beth gets up and walks into him; her lips are the bumper on his.  “I think it’s the best ever.”

“I don’t know about that.” He jokes.  “Did you get my meaning; do you know what that song says to you?”

With her arms around his neck, she says, “I have always thought that we were thick as thieves, but to hear it in your words, I like it better.” She kisses the dimple in his chin, looking in his eyes; she follows with, “We could have thrown the towel in.  But I’m glad that we didn’t.”  She kisses the chin again and follows it up with a quick nibble.  “I love you.”

Squeezing her tight, with his lips on her forehead he says, “I love you too.”

“Can I hear it again?” she asks, sitting back down in the chair.  He sits next to her, and operates the control panel to give it the right sound for the room.  She’s in a trance, listens to it 3 more times before she was done.  “Do you really need to add any other instruments?”

“Oh yeah.  That would never sell that way.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, at the very least, the hook needs more.”

“The piano does it or me.  Is that you playing?”  He nods his head yes.  Beth smiled; she knew it was him she was just trying to give him a hard time.  “Are you planning a new album?”  It kind of hits her.  They just got off the road and have put another chapter in the history book as the highest grossing tour.  How could he possibly do it all over again, right away?

“I’m just playing babe, relax.” He reaches around her and turns the consoles off.  “I write, that’s what I do and today….well, today I had that in me.”

His arm is around her and he is guiding her out of the studio, “Where are we going?”

“Inside.”

“Why?  It’s gorgeous out here.” She protests, but not very hard.

“I can’t do the things that I want to do out here, the neighbors might get upset.”

“The things?  What might they be?”

“Just things.”

“Dani’s coming over, babe.” She watches his smile turn to a frown and he starts to pout.

“Really?”

“Yeah, that’s who I was talking to when you walked up.  I thought it would be nice to have some girl time.”

“But the kids just left.”

“And they’ll be gone a week, we have plenty of time for you to do your things to me.”  They walk in the house and she heads up the stairs to shower, hollering back at Jon she asks, “Can you chill a good year for me.”  And she disappears into the abyss. 

Jon grabs a couple of different blends and color and puts them in the wine cooler.  He doesn’t know what to do with his night now.  He heads up stairs and talks to Beth while she’s in the shower.  “Babe?”

“Yeah.”

“I was thinking that we really need to find someone to be here 24/7.” He starts to tell her, “I would feel better if you had someone with you all the time, when you’re here or traveling.”

“What?  You want me to have a babysitter?  No, Jon.” She looks out the end of the shower, “What’s gotten into you?”

“I was thinking about what Stephanie said, I don’t mind being alone WITH you, but I don’t want you being alone.” He admits, his fears are real and he can’t be with her 24 hours a day.  She’s too independent for that and he knows that she’ll be too stubborn to hire someone, so he has a plan. 

“Jon, I thought we agreed to go on with life as if this was a normal pregnancy.”

“We are.”

“I didn't need a shadow last time.”

“You disappeared last time.”

“I’m not hiring a babysitter.  I’m a big girl, what do you think is going to happen?”

“I don’t even want to think about what could happen.”

“Do you think that she’s going to fall out of me onto the city street? What will a babysitter do?”

Beth knows that he only has her best interest at heart and he only wants to keep her safe, but she’s right.  She can’t be monitored all day, every day.  So he mentally decided that she will be followed when she leaves the house.  Caving to defeat, he says, “Ok, okay – I’ll drop it.  When is Dani coming over?"

"About 3, why?"

"Just wondered."

"Do you mind?" she finally asks him.

"Not at all.  What do you want me to order for dinner?"

She's quiet for a minute and says, "I'll just wait and see what Dani wants."

"Okay." Jon leaves her in the bathroom.  He does a walk through of the house to make sure it's tidy and when he's satisfied that it is, he grabs a book and sits out back.