Chapter 15 Another Raw Chapter

Jon had to smile, he knew that Colleen, was loving every minute of the girls being there.

“I was sneaking into bars, playing with any band that would let me sit in.”  Jon remembered many nights not getting home before he went to school. Many days, just changing clothes and a swish of mouth wash, and heading to school.  If it hadn’t been for Dorothea, he would never have graduated at all.

Colleen watched Jon’s smile slip off his face.  Whatever that memory brought up, seemed to close him off. She started to say something, when the kids came back to the table, all talking over each other.  Jon seemed to snap out of his damaging memory, till it was time to head home.

They had gotten to where the cars were parked, Jon walked Colleen and the girls and waited till they got in.  Colleen rolled the window down and Jon leaned in, and promised to call her later.  He had wanted to give her a kiss, but they were being overly watched.  He watched her drive off, then turned to his car, where the kids stood watching.

“What,” He rolled his eyes, “Get in the car.”  Shaking his head as he watched them laugh and pile in.

Back at Colleen house, she went to take a bath, while the girls made popcorn and picked out a movie.  Pizza, sodas and Italian ice and they still wanted popcorn, she sighed as the water flowed around her tired body.  Thinking back over dinner with Jon’s family, she could feel then watching her. They seemed to be taking notes on how she and Jon were getting along.  She wanted them to like her and maybe trust her.  It was all she thought about on the ride home, what did they think of her?  Did they think she was right for their dad?  Getting up out of the tub, all she thought was, call Jon.  The more she dried off, the more she heard the girls talking, so calling Jon was not going to happen tonight.

By the time Jon got back to the townhouse, the kids scattered and he made it to his office, the door had barely closed when someone knocked.  Taking a deep breath, rolling his eyes, which of his kids was daring to knock on his door.

“Dad?”  Stephanie asked.

Well that answered that question. He watched the door slowly open.

“Come on in Steph.”  Jon called to his daughter.

Stephanie was followed by Jesse, they settled into the club chairs, and looked at each other.

He watched them trying to see who would talk first.

“If you two are going to just give each other the stink eye, do you mind if I fix a glass of wine?”  Jon said as he got up and went to the wine fridge. 

“Stephanie wants to tell you something.”  Jesse finally said, much to his sister’s dismay.

“Thanks Jess,” Stephanie rolled her eyes.  “Pop’s we want to tell you, we like Colleen.”  Stephanie looked over at Jesse.

“Yeah, we give our approval, you know, if you want to see, you know date or something.”  Jesse kinda looked uncomfortable.

“Date or something hum?”  Jon tried not to laugh at his oldest two.  Granted, having them approve of Colleen and him seeing each other, made things a little easier for them.  Now if he could get the other two on board.

“Yeah, we think you’re ready to go out and have a life again.  You haven’t written anything since Uncle Mookie split.  Then Mom, well you’ve been doing great for us, and the brothers. It’s time to get back in the world, you know, live a little.”  Stephanie elaborated on what Jesse had said.

Jon thought about what she was saying.  Yeah, since Richie turned his back on Bon Jovi, and broke up the brotherhood, he hadn’t written anything.  He never even finished the song he started writing since he met Colleen.  The only one, of the remaining band members, that knew he had met someone was Lema.

Later as Jon sat in his office, strumming his guitar.  The words were right on the edge of his brain.  He had the first few lyrics, he just couldn’t get the next lyrics to pull together. He toyed with his phone, damn he wanted to just hear her voice.

Somewhere during the movie, both girls fell asleep on the sleeping bags on the floor.  Colleen got up and cleaned up the popcorn and the empty cups, turning off the movie, she went into her room.  Curling up in the big bed, she set her alarm, she had to make sure the girls got to church.  She sat the phone on the little bedside table, just then the light on her phone lit up. Who would be calling this late?  Looking at the Caller ID she smiled.

“Hi Jon.”

Chapter 14 Raw unedited,please be nice.

The stands would be packed, but football at a private school, was a big thing.

Colleen dropped the girls off at the gym, then went and parked her car in the lot for the football stadium.  Some parents were already out tailgating, those were the parents of the players, and they had to get here early.  As always, some of them would be feeling no pain before halftime.

Colleen had drawn the adult concession stand.  She hated this stand, the parents that worked it, stood around and gossiped instead of working on serving the customers.

Bottles of wine were being opened to breath, hot dogs and hamburgers are on the grill.  The dads or male friends of the mothers were minding the grill, the wives or girlfriends of the fathers were supposed to be waiting on the people that came up to the concession stand.  Supposed to be, was the operable word for the day.

Colleen had started opening the wine to breath, by the last games stats they sold more Pinot than the red or chardonnay. She had asked several of the women to make sure they knew to check Id’s and no matter how much they say, it’s for my mom or dad. The answer was always no. They looked like it was too much to ask of them. How dare she think their students would lie, just to drink wine?

Next time she was going to take the students concession stand, it would be half the work.  The games had started and she had barely had time to breath.  The moms were still standing there talking, like a bunch of hens, trading gossip of the week.  Then the twittering got more excite, she looked up when she heard one of the mothers say Jon’s name.  Sure enough there he was, looking like he just go up and tossed on his clothes and slammed his ever present blue ball cap on his head.

Jon was laughing at something Jesse said, about the women falling all over themselves when he came into view.  Jon scanned the concession stand for Colleen, she had told him she would be at the parents stand, and then he saw her and smiled. 

Colleen smiled at Jon, but she wasn’t going to fight to get to the counter through the gushing women.  She poured his glass of Pinot, and waited to hear what, she assumed, were his older kids wanted.   

“Hello Jon, what can I get for you?”  The buxom blonde mother asked.

Jon had to dig deep into his memory, to think of her name.  Hell after Dorothea died, and it made the news he had so many of the mothers at Polly Prep hit on him.  The names all didn’t seem important, at the time.

“Hey Mrs. Greenburg, how is Michael doing at Rutgers.”  Jesse asked the blonde.

Saved by his son, thank God, they showed up to save his sorry ass.  Now he remembered Jane Greenburg, Michael had played Lacrosse with Jesse and dated Stephanie at one time.

“Hi Jane, Pinot for me and whatever those two want.”  Jon said looking at Colleen, taking in her Polly Prep shirt and her hair up in a simple ponytail.  Compared to the other women, she was a ten in a field of fives.

“He’ll be home for homecoming, I’ll tell him you two were here.”  Jane told Jesse.

Stephanie looked at her dad and thought better of trying for a glass of wine or a beer, so they would play it safe and order two cokes.

Colleen came up with the two cokes and the wine, being a barmaid came in handy.

“Here you go, Jon” Colleen handed the cup of wine to him and held out the cokes to the kids.

Jesse and Stephanie watched their dad looking at Colleen.  They nudged each other and moved away so their dad could have a minute with Colleen.

“Did you see the look he was giving her?”  Jesse said as he popped the top off his Coke.

“About the same look she was giving him.” Stephanie laughed. 

They headed back to their seats, without waiting on their dad to join them.

“The girls are excited about going out for pizza with Jake, I think Leslie has a little crush on him.”  Colleen said as they were finally left alone, even though some of the mothers stayed in hearing range, without appearing to listen to every word they said.

“Jake was playing it cool, but I think he was excited that the girls were joining us.”  Jon said as he leaned on the counter. 

They stood there chatting a few minutes, then half time came and the stand got busy. They planned on meeting in the parking lot after Jake got changed, then they would head to the pizza parlor.

The girls were really hyped, after the game, Colleen was blitzed.  If it hadn’t been the fact that it was dinner with Jon and his kids, she would’ve been tooling her bug back home.  They got at the pizza parlor about the same time, Jon had reserved a table for them in advance.  The owner met them at the door, and then ushered then to the back private room.

The Jesse and Stephanie made her feel at ease, once the pies had arrived at the table, it got quiet.

Jon watched how Colleen got along with his kids, even Jake seemed to have fun.  It didn’t hurt, Polly Prep had won their games. Once they were done eating, Jon broke out his wallet and sent all six of the kids to the game room.  This gave Colleen and Jon some alone time.

“I don’t know how those girls did it?  Colleen asked Jon as they sipped their wine.  “They were up giggling all night, I think they were on the phone all night and then got up and cheered this game.”  Colleen took another sip of her wine.  “Were we like that growing up?”