Chapter 40

Jon watched as Colleen left with the boys to go to school. He had a lot to accomplish today while they were out of the house.  Pulling out his phone he unlocked it and pulled up his messages.

 

One from Matt about the book list and the name of the company who were taking care of the chair. 

 

The next was Max, with the update on the townhouse clean out, they had to order another dumpster, the damage was too much for the one to hold it all. Furniture was stored that was useable, and that Matty had the list, if he needed anything else, to call.

 

Then he had a few from Jamie and Colleen’s parents.  Those answered he closed out that selection on his phone and pulled up his favorite list and called Stephanie.

 

“Morning dad, what’s new,” Stephanie asked?

 

“Are you busy the next two days,” Jon asked as he went over to the counter and popped in another pod.

 

“Nothing I can’t get out of, why,” She asked?

 

“Want to help me at the river house? I want to go through your mom’s stuff,” Jon said as he took the coffee to his office.  “I need to know what to donate and what you and the boys want to keep.”

 

Stephanie let what he was saying sink in, was he finally ready to let it all go and move on?  Was Colleen, who she needed to thank, for getting her dad to this part of his new life?

 

“Sure dad, I’ll come over and help you,” Stephanie said.  “What brought this on, if I can ask?”

 

“You know Colleen is moving in with me, and I was thinking, now that the boys are in school in Jersey, I’m thinking about moving us back there,” Jon finally answered her question.

 

“So you’re pulling the river home off the market and putting the Manhattan house on the market,” Stephanie asked?  Yep, she would have to have some girl time with Colleen.

 

“Yeah, I think it’s time, I want to get everything out of the master bedroom down to the bare walls,” Jon told her of his plans.

 

“Bare walls, no more wallpaper,” Stephanie asked?

 

“No more wallpaper, no more carpet, furniture nothing but wall to wall empty,” Jon said as he powered up his laptop.  “I’ll get us help to move the furniture, you think Christian would like to help?”  Jon thought that having Stephanie’s boy toy at the time might help her with the memories they were taking out of the house.

 

“Christian, ah daddy he was so last week, but I’ll ask my girl squad if they’re free,” Stephanie laughed.

 

“Do you think this is a good thing? I thought about it last night chatting with Matty on messenger,” Jon admitted.

 

“Instagram, Twitter and now messenger, who are you and what have you done with my daddy,” Stephanie laughed and asked her dad?

 

“Well you know I had to come into this kicking and screaming, but it’s not as bad as I thought,” Jon said going into his notes.

 

“I think it will be better for Colleen, it has to feel bad sleeping in the bed you shared with Mom,” Stephanie stated.  “This would give her a place in that house that she made for the two of you.”

 

That was sort of what he had thought, maybe the two of them could pick out the things to make it their bedroom, not his and Dorothea’s room. Colleen and Dorothea had two totally different styles, where interior design was concerned.  Dot loved French provincial in colors and furniture, where Colleen was lived in casual with blues, creams, and pinks.  Jon got a big smile on his face, thinking about the two of them shopping for a new bed.  Stephanie waited for her father to answer.

 

“Earth to Dad, you want me to meet you at the house or the apartment and we go together,” Stephanie asked?

 

“You and the girls take the Path and I’ll pick you up in Red Bank.  You think Pizza would hit the spot for lunch,” Jon asked.

 

“Pizza sounds great, don’t forget the garlic knots,” Stephanie called as her dad signed off on the call.  Laughing she called her girlfriends from college and headed to the train depot.

 

Jon got to the house and pulled his car down the drive.  Punching in the garage opener he parked next to the Suburban.  He’d take that one to pick up the pies and knots, then go get the girls.  He had placed the order as he crossed over to the Garden State Parkway, he hopped the girls were hungry, or it would be leftovers for dinner tonight.

 

Stephanie and her three friends, we waiting on Jon as he pulled into the train lot.  These were the same girls who were with Stephanie during college, and were her support system, through the last few weeks of her mom’s death.

 

“Ladies,” Jon smiled as the girls got into the car.  It was a short drive to the house, the girls were already digging in the bags of garlic knots. Jon was glad he picked up about five dozen knots, he might get a few before the girls devoured them all.

 

Jon rounded up some empty bags and boxes and brought them from the garage storage, up to the bedroom.

 

“Keep what you think you want to keep, I have boxes for keep and bags for donating,” Jon told Stephanie.

 

“You have some cans for stuff to dump, Mr. J.” One of the girls asked as they headed toward the closet?

“Yeah, tomorrow, I’ll have some,” Jon told her.  He watched Stephanie looking at all her mother’s jewelry boxes, Dorothea had as many jewelry boxes as shoe boxes.

 

“You’re the only girl Steph, so you get the jewelry,” Jon said, as he came up and put his hands on her shoulder speaking softly to her.  “Unless you think the boys would like something.”

 

Stephanie wiped a tear out of her eye, “I think I want to go through it with just you and me Daddy,” Stephanie said quietly.  “That way I can ask you about some of the history of the pieces.”

 

“Sounds good baby girl,” Jon said.  Smiling he gave her a shoulder hug and headed to the bedroom doorway.

 

“Boy, your mom really liked designer bags,” came a voice out of the closet.  “Louis Vuitton, Ferragamo, Jimmy Choo, damn.”

 

Jon had to smirk, while Stephanie laughed, that was one thing about Dot, she loved her handbags.

 

 

 

Jon left them to their chore and went down to the lower floors to see what needed to be done down there.  Walking down the pictured hallway to the office, he thought about taking them all down, not just the ones of him and Dot.  ‘Maybe I should ask Colleen what we should do.”  Taking down the pictures of Dorothea and the ones of the two of them down, leaving several holes where the pictures once were. He knew the one picture that had to go up, the first date.  The one that a pap took of them, maybe ones from Thanksgiving and maybe he could ask Colleen mom for the picture of Colleen as she got her teacher's diploma. 

As he was coming back with the boxes the front door opened and Matt came in with Desi.

 

“Anyone home,” Matt called out?

 

“Up here,” Stephanie called from upstairs.

 

“Right here,” Jon told him as he came from the kitchen.

 

“I’ll go up with Stephanie, you help your brother,” Desi said as she headed upstairs. “Hey, Jonny.”

 

“Desi wanted to help Stephanie, so I tagged along to help you,” Matt told him, taking one of the boxes Jon held.

 

“Thanks, Matty,” Jon said as he headed back to the hallway.  “I’m only removing the pictures of Dot and me,” Jon told him.

 

Once those were down, Matt looked at the empty spots on the walls.  He didn’t think it would be as emotional since Dot had been gone now almost a year, but it was.

 

“You okay,” Matt asked Jon.

 

"I shouldn't have waited so long to do this, I know I’m rushing through here now but it's still hard taking her out of the house we shared for so long," Jon told his brother.

 

Jon looked back at the empty spaces, it was hard cleaning out the Hampton house, and now doing this, it was harder.  So many memories, the good and the bad. Giving a shake of his head, he smiled, time for new memories.

 

He and Matt slowly moved from room to room boxing up awards and pictures.

 

Heading to the kitchen, Jon started heating the pizzas, as Matt went to the cellar in the basement for wine.  Soon they were sitting around the bar in the kitchen, eating pizza and telling stories about the house.  Stephanie told Jon, she gave the girls a handbag for helping, and Aunt Desi took some jackets and shoes.  They had a great haul being donated to charity. 

 

It was time to head back to the city, he and Matt had contacted City Sanitation to get a large dumpster, and tomorrow Jon would meet with the contractor who worked on his SOHO house, about what he wanted to do about the renovations.

 

Locking the door, he said goodbye to his brother and took the girls back to the train station to get the Path to the city.  Heading to the Garden State, he called Colleen.

Chapter 39

Jon slipped his hand under the elastic of her boxers and made contact with bare skin. Sliding his hand on her bare cheeks of her ass, he gave it a squeeze, trilled at the tiny moan she made. ‘If this is her idea of cuddling, then I’m a cuddlier’.

Colleen climbed up onto him and straddled just above his knees. Bending down she kissed his chest and nibbled along his six-pack abs. Sitting up she pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it on the floor.  Placing her palms on his chest, she raised her hips and stood up. 

“I need your help here,” She said as she felt his hands slide up her legs to the waistband of her boxes, and side them down. 

Stepping out of the boxers she kicked them on the floor and nearly fell off the bed, which brought more giggles, as between Jon grabbing her hips and her digging her toes in the mattress kept her from falling.

“I got ya, Darlin,” Jon said as he sat up and helped her back on the bed.  ‘Cirque Du Solei has nothing on Cirque du Bongiovi,’ Jon thought joining her in her laughter.

“I guess this circus needs a trapezes,” Colleen giggled. 

“That or a no clothes rule for bedtimes,” Jon laughed.

“I seem to already be in compliance with this new rule, care to join me?”  Colleen said with a sparkle in her eyes.

Jon slipped out of the bed and reached into the bedside table drawer and pulled out a few foil packages and tossed them on the bed. His sweat shorts finally joined hers on the floor.

“Planning on a marathon, Jonny?”  Colleen giggled.

In answer to her question he waggled his eyebrows at her and crawled into the bed, stalking her to the center of the bed.

“Oh I think we can get a few orgasms out before we fall asleep, don’t you think?”  Jon said as he grabbed her and pulled her back straddling his thighs.  Running his hands up from her waist, he cupped her breast and gave them a playful squeeze

Sitting up slightly he brought one of her dusky pink nipples to his mouth, he tongued and pulled nipple between his lips and sucked and nipped it lightly.

Colleen squirmed her damping folds on his thigh, moaning as her head fell back.  She always thought Jon had a tongue fetish, the way he licked his lips, and worried his tongue when he was working on a song or a contract.

Colleen threaded her fingers through Jon’s hair, as his hands slide down her ribcage, shifting her hips so he could slip his fingers into her auburn curls between her thighs.  As his fingers found her pearl, he moved his mouth to her other breast.  Moving his fingers between her dripping folds, he mimicked his lips sucking her tight nipple, in and out.  Her moans and grunts combined with the shimmer of her hips, spurred him on, adding to worrying her pearl with his callused thumb.  He could tell she was cresting into her first release, by the clamping her muscles on his fingers.

“Oh fuck, Jon,” Colleen moaned.  Her face flushed along with her breast, "Oh Yes, Jon right there OH!” 

Removing his fingers from her now soaking wet folds he brought his fingers to his lips and sucked them clean.  Letting her collapse onto the bed, he rolled her to her back and moved on top of her, resting on his elbows to keep from crushing her. His lips came down and opened enough to run his tongue along her lips asking for permission to enter.

Colleen opened her lips to his tongue, tasting her flavor as it slid and wrapped around hers.

Jon reached out for the small dark blue packet half under the pillow, putting the corner in his mouth, his teeth tore the package open.  Colleen watched as he dropped it on her chest, picking up the packet, she took the condom out of the package and placed on his hard dick, rolling it into place giving a squeeze and she ran her fingers back up its length. Jon allowed her to place his dick against the slick opening, he then moved her left leg up to his shoulder as he watched her eye’s closed as he slowly entered her.

Colleen slide her right leg up over his ass to wrap around his waist, her heel hooked into his ass crack.  Allowing him to set the pace, as she ran her fingers up his chest to his shoulders, feeling his muscles.

“Oh Jonny,” Colleen moaned.

“Open your eyes babe, I want to see your eyes,” Jon lowered his lips to her open lips, swallowing her moans.

As Jon started to piston his hips, Colleen opened her eyes. This was what she needed, this connection to the man she loved. Their moans and groans were music of that love.

“Jon, Fuck me,” Colleen arched her back.  “Now!”

Jon gave a sexy grunt and did what she begged him to.

“Open your eyes Co, I want to see you cum on me, that’s it Co, oh Fuck Co,” Jon groaned as he slammed into her as he came. 

They clung to each other, riding out the aftermath of the tremors in their joined bodies.  As he slipped from her body, he rolled to his side and took a deep breath.

“Wow,” Colleen said in a soft breathy voice.

“Wow is right,” Jon agreed, as he slid from the bed, and heads into the bathroom, to dispose of the condom.

As he came back into the room, Colleen was in the same spot he left her. By her breathing, he could tell she was asleep. Laughing softly he crawled into the bed and wrapped her in his arms. Damn the old man can still have it, wore her out, and yep still got it, Frank.  Jon pulled her close and drifted off to sleep with a smile on his face.

chapter 38

Jon was looking at the floor plans from the last time they remolded the Jersey house, and wondered where to move the master suite.  Fresh new beginnings, meant not sharing the same bedroom as the former wife, or so he thought.  Instead of the middle of the upper floors, maybe make the former master into an office for Colleen.  Maybe strip the wallpaper that Dorothea was so fond of, and painting the damn room.  He never really loved that wallpaper, yeah that was a good plan.  He really liked the layout of that house, as it was his baby, the first house he had planned.  He was really getting into all these ideas when he noticed the bed vibrate. 

Turning and looking over at Colleen, who was on the other side of the bed, reading on her kindle.  She had on her earbuds, and her toes were moving under the covers.  She must be listening to the cell that was next to her on the bed.  How did she do that, read and listen to music?  He had a Bose headset he used when he read, to cut out distractions.  Thinking about last night, she had tossed and turned all night, crying out several times in her sleep.  Nightmares she told him, when he woke her up when the screams started.  Those brought the boys in, checking to make sure she was okay.  Maybe reading and music would help her sleep better tonight.  Jon went back to his IPad.

Colleen put her kindle down, popped an earbud out, and looked over at Jon.

“Can I use your cell for a second?” Colleen asked Jon.

“What do you need it for?”  Jon reached over to the bedside table and handed it to her.

“If I use mine it messes up my Pandora and I have to bring it back up, mine isn’t as new as yours,” She told him.  Taking the phone in her hand and opening-up Safari on his phone. Clicking the letters into his phone, she started reading what came up on the phone.  “Oh, that’s what that meant, hum.”  Setting the phone toward the middle of the bed, she went back to reading.

Jon started to take the phone back, not sure what she was reading or what she looked up on the phone.   But, he knew he was going to upgrade her phone for her, maybe for Christmas. About the time his fingers touched the phone, she picked it up again.  She pulled it back close typing into Safari again.  Nodding she set the phone closer to her hip and went back to reading.  Shaking his head, he went back to the list he was making on his IPad. 

Colleen was reading and started to giggle to herself.  Reading the same paragraph not just once, but twice.  She was really trying to keep from rolling on the bed laughing. Who knew an adult romance book would be so educational, and funny.

Jon felt the bed vibrate again, shaking his head, he tried to get back to his list.  Maybe separate beds might be handy, when she was reading. 

This went on for about an hour, Jon couldn’t take it anymore. The next time the laughter was out loud shaking the whole bed.  Putting the IPad on his lap he slid his glasses down his nose and turned to her.

“What the hell are you reading over there?” He asked her.

“Just a romance book,” Colleen said innocently.

“A romance book, which you have to use my phone to look up words and is so funny, you shake the whole bed?”  Jon asked.

“Well, there are words I have heard, or rather read before, and wanted to know the meaning,” she shrugged her shoulders and smiled innocently at him.

“Did you think to ask me what the words meant?”  Jon asked as he reached for his phone, hopping she hadn’t closed out the pages had looked at.

“Well, I didn’t want to bother you, and it’s just as easy to look them up,” Colleen said as she went to grab the phone back. She was trying not to blush, and losing to not have her cheeks turn red, as some of those words were embarrassing for a college graduate not to know. Not even a well-read, college graduate.

Jon pushed his glasses back up and brought up the first page.  Looking at the word and the meaning he looked back at Colleen, and then back to the word.  Shaking his head he looked back at the page, closing it out, the next one came up, he chuckled a little and closed it off.  Putting the phone back close to her, and shook his head.

“Ok I now want to read that book your reading,” He laughed.

“When I’m done, it’s free under Kindle Unlimited. Just lookup Missy Johnson, it's part of a series, there are seven books in it,” Colleen told Jon.

“Kindle Unlimited Hum, how many books do you have on there?”  Jon asked, moving the IPad and his glasses to the bedside table.  “Maybe we can read the next book together, you know move to the middle and cuddle, and read together.”

“I’d like that, you seem so far away in this big bed,” Colleen told him.

Jon started to scoot toward the middle of the bed. Colleen put her Kindle and her glasses on her bedside table and scooted to meet him in the middle.

“I like this better,” She cuddled to his chest, placing her hand on his chest.

“I like it too,” he said kissing her on her head.  “Should’ve suggested it sooner.” 

“Maybe, I like to cuddle,” she said as she rubbed her palm on his stomach and looked up.

Jon looked down into her green eyes, as they slowly turned darker green.  Lowering his lips to hers, he ran his tongue along her lips. As she opened her mouth to his, he sucked her bottom lips in for his kiss.  Reaching across and down her back to her hip, he pulled her closer to angle his mouth to lengthen the kiss.

Colleen sighed into his kiss.  Loving the way his kiss made her whole body tingle, and how it made her core tighten.  She moved closer, throwing her leg over his, and felt her panties dampen more. Her crotch against his leg and her knee inches from his growing cock.

Chapter 37

“What does he mean, his dorm will be ready,” Colleen looked at Jon as she asked him again.

“Jake asked me last spring if he could go to Pennington instead of Polly Prep, his friend Ricky, needed a roommate,” Jon explained.  “By the time we got his paperwork in the spot was gone.”

“Yeah Miss O’,” Jake explained. “As soon as it came open, I was transferring.”

“We were lucky a spot came open for both Romeo and Jake,” Jon told her.

“So this is something that didn’t just come to being, since I could lose my spot at Polly,” Colleen asked? “Don’t lie to me, Jon.”

Jon looked up at her, was she mad or scared or both.

“Yes and no,” Jon told her.  “I was going to wait till the end of the year, but our situation just moved it forward.” Jon got up and walked over to Colleen and wrapped her in his arms. “I don’t want you to lose your job, and tomorrow, you won’t.”

Colleen sighed and put her arms around Jon’s waist.

“What else can happen,” Colleen mumbled more to herself than Jon.  She didn’t think he heard her, but he did.

“Nothing we can’t handle together,” Jon said as he kissed her lips.

<@>

Monday morning, Colleen met with Officer Jamison at the police department.  Jon was meeting her at the school.  She looked at mug shots and tapes of what the security cameras caught of the whole break-in.  Jon had told her this morning that Max had the unbroken things out of her house, and had her clothes cleaned. She pulled into the school’s teachers’ lot and went to her classroom first, then after receiving a text to tell her the meeting had been moved from the Deans office to the auditorium, for the meeting.  At breakfast this morning, Jon had told her, he was taking the kids to school, so he could be there for her meeting.

‘Why did this feel like I was going to the gallows?’ Colleen thought as she opened the door to a packed auditorium.  So, this was what Jake and Jon had meant about operation save Miss O’, meant.  Students and parents filled up the room, she found Jon with his two sons in the front of the row.

“Miss O’Sullivan, if you’ll come to the stage,” the Dean of the School motioned Colleen. “We’ve had a larger turnout than expected.”

Colleen came up to the stage and up the steps, she went to the table with her name on the tent on top.  She looked out over the audience and saw thumbs up from her students. Feeling a tear forming she quickly wiped it way.

“We’ve had several students and parents call the school this morning, wishing to speak on your behalf Miss O’Sullivan,” The Dean informed her.  “After this and the meeting with Mr. Bongiovi we’ve, the board, have decided to not only change the teachers’ contract, and we’d like to keep you on here, teaching at Polly Prep.”

Colleen didn’t know whether to be upset or relieved that she still had a job.  After this morning’s discussion with Romeo and Jake, she was more relieved.

“I want to thank the facility for the rule change and allowing me to continue to work at Polly Prep.  To the parents and my students, I feel like I owe you all a huge thank you, for your support,” Colleen said trying hard not cry.

“Well, thank you Miss O’Sullivan, and let’s get these students to class,” the Dean said, dismissing the meeting.

Colleen left the stage to the applause of the parents and the students.  By the time the room emptied, she made her way to her classroom.

“I want to thank you all for your support, today.  I can’t tell you how much it means to me, that you all came out to support me,” Colleen told her class.  She smiled as she looked at each student, finally coming to Jake, who she gave a wink to.  “Now all the excitement is done with, let us turn to the second chapter of Beowulf, Mr. Harris will begin with you reading and going down your row, to Mr. Bongiovi,” Colleen sat at her desk while the class began to read.

The day felt longer, this being because of the nightmares she had last night, caused her not to get much sleep. When she went to the teachers’ lounge, she made a cup of tea and ate her lunch. Several teachers came up and congratulated her, and thanked her for getting the rules changed.  But even Colleen could tell, they just wanted to know if Jon was as hot in bed as he was walking, and talking.  She was finally alone when her phone beeped, she had a new message.  Taking her phone out of her new briefcase, Jon loaned her until she got the insurance check to buy a new one.

Jon: Can you bring the boys home after school, I’m down here in Pennington signing papers and contracts.

Colleen: No problem, I know Jake has practice, I’ll let Ro know to come to my classroom after school.

Jon: See you at home, we’ll celebrate tonight.

Colleen: Sounds like a plan.

Colleen went to find Romeo and Jake after she went into the office and pulled up their schedule.  She was waiting outside Romeo’s class when they got out.

“Hey Miss O,” Romeo smiled.

“Hey Ro, come to my classroom after school,” She walked with him to his next class.  “You guys are coming home with me.”

“Okay Miss O,” Romeo headed into his next class.

Colleen just had to let Jake know, she knew his next class was in the same wing as her classroom.  She saw him standing with a cheerleader, who wasn’t happy.

“But why now, why not after the season,” The young blonde sniffed.

“It’s been something I wanted, I’ll come back for the Christmas formal, you’ll still be my date,” Jake told her.

The blonde wrapped around Jake as she continued to cry.  Jake looked lost on what to do. 

“Hey you two, you need to get to class before the bell,” Colleen told them as she gave Jake the note she wrote.

If, the dirty look, the blonde gave her was any warning of how the other cheerleaders would react to Jake leaving, Colleen was not excited to go to cheer practice tomorrow.  It was going to be brutal.

<@>

After school they headed back to the apartment, with the boys taking over the bar in the kitchen, as Colleen started to cook dinner.

“Wow, something smells great,” Jon said as he walked into the apartment around six. It had been a long time since he came home to someone cooking in the kitchen.

“Miss O’ made dinner,” Romeo told him as he watched his dad come in and lift lids off the pots on the stove.

“Beats pizza for dinner,” Jake said as he closed his books. “You know the one thing I’ll miss about Polly, is your class,” Jake told her.

Colleen smiled, it was nice to hear Jake say he’d miss her class.

“Oh, I’m sure your next English teacher will be just as good,” Colleen said as she got down bowls for the stew.  Going to the refrigerator to pull out the salad she had thrown together.  “Bar or table,” She asked.

“Table, we need to celebrate you keeping your job,” Jon told her. Jon chose a bottle of wine out of the wine cooler at the end of the bar.  Romeo pulled out silverware and took it to the table, while Jake got glasses of tea for him and Romeo.

Dinner around the table was on the coming weekend trip to Pennington, and what they would need to buy to get their dorm rooms made up.  Colleen told them about her hour with the police department, and looking at the videos.

Jon noticed the tears threatening to fall. So did the boys, they looked at their father to make Miss O’ happy again.

“Do you have to meet with the police department anymore?” Jake asked and he broke off a hunk of bread and began to sop up the gravy from the stew.

“Not until the trial, I don’t want to be in the courtroom for the trial,” She told Jake.  That was one thing she was happy about.  The insurance adjuster was going to be at her place, but Jon had suggested that Max will take care of it.  Max could work his magic and get her a better settlement.

“Homework done?” Jon asked his sons.

“Yes sir,” Romeo answered his dad.

“I just have to read three chapters, I can do that before I go to bed,” Jake said looking up at Colleen.

Colleen smiled at Jake, he could’ve blown off the assignment, since he was transferring, but she was happy to see him still doing the assignment.

“How about we go get some ice cream,” Jon asked them?

They went out for a walk to a local ice cream shop, and walked back to the apartment.

Soon it was time for bed, Colleen took a shower while Jon was on the phone with Matt.

“Things went great, I got the boys all signed in and a shit load of paperwork to read,” Jon said as he pulled out a supply list. “Jake is on the football team, that was the one thing he wanted the most,” Jon smiled.  He didn’t have to ask the coach, they told him in the meeting, they wanted Jake on the roster.

“Good Jonny,” Matt sat with Desie.  “Max and I got a dumpster for anything destroyed or unfixable, Des did the laundry, I can drop it off tomorrow.”

“Was there a lot that was unsalvageable,” Jon asked?

“The bed, her dishes, most of the furniture in the Livingroom,” Matt listed the things they wrote down on the insurance papers.  “Jonny, she had some first edition books that worth a lot of money.  I looked at a book-binder to see if some of them could be restored, but some were a totally trashed.”

“Thanks Matty, you make me a list of those first additions, so if they can’t be fixed I can replace them? Oh yeah, that big overstuffed chair, is it in the dumpster?” Jon cringed thinking about that chair being gone. He knew she was partial to that chair, the one time he had been over and found her asleep, curled up in that chair.  Hell her whole apartment was a teenage girls dream, very different from the apartment over the bar, and totally a three-sixty from Dorothea’s style.

“It was gutted, but I think it can be saved, you want me to remove it, if it is in the dumpster? There are a few of the big things that Max and I needed help to dump,” Matt told him.

“See about that chair,” Jon told Matt. “I’ll call some of my crew to help you two, maybe Tone can come and help too.”

“Where you want it if it is fixable?” Matt asked.

“Take it to the Jersey house,” Jon said.

“Jersey?  Are you sure?  Have you decided to clean it out and move back to Jersey?” Matt was stunned, to say the least. “Where in the Jersey house?”

“Master bedroom to start, by the window for now,” Jon told him. “I think we should renovate it, and maybe move back, where it’s safe.”  He’d thought of it as he and the driver headed back from Pennington. With both the boys in Jersey, there was no reason to be in New York.  Stephanie has her own life, Jesse is at Notre Dame.  He could hire her a driver and with the ferry ride, it was only forty-five minutes to Brooklyn.

“Got it, Jonny,” Matt said tapping on his tablet, he had put the list of all the stuff trashed or saved.  “I’ll get on all this tomorrow and send you a copy of the list.”

“Tomorrow Matty,” Jon said as he hung up the call. Tomorrow he’d call Steph to maybe come out Wednesday to go through the house to deal with Dorothea’s things still there, he’d also call Matty about donating the bedroom furniture.  A fresh start was what they all needed. He pulled his iPad out and started making notes for all the ideas he had jumping in his mind.

The bathroom door opened and Colleen came out fresh from the shower, wearing an oversized tee-shirt, and a pair of boxers. She had her hair wrapped in a towel.

“All yours,” Colleen said, as she went into the closet with her clothes, to add to the basket in the closet. She stood there roughly running the towel over her hair to start it drying.

“Matt is going to send a list of what they saved and what was unsalvageable,” Jon told her, as he put his iPad and phone on the bed and his glasses on the nightstand.  Getting out of the bed he followed her into the closet and grabbed his sweat shorts. Heading into the bathroom, that was damp with steam, and smelled of vanilla and brown sugar.

Hair almost dry, Colleen came out of the closet, and crawled in the king bed.  She felt small and lost in such a huge bed, she missed them cuddling in her full bed.  She picked up her readers, cell, and kindle off her nightstand. Putting her earbuds in she fired up I Heart Radio on her cell, then found the book she was reading. Propping up on the bed, she read till Jon was out of the bathroom.