Chapter 21

Jon walked in on the discussion at hand a little stunned “How do you know Colleen’s dad?”  Jon looked at his dad, like he was crazy.

“I didn’t know you knew my dad?”  Colleen was just as shocked as Jon and Mrs. Bongiovi are.

“I met him at the club, where we were member for years.  He loves his beer and golf.” Mr. Bongiovi put the left over in the fridge and turned to look at the three shocked faces.  “What, I wasn’t sure my golf partner, was the same as Colleen dad.”

“You could at least have told me.”  Mrs. Bongiovi told her husband.

Mr. Bongiovi laughed.

“This isn’t funny John.”  Mrs. Bongiovi said, sounding like a spoiled child, who had her favorite toy taken from her.  If she had stomped her foot, the image would suit her mood.

“I called Cal from the kitchen, and I asked him, if his daughter was a teacher at Poly Prep.  Until then, I wasn’t sure.”  He stopped laughing at the stink eye, he got from his wife.  Living with his wife was going to be rough tonight.

Carol Bongiovi made one of her dramatic exits, leaving father and son staring wide eyed.

“I’m sorry Colleen, I don’t know what is going on with my mom.”  Jon leaned on the counter watching his mother’s exit.

Mr. Bongiovi just shook his head.  He knew when Jon, had told his mother about Colleen coming to lunch, her mother bear attitude would come out.  Every woman was a gold digger, in his wife’s eyes. 

                                 

Since Mr. Bongiovi felt he was the cause of this last melt down, of his wife, he would have to go fix it.

“It was nice meeting Cal’s little girl.”  Mr. Bongiovi said as he gave Colleen a hug and headed past Jon to leave the kitchen.

“It was nice to meet you Mr. Bongiovi.”  Colleen said with a smile as she folded the kitchen towel and placing it on the counter.

Mr. Bongiovi stopped on the way out of the kitchen, and turned to Colleen.

“Call me Mr. B Colleen, that’s what my friends call me.”  He smiled when she said she would. 

“She’s a keeper.”  Mr. B said as he passed Jon as he left the kitchen.

Jon nodded, his dad was right, she was a keeper.

Colleen was ready to leave, way before Jon was.  Not knowing what Mr. Bongiovi said to his wife, but not long after Jon and Colleen joined the family out on the porch, Mrs. Bongiovi used a headache to leave the family to wine and conversation.

The ride back to Colleen’s home was quiet, the girls seemed to understand that Miss O didn’t want to talk about what happened at lunch.  That night Jon called once they got settled. The twins were settled in with a movie and a bowl of popcorn, Colleen was prepping for tomorrow’s class when her cell rang.

“Hey, you just getting home?”  Colleen asked.  When she and the girls were leaving, Jon was still rounding up his kids to leave.

“Yeah, you’d thought that the older ones could remember where they put their keys, whereas the younger ones couldn’t find their game systems.”  Jon said as he leaned back in his office chair.

“See that’s where the twins were so easy to get to the car, they came empty handed.”  Colleen laughed.

Jon joined her in her laughter.  He could hear the girls in the background.

“Hey you wouldn’t let us bring ours.”  The twins yelled from the living room.

“Listen, I’m sorry about my mom. She’s,” Jon stopped, what could he say?  She hated Dorothea, she was going to ruin his career. She would lose him fans, no woman wanted their hot rock star to be married. 

“Protective of you?”  Colleen finished for him.  “I could tell, she doesn’t like me.”

“She was like that when Dorothea and I got back together, I guess protective is a good definition of my mom.”  Jon wasn’t surprised that, Colleen being a teacher, understood his mother. “She just needs to get to know you better.”

Colleen wasn’t too sure about that, the woman almost ran from the room, after hearing that her husband knew her dad.

“If you say so.”  Colleen tried to sound enthused.

“I wondered if you had plans for Thanksgiving.”  Jon wanted to make sure, this family dinner, hadn’t scared Colleen off.

“I’ll be in the Hamptons, It’s a family tradition.  We have a huge dinner at the bar and then watch the football game.  Why don’t you and the kids come, that is if your family doesn’t do a big dinner?”  Colleen closed her school planner and opened her family planner.  Colleen wondered how her brother and the regulars, would handle Jon and his family, probably better than his mother handled her.