Chapter 28

Jon pulled the bug, down the private road to his private beach property.  Driving slowly, to keep the duel glass pack muffler as quietly as he could, to keep his family from knowing they were on the property.  Pulling to a stop, in the small parking area he had set up, parking under the basketball goal.  The harvest moon shown across the ocean, set the mood, for a romantic walk on the beach.  He opened the driver’s door and toed off his boots and went around to open Colleen’s door.

Colleen took off her shoes, and left them in the car, rolling up her pants legs.  Jon was leaning on the fender of the bug, rolling up his jean legs, he then went over and opened the door for Colleen.  Jon took her hand and they began to walk onto the sand, still a little warm from the day’s sun.  The huge harvest moon, hung like a wheel of yellow cheese, over the outgoing tide.

They walked quietly, hand in hand, along the wet sand.  When Jon and Colleen got into a dark area, away from the lights from the houses, Jon pulled her to a dune, where they could sit and talk.  Colleen leaned back on her elbows, taking in the star filled sky.

“This is what I miss, teaching in the city.”  Colleen sighed.  “The stars are so close, you could reach out and touch them.”

Jon leaned back alongside her and looked up, they were magnificent.  He was still pissed at his mother’s attitude toward Colleen, she didn’t deserve the attitude.  He was going to have a serious talk with his mother, if he and Colleen were going to be a more permeant relationship, that talk would be needed.

“Why did you move to the city to teach?”  Jon asked her.

“Nothing was open here in the Hampton area, so the obvious place to go was the city.”  Colleen said as she lowered her head onto her bent arm, to look at the stars over her head.  “Polly is one hundred percent better than the inner city school.  My dad bought me a gun and made me take classes, for a carry and conceal permit.”

“Smart Dad.”  Jon said softly and he reached out his left hand to lace his fingers with Colleen’s right hand.

“I was living and in pretty decent area, but walking from the subway to the school was not safe.”  Colleen shuddered thinking about the time someone tried to rob her.  The hardest part to take, it was one of her students.  The threatening message’s let on her phone and being followed by friends of the student, leaving things on her desk.  She jumped at the opening at Polly.  The calls stopped, getting a new cell phone and number helped, along with moving into a new part of the city.  She would have to tell Jon, before her brother and father told him about it.

                                                              

Jon’s cell in his pocket vibrated and he about pulled it out and threw it into the sand.  Did he really want to look to see who called?  It could be one of the kids who needed him, or his mother.  His dad wouldn’t call unless someone was dyeing or there was a lot of blood, his dad didn’t do blood.

“You better answer, it could be important.”  Colleen told him, as she sat up.

“Hey Dad,” Jon said into the phone.  “What’s she done now?”

Colleen got to her feet and brushed the sand off her jeans, stepping away to give him privacy.

“Jonny, she wants you here now, she wants you to not have anything to do with Colleen.”  John Senior said.

“Well that’s not going to happen, she needs to get that thought out of her head.”  Jon paced back and forth on the beach.

“Is that Jonny?” Jon heard his mother’s shrill voice over the phone.

“No Carol, it’s Jesse, he’ll be here in the morning.”  John Senior just lied to his wife.

Jon looked over at Colleen, she was already comprehending that his mother was a problem.  He’d nip this in the bud tonight, even if he had to send her back to the city, he’d call Hank and get him to fire up the chopper.

“I’ll be there in an hour dad, she might not like the outcome, but this ends tonight.”  Jon didn’t wait on his dad to say anything, he slammed the phone closed.

“We better get back, I’ll drop you off.”  Colleen stretched out her hand for the keys.

“I see my woman to the door.” Jon started, he was letting this business with his mom spill over tonight.

“You can see me to the car door, it’s crazy for you to drive me home, when we are parked on your property.”  Colleen told him.  “You’d have to call a car that only puts whatever had you upset about, worse.”

“That’s what I pay them for, to pick me up, I will see you home.”  He said putting a period in his thoughts to this little talk.

“Then let me drive, I know a back way to get back to the bar.”  That seemed to please him a little bit, he reluctantly handed her the keys to the bug.

Colleen took the keys and opened the door to the bug to get her shoes. Slipping them on she watched Jon reach over to get his boots and put them on. She got in and fired up the bug, driving in a circle to head out the way they pulled in to his property.  Pulling instead of on to the street, she pulled up to the house.

“You’ll thank me tomorrow.”  She put the bug in park and reached over to give him a kiss, just as a car pulled in and Jesse got out.

“Hey you two.”  Jesse called out, the front door opened and his mother stood in the doorway.

“If I don’t end up in jail for killing my mother.”  Jon scowled as he got out and nearly slammed the door.

Colleen waved at Jesse and pulled out the drive.